Your hair is a critical element of your look and style. Of course, you can change the color and style as often as you like, but keeping your hair looking and feeling healthy can be challenging. While everyone's hair is different, if your New Year's resolution is to have healthier hair, here are a few steps that can help you reach your goal.
Eat a Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet is vital to ensuring your body functions as it should. A healthy diet is also essential for the growth of healthy hair. Like other bodily functions, the growth of your hair requires an adequate supply of the proper vitamins and nutrients. Usually, hair loss due to nutritional deficiencies can be slowed or even reversed with dietary changes or supplements. Maintaining strong, healthy hair requires a variety of vitamins, nutrients, and micronutrients, including protein, omega-3s, zinc, and vitamins B, A, E, and C.
Wash Your Hair Less Often
One of the most important things you can do for your hair's health is to wash it less often. When you wash your hair too frequently, you strip it of its natural oils. This natural oil, called sebum, is vital to moisturizing and protecting your hair. When the sebum is stripped from your hair and scalp, your hair can become dry, brittle, and prone to damage. 2023 is the year to see if you can break the daily wash cycle!
For most people, shampooing every 2-3 days is plenty. Thick or curly hair tends to soak up sebum more readily, so it's not as noticeable if you go a few extra days without a shampoo. However, if your hair is fine or you exercise daily, you may need to shampoo more often.
Choose Your Shampoo Carefully
Unfortunately, many of the hair products we use can lead to a dry scalp and damage your hair. While necessary to keep your scalp and hair clean, these products often contain harsh chemicals which can damage your hair. In addition, some shampoos can worsen conditions such as dandruff or eczema. You should avoid shampoos with sodium chloride, alcohols such as ethanol, propanol, isopropyl, or isopropanol, and any sulfates.
Eliminate Stress
It's no secret that stress can be detrimental to your health. But stress can also affect the growth of your hair. High-stress levels are directly related to a type of hair loss known as telogen effluvium.
Telogen effluvium occurs when significant stress forces large numbers of hair into the telogen or resting phase of the hair growth cycle. While you may not notice it immediately, in a few months, affected hairs will often fall out suddenly when combing or washing your hair. Usually, hair will begin to regrow after the stress that caused it is removed.
Reduce the Heat
One way to have healthier hair in the coming year is to reduce your hair’s exposure to heat. While a nice hot shower can be relaxing, your hair will benefit if you reduce the heat and wash it in colder water.
Washing your hair in colder water helps to close the cuticles and increases your chances of having healthy, shiny, frizz-free hair. Cold water closes the scalp pores, leading to a cleaner scalp by preventing dirt from entering your pores. Additionally, cold water improves scalp circulation, ensuring that your hair follicles have the nutrients they need to grow strong, healthy hair.
Help From the Experts
Hair growth is affected by many factors, and maintaining a thick, healthy-looking, full head of hair can be challenging. At New Image Hair Clinic, we are experts in all aspects of hair care. Our team can help provide you with the guidance you need to ensure that this year your hair is the healthiest it has ever been. To learn more about what you can do to improve the health of your hair, contact us today and schedule your FREE initial consultation.
