How to understand your hair type for better care

Self-care is primordial and while you groom yourself for personal and professional reasons, daily hair care is an inevitable task! In order to look after your hair, you must first understand your hair type. Read this blog post for a quick reminder of the essentials of proper hair care and some easy tips.

Normal hair

This hair type is considered to be the ‘ideal’ one. With proper PH balance, it has the right quantity of sebum (‘An oily secretion of the sebaceous glands’, as per Oxford Dictionaries) and moisture. It’s easy to manage, healthy and shiny. However, health, diet, stress, weather conditions and more could cause imbalances, making your hair look less attractive.

Drinking lots of water, having a balanced diet, exercising, sleeping properly, relaxing are a few of the important things to do. Wash your hair around once or twice weekly with a suitable shampoo. You may need to apply a conditioner at the ends if you have long hair.

Dry hair

This hair type lacks sebum, even though it may have sufficient moisture. You may experience hair breakage, split ends and dry dandruff (which tends to be loose and fall on your shoulders).

Once more, drink plenty of water, have a balanced diet (which applies to all hair types). Use a suitable shampoo and conditioner. You may wash your hair only once or twice a week (don’t overdo, as it may strip away natural oil). Control the use of hair dryers, avoid harsh chemical hair products and instead prefer gentle products such as serum for better lubrication.

Oily hair

This is the greasy-looking hair type. It has an excess of sebum, and with a humid climate, gets even worse! You may experience dandruff that sticks to the scalp and when not washed quickly, causes hair fall.

Shampoo with lemon extract is helpful. It’s advised to wash your hair more often than other hair types. Don’t touch your hair excessively. Avoid oily, sugary foods and soft drinks.

Combination hair

This is a combination of 2 hair types. Often, you may find that your hair close to the roots become oily, while the rest of the length and especially the ends, look dry. This is quite common with long hair but may also apply to shorter hair.

Use a suitable shampoo and conditioner. With long hair, trimming the ends from time to time help. Avoid harsh chemical hair products. I personally use a specific aloe vera-based shampoo, which my whole family also uses, since it suits all hair types and works gently while nourishing.

Dehydrated/damaged hair

This is known as a ‘condition’ rather than a hair type, as there may be other factors affecting the hair and which may be short-term or temporary. For example, if you’re bleaching or colouring your hair too often and without proper care, then your hair loses moisture, elasticity, becomes dehydrated and looks dull.

Avoid harsh hair products. Use gentle products to further nourish your hair, such as hair masks/other deep nourishing treatments.

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Conclusion

Properly identifying your hair type is the first step to understanding your hair. Take the right actions by using suitable products, follow a healthy lifestyle and last but not least, practice self-care! Would you like to share your tips on hair care (kindly abstain from naming brands for commercial purposes/only post a link if informative)? Please do so. Thank you!!

Photo courtesy: Canva & Pexels

Resources:

Definition of sebum

Hair care