Stellar Ayurvedic
Hair Care Guide
An Ayurvedic Hair Care Guide
“Oil to a hair follicle is like mothers milk to a baby.” Nidhi
Did you know hair care is a multi-billion-dollar industry?
This hair care market peddles their products as hair care solutions, but the reality is that most of these products contain harmful chemicals that have an extremely detrimental impact on both the hair and our internal systems such as the endocrine and nervous systems.
The harsh reality is that most hair products only manage to treat the hair superficially—and sometimes only temporarily—often damaging the hair in the process.
Beyond this- this hair care guide will go over a basic understanding of hair, how to care for it, enemies of hair care, how to wash your hair, hair TLC and more!
An Ayurvedic Perspective on Hair
According to Ayurveda, the hair is a byproduct of the bone tissue, as are the nails and teeth, making all of these tissues intimately connected. The hair is also linked to the nervous system and the gut, so if the health of any of these tissues deteriorates, the hair is likely to be affected.
Similarly, if the quality of nutrition available to the deep tissues of the body is compromised, the hair will undoubtedly be impacted.
This is why it is really important to make sure that we are constantly supplying our body with good protein. Good protein of good earth quality, like lentils and sesame seeds.
STAGES OF HAIR GROWTH
In order to understand how to take care of your hair, its really helpful to understand the different stages of hair growth.
First is the Annagen phase. This phase is when hair is being supplied with rich nutrition from our foods. It is also known as the phase where the hair is growing. Hair can remain in this phase for 3-5 years, when there is no sickness and depending on your hertitage.
Did you know that roughly 80-90% of your hair is always in annegan or growing phase?
This is why you want to focus on the hair that is growing not the hair that is falling.
Then there is a Catagen phase, which is 2-4 weeks, where the hair stops growing and is in a resting phase.
Lastly is the Telogen phase, or the phase where the hair is dying, and this is when it is easy to break or to fallout.
At any given point 8-10 % of our hair is in the telogen phase. So seeing some hair fall is normal.
But after implementing some of the informaion from this article you will notice that the more you take care of your hair, the less you will see hair falling out.
EXERSIZE: Start to pay more attention to your how much hair falls out and when. What is happening? What are you doing? Or was it a certain time period?
Internal nourishment as well as topical treatment is important
Ayurveda Understanding of Different Hair Types:
Your hair, when it is healthy, reflects your constitution—your unique ratio of vata, pitta, and kapha. And because we each have all three doshas in our constitutions, it is entirely possible (common, even) for our hair to express a combination of different doshic characteristics.
In other words, it is rare to find someone with exclusively vata-type hair, pitta-type hair, or kapha-type hair. You will likely recognize traits from at least two doshas in your hair, and possibly all three.
Healthy Vata Hair: This hair is relatively thin, but often a bit coarse, may be straight, curly, or a combination of the two, grows quickly, and can be a bit unruly—potentially making it more challenging to style.
Unhealthy Vata hair: less in quantity, dry hair, split, and can feel rough.
Healthy Pitta Hair: Thin strands, soft. May be less in quantity and with color like red.
Unhealthy Pitta hair: excess heat balding , greying, wavy, can be oily or inflamed, Can have painful pores.
Kapha hair- Kaphas are blessed with a good mane! They are simply born with it! When you are born with good earth element, you will have multiple hair folicles.
Kapha hair is grounded well in the follicles, curly when the earth is more than water, and it thick.
Unhealthy kapha hair- excess oil, dandruff, clogged pores, overly coarse, hair can feel really heavy, leading to hair loss. They can have excessive hair from excess weight, meaning fat is not being metabolized well.
Painting a Good Hair Picture:
In summary: you want a long and healthy Anagen phase, good material/ nutrients of the element earth, unblocked follicles, healthy sebum so that it doesn’t become dry, and good blood circulation.
Think of hair follicles as roots as a tree. These “roots” get nourished from your internal environment.
