By Aisling Keenan
26th Jun 2019
26th Jun 2019
Do you need to depollute hair? There’s a lot of talk of protecting your skin from environmental damage and pollution, but not so much for hair. But I recently learned that protecting your hair is as important…
The lengths I go to to protect the health of my skin would baffle most people, and yet when it comes to my hair I thus far have seriously neglected it.
I do masks, I get regular trims, I use great shampoo, but do I attempt to protect it from pollution? To be honest, not until recently – mostly because I didn’t know I needed to.
But from a really informative and science-based press trip I went on with French pharmacy brand Klorane, I realised what I wasn’t doing to protect my hair.
Leaving my hair exposed
It turns out, daily exposure to pollution can harm the hair and scalp.Working and living in an urban environment, which I do, means scalp and hair are exposed to things like fine dust, exhaust gases, central heating, tobacco and food smoke.
Short term, that can leave the scalp and hair dirty and dull – not ideal – but long term exposure can result in grey hairs coming through more quickly and even premature hair loss. Again, not ideal at all.
Klorane Shampoo with Aquatic Mint
€11.50 from pharmacies nationwide
Depollute hair
To sort that problem, Klorane came up with a product that depollutes hair. The key ingredient is something called Aquatic Mint – which, FYI, you can’t also make mojitos with, I checked.
It’s packed with antioxidants and has been proven, with frequent use, to detoxify and protect hair and scalp from ozone pollution, heavy metals and cigarette smoke. It removes 97% of polluting particles – a decent number, in my book.
Detox for your hair
It essentially puts your hair on a detox, letting your scalp get the clean it needs to encourage healthy hair growth. I’m always a bit wary of changing shampoo and conditioner as I’ve such fine hair, the slightest bit of product residue weighs it down, but this combo left my hair super light and shiny with no icky leftovers.
Klorane Conditioner with Aquatic Mint
€13.50 from pharmacies nationwide
Read more: Here’s what pollution really does to your skin (and how to combat it)
Read more: Up In The Air: How Is Air Pollution Effecting Your Skin?
Read more: The ‘skinification’ of hair: the new haircare routine