Conditioning hair after you have washed it with shampoo is the general process we all are now familiar with. However, if you take a look at the older days, here I am telling you about the days of your grandmothers or their mothers, in India, the general way of cleaning hair was to wash the previously oiled hair with clay or soap. So, you can see that the process was to wash the hair that has been first pre-conditioned by oil. However, with time the western culture took over, and we shifted to the current trends of conditioning after washing hair with a shampoo. Now again the trend seems to have changed; and we have become increasingly aware about the benefits of conditioning hair before washing it with a shampoo.
In these days, when the amount of pollution in the environment is increasing rapidly without a check and most of us go through a busy and stressful life schedule, hairs are taking the heat. Rough, dull and damaged hair along with hair fall, hair thinning and balding has become a problem of every other men or women. The hair issues are appearing now even at an early age; you can see boys and girls even in their early 20s fighting with extreme hair fall and other hair issues. This all is pointing towards the necessity of implementing a change in our daily hair care routine, and conditioning before you shampoo your hair, might be one of the changes that can make a difference. It is not that conditioning your hairs before you wash them will solve out all the hair issues, but it can be actually helpful to provide your hairs with better nourishment and health.
The general hair condition
As already mentioned, due to the high level of pollution in the environment, along with stressful lifestyle and less than proper eating habits the health of the hairs has generally taken a down turn. Exposure to the rays of the sun is also worsening the condition by damaging the hair shafts and making them brittle. In addition to that, if you have colored your hairs or you go through a lot of chemical and heat treatments to get your desired hairstyle it is most expected that you have dry, brittle and damaged hair. So, in most of the cases, what we are left with is hairs with less the perfect health that needs mending.
How a shampoo works
Before we get into why it is important to condition your hairs before shampoo, first let us understand how the shampoo works on our hairs. Hairs carry a slight negative charge. The normal shampoos are formulated with surfactants like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS); and the milder ones come with Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLEs)instead of the stronger SLS. These SLS or SLEs are negatively charged particles. The “sulfate free” hair cleansers come with cleansing agents like cocobetaine or cocoamido propyl betaine or others instead of the SLS or SLEs. These are much milder on the hairs and they are zwitterionic.
When you use a normal shampoo on your dry and brittle hair, there is maximum chance that it will damage the hair shafts even more instead of mending it. SLS and SLEs are not very mild and they have the capacity to harm your hairs if they are already damaged; these surfactants are drying in nature and they can dry out your hairs completely causing hair fall. This is where the pre-conditioning comes into play.
How pre-conditioning can help
Conditioning means adding moisture to your hairs and hydrating them. You can even supply nutrients to your hairs by conditioning them in the very best way; which can make your hairs healthy and can reduce dryness efficiently. If you condition your hairs before you wash them with a shampoo, all your dry and brittle hairs are first mended and then the excess conditioner left on the hairs along with the dirt is washed off when you shampoo them. In this way, your hair is able to get the required moisture and also the cleaning that it needs.
Hot oil treatment is considered as one of the best pre-shampoo conditioners. A mixture of oils like Olive oil, Coconut Oil and a few drops of essential oil like rosemary or lavender can give the best conditioning effects to your hairs. It will not only mend the dry and damaged condition of your hairs but will also initiate hair growth and repair the split ends. Just massage in the hot oil on your scalp and hairs on the night before or at least one hour before shampooing. Use cold water to wash your hairs instead of hot water and repeat the shampoo twice if needed instead using a lot of shampoo in the first wash. Let your hairs dry naturally; and you well get clean, conditioned and well manageable hairs that glow with health.
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Originally posted in Beauty & Health Tips
