Washing your hair may seem like a no-brainer. Still, sometimes even your good intentions may end up causing crucial hair damage, doing more harm to your mane than good. While you may long for fresh-out-of-the-salon luscious locks, common washing mistakes you didn’t realise you’ve been making in your pregnancy hair care routine can lead to dehydration and even scalp infections. Moroever, as your strands are extra-sensitive during pregnancy, you must pay special attention to your hair-washing techniques to avoid breakage and hair fall.
But don’t fret, there’s always plenty of room for improvement, and all you need to do is understand what exactly you’ve been doing wrong. To make things easier for you, we have compiled a list of the common hair-washing mistakes you have been making (without realising) and tips to incorporate into your routine to enhance your hair and scalp health.
5 Common Mistakes That Might Be Damaging Your Mane
Mistake 1: Not Wetting Your Hair Thoroughly
Before you start shampooing, every strand of your hair should be soaking wet to ensure a deep clean. But unfortunately, most people don’t wet their hair thoroughly before applying their hair care products. This causes inappropriate application of your shampoo and prevents a deep cleanse, which is essential for your scalp health. So instead of only roughly wetting your hair, stand under your shower for a full minute to ensure every strand is drenched. If your hair is particularly dense, then run your fingers through your strands to double-check if the water has made it from the roots to the tips of your hair.
Mistake 2: You Are Using Too Much Shampoo
In most cases, you may not have a clear idea of how much shampoo to use in the shower. While using too much shampoo can make your mane rough and frizzy, using too little product won’t even help coat your strands or cleanse your hair thoroughly. But the good news is that there’s a way of gauging how much shampoo you need. If you have short hair, aim for the size of a nickel, and for those with medium-length hair, aim for a quarter. If you have long hair, then you may want to use a little more than a quarter of your shampoo. Squeeze the shampoo in your palm, and use your fingertips to apply the product first to your scalp, and then move to coating your hair from the roots to the ends.
Mistake 3: You Are Skipping Scalp Care
Starting at your scalp is crucial. If you frequently visit salons for professional shampoo, you may have noticed the amount of time they spend on your scalp. This is because scrubbing your scalp is a key step to an effective shampoo. It helps exfoliate the dead skin cells in your scalp, promote good blood circulation, and stimulate your follicles to encourage strong hair growth. In fact, hair experts believe that the magic number of cleansing your scalp is three minutes, no matter your hair length or type.
Use this time to focus on removing your scalp dirt, build-up, and oil, and also just give yourself a nice relaxing head massage to reduce stress and enhance your scalp health.
Mistake 4: You Are Not Washing Off Your Hair Products Properly
Don’t hurry through your shampoo and conditioner routine, and spend some good time washing off these products thoroughly. So after you’ve scrubbed your scalp for three minutes, give your hair a quick 15-second rinse or more to ensure that the product has washed off completely. Then move on to the second wash, where you can focus your attention on your strands, and coat your hair with shampoo from the roots to the tips. You can o this by taking about a dime-sized amount of shampoo and applying it to your hair. Spend about a minute on this step, and rinse off thoroughly. If needed, double-check your strands to ensure no shampoo residue is left, and then move on to conditioning.
Avoid speeding up through the hair rinse portion, as that can do more harm to your hair than good. Especially, if you do not wash your shampoo off thoroughly, then you may have build-up on your scalp, which in turn may affect your hair and scalp health adversely.
Mistake 5: Uneven Application Of Conditioner
While skipping conditioner from your pregnancy hair care routine may seem like a time-saver, it may damage your hair health. Also, just like shampoo, using too little conditioner, or applying it unevenly can leave your hair frizzy and tangled.
The key to productive conditioning is removing excess water from your hair and then applying the product so that it soaks in well and does its job. Apply only a dollop of conditioner on the bottom two-thirds of your hair, and take your time working it in, making sure to coat every strand.
Don’t let these common mistakes sabotage your pregnancy hair care routine and follow the tips that we have described above to maintain good hair and scalp health. Take your time washing and conditioning your hair, and remember to ensure that all the products are rinsed properly to avoid build-up, breakage, or further damage.
Also read:
Pregnancy-safe DIY dry shampoos: Check out this list of DIY dry shampoos that remove grease from your strands and make them look super-luscious.
Pregnancy-safe DIY hair masks for moisturisation: Give your strands a boost of TLC and moisturisation with these restorative DIY hair masks.
Feature Image: Freepik.com
