Don’t wash your hair in HOT water to get warm in the winter!

Oh how I love that it is now Fall/Autumn, but what I do not love is the season that is coming up and bringing cooler temps with it...winter. I especially do not love being cold. One of my most favorite things to do in the winter is to take a hot, steaming if not scolding, hot bath or shower. The one thing I make sure NOT to do while soaking said hot water droplets is to let that super hot water hit my hair!!

Let me tell you why. Science. The hair’s ph and the water’s ph difference already causes irritation. Water has a higher ph than our hair and skin desires!! ( this is why skin feels “dry” ) When your hair also has color molecules within the cortex, these higher temps and higher ph together speed up the color fading process. Water in general is actually not beneficial to our hair strands. Add to it a very hot or high temp, and your hair is SCREAMING, only it doesn’t have nerve endings beyond the scalp so it can’t relay that to you like your skin can.

Here’s an analogy to think of. When you wash your laundry, you sort your darker clothing to be washed with similar clothing in COLD water to reduce fading and the decrease of loss of dye within the clothing fibers. Your lighter or white clothing is washed in HOT water to work with the laundry detergent to remove stains and to appear white and bright. Same concept is applied to hair, especially if it is colored!!! The darker your artificial hair color that is added to grey or white/blonde hair, the more you need to cognizant of using a cooler or cold temperature when shampooing your hair. Avoiding excessive times of washing throughout the week also helps! For blondes,the more you wash your hair the faster your toner or gloss will fade. It is still necessary to avoid hot water or multiple shampoos.

Moral of the story, try your best to warm up however you choose in the bathtub or shower, but avoid getting super hot water on your hair. Most importantly, hydrate that skin when you are done!