Whether your hair is lacking moisture because of extreme heat or cold outside, major hair processing or just a little too much time at the gym, dehydrated hair is dull and brittle. Though changing your hairstyle to one that requires fewer products and treatments to maintain can help, if you've found a look you love, changing your style to rehydrate your hair may not work for you. Using a few moisturizing products and practical techniques can restore your hair's moisture whatever your hairstyle.
Step 1
Switch to a moisturizing shampoo, and use it every other day instead of every day. Look for one that contains ingredients like quaternium or cetrimonium chloride or that uses words like "restorative," "renewal" or "anti-breakage" on the label, recommends cosmetic chemist Joe Cincotta in "Allure" magazine.
Step 2
Target your scalp when you shampoo by using just a few drops of shampoo and rubbing them directly onto your scalp instead of working the shampoo through all your hair. Your scalp is the area most likely to actually need cleaning, and using shampoo on the rest of your hair can just dry it out, explains Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist in Vallejo, California, in "Fitness" magazine.
Step 3
Apply a protein-rich conditioner every time you shower, whether you shampoo or not. Protein helps fill in cracks and breaks in your hair shaft so that your hair can retain moisture better.
Step 4
Apply a deep conditioning hair mask once a week and after every color or chemical process your hair gets.
Step 5
Allow your hair to dry naturally as often as you can since blow dryers, flat irons and other heat styling tools can sap your hair's moisture reserves.
Step 6
Limit your hair color sessions to one single-process coloring session every month and highlights only every two to three months, recommends Louis Viel, co-owner of Miano/Viel Salon and Spa in New York, in "Marie Claire" magazine.
Tips and Warnings
- To get maximum results from your weekly hair mask, Viel recommends using it in the shower. Apply the conditioning mask to your hair so that it's thickly coated, then slip on a perforated plastic shower cap. While you relax in the water for 10 to 15 minutes, the steam will relax your hair's cuticle so that the conditioner can better penetrate your hair.
Things You'll Need
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Conditioning mask
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