Kayla Young
With the advent of a million different hair colors and methods of coloring, there’s been a reevaluation of gray hair. It’s not just for oldsters! Some are even purposefully dying their hair silver and gray.
It’s no longer necessary to hide hair that is graying, and embracing it and making it beautiful is the way to go.
If your grey hair is dry and brittle, it definitely won’t look good. But if it’s supple, shiny, and luscious, it’s way easier to work the look!
Do you know how to moisturize dry gray hair?
In this article, we’re going to go over some tips to keep your hair healthy, shiny, and beautiful, even as it grays!
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Why Is Gray Hair Dry?
Does it seem that as your hair has progressed to grey, it has become drier than usual? If you use hair coloring products to hide your gray hair, that could contribute to the dryness. But gray hair is naturally drier and more coarse than pigmented hair.
During the menopausal stage, the level of estrogen and progesterone drops while the level of dihydrotestosterone increases. This prevents your hair follicles from efficiently producing the natural oils that are used to moisturize your hair.
The oils help strengthen your hair.
With the lack of it, your scalp can also dry out, which could result in hair thinning.
With that already happening, using shampoos that are too harsh plus heat styling adds further damage the gray hair.
It all adds up!
This process can leave your hair brittle and dry. Gray hair can still look beautiful and healthy if you take care of it through moisturization. If not, you’ll end up with faded and dry hair.
Gray hair can still look beautiful and healthy if you take care of it through moisturization.
How To Moisturize Dry Gray Hair
Gray hair may be a sign of aging but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t embrace it. Although it is your choice to color your hair if you want to, more and more people are simply embracing their gray hair and learning how to make it beautiful.
That’s because less coloring of the hair can make it healthier and moisturized. Depending on the hair coloring product you use, it could be very drying to the hair.
If you decide to embrace your gray locks, there are still some things you should do to make them look their best. As we’ve mentioned, gray hair is drier and could feel more coarse. That’s why you need to moisturize it effectively.
Here are a few ways how to moisturize your gray hair:
1. Use Lemon Juice Or Apple Cider Vinegar
Acidic liquids like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar can be found in the kitchen. They can be used to help close the cuticles of your hair strands. When they are closed, the moisture won’t be able to easily escape.
You can use these by applying them directly to your hair and scalp. It would be best to dilute them with water and avoid pure lemon juice or apple cider vinegar because they could be too irritating on the scalp.
When using such acids, a once-a-week use is suitable.
2. Butters And Oils
When we talk about moisturizers, one thing that could come to mind would be natural butter or oils. They help hydrate your dry hair and act as a deep moisturizer.
Oils and butter like olive oil, shea butter, and coconut oil can be used directly on the hair. These are also common ingredients added to over-the-counter moisturizing hair products.
When using oils and butter, remember that they could leave a thin film that could make the hair feel greasy or weighed down.
To avoid this, make sure that you wash your hair thoroughly after using them. Also, make sure that you don’t use too much and focus on the strand tips where the hair is mostly dry.
3. Use Hair Conditioners
Hair conditioners like this Moroccanoil conditioner are meant to hydrate your hair after removing the excess oils, dirt, and buildup when you shampoo it.
Conditioners can help make your gray hair feel softer and look shinier.
Note that you should not try to use a regular conditioner as a leave-in conditioner. Wash it out after a few minutes.
4. Use Hair Masks Or Hair Treatments
Aside from your conditioner, there are also other hair products like hair masks , deep conditioners, and hair treatment products that can help moisturize your hair.
Usually, these products are only used once a week.
Other Ways To Keep Hair Moisturized
Gray hair is naturally drier. But introducing more moisture is just one part of the solution to keep your hair moisturized and beautiful. Apart from using products to bring back moisture to your hair, there are things you can do to prevent your gray hair from becoming overly dry.
Gray hair is naturally drier. But introducing more moisture is just one part of the solution to keep your hair moisturized and beautiful.
UV Protection
Exposing the hair to UV rays through the sun or tanning beds can be drying to the hair. As hair turns gray, it may thin out. This can lead your scalp to be more exposed to UV rays, which doesn’t only cause dryness but could also cause follicle injury.
The best thing to do is to protect your hair and scalp by lessening sun exposure whenever possible. A scarf, hat, or umbrella is a good way of protecting your hair from the sun.
Additionally, sunscreen and other ”UV could also be applied to the hair and scalp.
Avoid Heat Styling
Even if you still want to style your gray hair, it would be best to avoid heat styling as much as possible. Your curling irons, hair dryer, and flat irons could deplete the remaining moisture from your hair.
Learn to dry your hair with a blow dryer on the cool setting, or better yet: towel-dry your hair.
If you cannot avoid heat styling, it would be best to use heat protection serums on your hair before heat styling.
Nourish The Scalp
Another way is to make sure that your scalp is properly nourished. You can do this by making sure you eat healthily or using hair or scalp serum products.
These help your scalp have the requirements to produce sebum and healthy hair.
