When temperatures drop, it's tempting to let your hair grow and skip salon appointments. Extra length for warmth, fewer outings in the cold—it seems logical. But winter is actually one of the most important times to maintain regular haircuts. Here's why your hair needs attention during the cold months, not less.
Winter Is Uniquely Hard on Hair
Your hair faces a perfect storm of stressors during winter that don't exist in other seasons.
Temperature extremes: Moving between cold outdoor air and heated indoor spaces multiple times daily stresses hair. Each transition causes the hair shaft to expand and contract, weakening the structure over time.
Low humidity everywhere: Cold air holds less moisture than warm air, so outdoor environments are inherently drying. Indoor heating further reduces humidity, sometimes to desert-like levels. Your hair loses moisture constantly in both environments.
Friction from winter gear: Wool hats, scarves, and coat collars create friction against your hair every time you put them on or take them off. This mechanical stress contributes to breakage, especially at the ends where hair is oldest and most fragile.
Static electricity: Dry air creates static that makes hair tangle more easily. More tangles mean more detangling, which means more opportunities for breakage.
Split Ends Don't Stop
Here's the key thing to understand about split ends: they don't stay at the ends. Once a hair strand splits, that split travels up the shaft if left untreated. What starts as a minor frayed end becomes a significant split that weakens the entire strand, potentially causing breakage halfway up.
Regular trims—even just half an inch every 8-10 weeks—remove damaged ends before they can worsen. You'll actually retain more length over winter by maintaining regular trims than by skipping cuts and letting damage accumulate.
Winter Damage Is Cumulative
The damage your hair experiences in winter builds throughout the season. Week after week of friction, temperature fluctuations, and moisture loss adds up. By spring, hair that wasn't maintained through winter often needs a significant chop to remove accumulated damage.
Clients who maintain regular appointments through winter arrive at spring with healthy hair ready for lighter styles. Those who skipped appointments often need to cut away months of growth just to get back to a healthy baseline.
Healthy Hair Handles Stress Better
Well-maintained hair with healthy ends is more resilient to winter stressors. Think of it like a rope—a rope with frayed ends will unravel further under stress, while an intact rope remains strong.
Fresh ends with intact cuticles better retain moisture, resist friction damage, tangle less, and look better even on harsh weather days.
How Often in Winter?
For most people, maintaining your regular haircut schedule through winter is sufficient—typically every 6-8 weeks. If you're growing your hair out, you can stretch to 10-12 weeks, but don't skip entirely. Even a small trim removes the most damaged ends and keeps hair healthier.
If your hair is particularly prone to damage or you notice more breakage than usual, consider shortening your interval to every 5-6 weeks through the winter months.
What to Ask For
During winter haircuts, mention your concerns about seasonal damage. Your stylist can look for signs of dry or damaged ends and recommend how much to trim, suggest if you need to remove more than usual to get back to healthy hair, recommend products or treatments to help with winter dryness, and give tips for protecting your hair from friction and moisture loss.
Beyond the Cut
While you're at the salon for a winter cut, consider complementary services that support hair health. A deep conditioning treatment restores moisture stripped by heating and cold. A professional blowout ensures you leave with completely dry hair—important before going back out in the cold. And a Cezanne treatment can reduce daily styling stress by making hair smoother and more manageable.
Start Spring Strong
The goal of winter hair care isn't just survival—it's setting yourself up for healthy hair when warmer weather returns. By maintaining cuts through the cold months, you'll emerge from winter with hair that's ready for spring styles rather than hair that needs recovery time.
Visit us at our West Vancouver or Vancouver location to keep your hair healthy all winter. Your spring self will thank you.