Honey has long been known as a healthy food and sweetener. But did you know honey also offers incredible benefits for hair?
This versatile ingredient contains nutrients, antioxidants, and enzymes that can benefit hair and scalp health.
You can use honey for your hair in different simple ways: put it in hair masks, rinse your hair with it, or mix it into your shampoo or conditioner.
Let’s take a look at all the benefits and some easy ways to add honey to your hair care routine and get that gorgeous glow.
Is Honey Good for Hair?
Honey is good for your hair and can be used in multiple ways to nourish your hair and fix damage.
In Ancient Greece, honey was the wisdom nectar and the Gods’ favorite food. Ancient Egyptians practiced beekeeping and used honey in cooking, medicine, mummification, and even perfume manufacturing.
It has hydrating and strengthening benefits and will also help keep your scalp healthy, allowing your hair follicles to live longer.
It’s one of the best natural ingredients for your hair care. More than 300 types of honey are available, based on its source. As a result, you’ll have many options to choose your favorite honey.
What Are the Benefits of Honey for Hair Care?
Honey’s potency as a hair treatment has long been proved by science.
Hair follicles are made of epithelial and mesenchymal parts, and science has proved that honey plays a crucial role in the growth of epithelial cells in the body.
Moreover, its antioxidant effects help restore hair’s health after damage. Here is how honey can benefit your hair.
1. Enhance Hair Growth
Honey boosts the growth of epithelial cells, which comprise a major part of hair follicles.
These cells also form the outer layer of the skin, so they’re found on your scalp. By nourishing these cells, your scalp can retain hair follicles.
Applying honey as a treatment or conditioning mask will help improve your scalp’s condition if it’s flaky or itchy and prevent hair loss due to an irritated scalp.
2. Combat Dullness
Your hair might become dull due to weather conditions like air drafts and extended sun exposure. Using honey to restore the moisture level in your hair strands will make it look shiny and healthy.
Honey has humectant properties, which means it can retain moisture. It also has emollient properties, which means it can soften your strands if they look dry due to bad weather or lack of protection.
3. Restore Hair Moisture
Wrong practices can make your hair dry. Excessive washing, blow-drying, chemical treatments, malnutrition, and several health conditions can dehydrate your hair. They can also deprive your hair of essential nutrients.
Honey restores the lost moisture when used as a conditioning treatment. It also contains several essential vitamins, minerals, amino-oxidants, and amino acids that keep your hair healthy.
4. Help With Breakage
If you tie your hair tightly, you might notice breakage. Relaxing, coloring, and perming your hair can also cause split ends and breakage, as the harsh chemicals break the keratin that makes up your hair.
Honey doesn’t contain much protein, but it has several essential minerals and vitamins that help build keratin in the body.
5. Prevent Hair Loss
Honey contains several antioxidants that promote scalp health. A healthy scalp can hold onto the hair strands for a longer period.
Moreover, you’ll notice more hair growth if you use honey regularly as a nourishing treatment.
6. Prevent Frizz
Curly hair is prone to frizz due to damage and dryness from the wrong products. This buildup can make your hair itchy and suffocate the hair follicles, leading to their fall.
Applying honey will help keep your hair manageable without using tons of products that lead to buildup.
7. Clean Your Scalp
The anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties of honey make it one of the best cleaning treatments you can use to clean your scalp.
Unlike chemical shampoos that can dry your hair, honey will be gentle on your scalp and hair. It can also help with several conditions like dandruff and psoriasis.
How to Apply Honey on Your Hair
Honey is listed as the main ingredient in several hair care products like shampoos, conditioners, and masks. But you can also use it as a DIY treatment to keep your hair healthy.
Ideally, you should use honey as a weekly intensive treatment, but do a patch test first. You can use it daily if you dilute honey with water or mix it with your shampoo.
Here are some ways to use honey to nourish your hair:
Add It to Your Shampoo or Conditioner
Mix your shampoo and conditioner with only a few drops of honey. These few drops will maximize the benefits of your products.
However, you shouldn’t add too much honey. Honey is sticky and will cause a lot of buildup, making your scalp dirty. If you apply any other treatments, they won’t be able to penetrate this buildup.
Use It as a Deep Conditioner
Once a week, you can mix honey with other nourishing ingredients like shea butter, coconut, olive, or jojoba oil to restore moisture.
These treatments will help keep your hair healthy if you use too much heat or harsh chemicals. Keeping this treatment on the hair for several minutes will condition your hair.
But beware of the lightening effects of honey. It contains an enzyme called glucose oxidase, which breaks glucose, leaving hydrogen peroxide. This compound has bleaching properties.
So, using the honey hair mask for extended periods will make your hair look lighter.
Use It As a Rinse
Mixing honey with water will make it less sticky and easier to apply. After shampooing and conditioning your hair, you can use diluted honey as a rinse to restore shine and luster to your hair.
It can also be a good detox if your hair is suffering from damage, as it can give your strands a boost of essential nutrients and antioxidants.
Who Should Avoid Using Honey on Hair?
Honey is one of the safest ingredients to add to your hair care routine.
Because of its natural origin, it will work for you if you have sensitive skin or your scalp is prone to infections. Yet, it might not be the proper hair treatment for you in the following cases.
- If you’re allergic to pollen, honey can cause an allergic reaction. This reaction is rare, but you should consult the doctor before using honey on your hair or scalp.
- Honey can make a severely itchy scalp get worse. The stickiness of the honey can cause discomfort, so you need to dilute it if you have severely irritated skin.
- If you take medication for a chronic scalp issue like folliculitis, scalp psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis, or tinea capitis, you should ask your doctor first before using honey as a hair treatment.
Summary
Honey is a natural remedy for many hair issues. It promotes healthy growth, keeps the hair healthy, and prevents hair loss. It also nourishes the scalp and provides anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory benefits.
There are several ways to use honey to nourish your hair. When diluted, you can use it every day, and an intensive treatment once a week will help treat severely damaged hair.
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