If you live in a place where winter exists, then you're likely all too familiar with the havoc that cold weather can wreak on your hair. As the mercury nosedives, so does your barnet's ability to hold on to moisture, leaving it at best unmanageably dry, at worst a home for flaking skin. The solution? A little follicular TLC. To keep your mane protected from the worst of what's to come, follow these five winter hair care tips.

Five Winter Hair Care Tips For Men

Upgrade Your Shampoo

Great hair starts in the shower. Which means if you want locks that look good, even when the weather doesn't, you’re going to need shampoo. In winter, make it a nourishing formula like Bullfrog's Restorative Shampoo to gently remove pollutants and product build-up while also ensuring the only white flakes on show are inside a snow globe. Of course, it is possible to have too much of a good thing, so limit washing your hair to every two to four days to avoid drying out your scalp. 

Condition Condition Condition

It's not just your skin or your social life that gets duller during the winter months – it's also your hair. Fortunately, seasonal affective disorder is no match for conditioner, which works to replenish any natural oils left out in the cold, resulting in smoother, shinier hair that feels better to the touch. We'd advise redirecting all the funds you were going to spend on Christmas presents towards Triumph & Disaster's 100% natural formula, which is suitable for all hair types and textures.

Switch Up Your Salt Spray

It goes without saying that your winter hair care routine should not be the same as your summer one, but that doesn't have to mean doing a complete 180. If you want to maintain the roughed-up beach look once surf season is over, continue to apply a salt spray but use a hairdryer with a diffuser attachment on cool to set the style. Only head outside once your hair is completely dry or risk the product's water contents freezing and damaging the follicle.

Style And Save

Gels, waxes, pastes, sprays, mousses – there's an endless number of products out there to help style that stuff on your head. When it comes to winter, it's important to opt for something that makes your hair feel as good as it looks. Patricks' M3 may seem like a matte finish clay in a handsome container (and it is), but as well as giving hair an effortless hold it also contains ingredients like saw palmetto and peptides that fortify and protect each strand as you wear it.

Get Clever With Conditioner

For the uninitiated, a leave-in conditioner is a conditioner that you can, well, leave-in. Its intended purpose is to deliver a lasting hit of hydration, but it's also yet another thing to add to the shopping list. In a pinch, dilute a small amount of your usual conditioner – we particularly like Baxter of California's – with distilled water in a spray bottle and apply it to the ends of your hair before bed. Then simply wash it out in the morning and admire yourself in the mirror.