WHY YOUR WORKOUTS MIGHT BE GIVING YOU A DRY ITCHY SCALP
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SWEAT
Sweat is made from 99% water and 1% salt and fat. Your body starts to sweat to cool itself down to maintain the optimal temperature of 98.6 degrees. When exercising, your blood flow increases in order to deliver oxygen to the muscles that are working, triggering your sweat glands to activate to cool you down.
What is unique about scalp sweat is the apocrine sweat glands found on your scalp produce a fattier sweat that can clog your pores and lead to the oily feeling you often feel after a workout.
SWEAT CAN IRRITATE THE SCALP AND DAMAGE THE HAIR
The salts from the sweat after a workout remain on your scalp and can dry out the shaft of your hair, creating a dry, itchy feeling. The moisture accumulated on your scalp feeds bacteria which can be the smelly kind you have in the underarm region.
Additionally, sweat can clog the hair follicle leading to further irritation and an itchy sensation. Moisture from sweat can damage the hair as it also makes it more prone to breakage when hair is wet.
Not everyone has the time to shower or wash their hair after a workout, making dry shampoo an excellent choice to eliminate the odor. As a developer of a natural dry shampoo, here is how to use it to prevent a dry itchy scalp.
USE DRY SHAMPOO TO PREVENT DRY, ITCHY SCALP
The key is to absorb the sweat before the salt and water content gets to your scalp, and prevent the creation of an odor and irritation on the scalp. This is why I developed a dry shampoo that I call the takesumi detox overnight dry shampoo.
This dry shampoo is to be used before you work out, so it’s sitting in your hair, ready to absorb as soon as your scalp begins to sweat. Gently spray the natural starches (rice starch) into the scalp and massage lightly so as not to notice you have it in your hair.
The key is to put it there before you work out, not after, so that you can let it catch the sweat before it does its damage. I would suggest washing your hair the next day as I would not let the dry shampoo build-up.