As summer approaches and the sun shines brighter, the importance of protecting our skin from harmful UV rays is widely acknowledged. Yet, a crucial area often overlooked is our hair and scalp. Just as our skin requires sunscreen, our hair benefits significantly from protective measures against the sun. Enter hair sunscreen—a product that’s increasingly gaining recognition for its vital role in comprehensive sun care.
Frizz and flyaways are common nuisances, especially when heat styling is involved. Heat protectors, like SUTRA’s Heat Guard: Heat Protector, contain ingredients that help smooth the hair cuticle, reducing friction and preventing frizz. By creating a sleek surface, heat protectors make it easier to achieve smooth, polished styles without the unwanted frizz and flyaways that can detract from your look.
While there are countless factors that go into creating beautiful hair, by far the most important of those factors is the hair care routine. Sure, you can spend loads of money on amazing hair care products and styling tools, but a proper hair care routine is of the utmost importance in order to properly use these products for their maximum benefit.
So, what makes a good hair care routine? The ideal hair care routine is one that works perfectly for your specific hair type. Hair care is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and products and routines that work wonders for one hair type may be a disaster for another.
Shampooing
If you only keep one step in your hair care routine, this would be it. Just as we need to wash our body and our face, so to do we need to wash our hair in order to remove the sweat and oil that accumulates throughout the day. A good rule of thumb is to wash your hair every-other-day if you have normal hair, every day if you have greasy hair, and every two or three days if you have dry hair.
Conditioning
Much in the same way that we need to moisturize our face after washing it, so to do we need to moisturize or condition our hair after shampooing it. Conditioner replenishes the hair with some of the natural moisture and oil that we remove from the hair during shampooing, keeping our hair from drying out prematurely. The key here, when it comes to your hair type, is to use a conditioner that provides the ideal amount of moisture for your hair type. Dry hair should be using a heavier, richer conditioner, whereas greasy hair needs a lighter, oil-free conditioner to prevent the hair from being weighed down.
Deep Conditioning
For many hair types, a basic conditioner following shampooing is not enough to maintain and enhance the hair’s proper moisture levels. Enter the leave-in conditioner. Used once (or twice a week for damaged hair types), this intense conditioning treatment can deeply penetrate the hair strand for a more long-lasting conditioning experience. Those with greasy hair types can skip this step, but anyone who uses a heated styling tool can benefit from a once-weekly deep condition.
Detangling
Unless you have extremely straight or short hair, you are probably familiar with the constant battle of undoing the knots and twists in your hair. Keeping your hair detangled is crucial for styling purposes as well as preventing the hair from breaking and pulling. Use a comb that is strong enough for your hair’s thickness while being gentle enough to avoid pulling or tugging.
Hair porosity is one of the most important factors when it comes to how a hair behaves and functions. How porous your hair is can influence everything from how easily the hair can be styled to how much moisture and hydration the hair strand can retain. And yet, hair porosity remains a rather misunderstood concept, with articles few and far between.
So what exactly is hair porosity? In simple terms, hair porosity describes how tightly packed the outer cuticle layer of your hair is. The average cuticle layer is loosely packed, with small pockets allowing for moisture to pass into the hair strand to be absorbed by the inner layers. However, some hair types have extremely tight cuticle layers, which prevents moisture from getting into the hair strand. As a result, low-porosity hair is not only extremely susceptible to dryness and dehydration, but it can also become greasy and oily when one tries to moisturize the dry hair, as the oil pools at the surface as opposed to absorbing.
Thankfully, there are a handful of oils that are perfect for low-porosity hair. If you have low-porosity hair, keep these oils on hand to keep your hair looking sleek and moisturized!
Jojoba Oil
If you have low-porosity hair, you’re probably far too familiar with oils that pool up on the cuticle and scalp, leaving you a greasy, messy mess. Jojoba oil, on the other hand, is considered the closest oil to our natural hair sebum, which makes it a lightweight, deeply penetrative oil that keeps the hair as hydrated as naturally as possible.
Argan Oil
One of the richest oils available, argan oil is so effective at keeping the hair moisturized and hydrated that it creates a protective coating around the hair strand, allowing the hair to remain moist and sleek until it has been washed off. Add some argan oil in winter for an extremely protective treatment to prevent excessive dryness.
Sweet Almond Oil
For an oil that is easily absorbed by the hair strand and can easily penetrate the tight cuticle layer, you can’t do much better than sweet almond oil! This oil’s low molecular weight allows it to penetrate tighter cuticle layers much more effectively than other oils. As a result, this oil can intensely moisturize even the least porous of hair types.
Baobab Oil
Taken from the baobab tree, this oil is incredibly rich and intensely moisturizing, allowing it to provide a massive boost of hydration to even the driest of hair types. Even better, this oil is chock-full of fatty acids and vitamins, allowing it to enhance the hair health, prevent breakage, and promote shine and softness.
