She has over 9 years of experience writing about fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, translating medical research and expert insights into practical advice readers can trust. Tavishi Dogra is a Deputy Chief Content Producer, Health & Wellness, at Hindustan Times.
Something in the cold months makes people pay attention differently. Steam rising off a cup of tea. The hush right before sunrise. A jacket pulled tighter at the collar. Winter has a way of slowing everything down. Still, the air around us does the opposite, filling with smog, dust, and heater-generated dryness that hair absorbs all day long without anyone noticing. Skincare usually gets the attention first once winter sets in. Moisturizers, lip balms, and thicker creams all appear the moment temperatures drop. Hair, meanwhile, keeps getting the same bottle it always has. Smog builds up. Heaters run dry all day indoors. Wind pulls moisture out of anything not tied back or covered. Frizz shows up. Shine fades. Flakes appear on the scalp that weren’t there a few weeks ago. The scalp notices the dryness setting in and responds by producing more oil than usual. That oil then holds onto nearby pollution instead of letting it wash away, which explains a fair amount. Hair washed at eight in the morning turns oily again by evening. An itchy scalp in winter that gets written off as dandruff when trapped pollution is doing most of the damage. Hot showers do not fix any of this either. They feel good, no argument there, but the heat opens the cuticle wider than it should be, and moisture leaves faster than it can be replaced. Products offer another way to deal with winter pollution , and plant-based formulations tend to hold their ground particularly well this season. It does not take much to make a difference. A handful of steady habits, kept up through the coldest weeks, keep hair looking like it barely noticed the season.
“The same bottle from July sits in the shower well into December, while the air outside has turned into something noticeably harder on it”, Hair expert Clelia Cecilia Angelon, Founder & CEO of Surya Brasil, tells Health Shots .
