5 Mistakes You Make When Washing Your Hair
What a shampoo bottle tells you is to wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. But what it doesn’t tell you is what to avoid when washing your hair. Here is what every hair stylist is asking you to please stop doing, from the roots, up (or down)!
- Switching shampoos
Have you ever heard that your hair gets “used to” your shampoo and conditioner so it’s important to change it up? Well, this is a myth. Your scalp and hair simply can’t determine whether a product has been used for long periods of time and therefore your shampoo does not stop working because your hair gets used to it. The results of your shampoo and conditioner may change depending on the weather, hormone levels, illnesses and even your monthly cycles.
- Washing hair as soon as you get in the shower
Life’s busy and time is short, but patience is a virtue. You need to let the water penetrate the follicles for about 30 seconds before shampooing. This will provide an initial rinse to wash away the top layer of oil and residue. It will also help you to penetrate the scalp more and prepare it for shampooing.
- Washing with super-hot water
Turning down the heat probably sounds like the worst idea right now, but trust us, your hair will thank you for it! Hot water dries up your hair and skin (hello dandruff) and opens your hair cuticle which allows keratin proteins and natural moisturising molecules to escape, which in turn creates frizz and loses strength.
- Towel drying vs blotting
Towel drying your hair is great for cutting your drying time in half and avoiding too much instantaneous hair dryer heat, but you may actually be doing it wrong. Instead of roughing up the hair with your towel – which will knot the strands, increase damage and cause frizz – dry blot your hair instead. Do this by gently squeezing out excess water instead of rubbing it. Pro tip: try use a soft microfiber hair towel instead of your rough bath towel.
- Using the wrong hair dryer
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re huge advocates of minimising any unnecessary damage to your hair – which is why all our tools and products are well thought out. This includes our ionic Hair Dryer! No, we didn’t say iconic (although the bespoke design may speak for itself!), we did say ionic. An ionic hair dryer omits negatively charged ions which counteract the positively charged ions that are present when washing your hair. The positively charged ions open up your hair follicle which leads to reduced moisture, increase frizz and more damage. So the ionic technology actually repels the water to dry hair faster and help seal the cuticles to retain moisture.
