A Home Treatment For Dry, Damaged Hair

Home remedies for dry, damaged hair are becoming popular alternatives to expensive salon or store-bought treatments. Most home remedies contain natural or organic ingredients, so they don't have any preservatives. Additionally, you may already have the necessary ingredients to make a dry, damaged hair treatment in your kitchen or pantry.

Causes

Dry hair and damaged hair often go hand in hand. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, dry hair is caused by a number of factors, including certain medical conditions, nutrition, environmental factors and over-use of heated styling appliances. Your hair can also become damaged from over-processing with chemical treatments, such as relaxers or perms.

Function of Home Remedies

Adding moisture and nourishment to dry, damaged hair is important for maintaining and improving the condition, balance and health of your hair. It is crucial to keep new hair that grows in place of damaged hair healthy and nourished in order to prevent further split ends and breakage. Home remedies can help to restore moisture and nutrients to dry, damaged hair and make your hair more manageable, according to Janice Cox, author of "Natural Beauty at Home."

Ingredients

There are a wide variety of natural ingredients that you can use in homemade remedies for dry, damaged hair. According to Discovery Health, rinsing your hair with apple cider vinegar can help to restore shine, control frizziness and treat dry hair and scalp conditions such as dandruff. Author Cox recommends using individual ingredients, such as mayonnaise, mashed avocado, honey or sour cream, as a homemade deep conditioning hair treatment for dry, damaged hair. You can also experiment with combinations of two or more of these ingredients. According to registered nutrition specialist Julie Gabriel in her book "The Green Beauty Guide," jojoba oil or olive oil also make excellent, single-ingredient deep conditioners. You can add a drop of an aromatic essential oil such as lavender oil to improve the scent.

Directions for Use

Using a homemade hair treatment is a simple and effective way to treat dry, damaged hair. Choose your desired deep conditioning ingredient, and apply a generous amount to dry hair and scalp prior to shampooing. Wrap your hair with plastic wrap, or use a shower cap to allow the treatment to penetrate deeply. Wait 20 minutes, and then rinse thoroughly. Follow up with shampoo and conditioner.

Benefits

There are many benefits to using homemade dry, damaged hair remedies. According to author Gabriel, homemade hair treatments cost a fraction of the price of store-bought or salon treatments. You can also control the ingredient content and customize the fragrance by mixing different essential oils into your treatment. Certain ingredients in store-bought products, such as parabens, are used to preserve the shelf-life of these products; however, they can cause an allergic reaction in some individuals and interfere with the endocrine system if absorbed into the skin, according to the Environmental Working Group. You can avoid these concerns by making your own homemade remedies using natural and organic ingredients.