Temperatures are dropping and the cold temperatures of winter will soon be upon us, which can really throw a kink in your hair routine. Colder weather can make tresses brittle and dry, often forcing us to make a simple ponytail our new standard ‘do. (Boring!)

Combat your winter hair woes even before the season starts to keep your mane in tip-top shape all the way to New Year’s. Fernando Salas, hair stylist and creator of White Sands Hair Products, shares his tips for prepping your hair for cold-weather gorgeousness.

Amp up your hair’s moisture level

To achieve a frizz-free texture with any hair type, balanced moisture in the inner structure of each strand is needed. When the hair shaft is balanced with the proper amount of moisture, the environment—in this case, winter—will not cause your strands to frizz. To achieve the perfect moisture balance, first repair any damage caused from color processing, perming, and natural UV and UVB stress with a shampoo and conditioner that can penetrate proteins deep inside the hair shaft, rather than just packing them on top.

Humidity Is Your Friend (unless you’re a curly)

The main cause of dry winter hair is not the temperature but the lack of moisture in the air. “You don’t have to be a living thing to feel it,” said Arash Akhavan, a dermatologist in New York. “Think of how your door may not fit as well in the jamb. You have to exert some control over your environment.” Dr. Akhavan suggested using humidifiers, avoiding space heaters (“they particularly suck out moisture”) and switching to ionic hair dryers (“because they use less heat to get the same effect”).

Stop static at the start

Once your hair is strong enough to withstand the winter elements, focus your cleansing routine on retaining that moisture, which will help prevent those cold-weather flyways. Products with wheat amino acids promote moisture when applying hot tools, while those with silk amino acids have properties that create a positive charge to damaged hair fibers and will keep your tresses polished.

Deep condition the right way

It’s important to close the cuticle layer to define color, texture and shine all season long. Deep conditioners, like White Sands ER Fusion Deep Reconstructive Conditioning Treatment, can bring you some serious hair help. The formula contains amino cystines to repair damage and lemongrass extract to enhance color. The product shows results lasting up to 30 days and takes just 20 minutes to apply and heat-set.

Coat Your Hair

The trick is trapping moisture, which is essentially how hydrating shampoos and conditioners work. The Oribe Gold Lust Pre-Shampoo Intensive Treatment ($68) has a thick balmlike formula. Traditional creams don’t adhere well to the hair, said Michele Burgess, the director of product development at Oribe. The coating works especially well on coarser textures.

For finer strands, a less viscous formula, like Ouai Hair Oil ($28), may be better. It is a top seller in the Ouai line, according to its founder Jen Atkin, known for her work with the Kardashians. “It can double as a both styling product and mask so you can wear it while you sleep or work out,” she said.

Boost limp locks

Since dry winter air can leave hair flat against the scalp, products with style memory are a must to create—and maintain—your favorite hairstyle throughout the day. If you tend to wear hats during winter, a style memory spray can also ensure that deflated hair is a problem of the past. Try White Sands Liquid Texture Styling Spray line, which boasts long-lasting staying power, no matter what the weather’s like. The sprays are actually “thermal intelligent” (as in, they make your locks look even shiner and stronger when you use your hot styling tools) and they’ll help your hair bounce back right into place—even after wearing a beanie.

Schedule that trim

Dry air means more split ends. A simple trip to your stylist is a must as you prepare for the deep freeze. After all, split ends and damaged cuticles will cause your hair to appear thinner and give it that unwanted stringy look. Hair that’s weakened toward the ends is in need of a quick chop.

Treat Your Hair Like Your Cashmere

Hair may not be alive like, say, skin cells, but you still have to treat it delicately. David Mallett, who is opening a Manhattan outpost of his Parisian salons this spring, said it helps to think of hair as a fiber. “You wouldn’t throw your cashmere in steaming hot water, so look after your hair and love it the same way,” he said. Mr. Mallet has noticed that clients often show up at his salons in the winter with dry, itchy scalps because they use hotter water when it’s cold outside. “Lay off the hot water and use lukewarm or even cold,” he said.

Deep Condition Your Hairbrush

It’s natural to reach for intense conditioners and hair masks when the mercury drops, but sometimes those products flatten hair. Instead, Mr. Mallett offers this genius tip: “Get a natural bristle brush, and after you clean it, deep condition the brush regularly with a hair serum, oil or leave-in conditioner. This way, when you brush through your hair, it gives it extra shine but without weighing it down.”

