No doubt that washing your hair removes dirt and sweat from your hair. However, the same shampoo may also be stripping off the essential oil and sebum from your hair, thus leading to dry and frizzy hair. Dry hair takes off all the shine and strength from hair.
Do you suffer from dry hair after washing? If yes, we have a gift for you! Here are 10 ways that you can adopt to prevent your hair from drying after washing!
Use Warm Water to Shower Your Hair and Rinse With Cold Water
The type of water you use to wash your hair also plays a crucial role in making your hair look healthy and shiny. Both hot water and cold water have their pros and cons. However, if you follow the correct sequence, combining these two will help you yield significant benefits.
Start by washing your hair with hot water. Hot water ensures that the pores or the hair cuticles in your scalp open up to take in and absorb the essential moisture and nutrients from the shampoo and conditioner. For washing off the shampoo and conditioner, use cold water.
Coldwater ensures that the pores or hair cuticles lock in the moisture, ensuring that your hair is frizz-free, hydrated, and shiny.
What Happens if You Use Hot Water?
Using only hot water to wash and rinse your hair can lead to dry and damaged hair as they scrape off the natural oils. Your hair roots may dry up, too, and your hair would be more prone to breakages. Nonetheless, dry hair can also lead to an itchy scalp and dandruff.
What Happens if You Use Cold Water?
Using cold water solely may also be harmful. It can increase hair weight by over-moisturizing, and hence, your hair may look flat and less voluminous.
Author’s tip: If you get confused and find it hard to remember what type of water should be used, choose lukewarm water. Lukewarm water can wash and rinse off the hair while posing no harm to the scalp.
Shampoo your Roots and Midshaft More
Shampooing your hair the wrong way can also lead to dryness. One of the essential things to realize is that shampoos remove the dirt, oil, and product buildup. Hence, you should use shampoos on the scalp and the mid-shaft. Using shampoo on the hair ends can result in dryness of the hair.
Additional Tips for Shampooing your Hair:
- Ensure that your shampoo is hydrating and provides adequate moisturization and hydration to the scalp.
- Use a sulfate-free shampoo for the best results.
- Pair your shampoo routine with a condition. Nonetheless, you can also use a shampoo mixed with a conditioner to ensure that your hair is cleaned off from the dirt and oil while the scalp is nourished and moisturized.
Use Organic Shampoos Not Containing SLS.
Organic Shampoos have been recently growing in trend. It is fair enough too. Organic shampoos ensure that your hair comes in contact with natural ingredients only. Organic shampoo is free from sulfate, parabens, and other harmful chemicals.
Nonetheless, shampoos containing SLS or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate are the biggest enemies of healthy hair. Organic shampoos maintain the scalp pH. Hence, ensure that your shampoo is organic and free from any chemicals.
The components of your organic shampoo matter too. The best ingredients for a good quality organic shampoo include aloe vera, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, eggs, lemon and rosemary rinse, and jojoba oil.
Do Not Use a Towel to Dry Your Hair.
Drying your hair the wrong way can result in dry hair. Hence, being gentle with drying your hair is essential. Do not use a towel to dry your hair. Towel causes an increase of hair friction, causing dry and frizzy hair, which may lead to hair knots. Nonetheless, rough drying of the hair with a towel damages the hair’s outer protective layer.
Hence, use a t-shirt cloth to dry out your hair. Ensure that the t-shirt cloth is soft and is made of microfibers. These kinds of t-shirts ensure that your hair lies flat when dried. Keep your hair wrapped in t-shirts or cloth to dry out your hair rather than letting them air dry.
Cold Air is the Best Air.
Drying your hair the right way is essential to ensure that it does not undergo any dryness or damage. The key is to squeeze out most of the water from your air and then take steps to dry it. Rubbing a towel to dry your hair isn’t advisable. If you have a hairdryer, use the cold dryer option! Drying your hair with cold air is one of the healthiest hair drying methods.
Cool air promotes healthy hair by cooling down the hair follicles. It locks in moisture in the scalp, keeping it hydrated for longer. Nonetheless, cool air is known for setting your hair in style and adding shine.
According to a study published in Annals of Dermatology, leaving your hair wet for long periods can cause damage similar to a blow dryer. Hence, ensure that you are drying your hair within time to prevent dryness.
Author’s tip: Do not tie up your hair when wet. As wet hair is fragile, it breaks easily.
Use Leave-in Conditioner
Leave-in conditioner or leave-on conditioner are conditioners you leave on your hair and do not wash. Hence they are also known as no-rinse conditioners. These conditioners provide additional moisture and hydration to the scalp and hair, thus preventing dry hair altogether. Leave-in conditioners benefit all hair types but are most beneficial for dry and frizzy hair.
You can use wide combs to distribute the conditioner evenly. You can use a conditioner and a leave-in conditioner simultaneously.
Author’s tip: Deep conditioning once a week can help prevent hair dryness.
Use a Serum
Serums are known for adding shine and smoothness to your hair. If you suffer from dry hair after washing, applying a serum can help you. They have an anti-frizz formula that helps to reduce knots and tangles.
Nonetheless, serums also protect your hair from heat damage, environmental damage, mechanical stress, and chemical processing. Heat-protectant serums are commonly available in the market. They are used to protect hair from heat styling tools.
Serums should be applied when your hair is wet. They should be applied to the ends and the midshaft of hair, not the roots.
Use Hair Masks
A hair mask is a recent addition to the hair-care regime. Hair masks are highly nutritious and moisturizing. They contain hydrating butter and oils, conditioning, hair softening, and strengthening agents. Hair masks work great for dry and frizzy hair due to their highly hydrating property. Nonetheless, they add shine and moisture to the hair. They reduce hair breakage and damage and reduce the frizz in hair.
Both hair conditioners and hair masks provide nutrition and moisturizing effects to hair. A hair conditioner fixes only the hair strands. However, hair masks condition more deeply, into the roots, than a hair conditioner.
Use Hot Oils
Hot oils are an excellent remedy to prevent hair from drying after a wash. Hot oils are plant-based oils that hugely benefit dry and frizzy hair. They seal the hair cuticles, thus strengthening and protecting the hair. Besides reducing dryness, hot oils increase hair strength, reduce split ends, and increase blood flow in the scalp, thus promoting healthy hair.
If you have a sensitive scalp, ensure that you use hot oils that do not have any synthetics added and are completely natural. Nonetheless, you can also prepare your hot oil at home. The most famous hot oils are jojoba, coconut, argan, castor, and olive oils.
Author’s tip: According to Our Dermatologists, a hair perfume made of argan oil, peppermint oil, lavender oil, and a carrier oil like coconut oil together may make your hair feel less dry over time.
Avoid Brushing Wet Hair.
Brushing your hair the right way can also fight dryness and damage. Brushing wet hair adds to the dryness of hair. Wet hair is fragile, and combing it might cause hair fall. You can use a wide-tooth comb to remove tangles. If you start combing from the ends up to your roots, knots can be tackled more quickly and will prevent further knotting.
Conclusion
Dry hair may be the worst thing to happen after a good wash. Nonetheless, dry hair comes with split ends, breakages, and unmanageable hair. However, say no more! With a few changes in your hair washing routine, you can keep dry hair at bay.
Changing your shampoo or changing the way you shampoo, drying and brushing your hair the right way, and taking care of your hair the right way can help keep your hair healthy and shiny.
Drop-in a comment below and tell us your secret to shiny hair!
