Preventing and Treating Dandruff in the Winter
Dandruff is never pleasant or particularly fun to deal with – but it doesn’t have to ruin your plans this winter. In fact, the winter months can be a great time to reset your approach to haircare and inject some much-needed moisture into your scalp, using the long and dark evenings to indulge in moisture-enriching hair masks and oil treatments.
But before we consider the different ways to treat and minimise the presence of dandruff, it’s important to recognise what causes the issue – and why it appears to be worse during the cold winter months.
What is dandruff and why is it worse in winter?
Dandruff presents as tiny white flakes on the shoulders and around the roots of the hair, which stand out particularly vividly against dark colours. Despite appearing worse in the winter, the first thing to note is that studies suggest that dandruff is in fact no more potent or prominent in the winter as it is in the summer. Rather, it is likely that the combination of darker coloured clothes and less frequent hair washing during the colder months mean that dandruff is more apparent and easier to spot.
Having said that, there are definite links between the cold weather and increasingly dry skin – with a dry scalp equating to more dandruff as tiny fragments of skin flake away without adequate attention and moisture. This, combined with the presence of a microbe called Malassezia globosa, causes the skin on your scalp to react and produce flakes of skin – dandruff.
Can dandruff ever be treated?
There are endless products out there that market themselves as being anti-dandruff, fixing underlying fungal issues and ensuring that you have clean and healthy hair all-year round.
But regardless of which shampoo you use, and whether or not it promises to fight any fungus which is causing your scalp to flake and present itself as dandruff, it’s more important that you embrace a series of lifestyle changes if you want to rid yourself of dandruff completely.
Tips to minimise and rid yourself of dandruff this winter
The first and most important thing to note about winter is something which affects not only the health of your scalp but the rest of your skin. When you move from the cold outside of winter to a heated inside space, the moisture levels within your skin experience huge stress – creating dry patches and potentially itchy skin. Most of us have specific face creams and moisturisers which help to protect our skin from the symptoms of this dryness – but we neglect to care for our scalp in the same way.
That’s where the final part of this blog post comes in – with tips on protecting the scalp, injecting as much moisture as possible into the skin and keeping the hair looking healthy and shiny.
Use a cleansing shampoo and conditioner
One of the best things to do all year round is invest in a cleansing shampoo and conditioner, which cleanses the scalp while soothing it – without the acidic irritants which cause flaking. A clarifying hair washing routine is a great way to balance greasy roots with a flaky scalp and dry ends, leaving you with shiny and clean hair.
Minimise brushing from the roots of your hair
If you find that your dandruff gets worse during the winter, you will already know that brushing can irritate the skin and result in more flakes appearing. An easy way to minimise this is to brush the ends of your hair only, leaving the roots untouched.
Stay hydrated
An obvious tip – stay hydrated, to ensure that dehydration does not exacerbate and cause more dandruff than necessary.
Indulge in an oil treatment
Another great way to minimise dandruff is to invest and indulge in nourishing treatments for your hair and scalp. Applying hair oil from scalp to tip is a great way to inject plenty of extra moisture into your hair – with coconut oil one of the most effective, and the most pleasant in terms of its aroma.
TOP TIP: Add a few drops of tea tree oil for additional anti-dandruff benefits.
Be wary of winter hats
It is incredibly important to keep your head warm during the winter months – but you must balance thus with the need to protect your scalp if you want to minimise dandruff.
Wearing a hat is fine outside, but make sure that you remove it before you move inside to minimise the risk of intense changes in temperature, sweating, and irritation. As your body heats up, your scalp underneath a hat can become overheated and itchy, which causes irritation and leads to more flaking.
All in all, you need to be vigilant during the winter months, protecting the moisture levels of your scalp, while minimising activities which irritate the skin. Visit our team at Boilerhouse for an indulgent haircare treatment and for tailored advice relating to your haircare routine.