Taking a shower is the most common activity that everyone does each day. Taking a shower is a good practice to get your body clean from bad odor, intense heat, bacteria and germs, and sweat. However, every time you wash your damp hair, you must face the wet hair condition.
Just like your whole body gets wet while taking a shower, so does your hair. Of course, you can’t be ready to go outside with wet hair, and towel dry doesn’t completely dry your hair. That’s why most people used to blow-dry to get their hair dry within minutes and get ready.
However, in normal cases, not everyone uses to blow dry after taking a shower. Most people always use a towel dry. But in towel drying, your hair doesn’t dry completely. In towel drying, the hair is usually wet and dry, also known as damp hair.
Most people always get damp hair after showering, and did you know your damp hair is much more delicate than wet or dry hair than you think?
That is why in this article, we’ve written an ultimate guide on everything you need to know about damp hair! So let’s get into it!
What is Damp Hair?
In most cases, when you get out of the washroom after taking a shower, you most likely use a towel or any cloth to dry your hair. However, when you dry your hair from a cloth or towel, your hair isn’t completely dried.
They are in the condition of dry wet. This condition of your hair is known as damp hair. We’re not talking about completely wet or dry hair.
Wet hair is when your scalp is completely submerged in water, and drops of water fall from your hair.
Dry hair is when your hair is completely dried, and no water remains on your scalp.
According to scientists and researchers, damp hair can lead to infections, disease, dryness, and dry hair if not properly cared for. That is why it is important to take extra care when your hair is in damp condition.
Damp Hair and Scalp
Damp hair is the most common cause of having dandruff and fungal scalp. Thousands of microbes and microorganisms live in your scalp. However, they are not dangerous until the scalp is wet. If we talk about the normal dry condition, most of the microbes are harmless and don’t affect the scalp in any way.
Our scalp and hair are completely wet; the water is soaked and doesn’t cause any problem.
The problem starts when the scalp is in the middle condition of dry wet. This condition makes all the microbes harmful to the hair and causes fungus inside the scalp. Moreover, damp hair is a major cause of massive dandruff, and if you sleep with damp hair or live in a high moisture area with damp hair. You might already have a massive amount of dandruff on your hair.
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That is why it is important to take care of your damp hair to prevent these harmful conditions. We’ll discuss the precautions later in this article.
Things You Should Never do with Damp Hair
Damp hair might be useful or harmful depending on the way you treat them. They could be perfect for styling or could be fragile if not taken care of. In this section, we’ve written some key facts that you should be aware of about your damp hair so you can understand the damp hair more accurately. Below we’ve mentioned some of the most important things that you should be aware of your damp hair:
It is more stretchy.
Have you ever noticed that in damp conditions, your hair becomes stretchy? It is because the hair is made from tin that is the toughest type of naturally occurring protein. Moreover, when the keratin gets wet for a long time, it becomes stretchy so your hair. So, thanks to nature, your hair becomes stretchy and elastic when it gets wet.
Without this easiness, your hair would break in a damp condition. However, in an elastic condition, your hair is more likely to break from the middle of the roots since it gains elasticity, so the breakage is easier than in dry conditions. That is why you should never use a narrow comb because the narrow teeth of the comb tangle the hair that will stretch your hair and may cause breakage.
Never tie ponytails of the bun.
Tying up your damp hair may cause several problems to your hair. First of all, the stretchiness in your hair may cause instant breakage due to hair elasticity. We already told you the hair is made up of keratin, and keratin gets stretchy when it gets wet. Tying them up in a ponytail, bun, or with any material may cause the breakage easily.
It happens because your hair will not have enough air to get dry which may cause breakage at the roots. We recommend you use a wide-tooth brush and style your hair in a way that air can easily pass through your scalp.
Straightener
Using a straightener in damp hair is just like purposely damaging your hair. When you use a flat hot iron over your hair, you are probably frying your hair. Your hair is more fragile in damp conditions, and when using a hot iron plate directly on your hair, you damage the keratin; hair. In damp conditions, the heat is absorbed to the inside of the keratin, while in the normal dry condition, the heat stays over the top of the hair.
The water droplets work as a conductor and move the heat ide the deep keratin of your hair. It is the same as if you shower the water on clothes before ironing. You might think, then why do people use blow-dry when drying damp hair through heat is dangerous?
It is because in blow-drying, the heat is transferred to your hair through the air. Usually, the temperature of your hair while blow-drying may go to 40-50 degrees celsius. While in flat-iron, the temperature of hair can rise to 270 degrees celsius. Enough for making the hair pop-corn!
Your Hair Likely To get Break with Narrow Comb.
We highly recommend you use a wide-tooth comb. Most people always use a typical narrow teeth comb, even on damp hair. Remember one thing, in damp conditions, your hair is always ready to break from your roots. The narrow tooth comb will untangle your hair through a narrow space.
This will cause your hair to pass from a narrow space, and the comb will stretch your hair. These stretches will break some hairs from their roots. That is why if you want to comb in a damp condition, always use a wide-tooth comb.
Is Going to Sleep with Damp Hair Bad for Your Health?
You might have heard that your body can pick fever or cold if you sleep with damp or wet hair. However, picking up fever or cold is a rumor, but getting sick isn’t a rumor. Many people in the world take showers before sleep, and most sleep without getting their hair dry completely.
After discussion from many doctors and in-depth research below, we’ve written what could happen if you sleep with damp hair repeatedly.
Getting Fever
Many moms and older adults say that you’re likely to get a fever in the morning if you sleep with damp hair. However, after deep research and discussion from many doctors, it is proved that fever or cold has nothing to do with the fever.
” There is no evidence that a person can catch a cold from going to bed with damp hair .”
To prove this, first of all, we need to learn how our body picks the fever. It happens when you intake other harmful viruses into your body through the nose, mouth, and eyes.
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You touch the contaminated surface and then bring the same hand into your mouth; the virus enters your body. It can also be caused by the existence of the virus in air droplets, you intake that air into your lungs, and the virus enters your body through your lungs.
The fever never gets affected by any cold temperature; it is usually caused by the bacteria and microbes born in cold temperatures.
Dandruff
Damp hair is one of the biggest reasons behind dandruff in your hair. It is usually caused by the chemical reaction when water droplets mix with scalp bacteria and form fungi known as dandruff. However, this kind of fungi isn’t harmful to your scalp, but it can be very itchy and annoying.
Of course, no one likes to do itching in front of the public. Moreover, the chances of getting dandruff in damp hair increase massively when you sleep while your hair is wet. Because air can’t pass through the scalp, that speeds up the fungi-making process; dandruff. That’s why if you want to prevent dandruff, never sleep with damp hair.
