The Ultimate Winter Hair Care Routine: 17 Tips To Embrace The Chilly Season With Beautiful Hair

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A winter hair care routine should focus on hydration, nourishment, and protection to deal with dryness and brittleness caused by cold weather.

The cold, dry air outside can strip your hair and scalp of essential moisture, leading to dryness, frizz, and brittleness. Seasonal changes can disrupt your hair’s natural oil balance, leaving your hair more prone to breakage and your scalp susceptible to dandruff and itchiness. For many, winter also brings an increase in hair fall. The lack of humidity in the air not only dehydrates your hair but also increases static effect, making them hard to tame.

How To Take Care Of Your Hair In Winter?

In this article, we’ll explore a step-by-step winter hair care routine, address common seasonal concerns like dryness, dandruff and hair fall, and share expert tips to ensure your hair looks its best no matter the weather.

 

Pick The Nourishing Shampoo

Winter tends to dry out our hair and scalp. That is why, pick a shampoo that is hydrating, nourishing and does not strip off moisture from your hair and scalp. I would recommend you to choose a shampoo that is formulated with nourishing ingredients like hyaluronic acid, argan oil, shea butter, honey, glycerin, aloe vera, keratin, vitamin b5, or avocado oil.

Avoid shampoo that contains harsh ingredients like SLS, SLeS, added fragrance and alcohol.

Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Don’t Use Hot Water

Avoid using hot water to wash your hair as it has a drying effect on your hair. Use lukewarm water or room temperature water for washing your hair. 

Hydrate With Silicone-Free Conditioner

Choosing the right conditioner for winter is just as important as selecting the perfect shampoo. Choose one with nourishing ingredients like avocado oil, shea butter, vitamin b5, coconut oil, glycerin, hyaluronic acid and avoid one with silicones and alcohol content. 

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Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Hydrate With Hair Rinse

Use coconut water, hibiscus or aloe vera hair rinse to provide extra boost of moisture to your hair. You can also try chamomile hair rinse as well to take care of your hair in winter.

Don’t Skip Hair Oiling

A hot oil treatment in winter not only nourishes your scalp but also helps strengthen your hair follicles. Pick a hair oil that suits your hair type and concerns best and warm it up a bit. Apply the warm oil on your scalp concentrating well on ends and entire hair length. Follow it up with 5 minutes of hair steaming and scalp massage for better results. 

Deep Condition

Deep conditioning treatment or hair spa are must in winter. It deeply hydrates your hair, prevents breakage and split ends. You can either go for ready to use deep conditioning hair masks for the same or you can whip one up at home like a banana hair mask, egg and banana hair mask, coconut and aloe vera hair mask or avocado hair mask. 

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Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Heat Protectant Is A Must

Heat strips off natural oils from your hair and leave it in damaged state. So whenever you are heat styling or using a hair dryer, do not skip your heat protectant. It minimizes the damage caused by heat styling tools.

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Protect Hair From Static

Use a soft t-shirt or micro fiber towel to dry your hair to minimize static damage while drying your hair. Also, use a hydrating serum or a leave-in conditioner to reduce static and flyaways caused by dry air.

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Replace Serum With Avocado Or Grapeseed Oil

These oils wont weigh your hair down but protect it. In fact it will make your hair more manageable as compared to serums. You can also use jojoba oil, argan oil or olive oil instead.

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Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Avoid Over-Exposure To Chemicals

Be cautious of excessive exposure to chlorine or saltwater during the winter holidays, as it may lead to mineral deposits on your hair leading to dryness or hair damage.

DIY Hair Masks For Winter Hair Woes

These are my favorite go-to DIY hair masks for winter season:

Nourishing mask for dry hair

Coconut milk and rose petals hair mask is my favorite one. You just need 1 cup coconut milk and 2 tsp of rose petal powder to it and apply the mask. Leave it on for 15-20 minutes and rinse it off with water. 

Anti-dandruff mask

For dandruff, whip a yogurt hair mask by mixing a cup of non-flavored yogurt with 2 tsp of lemon juice and apply it on your hair. leave it on for 15 minutes and shampoo with a good medicated anti dandruff shampoo or sulfate free dandruff shampoo.

Hair fall control mask

If you are noticing more hair strands on your pillow cases or shower drains lately, make a hair mask using 2 cups aloe vera gel with one cup of soaked fenugreek seeds paste and add few drops of rosemary essential oil to it. You can read more about aloe vera and fenugreek hair mask here. 

Use A Wide Tooth Comb & A Hair Brush With Boar Bristles

Using a wide tooth comb it helps in better detangling your hair. Always detangle your hair first using wide tooth comb and then go for normal hair brushes.

If your hair gets tangled easily then there might be a chance that you are not rinsing off the products completely or have lot of product build-up in your hair. In that case use a clarifying shampoo once a month or go for ACV rinse. 

Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Style Gently

Be gentle with your hair while styling. Pick hair styles that don’t pull your hair like a sleek ponytail. Go for braids like Dutch braid or French braids or go for protective hairstyles. Don’t use rubber or elastic bands that are too tight. 

Wearing Woolen Clothes? Then Silk Scarf Is A Must

In winter we wear warm clothes to protect ourselves. But they cause a lot of friction with our hair and strip off its moisture. So, always protect your hair with a silk scarf to protect them. Also while stepping out cover your hair with silk scarf or a hat.

Last update on 2025-02-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Avoid Over Coloring Your Hair

Try to stay within 3 shades of your natural hair color. If you must change it to different shade, then alter your routine accordingly to make your hair soft after bleaching.

Eat Healthy

The last and most important of all is eat healthy. Eat lots of green vegetables, carrots, lettuce, eggs, legumes, pulses, fish and make sure you are drinking lots of water. If your body is hydrated from inside your hair will be hydrated too.

Absolutely avoid or at least minimize alcohol and coffee intake. Avoid smoking. 

Hope you found this winter hair care routine guide filled with lots of tips useful. Do share your favorite winter care tips to protect your hair. 

Have a lovely day!