Have you ever lost sleep over split ends, staring endlessly at one? Also, it is not something you can pop a capsule for. Split ends are, in fact, a sign that you need to move away from the heavy chemically doused hair products, pollutants, hair styling and heating products that have resulted in the dry and brittleness. This dryness may cause the strands to split up from the tips like a sailor’s rope. Thankfully, you can rely on the ways of nature in the form of Ayurveda to bring back the luster, moisture and volume in your hair.

What causes split ends?

As per Ayurveda, people with predominant Vata Dosha are more susceptible to hair problems related to dryness. Vata people tend to have light, rough and finer hair quality. So they, more so than others, need to check for Vata aggravation that can impact the quality of their hair which may already be brittle, and damage them. Common causes for split ends include

• Dry atmosphere
• Exposure to sun and pollutants
• Excessive use of hair styling products
• Overuse of heating products
• Hard water
• High intake of Vata aggravating food like spicy, salty food and pulses
• Food doused in emulsifiers and preservatives
• Intake of oral medicines affecting body hormones
• Cytotoxic drugs

 Ayurvedic remedies to stop the damage

a) Watch your food

For proper hair growth and health of hair follicles, your food needs to have enough vitamins (A,D3 and biotin), zinc, folic acid and iron, protein and antioxidants. Vitamin A supports hair growth and improves sebum production for balancing moisture in scalp. Vitamin C helps produce collagen that also keeps the scalp healthy. Biotin is non-negotiable for robust hair follicles. Studies have found, lack of it can lead to significant hair damage. Research also showed, people reported significant improvement in the quality of the hair after they started having Vitamin E for about a year, naturally found in sunflower seeds, avocado and almonds among other foods.

b) Massage your hair with coconut oil

Coconut oil is an excellent moisturizer for your hair. It has lauric acid to stave off infections of the scalp. A time tested solution to hair dryness is massaging hair with half table spoon to one table spoon of coconut oil. 

As you massage, cover the entire scalp and run your fingers from scalp to the shafts for effective conditioning. Leave the coconut oil in the hair overnight. Preferably, wash it off with a natural shampoo next morning.

You can also apply essential oils like castor oil mixed with olive oil or coconut oil (always use castor oil along with carrier oil when applying to your scalp). Castor oil contains a good fatty acid like ricin oleic acid that aids blood circulation that is needed for hair follicles to thrive.

You can replace castor oil with almond oil in the above preparation if you like. Almond oil is a storehouse of vitamin E, magnesium and healthy fatty acids that support hair growth, nourish it and protect it from breakage.

It can be arduous to blend more essential oils. How can we have the benefits of all these essential oils within an ideal blend? How much should the quantities be? Should we blend two of them or three of them and what is the procedure to extract them? RELAX!

Leave it to the professionals at Shankara to craft the perfect and most harmonic EO blends for your hair and scalp that use extracts from all the above essential oils and more, bringing the best of Ayurvedic wisdom from the east and the knowledge of natural actives in the west. Made into perfection, so when the oil drips on your scalp, and you rub it evenly, gradually and lovingly, you can feel the goodness of all these essences seep into your cuticles, making you relaxed, hydrated as the aromatic richness wafts through the space you walk in. Feel the stress dissolve away!

c) Deep oil massages

When you massage the scalp and hair, the oil nourishes the cells in the scalp, stimulates blood circulation in the head region, detoxifies the scalp and additionally causes the secretion of happy hormones like serotonin in the body giving you a relaxing and calming sensation. Oiling is a great way to have the rich nutrients and antioxidants present in the oil seep into the tissues for complete nourishment. But you must know your hair oil well and if it is suited for your hair and scalp type which could be weighing on the drier side or it could be sticky.

We recommend a deep oil massage twice to thrice a week with Shankara’s Hair and Scalp Oil made from the richness of sesame oil, avocado oil, Jojoba oil, Vitamin E Tocopherol, gooseberries extract, sandalwood essential oil, bringraj extract, lavender essence, clary sage and rosemary. The oil is specifically designed to moisturize dry and damaged hair for more luminous, healthier, and voluminous locks. The oil is safe to use on colored hair. It deeply penetrates the hair shaft and conditions hair from the roots. It can be used for colored hair too!

d) Alcohol-free shampoo

Make sure your shampoos do not contain alcohol compounds, especially if you have Vata imbalance because presence of alcohol in shampoos can increase hair dryness.

e) Air drying

At least a couple of times a week let your hair naturally air dry instead of using heating products. Daily use of heating tools can weaken the hair follicles and the rest of the layers that hold the hair strands in place.

f)  Keep away from stress

Telogen Effluvium is the condition where one undergoes spurts of excessive hair fall due to a highly stressful or traumatic shock. In the natural cycle, hair grows, sheds, then, there is a resting period called telogen before the hair shafts regrow. But certain shock or trauma sends the hair follicles in the resting phase prematurely, that results in unnatural split ends and hair fall, unlike the hair fall that naturally occurs as part of the cycle of hair growth.

Here’s what you can do for a healthy thriving physical body and a stress-free mind. 

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