Did you drink a glass of water when you woke up this morning? What about last night before going to bed? Was your mid-shift water-cooler break focused on upping your daily liquid intake before you returned to work? If you’ve answered no to any of these questions, chances are you might be suffering from dehydration. And your hair, more than any other part of your body, is not happy about it.
Table of content:
- Why Staying Hydrated Matters
- Dehydration and Hair Loss – How Are They Related?
- Recognizing the Signs of Dehydration
- The Importance of Hair Porosity
- Preventing and Treating Hair Loss from Dehydration
Why Staying Hydrated Matters
On average, a healthy adult should consume between 2 to 4 liters of liquids per day. This is based on a multitude of factors - including gender, the climate you are living in, the physical activities you undergo throughout your day, and many others.
To keep your hair and skin healthy-looking, you need to care for them both on the outside, as well as on the inside. This is precisely why you need to stay hydrated and this is where the above-mentioned daily quantity of water comes into play. As drinking enough water regulates the human body, lubricating and invigorating the hair follicles, ultimately stimulating natural hair growth and leading to healthy hair, hydration is a key factor for your hair’s sustained well-being.
And because up to 60% of the human body is made up of water, not hydrating it enough can lead to a multitude of consequences, all of which jeopardize the healthiness of your hair, which can absorb, on average, 30% of its own weight.
Dehydration and Hair Loss – How Are They Related?
Alright, but is simple dehydration powerful enough to cause hair loss? The short answer - yes. Albeit, it does so in a more passive manner than the more common hair loss causes such as genetics or stress.
As for the longer answer - dehydration during a brief period of time may not have profound consequences, but if the amount of water intake is consistently insufficient, your hair will exhibit dryness, dullness, and most importantly, breakages. This happens because the body is trying to regulate itself to keep you healthy, and since it’s working on low liquid resources, your hair’s integrity and physical appeal are the unfortunate collateral damage.
So it is true, So it is true, dehydration hair loss can indeed occur. This may happen either through breakage from the roots, as the circulation in the scalp is slowed down, or through breakage resulted from hair follicle dryness. Eventually, said breakage, regardless of its manifestation, will have a considerable effect on your hair’s integrity, namely in terms of its length, volume, and thickness.
Recognizing the Signs of Dehydration
Dehydration happens when not enough liquids are ingested, and this would often mean that more liquids are leaving your body than there are entering it. Since water is the one liquid that plays the most significant role in a healthily functioning body, helping with circulation, getting toxins out, aiding the secretion of tears and saliva, and many other processes, its quantitative absence quickly becomes visible through multiple signals given by your body as warning signs.
Here are a few signs to look out for to recognize dehydration:
- Headaches and dizziness;
- Tense or cramped up muscles;
- General fatigue;
- Dry mouth and lips.
Therefore, if dehydration is not taken care of accordingly, it can lead to problems for both your scalp, as well as your hair follicles.
The Importance of Hair Porosity
While hydration remains one of the best methods of keeping your hair healthy and stimulate healthy hair growth, external nurture through the right products can provide some much-needed relief when the hair reaches a breakage point. But first, there are a few things to note before you start applying just any product to your hair.
Your hair’s ability to absorb moisture is called porosity. Knowing your hair’s porosity provides an invaluable advantage, as understanding how and why your hair retains moisture can help you treat it better depending on its specific needs. There are three main types of hair porosity:
- Low porosity – the scales of the cuticle are close together, therefore the moisture has difficulties penetrating the hair shaft, making it harder to wet the hair, to apply products, and to air dry.
- Medium porosity - the scales of the hair cuticle are neither too close together, nor too open, which allows moisture to penetrate the hair shaft without problems, making it easier to style and color the hair.
- High porosity – the scales of the cuticle have a wider space between them, thus allowing the hair shaft to be moisturized easily, but not being able to retain the moisture for too long, which in turn makes the hair frizzy, dry, and easily breakable.
Preventing and Treating Hair Loss from Dehydration
In terms of what products you can use to both prevent and treat hair breakage from dehydration (and ultimately dehydration hair loss due to breakage), here are the best options, based on your hair type:
For low porosity hair, the WOW Coconut Milk Shampoo and Conditioner use a nourishing mix of coconut milk extracts and essential nutrients to hydrate the hair strands (with a visible effect even on thinning hair strands) while helping seal split ends resulted from the lack of internal moisture. In turn, this prevents frizziness and restores the health of your hair, making it bouncy and shiny.
For medium porosity hair, a bit of hair oil is just what you need to regulate the moisture levels of your follicles. Whether you go with the onion-based Black Seed Hair Oil or the multi-purpose Castor Oil, you will benefit from natural nourishment through a cold-pressed formula.
Both of these oils aim to strengthen your hair follicle’s protective layer, maintaining optimal levels of inner hydration, while also preventing excessive moisturization.
For high porosity hair, the Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo & Conditioner duo facilitates the scalp’s long-term health through its nourishing blend of vitamins that help boost hair growth. And since it seals in the moisture that is naturally absorbed by the hair follicles, this greatly reduces the chance of hair breakage and split ends.
Main Takeaways
- Consistent hydration is vital for the overall health of your body, including your hair’s integrity.
- Dehydration hair loss can occur in the form of root breakages or hair follicle breakages.
- Knowing your hair porosity type helps tremendously in administering the right kind of products for prevention and treatment purposes.
What you eat is also important, alongside hydration.
Explore the WOW website for more natural hair care products.
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