While they say healthy hair begins at the roots, you must care for your strands, too. Apart from bonding treatments, hair masks, and the occasional hair spa, investing in a suitable hair serum can do wonders for your mane.
What Are Hair Serums?
Hair serums are weightless, water or oil-based formulations that facilitate holistic hair health by nourishing, moisturising, and protecting your scalp and hair fibres. By targeting hair follicles and working to improve the scalp microbiome, they curb hair loss and smoothen the cuticle. Hair serums also protect your strands from damage when styling using heated tools. The lubricant coats the strand to protect against cuticle damage, retain moisture, and prevent frizziness.
How to Apply Hair Serum?
Depending on the length and thickness of your hair, take one or two pumps of the formulation onto your palm and apply it along your lengths when damp or dry. Look to avoid your scalp to keep greasiness and hair fall at bay. Apply the serum on your tips, mid-lengths, and the nape of your hair. Beware, a hair serum shouldn’t weigh your mane down. Hence, use only enough to coat your strands; a hair serum isn’t a hair oil.
Choosing a Hair Serum Based on Your Hair Concern
When narrowing down on a hair serum, purchase one that addresses your primary hair needs. Read on to know what hair serum to buy if you have curly hair, colour-treated hair, dull hair, frizzy hair, fine hair, and dry hair.
- For Dull, Limp Hair: Hair serums that boast ingredients such as vitamin E, argan oil, and almond oil work to revitalise your strands, boosting nourishment and adding lustre to your mane.
- For Dry, Frizzy Hair: Silicone-based hair serums help lock in moisture into your strands, blocking the evaporation of water to keep your tresses hydrated. The occlusive formulation is ideal for thick, dehydrated hair that tends to get frizzy.
- For Fine, Frizzy Hair: Thin hair calls for a lighter silicone-based hair serum to eliminate frizziness. The idea is to hydrate your hair sans weighing it down with a heavyweight formula.
- For Colour-Treated Hair: Since colour-treated hair is already dry and damaged, the goal is to restore lost moisture. Opt for a rich, cream-based formulation or oil blend power-packed with nourishing ingredients suitable for treated hair.
- For Curly Hair: For the upkeep of your curls, go in for a lightweight, deeply hydrating formula that will maintain the shape of your hair while curtailing breakage and split ends.
Benefits of Using Hair Serum
As mentioned previously, the primary purpose of using a hair serum is to revive dull, lifeless hair by boosting nourishment and hydration and improving lustre. Hair serums also target frizziness and flyaways, taming unruly strands that don’t respond to your conventional shampoo and conditioner. Silicone-based hair serums, in particular, form a protective coating on your cuticles to curb breakage and damage and strengthen the hair shaft.
Hair serums also help detangle knots, making your mane softer, smoother, and more manageable. They enhance the texture of your tresses to facilitate holistic hair health. Serums also protect your hair against external aggressors such as pollutants, photodamage, chemical dyes, and mechanical damage owing to the overuse of heated styling tools and treatments.
The Dos and Don’ts of Using a Hair Serum
- Do: You must wash your hair before serum application. Since the chief objective of a serum is to shield your strands from environmental pollutants, applying the formulation on an unwashed mane would defeat the purpose. Besides, serum application on unclean hair would weigh it down and make it look greasy.
- Don’t: Avoid overuse of the formula, as it can make your hair look flat, greasy, and oily. Take a couple of pumps onto your palm and use more if needed, based on the lengths and thickness of your strands.
- Do: Rub the hair serum onto your palms to activate the formula. Besides, rubbing the serum will also help you spread it more evenly across the lengths of your hair, keeping greasiness at bay.
- Don’t: Steer clear of your scalp when using a hair serum. Applying the product to your roots can weigh your hair down and make it appear oily. Use the application on your ends and lengths that tend to be drier.
- Do: Pick a serum based on hair needs and concerns. Examine your hair type and texture and investigate the ingredients on the label to find a formulation best suited for your mane.
- Don’t: A hair serum is a leave-in formulation. So, you mustn’t rinse the product off after application. If you rinse the serum off your hair, it will fail to protect your strands from environmental, chemical, and mechanical damage.
Conclusion
While shampoos and conditioners are mainstays in your hair care arsenal, one often contemplates investing in a nourishing serum to further hair health. However, this magic potion can do wonders for your mane – lending optimal nourishment, hydration, and protection. While hair serums are ideal for all hair types and texture, they are particularly effective for colour-treated, damaged hair that crave moisture.
These formulations address your hair concerns rather than targeting your scalp. Hence, you should apply small amounts of this weightless potion to the lengths and ends of your hair that are often dehydrated. While you may find scalp serums on the market, most hair serums are suited for your strands. Therefore, read the label before making your purchase.
