The holiday season is all about looking and feeling our best whilst we spend valuable time with family and friends.

But, with all the extra washing, drying, and styling, this time of year can be a dangerous time for your hair, particularly when it comes to heat damage and hair loss.

So here’s our holiday survival guide to prevent heat damage and hair loss during the festive period…

Before you dry

There are a number of steps you can take as soon as you get out of the shower to avoid heat damage and hair loss. First things first, stop rubbing your hair back and forth with a cotton towel when you’ve washed your hair. This roughens the hair cuticle and makes the strands coarse to the touch. Instead, use a micro-fibre towel that will soak up the moisture without frizzing up your strands.

Keep heat to a minimum

Heat is one of the main causes of hair damage and hair loss. Heated styling tools such as hairdryers, curling wands, and straighteners reach extremely high temperatures and can make your hair dry, prone to breakage, and as such, more likely to fall out.

During the festive season, we all want to look our best but think of the long-term consequences for your hair. So try to keep your use of heated tools to a minimum and, when you do need to apply heat to your hair, make sure you use a good quality heat protector. When investing in heated hair tools, look out for those that have a variable temperature so you can keep it as low as possible, causing less damage to the hair shaft.

Distribute heat evenly

When you do apply heat to your hair, make sure you distribute it evenly rather than running your styling tool repeatedly over the same section of the hair or keeping the heat source targeted at one spot for a long time. This will overheat that area of your hair, cause the hair to break.

Avoid tight hairstyles

With numerous parties and events to attend, many of us like to experiment with different hairstyles over the festive season. But did you know that your hairstyle could actually be damaging your hair?

Tight ponytails, braids, and any other style that pulls on the small hairs that make up your hairline can lead to hair loss. This is because the stress caused by these tight hairstyles pulls too strongly on the delicate hairs on your hairline leading to hair loss and thinning.

Watch your diet

With treats and temptations around every corner, it can be difficult to eat well over the Christmas period. But if you want to prevent heat damage and hair loss, it’s important that you ensure there are plenty of the necessary vitamins and minerals in your diet. Focus on foods that are high in vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, and vitamin B12 to help revitalise thinning hair.

You should also include plenty of leafy greens, nuts, beans, fish, and lean meats in your diet.

Supplements

As we’ve discussed above, it’s important to ensure you have a high level of nutrients to prevent your hair becoming damaged, which can lead to hair loss. If you’re struggling to get enough of the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals you need over the festive period, good dietary supplement such as KeraHealth can be hugely beneficial.