Why exfoliate your scalp?

There are many tips floating around for having lovely hair, and more often than not, even if we follow hair care routines to a tee, using milder products with less detergents and trimming our ends every so often as part of our routine for healthy hair, we see that our hair loses its shine and it isn’t quite like we want it to be. The reason for this, however many products we use, is that if we don’t clean our scalp properly, the products we use do not penetrate as they should, and a residue builds up which ends up suffocating our hair follicles. 

We may keep to a skin-exfoliating routine to regenerate our skin, but we don’t do the same thing with our scalp, which is also skin as such. Hence the importance of using an exfoliating scalp scrub that we can easily apply using an exfoliating scalp brush.

Benefits of exfoliating your scalp

So, why should we exfoliate our scalp? 

1. Because it is important to regenerate our scalp and exfoliation removes the toxins that block our hair follicles. This will help our hair to grow and develop stronger.
2. Furthermore, it is perfect to purify our scalp as it is a way of deep cleansing and stimulates grows, getting rid of any residue.
3. It also prepares the skin to enhance any subsequent treatment.
4. Our hair will stay cleaner for longer, since by exfoliating our scalp, any sebum will be removed. 
5. Exfoliating our scalp also favours hair growth by allowing our hair follicles to breath better. 
6. Finally, exfoliation removes any oil and our hair will have more volume since it will be looser. 

How often should you exfoliate your scalp?

Just as we choose the right shampoo for our hair and other products for our face care with specific features for our type of skin or hair, we need to do the same when choosing a good exfoliating scalp scrub and use it properly.  When exfoliating our scalp at home, once a week is ideal, but we need to bear the following in mind:

With long, greasy or young hair, we can exfoliate our scalp once or twice a week.

With dry, sensitive or older hair, once every two weeks should be enough.

We should also consider if our scalp is more sensitive or reactive, in which case: 

With thin or brittle hair and a sensitive scalp, we should use gentle scrubs once a week or once every two weeks.

With normal or thick hair and an oily scalp, we can use stronger exfoliating scrubs more often, perhaps once or twice a week.