BE AWARE: When you loose sebum, at the follicle level, it means its too dry or hot and this will lead to the hair falling out! Which brings us to the section below!
Enemies of Good Hair:
STRESS- burn your melanin cells creates hot head, depletes your sebum. Your sebum has dried out and there it goes,
Harsh dieting and fasting your not giving your body the raw materials your body needs.
Not including good proteins and fats ( in combination)
Hot water- use luke warm water from the shoulders up
Harsh hair treatments
Blow drying hair- extreme pressure on the hair follicles, drying out the essential oils.
Rough handling when wet, when drying, when tying
Staying up at night - depleting to the sebum
Over exercise and consuming isolate protein - increase in testosterone, hot hormone. There is a certain testosterone that causes the follicle to shrink.
Excessive salt and poor food combinations
Cold foods and cold WATER!
Chlorine water
Windy beach and sharp sun- wind, sand particles, and sharp sun.
Your Ultimate Ayurveda Hair TLC GUIDE
A warm oil scalp massage is a crucial step to take care of your hair!
Benefits of oiling your hair regularly are as follows:
Replensishes sebum
Gives hair more raw material for new hair
Increases circulation
Keeps hair rich in color
Promotes growth of new hair- reactives follicles
Anti-dote to heat treatments
Pre conditioner
Protects from harshness of tap water
Stress buster
Promotes better sleep
balancing for vata
So how often do you do this?
Ideally, you do it every time you are going to wash your hair as the oil acts as a barrier between your scalp and protects against the harsh impact of the tap water. But even once a week is great! And remember the longer the oil can stay in your hair, the better. Be BOLD. Wear the oil in your hair out in public. Start building up the amount of time you keep the oil in your hair.
Which hair oil to choose?
Be weary of any hair oil product that allow you to wear it without feeling greasy. There are additives in it.
Wild Hart’s LOVED LOCKS hair oil is a wonderful choice. It is made with a traditionally tea based decoction, known as siddhi taila. The only way to get the herbs to deliver their benefits into the oil is during this traditional three day decoction process.
You simply take the droppers, line them along the scalp all over, then take your fingertips and massage the oil into the scalp, then slowly start to work it down the hair.
*DIY Ayurveda Hair Mask Recipe
This home made mask will help you strip off some of the oil before you jump in the shower. This hair mask deeply nourishes and supports the hair cuticle. All you need is amla powder, avocado, and aloe vera gel!
Steps to make and use mask:
For Aloe, Avocado, and Amla, aim for a pancake batter-like consistency.
Try starting with half an avocado, two tablespoons of Aloe, and Amla until it reaches the desired texture. Adjust the quantities based on your hair's length and density.
Apply this mask to the last four inches of your hair, focusing on the ends for conditioning. If your hair is very dry, you can extend it up the entire hair shaft.
If you have an oily scalp, avoid applying the avocado mask directly to your scalp.
Leave mask on for twenty to thirty minutes before the shower.
HOW TO WASH YOUR HAIR
DO not use hot water.
Wash your hair twice a week in winter, once in summer.
Oil before you wash so you protect the hair.
You have two choices as to how to get the oil out of your hair.
First:
Take a tbsp of chickpea flour and four cups of water.
Get in shower, get some water on your hair, take some of the mixture and get it on your head, apply the chick pea flour rinse and right away get back in the water.
Use this rinse all over your head. Then a little shampoo, rinse, and use very little amount of shampoo.
OR
You can use rice water.
Take 1/4 cup of rice soak in two cups of water for an hour.
Rub the rice in the water to help get more starch off and break it down.
Use the rice water as the rinse, which can be left on the hair for more than a few seconds, up to a minute. It's effective at removing excess oil.
When you are in the shower, do not mess with your hair ( this leads to hair fallout!)
Cup your hands and pat your hands on your head to help remove oil.
Conditioners have chemicals that coats the hair, but the oil and hair mask do just that. Condition the hair!
What About Exercise?
