Dry, dry and damaged hair? Don’t reach for the scissors right away! Rather make a rescue plan – wash, care, pamper – and carry it out accurately, with the right products.
Wash
Clean hair always looks healthier and more beautiful. So it is not an exaggeration to put some extra energy into washing your hair. How often, that’s personal. If you exercise (and perspire) a lot or use a lot of styling products on a daily basis, you’ll want to wash your hair more often than once a week. This is no problem at all with a gentle, nourishing shampoo.
- Brush your hair before washing. You brush out loose hair, as well as a large part of any styling products.
- Wash: wet the hair well and keep an eye on the water temperature: too hot is disastrous for your hair, because heat dries it out. Too cold does not clean well. It is about the golden mean. Just massaging your scalp well with shampoo is enough; rinsing also cleans the hair. A scalp massage is immediately a wonderful moment of relaxation and you stimulate the blood circulation. Important, because this means that nutrients for a new hair are better supplied. One wash is enough, unless the hair is packed with styling products.
- Shampoo listens closely. That cheap liter bottle seems cheap, but the more expensive shampoos are not only better for your hair, they often turn out not to be much more expensive to use. Because of the higher concentration you only need a small amount: a tuft the size of a walnut is enough. Spread it on your palms first and then on your scalp. Wonderful shampoos for dry, damaged hair are: (1). Garnier Loving Blends Honey Gold Shampoo (€3.49), (2). Vichy Dercos Nutri Repair Cream Shampoo (€11.45), and (3). Nivea Hair Care Repair & Targeted Care Shampoo (€3.79).
- Rinse, rinse and rinse again is the advice! Shampoo residue makes your hair heavy, dull and greasy. The rule is that you rinse the hair three times longer than you wash it. Tip for the diehards among us: rinsing with cold water gives your hair extra shine, because this closes the hair scales.
- Drying is a matter of dabbing with the towel. Or wrap your towel around your head for a few minutes to absorb the moisture. When you rub your hair dry, the hair cuticles open – it will look dull again later – and you damage the hair.
Tip from Plus reader Ellen Berenschat (58)
“I wash my hair as little as possible, because I always have to blow-dry it in a model and that dries my hair out. Dry shampoo is my salvation. It makes my hair airy and nice and firm. I was also often just my pony in between. This immediately makes my entire hair look cleaner.” (4). Collistar Magic Dry Shampoo (€14.95) and (5). Andrélon Langer Fresh Dry Shampoo (€4.99).
Tips from the professional
Mariska van den Broek trains hairdressers at Kérastase who work with this professional brand. Her tips:
- If you sleep on a silk pillow, there is less friction and the hair cuticles stay healthier.
- Nuts, eggs and meat contain proteins, which ensure healthy hair from within.
- Before going to sleep, apply a little hair oil and make a braid in long hair. The next morning you wake up with soft, shiny and frizz-free hair.
- Eat chocolate! It contains zinc, the mineral that keeps your hair healthy and shiny.
Take care of
A lesson in hair anatomy: a hair consists of a cuticle layer, a fiber layer and pith. The fiber and cuticle layers contain grain pigments that are responsible for your hair color. When the grain pigments stop producing melanin, the hair turns gray. The hair cuticles form the outer protective layer. In healthy hair, they lie flat like roof tiles and form a closed whole that protects the inner part of the hair. They also reflect the light so that the hair shines beautifully.
Damaged hair
In damaged hair, the hair scales are more or less open and the hair surface is rough. This makes the inner part of the hair extra vulnerable. In addition, the rough surface hardly reflects light. That’s why dry, damaged hair lacks all the shine. If your hair is damaged, it is damaged: no hair care product can change that. But a nourishing conditioner (conditioner) does lay a smooth, protective layer over the rough hair cuticles after washing. As a result, the hair is not only better protected, but it also shines again.
Conditioner
After shampooing, apply the conditioner to damp hair, comb through with your fingers or a wide-tooth comb, leave on for a few minutes and rinse. If your hair is limp and fine, apply the conditioner only at the ends. Not cheap, but very good: (6). L’Anza Keratin Healing Oil Conditioner (€44.95). Also fine: (7). Andrélon Keratin Repair Intensive Conditioner (€4.49).
pamper
If your hair is in a deplorable state, conditioner alone won’t do it. Especially after a lot of sun, dyeing, bleaching, blow-drying or styling with tongs, the hair can be so broken that more intensive care is needed. If your hair looks dry and dead, an intensively caring hair mask will bring it back to life and shine. (8). Kérastase Chronologiste La Crème de Régénération (€47) and (9). L’Oréal Elvive Extraordinary Oil Mask (€7.49), for example, contains a high concentration of nourishing substances, which also penetrate deeper into the hair shaft. Your hair will benefit optimally if you wrap it with foil after applying the mask and then let it heat for 15 to 30 minutes.
Hair Serums & Oils
Also pure indulgence for ‘dead’ hair: hair serums and oils, which you mainly apply to the ends of the hair. They care for the hair and at the same time protect it against drying out by the sun, hair dryer, curling iron and flat iron. Tipped: (10). Dove Supreme Cream Serum (€7.99); (11). Schwarzkopf Gliss Kur Serum Deep-Repair Extreme Serum (€10.29); (12). Aveda Dry Remedy Daily Moisture Oil (€29.50), (13). Kerastase Elixir Ultime (€39.50).
You rinse out a mask; you usually leave a hair oil or serum in place and so apply it to your towel-dried hair after washing.
Sources):
- Plus Magazine
