Is your dry hair in want of some main fixing? The first step: Uncover the causes of dry hair so you possibly can treatment them. Step two: Moisturize your mane like a professional. Let this foolproof information prepared the ground.
If it looks like winter climate is wrecking your hair, it isn’t your creativeness. Simply as your pores and skin dries out and feels parched through the coldest months of the yr, so do your strands. With that stated, you don’t must fall sufferer to dry, uninteresting, or frizzy hair throughout any season.
Under, consultants share key intel on find out how to moisturize dry hair and hold it wholesome 12 months a yr.
What Causes Dry Hair?
Movie star hair stylist Sean James, who works on the Matthew Preece Salon in Santa Monica, California, shares key the reason why your hair is likely to be tremendous dry:
- Seasonal adjustments. Throughout summer season, excessive temperatures, chlorine, or salt water might be the culprits. In winter, the shortage of moisture within the air is a major instigator.
- Chemical hair remedies. James provides that chemical compounds—together with these for lightening or coloring hair—may trigger dry hair.
- Heated instruments. Curling irons, flat irons, and blow dryers may zap moisture out of your mane. James typically witnesses individuals utilizing the improper instrument and not using a protecting coating, or turning them as much as the most well liked setting.
- Your hair may naturally be dry. “That is fairly frequent for curly hair and grey hair,” says James.
- Washing hair too incessantly. Over-washing your hair—in addition to utilizing expired merchandise—can strip your hair of the moisture it wants, provides Ian Hoffner, a hair stylist at Mane Methods in Wayne, PA
Dry vs. Broken Hair
There’s a nice line between dry hair and broken hair. It may be difficult to distinguish the 2, but each contain the hair having an open cuticle.
Within the case of dry hair, the cuticle lacks moisture, says James. “If it feels coarse or tough to the touch, it’s almost definitely dry,” says Hoffner.
Alternatively, hair injury normally happens as a result of the protein bonds within the hair have damaged. As James places it, the cuticle is “broad open, swollen, and typically break up.” When hair is broken, it sometimes has noticeable break up ends and “breaks or snaps off whereas styling,” Hoffner provides.
The largest distinction between dry and broken hair is that the previous might be remedied far more simply. Dry hair is moisture-deficient, whereas broken hair is protein-deficient. Each hair woes want a little bit TLC, however the treatments fluctuate barely.
How one can Repair Broken Hair
Broken hair requires repairing protein bonds internally, says James. There are numerous remedies you should purchase and apply to do that. Hoffner particularly recommends the K18 leave-in molecular restore hair masks. “This product helps to restore hair from the within out inside 4 minutes. It helps to revive energy, moisture, and softness,” he explains. You can also’t go improper with Olaplex; it’s top-of-the-line manufacturers for broken hair, as the complete product line is formulated to restore damaged bonds.
Topical hair care merchandise apart, it’s also possible to promote hair energy, size, and follicular well being with the proper vitamins. Suppose: biotin, zinc, and Fo-Ti, that are the important thing gamers in HUM’s Hair Candy Hair gummies.
How one can Repair Dry Hair
On the subject of replenishing moisture in dry hair, each James and Hoffner keep that you should utilize the identical varieties of remedies shared above. Nonetheless, there are further ideas and tips for laundry, styling, vitamin, and extra that may repair dry hair particularly.
Listed below are a few of the finest residence treatments for dry and frizzy hair:
Is it higher to air dry or blow dry your hair?
Whether or not your hair is dry or broken, James maintains that it’s at all times higher to air dry. “If you must use warmth on the hair, at all times use a warmth protectant,” he advises.
How typically must you wash dry hair?
In case you have dry hair, it’s finest to scrub hair solely two occasions every week, says James. Keep in mind: Over-washing your hair is likely one of the major causes of dry hair within the first place. “The one individuals who ought to wash their hair day by day are these with oily hair,” he explains.

Does water temperature matter?
Sure, the temperature of your water completely issues—particularly for individuals with dry hair. “Sizzling water strips away your pure oils, leaving your hair unprotected,” Hoffner shares. Should you completely have to make use of sizzling water, James suggests ending off your bathe with a cool rinse to seal the hair cuticle.
Must you use a bathe filter?
In recent times, bathe filters have turn into more and more common. But when your water high quality is respectable, you don’t want to fret about including one. “A bathe filter is a superb thought to assist soften your water if in case you have onerous water, or water that has numerous mineral construct up,” Hoffner explains. (Our vote goes to The Goodfor Firm’s Bathe Filter, which filters out minerals, heavy metals, chlorine, and different contaminants that wreak havoc in your hair.)
How typically must you apply a hair masks?
Including hair masks into your routine is likely one of the finest residence treatments for dry and frizzy hair. That stated, frequency suggestions rely in your hair sort. James advises his shoppers with color-treated and highlighted hair to use them weekly. (In case your hair is of course dry, you might also wish to moisturize with an intensive hair masks on a weekly foundation.) In any other case, Hoffner suggests that almost all of his shoppers use them one a few times a month.
How does vitamin come into play?
You’re what you eat—and apparently, your hair is what you eat, too. “Biology is a extremely fascinating factor,” says James. “Most individuals don’t notice that their hair follicles are a results of their blood, and their blood because of what they put into their physique. Tiny cells are shaped after which type into tiny keratin cells, which then feed into the bulb of the hair. They layer one on high of one another after which they turn into your hair.” Merely put, correct vitamin is integral for hair well being.
On high of following a well-rounded weight-reduction plan, it’s your decision some further assist to moisturize dry hair from inside. We recommend HUM’s Crimson Carpet: It packs black currant seed oil and vitamin E to nourish hair follicles. (Bonus: It promotes wholesome pores and skin texture, too.)
Does sporting a hat in winter assist or harm dry hair?
As a result of dry hair craves moisture, sporting a hat truly helps dry hair because it holds in moisture in throughout colder seasons. Grace Eleyae makes satin- and silk-lined hats and turbans for this very motive: to seal in moisture for ladies with dry hair.
What else are you able to do to guard and moisturize dry hair?
James stresses the significance of utilizing the proper merchandise to your hair. Simply as somebody with pores and skin points ought to use merchandise beneficial by their dermatologist to assist deal with focused points, these with particular hair sorts and situations ought to take heed to their stylist and use the merchandise “prescribed” to them.
“In case you have colored-treated hair, you must also be utilizing a coloured hair shampoo. In case you have highlighted hair, use a shampoo for highlighted hair. In case you have oily hair or a dry scalp, then you must use a shampoo and conditioner that treats these situations,” he says.
In your quest to moisturize dry hair, you’ll additionally have to concentrate on utilizing hydrating hair merchandise. Avoiding substances like alcohol, silicones, and sulfates will assist, too. Furthermore, James suggests investing in high-quality hair instruments with protecting coatings and expertise to seal moisture into hair. (He prefers heated instruments by FHI Warmth and Dyson.)
In case you have extra extreme points along with your scalp or hair well being, it could be finest to seek the advice of a physician or trichologist.