When we exercise, we sweat and want to wash our hair. But excessive washing of the hair is SUPER damaging. So here are my exercise tips!
Do your best to time your workouts with your washing day.
If you are not washing your hair, take a paper towel and pat it along your scalp to absorb the excess sweat and oil.
You can use a little amla powder to remove the excess oil. (Again, dry shampoos have chemicals and are best avoided.)
Open the hair up after exercise and let it breathe. You could use a blow dryer on cool setting to blow out dirt or sweat.
NEVER comb or tie it when its wet. Its in a fragile state!
Hair Drying:
You can guess it. NO blow drying! Every now and then you could use a Dyson blow dryer on cool setting.
Best tips. When you get out of shower, gently tie with thin towel like a microfiber towel and wrap it, not too tight. Keep it on for ten minutes or so.
Then let the hair air dry.
Combing
Wooden comb, get medium sized teeth, smooth ends.
Comb from the bottom. Start at the ends of your hair and work upwards.
Curly hair can become damaged from over combing
Hair Tying
Here are the top tips when it comes to tying your mane!
Never tie too tight- it can lead to alopcia. Tying it tight pulls it out of hair particles.
Change your parting regularly, so you are not pulling it on the same areas
Loose braid or bun, loose low bun, let gravity allow the folicles to fall.
Loose french braid allows it to do differently.
You can train your hair, by twisting it and encouraging it to fall a certain way.
Use cord hair ties, or silk ties
Clips can tug too much.
Leave hair loose at some point in your day!
Night time hair care
Silk pillow case and loose braid is best if you move a lot at night.
Wash pillow cases regularly, and remember do not use harsh chemicals.
Common Hair Conditions:
Split ends:
First off, this is from vata aggravation, or too much air in your system.
Good questions to ask yourself is if you are overly anxious? Are you sleeping well? Are you getting enough good fats?
REMEDIES:
Get regular trims- inch and a half.
Oil your hair regularly, so important! Get Wild Hart’s hair oil!
Mix Castor and aloe vera in the daytime. Apply for twenty minutes. Do a gentle shampoo. Castor oil binds the hair follicle.
Make Your DIY Haie Mask! Amla, aloe and avocado. Do this on the ends and use foil to keep the mask on.
Follow above general hair tlc tips!
PREMATURE GREYING:
Causes: excessive pitta aggravating foods- tomato based, fried, gravies, excess salt in foods, caffeine, alcohol,
Hair treatments
Stress/ shock ( in India during exams they would go with oily hair to exam to help counteract the stress)
occasionally excess kapha that blocks melanin production
PREMATURE GREYING PREVENTION AND CARE:
sleeping well (thinking creates debris, when we sleep, we clean that debris.)
Oiling neelinbringadhi to add color
Avoid hair bleaching/ highlights
stress management
Indigo henna mask
consuming soma salt or himalayan salt and eat more cooling diet
Sheetali breathwork, left nostril breathwork
PREMATURE BALDING AND HAIR LOSS
Prevention is best for this! Make sure you are getting GOOD quality sleep, regularily,
Use Wild Hart’s Hair Oil every week.
Avoid over shampooing, use chickpea rinse instead
Inversions get the blood flowing towards the head. Headstands are great for this as well.
Make a mask of amla, aloe vera, half cup onion juice, and 5 drops rosemary oil. Apply to hair before shower.
Follow general TLC for hair.
ADDITIONAL HAIR SUPPORT:
If you swim: wear a cap and oil your hair before you get in the water.
Consume 1/2 tsp roasted sesame with 1/4 tsp jaggery for three weeks in winter starting Jan 14
Practice inversions.
Massage your scalp with circular motions before bedtime, put your fingers on your scalp, more than your fingers moving, you want to move the scalp.
NUTRITION FOR HAIR:
Good fats, good quality protein, moderation with animal proteins, sesame seeds, sweet potatoes and pumpkin, amla powder, spinach, avocados.
