How to Protect Your Hair While Sleeping

If you thought your hair needed care only during the day, when the sun is strong and pollution is at its peak, you couldn’t have been more wrong. All the good care you took during the day can go to waste if you don’t maintain a proper night-time routine for your hair.

In fact, the epithelial cells in your hair follicle stem come alive as your body retires for the day. This makes night the best time to prevent any damage to your hair and enhance its overall growth.

What makes night-time hair care so important?

During the day, your hair goes through a lot, and at night, it goes through just as much, if not more. Hair may become dry, damaged, and tangled if it is not properly cared for, especially if it has already been damaged by heat or bleach.

A nocturnal haircare routine prevents your locks from developing split ends, growing fatigued, and even becoming discolored, similar to how you would protect your hair with a heat protector before styling it.

Your hair is exposed to the sun, rain, and wind during the day, therefore it's critical that you restore any damage that occurred throughout the day by following a proper nighttime hair care routine.

Best ways to take care of your hair while sleeping

You don’t have to cover a lot of steps to ensure a good nighttime routine. Just follow these simple steps and you’re good to go:

• Give your hair a good combing - Before going to bed, make sure you brush your hair from the roots to the tips, which helps to untangle your hair while also dispersing the natural oils from your scalp equally throughout your hair. Brushing your hair with a wide-toothed comb or a wooden boar bristle brush is ideal. Remember to always be gentle and that it’s best to avoid brushing wet hair.

• Stay away from hairstyles that are too tight - Keep your braids, buns, or ponytails as loose as possible when sleeping, because tight hairstyles, especially while sleeping, inflict physical damage to your hair, which leads to traction alopecia.

• Use a satin or silk pillowcase instead - Hair damage might occur if you sleep on pillows made of abrasive fibres. Cotton pillows absorb your hair's moisture, leaving it brittle and prone to breaking. To avoid hair damage, replace your pillowcase with one made of a soft fabric such as silk or satin.

• Look into braiding your hair - If you have long hair, a loose braid around the nape of your neck is one of the most effective techniques to prevent hair damage at night. Sleeping with braided hair is also a heat-free styling technique that may give you natural curls in the morning if you have straight hair.

• Get a scalp massage - One of the most enjoyable aspects of visiting a salon is having your hairdresser massage your scalp. A brief scalp massage will help you re-create that calm feeling before night because, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), it increases blood flow to your hair follicles, maintains your scalp healthy, and helps you grow thicker strands.

• Avoid sleeping in wet hair like the plague - Damp hair is highly delicate, and sleeping with your hair wet after a shower can result in significant hair loss. Additionally, your hair gets unmanageable in the morning and is prone to breakage, and as a result, it's best to avoid washing your hair at night. If necessary, make sure your hair is completely dry before going to bed, otherwise, it will get damaged.

• Go to sleep with a leave-in hair treatment - Hair treatments are popular for their hydrating properties, but they're also a great way to pamper your locks while you sleep. Applying a treatment that will linger on your strands overnight will allow it to properly permeate into your hair and perform its magic for several hours.

• Apply some serum before heading to bed - Hair follicles are rejuvenated and hair growth is boosted by applying an overnight serum to your scalp. In the same way, putting a serum on the hair shaft at night allows you to wake up with silky, frizz-free hair. You may make your own natural hair serum using diluted aloe vera or purchase one that is silicone-free on the market.

• A nourishing oil treatment can help - Oiling is a home treatment that not only protects your hair from dehydration and damage but also nourishes and strengthens it. When you sleep, vitamins, omega fatty acids, phytosterols, and other boosting chemicals found in natural oils infiltrate your hair and bulbs. Oils have more time to absorb in this manner, and they work harder to form a protective layer that protects your hair from physical harm.