Kick Up the Keratin

If you think a keratin treatment means a mop of stick-straight hair, think again. Keratin has grown up. In-salon services can now hydrate and soften but leave texture intact. “With Japanese hair straightening, and later Brazilian blowout, you stripped the keratin and broke the disulfide bonds in your hair so it became very straight, and then you replaced the keratin,” Dr. Akhavan said. “But keratin can also be used just as a long-lasting conditioner.”

More accessible: Virtue’s keratin-infused shampoos and conditioners, which can be used at home. Adir Abergel, Virtue’s creative director, who works with Rooney Mara, Reese Witherspoon and Saoirse Ronan, particularly likes the company’s Smooth Conditioner ($38) and Perfect Ending Split End Serum ($40).

“In the winter, you’ll want to leave your product on your hair a little longer to really let it penetrate,” Mr. Abergel said, adding that getting ends trimmed more often than usual can also help maintain hair health.

Read the Label

Read up! There may be hidden drying agents lurking in your styling products. Arsen Gurgov, a stylist who often works with Emmy Rossum, advised “staying away from styling products with alcohol as they tend to dry out the hair even more.” If you have a favorite conditioner that contains silicones, you may want to swap it for a silicone-free version.

“Silicones can build up with repeated use and coat the hair too much, making it dull and lifeless,” Mr. Gurgov said. His simple solution: Use pure argan oil before blow-drying to prep the hair and again afterward to finish the style.

The scientific reason why you shed the most hair in the fall and winter

It’s a tale as old as time: Once fall rolls around, your showers may end with what looks like a small, furry animal hanging around the drain. But this doesn’t mean you’re going bald (but keep your stress in check to help maintain healthy follicles)—there’s actually a scientific reason why you shed more in the colder months.

“There is evidence that people can note increased shedding in the late fall and winter months,” dermatologist Emily Wise, MD, told Allure. “In the summer months, we hang on to more hair to provide increased protection from the sun.”

“In the summer months, we hang on to more hair to provide increased protection from the sun.”

Then, as summer ends, it’s not uncommon for women to start losing some of the hair they held onto during the summer for a late-onset “shed” phase. But the increase in shedding is likely just temporary, Dr. Wise continued.

Aside from keeping your scalp hydrated and moisturized, as well as taking your vitamins (biotin and iron, in particular!), there’s not much you can do about seasonal shedding. And, according to dermatologist Jeremy Fenton, MD, docs aren’t in total agreement about why the scheduled shedding happens in the first place: Some think it’s based on evolution, and others believe it’s the body’s way of lessening shedding come wintertime.

“These hairs are not necessarily lost forever, as a healthy hair follicle will then eventually cycle back into its growth phase,” Dr. Fenton told Allure.

So don’t let extra shedding get you down—or send you into a panic. Instead, invest in a pretty hair catcher for your drain and daydream about the first day of spring.

 

Episodes:
My Favorite This Month

Homecoming
(the podcast)

The first scripted series from Gimlet Media, starring Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, Amy Sedaris, and David Cross. Homecoming centers on a caseworker at an experimental facility, her ambitious supervisor, and a soldier eager to rejoin civilian life — presented in an enigmatic collage of telephone calls, therapy sessions, and overheard conversations. The result is an innovative, immersive audio experience — a mystery unfolding across the twelve episodes of Seasons One and Two.

When it comes to bad hair days, often we attribute them to falling asleep with wet hair, a bad blow dry or simply neglecting to wash our locks before work.

But in fact, the state of our mane can be down to our lifestyle as well.

From the hair type that depicts low iron levels to the warning signs your locks are giving you that your diet and digestion are poor, here, with the help of leading Australian trichologist, Jane Davies, FEMAIL reveals what your hair is trying to tell you.

1. You're stressed

Speaking to FEMAIL, Jane revealed that if your hair is looking worse than it did a few months ago, it could be more than a bad hair day:

'If your pony tail is getting thinner, if your hair is more brittle or if your hair doesn't grow as quickly or as long as it used to, it could be a sign that your body is stressed, or deficient in nutrients or other more medical or physiological issues,' she said.

