HOW STYLING PRODUCTS AFFECT YOUR HAIR AND SCALP
Understanding the Impact of Styling Products on Your Hair and Scalp Health
Hair sprays, waxes, gels and dry shampoos – they’re the perfect little addition to your styling routine to create a look that lasts. But do styling products lead to scalp irritation? See how and what to do to keep your hair and scalp healthy.
Styling products do exactly what they say – they help you get a better end look, whether it's slicking it back with gel or reducing the greasy look with a dry shampoo. But if you’re not cleansing hair properly when you’re done with your style, you might experience an itchy scalp from product build-up.
If you’re thorough with your post-style cleanse, but you’re still battling an itch, it might be because your scalp’s a little more sensitive than others. Ingredients used in some styling products can cause irritation and if you have a sensitive scalp, you’ll definitely feel it. So, it’s a bit of trial and error to strike gold with a styling solution that works for you.
What ingredients?
There are a wide variety of ingredients out there – “hold” polymers, conditioning agents, oils, fragrances, preservatives…too many compounds to name.
No two products are alike, either. You might find that some products cause scalp irritation as your skin reacts to certain ingredients.
Everyone’s skin is different, and while one person might be sensitive to an ingredient, the next person may be fine with it. So, it’s a case of trial and error to rule out the products your scalp doesn’t like.
Styling product build-up or dandruff?
When you use styling products every day, they start to build up – and washing your hair doesn’t always get rid of it.
In some cases, this build-up can be visible on the scalp and hair and is often confused with dandruff.
It can also damage your hair and scalp in more extreme cases. Like anything on your scalp, styling products will break down over time as they oxidize, and some of these by-products could cause irritation.
The best way to prevent it is regular use of Head & Shoulders Classic Clean Shampoo, a cleansing shampoo – to give a deep clean and help to remove and prevent any excess buildup.
Dry shampoo – no substitute for proper shampoo
One popular styling product is dry shampoo. Often seen as a quick fix for when you can’t wash your hair, it’s designed to reduce the greasy, oily look of unwashed hair.
But it’s no substitute for washing your hair. When you use shampoo, you’re getting rid of dirt, dust and particles on the scalp to really clean the hair and scalp and prevent them from breaking down into potentially harmful substances.
Dry shampoo doesn’t do that – instead, it absorbs the oils on the hair and scalp so it doesn’t look dirty but really, the dirt and dust is still there, slowly breaking down.
Wash your hair regularly
To tackle product buildup and to make sure you keep your hair healthy, ensure you’re washing regularly with a good cleansing shampoo like Head & Shoulders Classic Clean Shampoo which helps remove dirt, buildup and oil, while treating the scalp with anti-dandruff active, Zinc Pyrithione. Everyone’s hair wash frequency is different. Some wash daily and some much less frequently based on hair type and style. For people with low wash frequency, scalp treatment products like Bare Itchy Scalp Relief Serum can be an easy and effective way to keep prevent scalp irritation by managing itch and delivering anti-dandruff ingredients to the scalp between wash days.
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