Your kinky hair will need different levels of attention through the different seasons in a year. While summer comes with humidity and super-hot temperatures that may harm your hair, once winter rolls around and the begins to drop, your kinky curly hair will need a more intensive care to get through the cold, dry months. But don’t despair, as you’ll learn about the different ways you can protect your hair and have it flourishing no matter the weather.

These few winter hair care tips for your kinky curly hair.

Go Easy on Washing

In the summer months, washing your hair often is necessary to get rid of grime. Washing your hair that often in winter could leave you with irreparably damaged hair. To avoid stripping the hair of its natural oils, washing more than once a week is not ideal. A weekly wash helps maintain the beneficial natural oils your hair needs in order to combat the effects of winter. Co-washing is a great way to clean your hair without stripping your hair dry. If you are not a fan of co-washing, a great moisturizing shampoo will work wonders for your hair, too.

 

Don’t Spare the Conditioner

As a naturalista, deep conditioners and leave-in conditioners are probably a huge part of your hair care regimen, but increasing your conditioner use during the winter months is essential. The best way to keep your hair hydrated is to use both deep conditioners and leave-in conditioners. Yes, you will experience product build-up on your scalp if you don’t use your conditioner the right way. To prevent a build-up of hair products, treat your hair to a deep conditioning session before you wash it all off with shampoo, and then apply the leave-in conditioner right after.

 

 

Give Your Hair a Trim Before Winter

Show your fro some scissor love by giving it a trim before the onset of winter. The low weather is sure to make your hair dry and brittle, which could eventually lead to breakage and split ends. This kind of damage isn’t easy to resolve, so trimming your hair ahead of winter goes a long way towards maintaining a healthy head of hair. Trimming your hair also means you spend less time detangling because there will be fewer knots to sort.

 

Consider Protective Styles

This one might be hard for people who love wearing their kinky curly hair down. You may have to put your hair away during winter by getting protective styles. Protective styles protect the ends of your hair from the harsh weather and help control breakage and other kinds of damage. The most popular styles are Bantu knots, braids, top knots, and twists. If cotton or wool caps are part of your protective style arsenal, you might want to use a head wrap before wearing the caps. This way, your caps don’t suck the moisture from your hair and cause more damage.

 

 

Cover it Up with a Wig

Natural hair wigs are super-beautiful and stylish, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t get yourself a few gorgeous pieces to be used during the winter months. You can choose from a variety of wig styles to include U-part wigs and lace front wigs. U-part wigs are designed so that you can pull your kinky curly hair through it and blend it in. Lace front wigs are full wigs with a lace at the front of the hair, meaning that they completely cover your hair.

Hot Oil Treatments are Magical!

Before shampooing your hair, apply hot oil treatment to smoothen your cuticles and reduce frizz. Oiling your kinky curly hair before shampooing has been proven to strengthen the hair because your hair shafts absorb the oils and lock in the moisture. Coconut oil is known to solidify in winter, so you’re better off with olive oil, castor oil and sweet almond oil.

Your Diet Can Definitely Affect Your Hair

The state of your hair can be influenced by what goes in your mouth. A healthy scalp and follicles depend on your diet. Eat foods rich in vitamins and minerals. Include eggs and spinach in your diet! Water is also vital. To keep your hair well-hydrated in the winter months, endeavor to drink at least eight glasses daily.

 

Coat Your Hair with Moisture Sealants

If you’re going to face the weather with your hair hanging down, good for you. But you need to create a shield between your precious hair and the vicious weather. This shield not only keeps the moisture in your hair but it also stands between the winter cold waiting for an opportunity to get in and wreak havoc on your curls. Most people swear on coconut oil and shea butter as the best sealants out there, but the bad news is that they turn solid in winter. The best oils to use in winter are olive oil, jojoba oil and almond oil.

 

Heat Styling is Not Your Friend in Winter

Heat styling straightens your curls, makes your hair sleek and lustrous, and also makes it versatile enough to style in a variety of ways. Winter isn’t very friendly for heat-styled hair, so you should probably scale back or avoid heat altogether. Heat, by nature, dries your hair and removes moisture, leaving it defenseless in the colder months.

Put Away Your Comb for Now

In Winter, combs can do more harm than good. Your fingers will work just fine! You can get rid of knots by raking your fingers gently through your hair, without submitting your hair to further stress. Please note that you should only finger comb wet hair. Finger combing dry hair can cause as much breakage and shedding as a comb would.   

Caring for your kinky curly hair during winter should be all about retaining as much moisture as possible. This way, your hair doesn’t become brittle or become damaged to the point where it can’t be restored. These tips should get you through the winter months!