'It's important to realize that hair vitality only comes about when the body is healthy.

'As hair cells are the second fasting growing cells in the body, they are dependent on every part of the body working synergistically and optimally together to provide the best possible hair growth.'

2. Your diet and digestion are poor

While you might think the signs that your diet and digestion are poor are mostly around your waistline, a diet laden with sugar, fat and carbs can also manifest in your tresses:

'Hair loss or thinning is a common consequence of somebody who does not provide the hair follicles with the correct amount of nutrition they require to function at the optimal level,' Jane explained.

As a a result of a bad diet, you might experience hair loss and thinning, and Jane highlighted that this is especially the case when you crash diet and cut out specific food groups, such as good sources of animal protein:

'When we eat a good source of bioavailable protein it's broken down in our stomachs into amino acids and this is a crucial part in producing strong healthy hair cells,' she explained.

'Also, if there are any underlying gut health issues, such as low stomach acid, intestinal permeability or candida overgrowth, these can also cause nutritional deficiencies and have a detrimental effect on hair growth and scalp health.'  

3. Your pill is messing with you

We all know the contraceptive pill has a huge impact on our hormones, but what about our hair?

According to Jane, it's 'becoming all too common for trichologists to come across young women who have been taking a high androgen index contraceptive pill that is causing some issues with hair growth and reduction of volume through the top part of the scalp'.

She said that if you suspect you have any hair thinning because of the contraceptive pill, you should consult a trichologist who may say you need treatment to reverse the progressive thinning pattern.

4. Your have low iron levels

As explained before, Jane said your hair can often show off the results of a diet low in iron and good sources of animal protein.

'The hair growth cycle will most often be the first thing to be affected, and the last thing to recover when you have deficiency in an essential micronutrient,' Jane explained.

'Telogen Effluvium - or excess hair shedding - is the hair loss pattern you are most likely to see.

'However, long term most nutritional deficiencies can also cause poor quality new hair, as the hair is not being replaced "like for like".'

The expert added that nutritional deficiencies affect the 'overall density of the hair shaft, which can make the hair become weak and brittle'.

If you're not a fan of meat and fish sources of iron, then make sure your hair is getting the adequate nutrients by opting for some eggs, pulses and beans and wholegrains in your diet.

5. You are washing your hair too little or too much

Last but not least, a question that is debated a lot by hairdressers and trichologists is whether we wash our hair too little or too much.

'I get asked this daily and it's my favorite question to answer,' Jane revealed.

'The skin on the scalp is an extension of the skin on your face. It's covered with 120,000 hair follicles which produce sebum (oil) continuously to keep your skin supple and help to maintain the correct pH balance.'

Jane outlined that 'contrary to what people think, regular shampooing is not in any way detrimental to your hair or scalp.

'In fact, done correctly and with the right products, it actually re-moisturises the hair.'

She said that if you refrain from washing your hair too much, then the oils will collect dirt and that dirt will sit there until you remove it.

Jane concluded that if you have any scalp issues, 'such as persistent flaking, oiliness or itching, you will see some improvement if you start shampooing more frequently.'  

So no need to feel guilty if you're a daily hair washer, then.

Jane Davies, Founder of The Hair Physio, is a Certified Trichologist and a Member of the World Trichology Society. To find out more, please click here. 

Buttered Corn and Peas

A popular skin care drug—which is intended to target eczema—was just found to have an unusual side effect: hair growth. According to an article on Newsweek, the FDA-approved drug dupilumab was given to a 13-year-old alopecia sufferer to treat her eczema. The patient, who hadn’t grown hair on her scalp since she was two, suddenly grew a significant amount of hair on her head after continual use of the drug, a study in the journal JAMA Dermatology reports.

Metformin is a prescription medication for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome. Some people are worried that this drug may cause hair loss, but there is little evidence to validate this concern.

Doctors typically prescribe metformin as a first-line treatment for people with type 2 diabetes. Along with diet and exercise, metformin can help a person control their insulin and blood sugar levels.

Doctors sometimes also prescribe metformin for people with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Raised insulin and blood sugar levels are common with PCOS, and metformin can help lower them.

In this article, we explore the possible relationship between metformin and hair loss. We also describe some of the treatment options for this symptom.