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What is the proper way to wash your hair? 5 Top Tips to Know
Beautiful and healthy hair makes us more confident and beautiful! What better than starting from scratch and following a good hair wash routine?
Making sure you're washing your hair correctly is easier than you think, if you simply follow a few hair-washing tips. If not done correctly can lead to much damage to your hair.
Keep reading to learn how to properly wash your hair to ace your hair routine, and improve the overall health and appearance of your hair.
How to wash hair properly?
Let's jump right into the five steps you should be following every time you wash or cleanse your hair.
1. Brush Your Hair
Before you even turn the water on, you should be brushing out your hair. This ensures every strand of hair is separated to receive the shampoo and conditioner.
It also helps to stimulate your scalp and open up your pores in preparation to be cleansed. Ridding your scalp of excess dirt, dead skin, and buildup is an important part of washing your hair.
2. Soak Your Hair Well
You need to make sure your hair is thoroughly wet before you start working with it. Hot water may strip the natural oils of the hair, which can make the scalp drier and irritated. So, you can use warm water or room temperature water and let it soak into your hair for at least one minute before you start adding shampoo.
3. Shampoo Your Hair
Next, you'll want to wash your hair with shampoo. Concentrate on the top of your head where your hair has the most buildup and your scalp and apply shampoo.
Be sure to massage your scalp as you shampoo your hair with a mild shampoo and build up the lather to make sure it gets scrubbed clean as well. Use the tips of your fingers rather than your nails so you don't scratch your skin.
4. Condition Your Hair
You can do this at the same time as you shampoo your hair or after. When you apply conditioner, you need to focus on the bottom portion of your hair. This is the part that gets the driest, is more prone to split ends and therefore needs the most moisture added back into it.
Allow the conditioner to set on your hair for 3 to 5 minutes before moving on to the next step. You need to allow it plenty of time to soak into your hair and moisturize it properly.
5. Rinse Your Hair
Something that many people don't do properly when washing their hair is to rinse thoroughly enough. However, this step is equally as important as the other steps.
Lean your head back and allow the water to completely rinse the shampoo and conditioner out of your hair. Use cold water that you can stand because this will cause your pores to close and makes them manageable and shiny.
Use your hands to push these products off of your hair, but don't scrub your hair with your hands. If you get rough with your hair as you're rinsing it, you could damage it, so be gentle as you rinse.
When you think you've rinsed it enough, keep rinsing for at least another minute to ensure there's nothing left on your hair that will stay there as the buildup.
Hair Washing Tips
Now let's look at a few hair wash tips that will help you get even more out of your hair care routine.
Simple expert pieces of advice to help you keep your hair healthy:
Know Your Hair Type
Your hair type will determine what type of hair care products you use and how often you should wash your hair. It's important to know if your hair is oily or dry and thick or thin so you can wash it properly.
Deep Condition First
If you're going to do any sort of deep hair conditioning treatment, you'll want to do this before you get into the shower. Allow it to soak into your hair and scalp for the allotted time and then wash off the excess. Deep conditioners works amazingly well for fine hair too.
Leaving any type of conditioner or hair product in your hair for a long period can cause it to be a source of buildup on your hair.
Use a Cleansing Shampoo
Synthetic ingredients in shampoos can build up on your hair over time. To prevent that from happening, you'll want to use a shampoo that's:
- Hydro-chemical-free
- Sulfate-free
- Paraben-free
- Silicone-free
It's especially important to avoid these chemicals (paraben, sulphates, etc.) if you color your hair because they can strip your hair of color.
Check the Water
If you have light-colored hair, you may notice it changing color over time, you might want to check the water. In some cases, excess minerals and chemicals in your water can damage your hair. With darker hair, you may notice your hair gets drier or frizzy more easily.
Consider testing your water to see if it's hard. Swimming pool water and hard water has excess minerals in them and may have other chemicals in them that can damage your hair. If this is the case, use a clarifying shampoo at least once a week and consider getting a filter for your showerhead.
Skip the Towel
One way that many people are damaging their hair is by rubbing it vigorously with a normal towel after a hair wash. This can cause breakage and split ends. Instead, use something like a microfiber towel or even a t-shirt.
While you're at it, make sure you're patting your hair dry instead of rubbing it. This will help you avoid damaging your hair after you put so much effort into washing it properly.
Good Hair Drying Practice
Even though blow drying causes more damage than natural drying, using a hair dryer at a distance of 15 cm causes less damage compared to naturally drying your hair (especially when you have long and thick hair and it takes hours to natural drying).
But applying heat to your hair every day and excess styling of hair can damage it leaving your hair to become frizzy and unmanageable. Always use a heat protectant if styling is unavoidable. Also, avoid brushing your hair when wet as it can also cause more hair to fall out than when you brush your hair when dry.
To wrap up…
Now you know how to properly wash your hair. As you can see, it's simple and easy to follow these hair wash tips that will help you have healthier and more beautiful hair.
If you want to learn more ways to keep your hair healthy, be sure to check out our blog. It's full of posts that will help you maintain hair health. This post has five tips on proper hair care.
FAQs
Q. How often should I wash my hair?
Ans. You can wash your hair every other day or in 2-3 days with lukewarm water. Look for the signs such as an oily scalp, and visible flaking on the scalp, indicating it is time to wash your hair. Otherwise, dry shampoos are quick alternatives if you want to cleaner and fluffier hair on-the-go.
Q. Which of the two is better- conditioner or shampoo?
Ans. Hair wash shampoos are used to clean the scalp from dirt, grime, excess oil from the scalp whereas hair conditioners are used to lock in the moisture in the hair. The use of shampoo along with a conditioner can make the hair nourished, smooth and strong.
Q. What is a hair towel called?
Ans. Hair wash towels are also known as hair turbans which are good alternatives to dry your hair.
Q. Can washing hair everyday damage them?
Ans. Daily washing or over washing can weaken the hair and cause breakage and hair fall. But, if you are someone who sweats a lot (exercise) and have oily hair can wash the hair daily but with a mild hair cleanser. As curly hair are more prone to dryness, daily washing is not suggested.
