[Hair Care] The most fundamental way to prevent hair loss

We spend hours and many dollars to prevent hair loss: maybe a treatment, supplements, or products. 

But one of the most important methods to prevent hair loss is taking care of our scalp. The health of our scalp can be directly related to hair loss. And to keep our scalp healthy, the first and the most basic thing that we can do is something that we do almost everyday: washing and drying our hair. 

In today’s post, we’ll look into the correct way of washing our hair. To do that, we’ll have to answer the following questions:

1. When is the best time to wash hair
2. How to wash our hair
3. How to we dry our hair

Best time to wash hair

In general, washing our hair at night is better than washing it in the morning. 

Most people are active during the day. When we are active, our scalp and hair are exposed to various pollutants and dust from the environment around us and from wastes and sweat that are secreted from our body through hair follicles (i.e. pores on our scalp). They ball up together and stick to our scalp and hair. If we do not cleanse our scalp and hair at night to get rid of the dirt, sweat, and pollutants, they could clog up hair follicles and cause hair loss. (Just like our face! Imaging not washing your face before going to bed. Not the best thing you can do for your skin. Click here to find out the right way to cleanse our face.) 

Another reason why it is best to wash our hair at night is because of UV rays. 

After we wash our scalp and hair, it takes about 3 to 4 hours for our natural protective barrier to become thick enough to protect our scalp. But if we wash our hair in the morning and leave right after, our scalp is exposed to UV rays without a strong barrier to protect our scalp. This could damage our scalp and hair, which could lead to hair loss.

About shampooing

Some of you may be thinking “what’s there to it? I wet my hair and scalp, put a little shampoo on it and lather.” You’re not wrong about that. 

But since washing our hair the correct way is the first and the most basic step to preventing hair loss, it might be worthwhile to find out what the best way to wash our hair and scalp is. 

First the temperature of the water.

The worst thing you can do to your scalp is to use hot water to wet and wash it. When you use hot water on our scalp, our scalp can easily be irritated, red, and overly dry. When your scalp becomes too dry, it could cause scaly scalp, which could also clog up your hair follicles, leading to hair loss. How about cold water? if you use cold water, it is difficult to completely remove dust and dirt on your scalp and hair. (Think of a dirty laundry.)

So the best temperature to wet and wash your hair would be lukewarm water. 

Next is the shampoo. 

Just like our face, we do not want to use shampoo with harsh chemical sulfates that could strip your scalp of the protective barrier. This kind of shampoo would leave your scalp and hair too dry. Using a shampoo that uses a gentle sulfate such as our Hair Shampoo would ensure that the dirt and pollutants are removed while protecting the protective barrier on the scalp. 

Now that we know the water temperature and the kind of shampoo that we need to use, let’s look at how to wash our hair.

Using lukewarm water, wet hair and scalp for about 1-2 minutes so that the dirt, sebum, and pollutants can be detached from your scalp. Then, on your palm, squeeze or pump out sufficient amount of shampoo. Make sure to lather up between your palms before putting the shampoo on your scalp. If you put the shampoo directly on your scalp without first lathering up and rub the shampoo on your scalp to lather, it could damage your scalp and your hair. 

After you are done with shampooing, make sure to THOROUGLY remove the shampoo residue. If any shampoo residue is left, no matter how good the shampoo is, it will clog up your hair follicles. 

Now on to conditioner. If you are using a conditioner with silicone, avoid massaging it into your scalp. That’s because the silicone ingredient can clog up the hair follicles. Conditioners like our Hair Treatment, which is silicone-free, that are specifically designed to prevent hair loss and to condition and soothe the scalp, you can massage it into your scalp. 

Drying our hair

The last part is drying the hair. This part is just as important as washing hair.

If you wash your hair at night don’t dry it (both hair and scalp) thoroughly, then you might as well just wash in the morning and expose your hair and scalp to UV rays. That is how important drying your scalp and hair is. 

Any water or moisture that remains can damage your scalp and hair. If you wash your hair and don’t dry it thoroughly, the cuticle layer of your hair remains open, attracting dirt in the air. And if your scalp is not thoroughly dried, then it could be vulnerable to bacteria and fungus. 

Some of us, to shorten the time to dry our hair, wear a towel on our head like this picture below and leave it like that for a period of time. 

This is one of the fastest ways to cause bacterial growth on our scalp. So this is another thing you should avoid. 

And do not brush your hair when it is still wet. Because as mentioned earlier, when our hair is wet, the cuticle layer is open. If you brush your hair when the cuticle layer is open, then our hair could break easily and the cuticle layer becomes damaged. 

The best way to dry our hair is to pat it dry - don’t rub your hair to dry it - and use a hair dryer to thoroughly dry our hair and scalp. And when we are drying our scalp, make sure the air isn’t too hot - around 60 degrees Celsius is good. 

Following these simple steps won’t prevent all forms of hair loss. But it will definitely help maintain health hair and scalp, which will help prevent a form of hair loss that is caused by poor scalp health. 

If you have any questions about this article or any products mentioned in the article, please email info@drlouie.ca. 

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