Winter hair maintenance problems

[Christine_O]

Winter has fallen. Picture massive crashing noises. Those are actually the folks who forgot to change over to studded tires, but back on topic. This summer my hair was showing signs of thickening, and looking pretty and healthy right up through October. Now it's shedding a lot.
I was starting to stretch my wash days...only got as far as every other day, but then started having psoriasis flare-ups, which of course causes it's own shedding problems. So now I'm back to SC daily with light oil on the ends in my conditioner.
I'm probably not shedding too badly at this point, but it feels so thin! I hope maybe a little of that is the lack of humidity in the air.
Is there anyone else who has problems with northern climate living and their hair?

Oh, P.S. My hair is very fine and slippery.

[chen bao jun]

Yeah, I live in a northern climate and in winter I have to give up humectants. I wear a nighttime satin cap under my berets and keep my hair stuffed in them until I get indoors to not rub against coat collars and sweaters and use heavier oils.

Being a curly though, I'd rather deal with winter than with those hot, humid climates where my hair shrinks up to nothing and just stays sort of around my ears, no matter how long it actually grows.

My hair is very evidently NOT fine and slippery.

[moontree]

Winter definitely makes my hair react differently to my usual routine. Wash day is usually great but after that it's a horroshow... I just put it up a lot and braid it a lot most of the week. Make sure you're getting enough nutrients and drink a lot of water - the air being dry means its easier to not get enough hydration.

brr. I'm thinking about wearing my hair up all winter and finally taking it down in the spring to see how long it's gotten.

[Groovy Granny]

I'm up there with you and my hair does get a different feel to it in the colder months!
Running a humidifier in the house, and spritzing it with rosewater and glycerin cuts the dry wispies and adds a bit of wave action/texture.
It is usually worn down in some style because it is too slippery to put up; even if I could manage to do it....I prefer it down on my neck for warmth.

[lillielil]

Winter is always bad for my hair and skin, even before I moved North. The one upside is that I don't have to wash as often - I have better luck stretching washes in winter than I do in summer. I can make it all the way to every other day! :rolleyes:

I really need to find a cheap satin scarf and sew a lining for my hat. I've only worn it once so far, but I can tell it will be no good for my hair.

[Anje]

My main struggle is that my scalp apparently reacts to the dry air (forced air heating is the norm here) by making more oil. So I go from hair that gets greasy maybe on day 4 to hair that's looking oily at the scalp after 2 days. I have to wonder if I would benefit from wearing a head covering more, but frankly I don't want to!

Anyway, this summer we moved into a house that has a humidifier attached to the furnace. I'm really curious to see if this makes a difference for my hair and skin.

[meteor]

Winter is frozen hell for my skin, hair and nails. :lol: It's just extremely dry here, and my hair feels a bit dry and brittle, snap-prone, so I have to go heavy on oils, silicones and, generally speaking, occlusives. I periodically do pre-poo oiling, oil rinses, add oil to conditioner, LOC for styling and I stretch washes.
I also need to avoid humectants and proteins at this time (which can work like humectants (http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2011/08/mysteries-of-hydrolyzed-proteins.html), too).

But in summer-time, I could get away with just shampoo alone!
(My hair gets silky and bouncy in humid environments, like the Caribbean, though I know many manes dislike high humidity.)

Another thing that's really important in cold winter is prevalence of materials that can absorb moisture, cause static or are rough enough to cause tangles, especially in the nape area (if you wear buns): wool, flannel... from scarves to hats to bedding..., it's important to check that the materials are smooth and, if needed, you can line them with silk/satin. ;)

Humidifiers can be of great help, too! :D

[Nadine <3]

We have three large humidifiers set up in the house, and I have a small personal one that runs on my bedside table. Super helpful, but truthfully my hair responds amazingly to winter weather. I just oil the ends more and do rinse out oil method when I wash, and that's enough to keep my hair happy. My hair loves it. It gets shiny, soft and so smooth in the winter. It's a wreck in the summer heat.

[missblueeyes]

My hair doesn't mind the weather change at all but my scalp does. I haven't found a good way around that yet but it has gotten a little drier and itchier than usually. Stupid dry air. :(

[Afanen]

My hair loves winter!
I live in a very humid climate, and during the humid summer I have to wash my hair everyday or else it'll get extremely greasy and dry at the ends, even with a sulfate free shampoo and a leave in conditioner. Winter means I don't need to wash as often and can just leave oil in my hair all day and have it in a braid or bun :D

[DeadlyUnicorn]

My hair gets staticy and floats around and my scalp gets so dry and flakes horribly :(

[Frankenstein]

My hair seems to look best during the colder months and worst during the summer when the humidity is unbearable.

