Nusrat Jahan
Summer may be the time to have fun in Western countries, but here in sweaty Bangladesh, it is the time where you just might die of a heatstroke any day. While a small percentage of the crowd is lucky enough to always have someone chauffeuring them around, most of us have to resort to walking, rickshaws, and other forms of public transport.
Most of the time, us girls tend to focus on our hair in order to beat the heat, but we also tend to forget that every strand of hair is precious and that we need to keep it healthy too.
Below is a list of a few tips to keep your hair healthy all summer!
• Do not fret to shower two or three times day, it is completely fine given the temperatures here in Bangladesh.
However, do not shampoo your hair all the three times a day. Wash your hair everyday, and only shampoo your scalp. Why? Because it is scalp that is dirty, not your hair!
Besides, when you wash your head, the shampoo will run down the lengths of your hair, gently cleansing your strands instead of over drying them.
• Summer is the time when a lot of us start taking swimming lessons or just go for a swim with friends or family in a local facility. Before you go, do not shampoo your hair, because that will strip your hair of its protective natural oils, leaving it vulnerable to the swimming pool chemicals.
• With all the occasional dirt storms here in Dhaka, we are forced to wash our hair a few more times a week than we would during the winter. This, coupled with the summer heat can leave our hair dehydrated. This is why we need to chill down, drink plenty of water and some fresh fruit juice too while we are at it, and of course- deep condition. I do not know about your preferred method of deep-conditioning, but here in Bangladesh, we prefer to use a local elixir called “Narikel Tel” or coconut oil. A deep-conditioning oil massage one night a week will keep your hair moisturized and shiny.
• Prolonged exposure to heat can severely damage your hair leaving it dry and brittle with split ends. Hence, loosely wrap a scarf or an orna on top of your head to prevent the sun’s harmful rays from touching your hair.
• Summer is the season of knots, buns and ponytails. Bangladeshi women have the tendency to tie their hair a bit too tight. This can lead to a receding hairline and some hair loss. It is better to loosely tie your hair with a crab lips or what is more commonly known as punch-clips over here instead.
• Do not style your hair using heat during the summer, I repeat- DO NOT! With the extremely high temperatures here in Bangladesh, it would be stupid and reckless to apply any additional heat on our hair.