With the days getting longer since the spring Equinox and temperatures (very slowly) rising, the new spring season is right around the corner. There’s no better time than the awakening of Mother Nature to give your scalp and haircare routine the spring cleaning treatment. Seasonal changes call for a fresh renewal of your haircare routine, and an understanding of transitional haircare.
Much like Mother Nature’s flowerbeds, the scalp acts like soil and fertilises our hair. The scalp is a rich and diverse microbiome, made up of an ecosystem of bacteria that work to support and balance the health of the scalp. In fact, the hair on your head grows underneath the scalp for two full weeks before it emerges - meaning that we need to care for the scalp the same way we would nourish soil.
Beautiful, prosperous flowers and plants grow in well watered, nutrient-rich and regularly weeded ecosystems. The same way that healthy soil will produce the healthiest and flourishing plant life, emphasising the health of the scalp will cultivate the health, condition and growth of your hair.
Each season represents its own challenges when it comes to scalp and hair health. In spring, many people, especially those with finer locks, struggle with frizzy or flat hair during this time of year, as well as an oilier scalp as the temperatures creep up.
Scalp and hair health experts, MONPURE, share the top tips for transitioning your haircare routine from winter to spring.
What is transitional haircare?
Our hair and scalp transition between the seasons as the environment around us changes, affecting their moisture levels, temperature and environmental exposure. In colder months, dry air and indoor heating can manifest in dry, brittle hair, while warmer months may contribute to excess oil production and frizz. Adapting your haircare routine to accommodate these changes can help maintain healthy hair throughout the year, as the earth's axis spins into each season.
Assess Your Hair's Needs
The starting point of any effective haircare routine lies in an assessment of your hair’s unique needs. Each individual’s hair is different, shaped by genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle choices. Scalp and haircare require a personalised approach to ensure optimal health and prosperity.
Take a close look at your hair and assess its condition. Is your hair dry and damaged? Or perhaps, it is weighed down by excess oils, in dire need of a deep cleanse? Are split ends or a flaky scalp concerning you? Uncovering these issues is key to providing targeted care. Once you know what your hair needs, you can choose the right products and treatments to address them.
Need a physical way to see whether your hair is dry or damaged? Take one strand of wet hair from your head in between your fingers and gently pull at it. If the hair stretches and then returns to its original length, it’s healthy.. If it stretches but doesn’t return it’s dry and needs moisture. If your hair doesn’t stretch, or it stretches a bit and then breaks, your hair is damaged.
Time for a Trim
Trichoptilosis schizotrichia, and informally split ends, is the splitting or fraying of the hair-shaft due to excessive heat and mechanical stress. Thermal, chemical or mechanical stress can cause split ends. For example, the use of styling tools may cause split ends.
Excessive application of hair treatments such as perms and hair colouring may strip the protective cuticle layer off the outside of the hair's shaft and weaken the hair, making it prone to split ends. Mechanical stresses include pulling a comb forcefully through tangled hair and repeated combing.
The blooming of spring is the perfect time to start with a clean slate. Visit your hairstylist and ask for a trim to get rid of dull, dry and damaged split ends that grew out over winter. You’re sure to start off the season with a healthier, more voluminous head of hair.
Bye-Bye Frizz
As the weather warms up, humidity can wreak havoc on our strands, leaving hair frizzy and unmanageable. If you’ve spent hours washing, styling or smoothing your hair and your first step out into the sun means the onset of dreaded frizz, it's time to start tackling frizz in the styling process and turn to a lightweight styling oil that doesn’t leave your locks heavy or weighed-down.
MONPURE’s fast-absorbing Ultralight Healthy Hair Oil is the world’s first lightweight hair oil to nourish hair, enhance shine and minimise frizz, without weighing hair down. Use the Ultralight Healthy Hair Oil as a styler to eliminate frizz and smooth flyaways. It gives your hairstyle the perfect shine and smoothness without leaving it greasy or heavy.
Detox The Scalp
A healthy scalp is the foundation for healthy hair. Over the winter months, your scalp may have accumulated buildup from styling products, dry skin, and oil. An accumulation of environmental grime, product residue and dead skin cells on the scalp can clog the hair follicles, trap scalp sebum, cause irritation and disrupt the scalp microbiome. As spring approaches, sweat build-up and spending more time in the polluted outdoors calls for scalp detox.
Scalp detoxes renew follicles, soothe inflammation and maintain the health of your scalp microbiome, allowing your hair to thrive like blossoms from the flowerbed. Along with ridding the scalp of nasty build-up, scalp detoxes also prime the environment for the absorption of other active ingredients that promote hair health and growth.
A scalp detox rebalances and rejuvenates the scalp, rather than stripping it. Stripping away the scalp’s natural defences with harsh shampoos or cleansing ingredients can deteriorate scalp health. The Strengthening Silk Protein Shampoo is sulphate, silicone and paraben-free and is formulated with high-performance active ingredients. It works to gently cleanse the scalp, rebuild the structure and strength of damaged strands, restore moisture to the scalp and protect the hair, scalp and follicles from environmental aggressors.
For an extra step, incorporate an exfoliating scrub into your spring scalp detox routine. MONPURE’s Clarifying Scalp Scrub, starring biodegradable jojoba beads, argan oil and shea butter, is the perfect gentle exfoliant to remove build-up, excess oils and dead skin cells on the scalp. It also works to hydrate and moisturise dry, itchy skin and buff away any flakes that may be causing discomfort.
Feed The Follicles
Just like tending the soil with nutrient-rich fertiliser and keeping it well-watered allows plants to bloom, we need to give our hair the best possible environment to thrive. MONPURE’s Nourish and Stimulate Scalp Mask works like food (or fertiliser) to the scalp. It delivers essential nutrients, vitamins and fatty acids to cultivate the ultimate environment for hair growth. Hero ingredient, camellia tea oil, is rich in Vitamins A, B, C and E, delivering an intense hit of nourishment to neglected scalps and dull hair, stimulating hair follicles and enhancing the dermatological condition of the scalp.
The changing season marks the perfect time to introduce these refreshing steps into your scalp and hair routine. MONPURE’s celebration and respect for Mother Earth means that we are always putting the planet and people before profit. Our range of plant-based solutions are also PETA-certified vegan and cruelty free, as we believe that neither animal products nor animal testing have any place in our beauty regimes.
