Hair Changes For The Season
As the weather changes so should your hair regimen.
It is Fall, and as beautiful and cozy as this season is, it is the start of some significant changes dealing with our hair and scalp.
Just think about it, around what time of year is everyone usually getting sick or complaining about dry scalp or hair?
Being sick often leads to becoming dehydrated from a lack of fluids. Not to mention when you're sick you may lounge more and skip a few steps in your daily grooming regimen.
Certain aspects of each season may contribute to the health of our hair negatively if we are not prepared.
I know you’re thinking, “What does Fall have to do with my scalp and hair becoming dry?”
Again, Fall is just the start. With winds increasing, your hair may become dry and brittle because wind evaporates moisture. The evaporation of moisture can also lead to your hair being more tangled than usual.
It is essential to apply a moisturizer on your hair focusing on the entire hairline front to back and the ends of your hair. Depending on your hair's porosity, you would apply a moisturizer every one to three days.
During Fall we like to wear cute hats and scarfs that bring an outfit together. Just remember unless those hats and scarfs have silk or satin lining when coming in contact with your hair, the material may steal the moisture from your hair.
This is also why you want to make sure you are applying your daily moisturizer.
Try the faithful bonnet in a hat trick, or if you're crafty, sew a silk or satin lining into your scarfs. You only need to sew the lining where the scarf would come in contact with the back of your hair (the nape).
Around this time of year, we lose the length towards the back of our hair. It becomes dry and breaks off from rubbing against cotton fibers or other materials like it.
Track The Changes
In the salon, it’s always interesting to hear clients explain the same type of changes during the same time of year.
If you kept a journal of these changes, you would see a pattern in what your body goes through every time the weather changes, which directly affects your scalp and hair. You may even be able to avoid or control some of these changes if you tweaked your regimen a little to be prepared for the weather change.
Journaling can help you keep a record of when the changes start. You can also go back and reference what you did the previous year to help.
Weather Change = Regimen Change
Like most directions on a shampoo bottle, people may shampoo their hair twice before conditioning.
You may want to skip the repeat shampoo in the colder months. We want to strip less and condition more. During these times of the year, if your hair and scalp can be clean with one shampoo that’s great!
Even in the salon, for our clients with high porosity hair, we know their hair needs all the moisture it can get, so we shampoo them once and put them in the steamer with the conditioner on for 20 minutes.
If a second shampoo isn't needed, don’t do it.
A Balanced Scalp
I have also seen clients scalp start to produce more oil (sebum) than before, during the weather change.
Producing more oil can throw off the ph of your scalp, causing the hairline or the entire scalp to have this white build-up that has to be exfoliated off. In this case, shampoo the scalp more often.
So instead of shampooing your hair every two weeks, you may need to shampoo once every week and a half. Our hair and scalp usually tell us when it needs attention by becoming itchy or oily. For the sake of balancing your scalp ph, you should use the recommended conditioner that goes with your shampoo.
Companies make the ph of the shampoo higher than the ph of the conditioner. They’ve done the guesswork for you because regulating your ph can be tricky.
Now, of course, you can use one company's shampoo and other companies conditioner and not have any problems. This advice is only for sensitive scalps.
Co-washing can also be a seasonal routine. It can quickly quench your hair’s thirst for moisture. If you ever feel like you are losing moisture or need to get caught up on some deep conditioning.
A healthy balance of co-washing and shampooing would be to shampoo every two weeks and co-wash in between those two weeks.
Change My Hairstyle Too
During the colder months, it may not be as convenient to wear your wash n go or any styles you wear out the house semi-dry.
You could catch a cold!
Instead, you can diffuse your curls. This will take more time and convenience away from the term wash n go.
Using a diffuser attachment on your hairdryer eliminates a lot of the frizz you would get from allowing your hair to air dry. Using a diffuser also gives you same-day volume!
If you choose to rock your curly styles still, try to be mindful that your ends need more attention than before. Your ends rubbing against scarves and collars from jackets could call for more frequent trims.
So moisturize, moisturize, moisturize.
Finally A Silk Press
Many of those with natural hair take advantage of the colder months to finally rock their blowouts and silk presses!
Especially those with coarse textures like 4C natural hair. When it is humid outside your hair can absorb the air’s water vapors (moisture). This causes your blowouts and silk presses to swell into a fro instantly.
This is why most naturals carefully study the weather channel before committing to these styles. During the colder months, there is less moisture in the air. This can make your silky straight styles last longer without touching up your hair every day.
Even with a silk press (Check out this article: how long does a silk press last) you still want to use a light or weightless oil on the ends of your hair. This will prevent your hair from drying out and split ends.
The colder months are also a perfect time to get your protective styles since the weather can contribute to your hair becoming dry. Before each protective style is sure to have your hair treated, trimmed, and moisturized.
Doing this will help promote healthy hair growth.
