Try Salt Water For Hair Growth! (7 Benefits)

Who knew the secret to healthy hair would be an inexpensive product sitting pretty in your pantry? I’m talking about sea salt. Yes, that one thing that you use every day in your kitchen. It has magnificent benefits on hair.

Ready for another secret?

The beach.

Salt water from the beach also has excellent benefits, just like salt water made from a mixture of sea salt and water. Now you have one more good excuse to head over to the beach as frequently as you can.

And if you don’t live close to a beach or don’t have the time to make salty water every time you need it, there are some hair products that contain sea salt as a key ingredient. You can substitute the sea salt water with these hair products. They work just as well as the sea salt water mix itself.

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Salt Water For Hair Growth, Does It Work?

Yes, salt water is good for hair growth. There are lots of benefits that come with incorporating sea salt water into your hair care routine. The different properties in water and salt work together to encourage hair growth in a number of different ways.

The Benefits of Salt Water on Hair Growth

Here are the benefits of salt water on natural hair:

1. It Works As A Natural Clarifying Shampoo

For cleaner, lighter and smoother hair, use salt water from time to time. Salty water acts as a natural clarifying shampoo. It cleans out all the heavy oils and excess sebum that make hair greasy. It can also remove product buildup that is sometimes hard to get rid of when shampooing your hair.

Related post: How to clarify hair

2. It Acts As A Scalp Exfoliator

You will be surprised to know that salt crystals make for a good scalp exfoliator. When done every so often, this process helps to promote hair growth and volume by opening up the pores on the scalp.

3. It Helps To Control Excessive Sweating On The Scalp

Did you know you can use salt water spray to get rid of excess sweating on the scalp? Just spray it onto the roots of your hair and allow it to dry naturally. It will then absorb the extra moisture and oil produced by your scalp throughout the day. You can pick up a spray bottle here.

4. It Adds Volume To Hair

If you fancy voluminous hair (like who doesn’t?), mix a tablespoon of sea salt with 200ml of water and use the mixture as hair spray or as a final hair rinse after conditioning to add some volume to your hair. This is a quick and easy way to add volume if you have thin fine hair.

5. Promotes Hair Growth

Massaging your scalp with a mixture of salt and oil every week helps reduce hair loss. Salt opens up pores on the scalp to allow for proper and faster hair growth.

Some of the other ways that salt water can help promote hair growth include reducing hair loss, healing itchy and flaky scalps, promoting blood flow, and adding nutrients to the scalp.

6. Adds Nutrients And Minerals To The Hair

Salty water contains several nutrients and vitamins like potassium, selenium, and magnesium, promoting hair growth when absorbed into the scalp. Salty water also helps to get rid of harmful elements like mercury from your hair.

7. Fights Dandruff And Itchy Scalp

Salt water contains anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties that help fight scalp conditions like itchy scalp, eczema, and dandruff caused by fungus.

Is Salt Water Damaging To Hair?

While salt water is good for both your hair and skin, it can badly affect your hair when overexposed. This is very true of the seawater as it contains a very high concentration of salt. Your hair can quickly go from the bouncy waves you are looking forward to showing off, to dry, brittle, “dead” looking hair.

Salt has moisture-wicking properties. This means that it extracts moisture from the environment, so when you overexpose your hair to salty water, it starts absorbing the moisture from your hair, leaving the strands dry.

If your hair is colour-treated, you’ll want to minimise how often your hair comes into contact with salt water. Too much exposure to salty water further alters the structure of your hair composition, causing it to fade, dry, and split at the ends.

There are also salt crystals that may get trapped in the hair, and if not washed out completely, they can continue absorbing moisture from your hair, making it look dull.

Precautions When Using Salt Water

So what precautions can you can take to ensure that you only enjoy the benefits of salt water on the hair and not the negative effects?

One is to avoid using salt water if your hair is recently bleached or chemically treated. If you still want to take a dip, coat your hair with hair oil to prevent moisture from being wicked away from the hair. Your hair will remain hydrated as you enjoy all the other benefits of salt water.

Another precaution to take is to always wash off your hair after a salt water exposure. This ensures that you get rid of all the salt crystals in the hair. Any salt crystals left sitting in the hair for long will cause it to dry.

How To Use Salt Water On Natural Hair

There are plenty of ways to use salt water besides swimming in the ocean, so don’t panic if you don’t live near one.

To cleanse your hair– mix two parts of Castile soap with three parts of salt and mix thoroughly. You can even blend it so that the two mix completely. Once ready, use it to wash your hair as you do with your regular shampoo.

To treat scalp conditions- mix three tablespoons of sea salt with a glass of warm water and use the mixture to gently massage your scalp for about 10 minutes.

To treat an itchy scalp- Mix one tablespoon of sea salt and a couple of tablespoons of water. Stir until it dissolves, then pour into a spray bottle. Add a tablespoon of your leave-in conditioner and a tablespoon of your coconut oil to the spray bottle and spray your scalp every so often.

Final Thoughts On Salt Water For Hair Growth

Salt water can have an adverse effect on your hair, but only if overused. It can cause your hair to be excessively dry, brittle, and dull.

On the other hand, it can have immense benefits when effectively used. It adds volume, promotes hair growth, reduces dandruff, heals the flaky and itchy scalp, and adds nutrients and vitamins to hair. All these benefits are enough reasons to introduce salt water to your care regimen. Just remember not to overdo it.

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