Regardless of length or type, dry hair is one of the most prevalent hair issues for women.
The reasons for dry hair range from person to person, and how to cure dry hair differs as well, depending on a variety of circumstances. Dry hair can be caused by a variety of factors, including the weather, medications, and heredity. Whatever the cause of the problem, the only way to solve it is to learn how to moisturize dry hair.
- Environmental Factors
Hair can become tangled in the wind, causing the cuticles to be scraped off. The sun not only dries your hair, making it stiff and prone to breakage, but it also contains UV rays, which are extremely harmful. Pollution can clog hair fibers, causing them to break.
- Lack of Protection
The cuticle is a protective layer found on each strand of good hair. The cuticle protects your hair from heat and sun damage in the same way that shingles protect your home from rain and sun damage. The layers of a healthy cuticle are firmly packed and retain moisture. When the layers of a cuticle split and peel away from hair, the cuticle loses its ability to keep moisture, and some oil escapes.
- Heated Tools
A significant cause of dry, dull-looking hair is using too much heat when styling. Using heat on your hair too frequently can deplete its natural moisture, alter its fundamental protein structure, and even permanently damage it.
- Dry Scalp
There is no natural lubricant in your hair. It is kept moisturized by oils produced in its roots. A dry scalp goes hand in hand with dry hair since the roots lie beneath the skin. Dry scalp peels and sheds, resulting in flakes of dandruff on your shoulders.
- Styling using chemicals
These make the hair look smooth and healthy just after the procedure, but the hair will weaken with time, and the cuticles will no longer lie neatly over one another above the cortex. Dryness, breakage, and split ends are the consequence.
- Excessive coloring
Due to continuous exposure to ammonia, over-coloring can drastically damage the hair fiber, making it difficult to maintain fresh color. When you lighten your hair, the cuticles of the fibers are lifted, allowing the new color to permeate and cover the hair shaft. The cuticles will become permanently weak if you do this frequently.
- Harsh Brushing
Brushing your hair aggressively, especially while it’s damp, will rip the hair out from the roots as well as weak areas along the hair shaft.
- Excessively shampooing the hair
Shampoo begins to take away the natural oils, known as sebum, from your scalp when you wash your hair too frequently. Your cuticles are fed and protected by sebum. As a result, hair becomes dry and brittle as it is taken away.
- Medications
It’s possible that the drugs you’re taking are to blame whether you’ve noticed sudden dry hair or have had dry hair for a long time. Antidepressants, some antibiotics, chemotherapy medicines, gout, antifungal, and high blood pressure medication, weight reduction treatments, hormone therapy, and other medications, some of which are used regularly, can all cause dry hair. While it’s critical to read and comprehend pharmaceutical side effects, they can't always be avoided.
Dry hair is the consequence in certain circumstances of a fundamental health condition that impairs the capacity of your hair to keep moisture. For example:
- Nervous anorexia Anorexia nervosa may result in malnutrition in an eating disorder. It may produce dry and broken hair and more severe problems.
- Hypoparathyroidism: The parathyroid gland in your neck is too small for the parathyroid hormone that reduces the calcium levels in the blood if you have hypoparathyroidism. For healthy hair, bones, teeth, and other tissues calcium is a vital vitamin.
- Hypothyroidism: Your thyroid glands don’t generate enough thyroid hormones if you have hypothyroidism. One of the first signs of this disease is dry, brittle hair.
- Menkes syndrome: Your cells don’t absorb enough copper if you have Menkes syndrome, a rare hereditary disease. Copper deficiency affects the health of your hair, leading it to become dry.
Listed below are the signs of dry hair
- Tangled Hair
Damaged hair is prone to tangling. Raised cuticles produce more friction and aggressively grasp onto other strands than smooth, closed cuticles. The absence of moisture on each strand might also contribute to your tangled mess.
- Hair is dull and dry
The natural oil and moisture that covers the exterior of the cuticle are typically missing in damaged hair. Hair loses its luster if this isn’t done.
- Hair becomes wavy
The hair is covered by cuticles, which are overlapping scales that lie flat against one another in typical healthy hair to reinforce it and give it a consistent, shining appearance. The core is exposed and prone to breaking when these cuticles are broken or weakened. Hair looks frizzy and drab when it snaps off or splits into split ends.
- It’s fragile and breaks quickly
Brittle hair might feel like straw and break easily. It’s one of the most challenging signs to deal with, and it’s common in excessively treated hair.
Dry hair may often be treated by making modest lifestyle adjustments. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- You should not shampoo your hair every da
- Condition your hair every time you wash
- Use a shampoo and conditioner designed specifically for your hair type
- Use moisturizing styling products
- Chemical hair treatments should be avoided
- Reduce the amount of time you blow-dry your hair
- Flat irons, curling irons, and electric rollers should all be avoided
Shampooing your hair every day can strip it of its protective oils, leaving it dry. Instead, once or twice a week shampoo your hair. Hair oils or leave-in conditioners can also be used to increase shine and softness.
It’s also crucial to keep your hair safe from the sun and heat. Wear a hat when you walk outside if you live in a dry region and avoid prolonged exposure to dry or windy air. When swimming in a pool or the ocean, you should wear a bathing hat to protect your hair from chlorine and saltwater.
If your dry hair is caused by an underlying medical condition, your doctor may prescribe medicines or other therapies to treat it. Once you’ve taken care of the underlying problem, your hair may start to look better. Work with your doctor to choose the best treatment option for you.
- Natural oils that serve as lubricants throughout the hair fiber cause dry hair.
- If no matter what you do, your hair does not appear to be conditioned, it is a definite indicator of damaged cuticles that are unable to lock in moisture.
- Dry hair is typically accompanied by white flakes of skin and a harsh, gritty texture, whereas damaged hair breaks readily when tugged and has obvious split ends.
- Moisture is necessary for dry hair, while proteins are required for really damaged hair.