Who hasn’t seen a movie or tv show where a character takes a tropical vacation to some humid climate and her hair explodes into a frizzy, weightless mess? For many of us, this comedic scene is all too real, with many of us suffering the effects of “humidity hair” when encountering a humid climate. While taking in the warm, tropical views of our travel destination, you may be shocked and a bit taken aback to notice your hair no longer looks like, well, your hair! With your normally flat, straight hair becoming more textured and dry or your curly, wavy hair becoming a massive beehive, it can be totally frustrating to try and deal with hair that no longer looks and behaves as usual.
Thankfully, we’re here to bring clarity to this confusing condition as well as give you an action plan to prevent and treat humidity hair!
Understanding The Hair’s Hydrogen Bonds
In order to understand why humidity has such a profound effect on hair, it’s important to first understand the physical and chemical makeup of the hair strand itself. You see, hair is made up of the protein known as keratin, which also makes up our skin and nails. These keratin protein molecules are bonded together by two types of bonds: disulfide bonds and hydrogen bonds. Disulfide bonds are permanent and extremely difficult to break without intense chemical and/or physical treatments. However, hydrogen bonds are much weaker and more temporary in structure, breaking down every time they make contact with water and then rebuilding once the hair dries. This is why dry hair seems to be stuck in place when it comes to shape and texture, but after wetting it with water it is easier to style and reorganize, as you are resetting the hydrogen bonds of the hair and allowing the bonds to be rebuilt and fixed with the hair in a new shape and position.
Humidity and Hydrogen Bonds
Now that you understand the process by which hydrogen bonds break and rebuild themselves, you have a better understanding of how humid, water-rich air interacts with these same hydrogen bonds. When air is more humid, there are more water molecules floating in the air, and these molecules make contact with the hydrogen bonds in the hair, causing them to break. When these bonds break, the shape and structure that you set your hair when styling becomes reset, so to speak, causing the hair to be loose and unmanageable. Additionally, wet hair absorbs moisture like a sponge, causing it to swell and expand, making your hair look “bigger”.
Treating and Preventing Humidity Hair
With an understanding of how humidity hair works, you are on your way to preventing and treating this annoying occurrence! Here’s some key steps to keeping things under control when encountering a humid environment:
Make sure your hair is completely dry when you step out into the open air, as still-damp hair will unravel far quicker than dry hair.
Before entering the humid environment, make sure to seal the cuticle with an oil-rich serum or hair oil blend that prevents the cuticle from opening and allowing for swelling and hydrogen bond breakage.
If all else fails, wear your hair in an updo or ponytail style for complete peace of mind, keeping it tied back and restrained to prevent the constant worry of untamable frizz!
We spend so much of our time and focus on perfecting and maintaining our hair health, and for good reason. Our hair is what makes or breaks our look and style, and its visibility means that much work and attention go into making it look its very best. However, much like an iceberg, so much of what goes into making your hair look great involves a great deal of work under the surface.
You see, while few people may realize it, a huge factor in proper hair growth and hair health is the condition of our scalp and hair follicles. When our scalp is inflamed or irritated, it can create a cascading effect that can eventually lead to hair loss and a breakdown in the strength and structure of our hair strand. Clearly, keeping your scalp healthy and happy is a must for great hair.
The Dangers of Scalp Inflammation
Did you know that the leading cause of hair loss and improper hair growth is scalp inflammation? When the scalp is irritated and inflamed, it leads to circulatory issues that causes the hair follicles to improperly function. The result? Hair that grows out poorly and creates weak, brittle strands. To prevent this, you’ll want to avoid anything that will cause irritation to your scalp, such as scalding hot water or an ingredient that causes your skin to react poorly. Additionally, make sure to provide your scalp with proper hydration and moisturization, taking steps such as applying an oil directly to the scalp to prevent dryness.
Buildup and the Hair Follicle
Buildup of residue on the scalp, whether it be from dry skin flakes, product residue, or excess oils, is a major no-no for a variety of reasons. For starters, this buildup can be extremely uncomfortable to deal with, causing the follicle to look greasy and unsightly. Additionally, this buildup can fall off our scalp and onto our clothes, creating an embarrassing look for many of us. However, the worst risk associated with buildup on the scalp is the way in which the buildup can block the hair follicle from properly growing, preventing proper hair growth. To prevent this impediment, you’ll want to make sure you are consistently cleaning your scalp when washing your hair, working your shampoo into the roots and scalp. If this isn’t enough, you can also utilize a specialized brush that can loosen the debris from the scalp, as well as a detoxifying and exfoliating shampoo that contains ingredients like clay or charcoal to increase cellular turnover.
Feed Your Scalp with Nutrients!
Lastly, when it comes to babying your scalp and keeping it at tip-top shape, you need to think of your scalp much in the same way that you think about the skin on your face. Much like your face needs to be washed, moisturized, and provided specialized treatments and serums, so too does your scalp! Supplying your scalp with things like vitamins, antioxidants, and fatty acids can do wonders in improving your overall scalp and hair health. To do this, apply a product like Sutra’s Hair Cocktail, which includes marula, argan, and rose petal oils to infuse the scalp with maximum nutrition!
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