Ah, winter. It’s so cozy, right? Curling up with a book or weekend knitting project. Cute sweaters, gloves, hats, and frizz. Lots and lots of frizzy hair. Yippee.
But frizz doesn’t have to be your signature look until summer. You can hack your way out of frizzy hair without actually hacking it off.
The key to frizz-free hair is to give it the moisture it craves. It’s the dryness from the cold winter air and the heat-pumping indoors that causes hair to look like your Christmas lights gave you a little shock. But there’s much more to moisturizing than using a conditioner. Here are a few of our favorite frizz-stopping hair hacks.
- Avoid sulfates: Shampoos and conditioners that contain sulfates are going to dry your hair out faster than those without. It’s one of the most common side effects of sulfates, actually. While they may give your shampoo more frothing action, remember that’s usually a sign your hair will look a lot more like the bubbly suds than the tamed tresses you desire.
- Double down on conditioning: Any hair stylist will tell you that you need to wash your scalp and condition your hair. And unless you have a condition that requires excessive washing, you can probably go a lot longer without washing your hair than you think. Conditioning it, though? Not so much. In fact, during winter months, you can condition twice as often as you wash it. This not only avoids the drying effects of overwashing, but gives you extra moisturizing benefits as well.
- Deep oil treatments: Take the conditioning a step further and give your hair regular oil treatments like with coconut oil. Starting at the ends and working your way up, gently massage coconut oil into the hair and leave on for at least an hour or overnight before shampooing out.
- Let it air dry: When it’s cold outside, the last thing you want to walk around with is a head of wet hair. But skipping the hair dryer helps to keep the moisture locked in and the frizz locked out.
- Brush it: The natural oils produced by the scalp are highly beneficial to the hair–they help increase moisture and shine. So brush regularly (but not when it’s wet!).
- Style it: Updos, buns, even braids can all help to keep hair from frizzing out. Try sleeping in a bun with hair wrapped in a silk scarf, and give some fun hairstyles a try when out and about.
- Get a good hair serum: Usually oil-based, serums do wonders for hair to tame tresses and keep frizz away. In a pinch? Rub a little lotion or even lip balm (really!) on hands and work into hair to reduce the pouf.
Want to check out our favorite frizz foes? We’ve got a few that work wonders:
