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Instead of cotton, which can cause friction between your hair and pillow, opt for a silk one. Silk pillowcases tend to be smoother and will decrease the friction against your hair and skin. To prevent hair breakage, you can use a leave-in hair moisturizer or conditioner. The leave-in coats your strands with protective layers of oils and prevents your hair from tangling or breaking. Tossing and turning while you zzz can also create friction, making your wet hairs more prone to breakages, Dr. Hsu says.
What Are The Downsides Of Sleeping With Wet Hair?
If you need to wet your hair at night, at least try and dry it slightly so it’s damp—not sopping wet. Sleeping with wet hair has been found to lead to hair damage, breakage, increased levels of dandruff, and potentially fungal growth. A damp pillow or one that has collected residue from hair products could pose a problem for people prone to clogged pores or acne. While the link between sleeping with wet hair and acne is not established, some experts recommend sleeping with clean, dry hair tied or pulled away from the face. Many people prefer to shower or bathe at the end of the day, and fully drying hair may not be an option for time or convenience reasons. If you need to (or want to) go to bed with wet hair, there are steps you can take to help protect your hair from damage.
How can you minimize problems if you like to shower at night?
Sliding into slumber with soaking wet strands could affect your hair, scalp, face, and even your pillow. The friction caused by your hair rubbing against the pillow can cause it to break or develop split ends more easily. We chatted with two doctors to discover the effects of sleeping with wet or damp hair and got their best practices to avoid it. A person may wish to try starting their bedtime routine earlier, including washing their hair earlier. This can help reduce the risk of it being damp and creating an environment for fungus to grow. One of the easiest ways to limit the amount you are sleeping on wet hair is to wet it less.
Does Sleeping With Wet Hair Cause a Cold?
But it’s worth noting that almost anything you do to your hair—from brushing and blow-drying it to coloring it or exposing it to the sun—can damage it. Gupta says there’s no evidence that people who sleep with wet hair experience more allergy or asthma symptoms, so any concerns about wet hair are theoretical. Next, make sure to sleep with your hair down or in a loose braid, instead of up in a tight bun or ponytail. In addition, swap your tight, elastic bands with a clip or softer scrunchy that isn’t going to roughly pull at night. Now that you know not to sleep with wet hair, check out these home remedies for dry, damaged hair. If you absolutely must sleep with wet hair because, say, you have to wake up early for work, there are a few easy ways to minimize the damage.
"While it’s ideal to go to bed with the hair dry, if that isn’t possible, try to at least reduce the wetness of the hair by letting it air dry for as long as possible," says Dean. Instead, he suggests a silk pillowcase, a microfiber tapered hair towel, and coiled hair ties, as these are all gentler on wet hair. If you regularly snooze with wet hair, be on the lookout for any changes in your skin or hair health to decide if you should stick with this bedtime routine. Although research hasn’t fully investigated the potential side effects of sleeping with wet hair, some people still warn against it. They believe that sleeping with dry hair can help prevent certain health problems and avoid pillow breakage, as it doesn’t give you a great hair day the next morning. While you might not catch a cold if you go to bed with wet hair, you could be opening the door to hair damage and a number of potential scalp infections.
Can Sleeping With Wet Hair Damage Your Strands?
This advice applies to all hair types, regardless of whether your hair is straight or wavy. If you are ever planning to have bleach-free hair lightening, you should also ensure that your hair is healthy. That means avoiding mistakes and knowing how to sleep with wet hair properly. The best way to dry your hair after a shower is to start with a gentle towel-drying technique. Instead of vigorously rubbing your hair with a regular towel, use a microfiber towel to blot excess moisture. Patting or squeezing your hair gently is less likely to cause damage or frizz.
Myths passed from generation to generation may make people think that going to bed or outside with wet hair can make a person ill. And if you share your bed with a partner, you’re not doing them any favors. Between tossing, turning and general movement, accumulated bacteria is able to move more freely. Direct contact can spread bacterial or fungal folliculitis infections to others as well, Dr. Engelman explains.
Benefits of Sleeping With Damp Hair
Should You Go to Bed with Wet Hair? - Health.com
Should You Go to Bed with Wet Hair?.
Posted: Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Bleached or chemically-treated hair can benefit even more from regular conditioning. The virus enters your body through your nose, mouth, or eyes and is spread through droplets in the air when an infected person sneezes, coughs, or speaks. You can also catch it by touching a contaminated surface or hand-to-hand contact with an infected person. Your daily habits and environment can significantly impact the quality of your sleep. Your profile will connect you to sleep-improving products, education, and programs curated just for you.
We received our sleep coach training through the Spencer Institute to better understand the nuances of sleep science. Learning more about how we sleep has improved our focus when we discuss our mattresses, helping us articulate how we strive to increase sleep quality. Geoff McKinnen is a writer focusing mainly on the healthcare industry and has written articles on everything from foods to help you lose weight to the connection between Alzheimer’s and sleep.
If it is a wash day, Dr. Engelman recommends washing your hair as early as you can. Using measures such as conditioning and using a silk or satin pillowcase or hair cap may help prevent this if going to bed with damp hair is necessary. Ideally, you should be going to bed with completely dry hair to reduce your risk of fungal infections and hair breakage.
Fungi, such as Malassezia, can lead to conditions like dandruff or dermatitis, according to Shah, who recommends going to sleep with dry hair when possible. Instead, we want to teach you the proper way of doing it and how to manage your time and sleep while still being able to wash your hair late at night. “Certain bacteria and fungi thrive in warm, moist environments and so will proliferate on scalp skin if it stays damp for hours,” she told Allure. In addition to potentially decreasing your body temperature too much for optimal sleep, wet hair can be just plain uncomfortable to sleep on.
Wet hair has a weakened protein structure, which makes it more elastic and more likely to stretch and snap. This means wet hair tends to be more fragile than dry hair, making it more prone to breakage. However, chemically treated hair is more fragile and prone to breakage. Each strand of hair is naturally protected by a layer of brittle scale-like cells called the cuticle.
Wet hair can make a pillowcase damp, turning it from a restful place to lay your head to a prime damp environment for bacterial buildup or even fungus. You’ll want to be extra diligent about changing that pillowcase often so bacteria don’t continue to linger. Once a week is fair for most people, but if you are sleeping with wet hair often or not washing your face at night, you may want to change it up. If you sleep with wet hair, moisture can seep into the actual pillowcase, which can cause mildew and more bacteria. Doubling up on your pillowcase may help the problem, but if your pillow has a funky smell even after washing it, it’s time to get a new pillow. Otherwise, it’s recommended to clean your actual pillow every three to six months, paying attention to whether it needs to be spot-cleaned or can go in the wash.
If you need a good reason not to sleep with hair, let it be the fact that it has the potential to be super damaging for your strands. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) states that wet hair should be handled as little as possible because wet hair breaks more easily than dry hair. This means some simple tossing and turning or sleeping on a rough pillowcase can cause breakage and split ends to occur. Whether you need to wake up too early in the morning or you like an evening shower to wind down, we all sometimes find ourselves climbing into bed with wet hair. The morning result may be luscious waves or a tangled mess, depending on your hair type, but there’s more to think about than hairstyle when it comes to sleeping on wet hair.
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