Many people across the world are subjected to hair fall, brittle hair, or waxy hair. Keeping your hair healthy is vital as it helps heat insulation, provides a good look, and boosts your confidence. Have you ever wondered why your hair feels waxy after washing?
Then this may be due to several reasons. There are many reasons why the quantity of oil in your hair increases. Such issues can be due to certain medications, health issues, or damaged hair. Waxy hair can restrict you from looking the best version of yourself or indicate severe health conditions.
Please take a look below at the causes of the problem and potential solutions to it, and save yourself from waxy hair.
Why Does Your Hair Feel Waxy After Washing?
The main reason for the waxy feeling in the hair is probably due to the silicone buildup. However, there are other reasons too. If you ever wonder why your hair feels waxy after washing? This might be due to the following reasons.
- Product buildup- The hairstyling product that you often use can collect on the root of the hair and leave a waxy residue. Ingredients such as polymers, silicones, and oil are resistant to water and tightly bind to the hair strands.
- Damaged hair- Excessive heat and chemical processing continuously can damage the hair’s cuticles and give them a dull or waxy look. If you are adapted to bleaching, relaxing, coloring, or using heat tools, then a thin sheath of a waxy layer may appear.
- Certain medications- Sometimes, medications can also be a cause of waxy hair. Certain medicines include blood thinners, steroids, and birth control. These can cause the body to excrete excessive oil, which coats the hair with a wax film.
- Hard water- Houses in the countries like America experience hard water. This type of water contains an increased level of minerals like magnesium and calcium dissolved in it. The collection of these minerals in the hair tips can cause the hair to feel sticky.
- Stress- Almost every part of the body is affected by stress. Similarly, high-stress levels can cause the body to produce increased cortisol (stress hormone). In turn, the excess cortisol leads to higher sebum production, making the hair waxy.
- Improper washing- Piping and washing the hair with hot water, not rinsing it off with shampoo or hair conditioner, or using the wrong cleansing products may lead to waxy buildup. The products left behind indicate the scalp produces more oils.
How to Prevent Your Hair From Feeling Waxy?
Waxy hair is unpleasant to look at and makes you feel uncomfortable. The accumulation in the hair roots also causes them to dry and break due to less water intake by the hairs. Let us now see how we can fight against waxy coats.
- Clarifying shampoos- Clarifying or deep cleaning shampoos are effective in resting waxy hair. It is effective in bypassing the accumulated product and breaking them. They are more robust than usual shampoos and must be used in small amounts (once or twice a month). This shampoo is suitable more for straight hair rather than curly hair.
- Change in diet- Waxy hair may often be due to unhealthy and fatty foods, which causes the sebum to secrete more oil. Thus, avoiding eating excessive junk foods and consuming a lot of water daily can fix the problem of waxy hair.
- Changing hair products- The usage of hair products that leaves behind a waxy coating should are subjected to alterations as soon as possible. Mainly lighter, water-based products should be applied in fewer proportions.
- Through hair wash- The primary step towards shampooing is to wash the hair thoroughly. You have to make sure that your hair is saturated with water. You are advised to apply the shampoo all over the head, massage gently, and then rinse it off.
- Getting a filtered showerhead- Often, hard water is the cause of wax accumulation on your hair. In response, you install a filtered showerhead that traps the buildup products before settling around the hair roots.
- Seeking medical advice- Another that can be done is to seek proper medical advice. If your current prescribed medicines are the cause of waxy hair, consult your trichologist, dermatologist, or general practitioner to identify it and treat the same with other medicines.
Silicones in Hair Products- Why Include Them?
Silicones are produced from a mineral found in the crust of the earth. They are not actually toxic as they can’t penetrate through human hair. The result is they only put a waxy coating over your hair.
In fact, they benefit people with high hair porosity and make them take up a frizzy form. It is true that silicons can accumulate in the hair roots, but they also have some excellent benefits. Some of them are:
- Silicones help in softening hair temporarily.
- Application of it provides your hair with a shiny look.
- It improves the texture of the hair by adding smoothness to it.
- Silicones protect the hair from heat styling.
- It also helps in sealing or flattening the split ends.
- It also facilitates hair styling.
- Applying this to your hair makes it easy to manage.
The addition of silicones to hair conditioners is a big trick for manufacturers. This is because of how you feel to have shinier and a lot softer hair by applying conditioner over your scalp.
Eventually, you may develop a habit of using hair conditioners to obtain the same healthy hair you prefer. However, some days later, you may feel that your hair won’t come clean anymore despite the repeated wash.
For most people, silicones in hair conditioners also lead to the loss of hair which is quite a challenging situation to deal with.
Application of conditioner is to be done in optimum quantities to prevent the hair from suffering waxiness. Following the above processes can help you to deal with hair problems.