Practices to increase the health and strength of your hair.
- Washing you hair less often is actually beneficial to the health and strength of you hair. How often you need to wash will depend on you. Some need to wash every three days, others can go for 15 days.
- Choose a cleansing method that is as natural as possible. Surfactants in regular shampoos (even natural shampoos) are strong and strip the hair of natural oils, leaving your hair strand without its natural form of protection. This can lead to hair loss, breakage, split ends and scalp conditions. Many regular shampoos also contain ingredients linked to endocrine disruption and cancer.
- Choose a natural conditioning method. Conditioners also contain surfactants and ingredients linked to endocrine disruption and cancer. Some conditioning alternatives to regular store-bought conditioners could be hair oiling, rinsing with rice water and/or adding a few drops of jojoba oil to your ends, or try mixing fresh aloe gel with a little coconut oil in equal parts; this makes a beautiful leave in conditioner.
- Choose the sun instead of the blow dryer. A compromise would be using the low setting on your hair dryer. Increased heat (or cold) and high velocity wind damages our hair over time by increasing dry and brittle qualities in the hair strand. Ayurveda holds great importance over keeping our heads protected from heat, as it dulls our sense organs and our ability to think clearly.
- Protect yourself from getting too cold. This is more of an overall health consideration, but in the end, a healthy you means healthier hair. Practically what does this mean after getting out of the shower? Don’t let your feet touch the cold floor. Put a robe on to cover your neck, shoulders and chest to keep in the heat, especially if you’re letting your hair dry naturally and you’re in the cold months of the year. Consider using Rasna on your head after bathing if you’re prone to allergies or get sick easily.
- Make oiling your hair and scalp part of your regular routine. This could be as easy as adding a few drops of oil to your scalp nightly, or on the eve of washing day, or a more enthusiastic approach would be oiling from root to tip at least 48 minutes before washing it out. If you sleep with oil in your hair, be sure the bedroom windows are closed and that your head is covered. The result of not protecting yourself from a draft or the cool of the night will likely give you the experience of congestion in the morning and potentially a sore throat. Oiling one’s hair and scalp has been one of the most important beauty practices since ancient times. It has serious potential to change the health and texture of one’s hair. Oiling helps ease tension in the body and mind, while also sharpening the senses. It even helps improve one's quality of sleep.
