Dull Hair: Winter Hair Care Essentials

Simple, effective tips to protect your natural hair from the harsh winter cold and restore its healthy glow and vibrancy.

Winter is a real challenge for hair. The cold makes it dry, brittle, and frizzy. Here are some very simple tips and remedies that will help you keep - or regain - healthy hair throughout the winter.

 Choosing the right shampoo :

• Use a shampoo suited to your hair type. Even in winter, a nourishing shampoo for dry hair won't make your hair shinier if it's naturally oily.
•  Warning: to remain effective, treatment shampoos (for oily hair, anti-dandruff...) should be used alternately with neutral shampoos.
• Conditioners add softness to the hair and create a protective film against external aggressions. It's best to use one at least once a week in winter. If you have oily hair, apply it only to the lengths and ends.
• Finish washing with a cold water rinse to make your hair shine and avoid thermal shock with the outside.

 Fighting frizzy hair:

•  In the morning, before exposing yourself to the cold: on clean, dry hair, apply three or four drops of olive oil, jojoba oil or argan oil. Your hair will thus be nourished and protected for the rest of the day.
•  You can also use a leave-in nourishing concentrate like John Frieda's Frizz Ease Secret Weapon Finishing Crème for example (around 10 euros) or Dove's intensive lengths and ends treatment (around 5 euros).
•  A homemade mask: mix a whole milk yogurt and an egg, then apply this mixture to your washed, rinsed, and towel-dried hair. Leave on for about 15 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. Your hair will thus be protected against static electricity for almost a week.
•  Do not use a hairdryer.

Monitor your diet:

That's right! Diet is very important if you want to take care of your hair effectively and sustainably. It will thus be nourished and protected from within.

 Consume plenty of B vitamins, iron, zinc, sulfur, and protein:

•  Eggs and lentils contain these five elements.
•  Wheat germ, brewer's yeast, whole grains, and green vegetables are particularly rich in B vitamins, which help renew hair cells.
•  Beef, parsley, mussels... are rich in iron, which oxygenates the roots.
• Proteins ( meats, nuts, legumes...), zinc ( lentils, shellfish, egg yolks...), and sulfur ( soy, shrimp, brown rice...) contribute to the formation of keratin, the main component of hair.
• You can resort to food supplements if you don't have time to eat properly.
•  For example: a lack of vitamin B6 makes hair brittle and can even lead to hair loss in the long term!

Consume enough essential fatty acids and omega-3s:

• They are found in so-called virgin and cold-pressed vegetable oils (sunflower oil, borage oil, etc.), eggs, dairy products, liver, seafood (fish such as salmon, halibut, and mackerel, for example), and certain vegetable oils like walnut, flaxseed, soybean oil...
• A deficiency in these nutrients makes hair dull.

credit: Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/fr-fr/photo/femme-porte-une-veste-de-costume-noir-photographie-818819/