[RoseofCimarron]

Ooh, my hair reacts to every season differently. The worst part about my winter hair routine is that it likes to be washed in cool or cold water, and then left down to dry. That usually causes me to be soaked in cold water for the rest of the night. If I use warm water, or it doesn't air dry properly, it is a sticky-feeling waxy mess until the next wash day. :mad: But man does it love jojoba oil in the winter! I feel like making a stop-motion video of me sitting at the table reading a magazine with my hair in a ponytail, on the table there would be a bottle of jojoba oil, and my ponytail would slowly move toward it, pull out a straw, and drink the whole thing dry. Haha, that might actually be kinda cool...

[restless]

Yeah, the winter isnt nice to my skin and hair either. My hair has/had a tendency to get ridiculously dry and static, but its a lot better nowadays since I started with deep treatments (heavy oiling) twice a week yearround. I still havent found a miracle cure for my poor skin though.

[katelinn]

I have never had any problems with my hair during winter..but this year it feels weird..it's a little like velcro. I am going to get a clarifying shampoo and I s&d'd yesterday hoping that it's what my hair needs. I have of course never had tbl hair before either..so a very new experience for me in every way. I think I'll just braid and bun until spring if it ends up being the winter weather doing this to my hair.

[lapushka]

Well it's still fall where I live, but my routine generally doesn't change year round (always WCC, ROOM & LOC - see signature). Yes, there is a shed cycle in fall, but I just mutter through.

[grasshopper]

In fall/winter, my scalp gets very dry, too.
I help it by massaging oil onto it - that works amazingly well (and the hair loves it, too).

[Arctic]

Winter has fallen. Picture massive crashing noises. Those are actually the folks who forgot to change over to studded tires, but back on topic. This summer my hair was showing signs of thickening, and looking pretty and healthy right up through October. Now it's shedding a lot.
I was starting to stretch my wash days...only got as far as every other day, but then started having psoriasis flare-ups, which of course causes it's own shedding problems. So now I'm back to SC daily with light oil on the ends in my conditioner.
I'm probably not shedding too badly at this point, but it feels so thin! I hope maybe a little of that is the lack of humidity in the air.
Is there anyone else who has problems with northern climate living and their hair?

Oh, P.S. My hair is very fine and slippery.

I don't really see there is any clearly winter-related problems in your post? I was sort of expecting there would be a problem, to which we could offer perhaps a solution, but there wasn't really :)

I'm sorry you are shedding, maybe it is seasonal, and will be over soon. As for stretching washes, some scalps/hair just prefere regular washing. Mine is like that too. Keep your hair moisturized, but also keep the moisturizers out of your scalp, as many people notice that leads to more shedding.

[Christine_O]

I think I'm going to have to stick with daily S/C with my specialty shampoo and conditioner. I may try to alternate with something that protects the length a little more though. I'm already using henna.
My hair doesn't like heavy oils, so I'll probably have to experiment a bit with other options. Thanks for all the advice!

[Christine_O]

Yeah, I live in a northern climate and in winter I have to give up humectants. I wear a nighttime satin cap under my berets and keep my hair stuffed in them until I get indoors to not rub against coat collars and sweaters and use heavier oils.

Being a curly though, I'd rather deal with winter than with those hot, humid climates where my hair shrinks up to nothing and just stays sort of around my ears, no matter how long it actually grows.

My hair is very evidently NOT fine and slippery.

Your hair is so pretty! I love seeing pictures of it. Of course we probably have opposite hair issues and solutions, but I love reading about your journey.

[Hairkay]

Winter isn't good on my skin. The scalp gets very sensitive to sudden heat changes. So just walking into a bathroom with the bath filled up ready to use can trigger of a painful reaction starting around my scalp and spreading down my whole body. Where I live isn't expose to the extremes of winter as some parts of the country. I'm guessing things would be worse if I move north. I'd take hot humidity and hair shrinking to my ears rather than have to put up with pain.

I just change my everyday water washing to every other day or every two days at the coldest times of winter and use more olive oil than coconut oil then.

[Eastbound&Down]

I'm up in the Pacific Northwest and my hair gets very, very static-y during the winter months, I have to oil much more often or I end up looking like I got electrocuted! I also tend to keep it up and out of the way when I am wearing sweaters because my hair can be pretty grabby. I love it all the same though. So far, still doing my once a week DT and CWC routine.

[Phanaferous]

Dry and cold winter air creates a static fest in my hair. My skin feels like it shrunk and I want to dive into a vat of lotion. Yes, and adding a fluffy sweater to the mix only makes it worse! I just started trying coconut oil this summer, so maybe the oils will help with the static.

[meteor]

Dry and cold winter air creates a static fest in my hair. My skin feels like it shrunk and I want to dive into a vat of lotion. Yes, and adding a fluffy sweater to the mix only makes it worse! I just started trying coconut oil this summer, so maybe the oils will help with the static.

Oh yes, they do. :agree: Any moisture helps keep static at bay. :) You could try sealing moisture with LOC (liquid + oil + cream/conditioner) after a wash.
Fluffy sweaters are definitely a problem, so I try to keep my hair up when I wear them, or I use a silky scarf to buffer hair a bit at the collar/nape area. Also, I find that generally avoiding flannel, wool, plastic and other static-inducing materials helps quite a bit.