No matter where you live, when the weather gets chilly and the wind starts blowing like a 2 year old over-zealously sputtering out birthday candles, your hair can get a bit…tangly. To help a sister out, I’ve put together some tips to winter proof your hair – holler!
SO – my hair is finally to a length that I want after years and years of growing it out. It’s finally thick and shiny, and finally way stronger than it used to be. I give credit to my 3+ years of being smoke free, my diet, and my daily beauty routines. Now that winter is here in Chicago there is NO WAY NO HOW that I’m going to let this weather wreak havoc on my strands.
As I’m planning out my line of defense against Chi-town winter, I found it helpful to share my winter proof plan with the Balanced Babe community. I know how important our hair is to us and if it gets dry and brittle (and heaven forbid starts to BREAK?!), it could make us feel like we’re back in 1st grade when an arch nemesis broke our favorite toy.
Our hair is like our head blanket: we twirl it when we need to feel secure or fidget with something, we use it to shield parts of our face that we aren’t feeling too hot about (hello I know there are other girls who’ve tried to hide a pimp on their forehead with a major side bang). We feel complete when we’re having a good hair day – our hair is a big freaking deal.
Of course all these remedies are *natural* and I’m also throwing in some nutrition tips n tricks to nourish your strands from the inside out. Let’s get to it.
Save Da Mane: Winter Proof Your Hair
1: Nourish and protect with natural oils – During the week when I don’t have to curl my hair or leave my girl-cave, I always apply some sort of oil to my hair and let it sit throughout the entire day and evening. I’m a fan of argan oil, sesame oil, and babassu oil (which is coconut oil’s cousin). Babassu oil is one of my favorite secret beauty weapons and if you’ve never heard of it – you can read up on it here.
2: Stimulate hair growth and strength with burdock root – Not only do I moisturize and obsessively hydrate my strands every chance I get during the winter, I also make sure that I take proper measures to stimulate healthy hair growth and strength. Externally, I like creating this burdock root oil and give myself a stimulating scalp massage once a week during my weekly beauty day. You can get the remedy and read more about burdock root in my article here.
3: Get your diet in check – Here’s the nitty gritty on foods for hair health. You need adequate amounts of protein in your diet to keep strands growing and strong. Protein is what your hair is made of, ya know, so you neeeeed to make sure you have this in your diet. If you’re plant-based or vegan, get your protein from dark leafy greens, beans, nuts and seeds, tempeh, etc. BUT don’t skimp on protein. Healthy fats will keep your hair shiny and hydrated from the inside out. So don’t be afraid to eat a whole avocado (it’s the types of calories – not the amount of calories, that matter). Omega 3’s should also be in your diet and plant-based sources are walnuts, chia seeds and flax seeds, winter squash and leafy greens. Last but not least, add some more biotin rich foods to your plate. Biotin is as many of us know, touted as the hair growth vitamin. I wrote an entire article on biotin rich foods here.
4: Create protective rinses when you know you’ll be outside in the wind – Stinging-nettles is a herb that I lervvvvv. Even though it’s a weed, it offers a myriad of nutrients like chlorphyll, magnesium, iron and potassium. I like to add stinging-nettles tea to my juices and smoothies around that *time of the month* since I need extra iron at this time, but it also makes a great hair rinse. All you need to do is find stinging-nettles tea, peppermint essential oil, and a spray bottle (or regular bottle). Prepare the tea and add essential oil – shake it up in the spray bottle, and spray a generous amount on your roots and strands before you shampoo your hair. The spray will saturate more easily if your hair is already wet, so you can do this as you’re taking your shower. Let it sit on your hair for a bit and massage it in, do this once a week during the winter to keep your hair strong and shiny!
5: And obvi – go as many days a week as you can without heat styling – This should be obvious. We are already inside with heat blasting on our heads, and the more we blow dry our hair or curl it, the more we are prone to breakage. During the week (or even the weekends) try to go as long as you can without having to use heated tools on your strands. I like to toss my hair up in a bun whenever I can (especially when I apply oils) to protect it from the harsh environment and to prevent breakage.
Do you have any additional tips or tricks that you use to winter proof your hair? Share with me in the comments!
