Someone posted today on nc.com asking about humidifiers and their effect on hair. This is funny, because I've been running a humidifier since October. I have one for home and one for school. At home, I run it at night. But when I'm at school, it's on the entire time I'm in my dorm room.The model I have is a cool air humidifier. I started having continuous sinus infections in July. In October, we realized that a humidifier would help (in conjunction with 12 weeks of antibiotics - but that's another story), so I started using running it at night. It helped so much! It was on continuously following my sinus surgery last month, and even now there's a big difference between when it's on and when it's not - so not using it isn't really an option for me.
What does this mean for my hair? I'm not entirely sure. I spend a good amount of time in my dorm room with this thing on. I'm not entirely sure of the humidity or dewpoint levels, but I wonder - would it be beneficial to use humectants again? Remember, my hair has been frizzy and rather gross since the fall. Is this due to cutting out humectants when spending a lot of time in a humid room? I don't really feel the humidity since it is cool air, so I hadn't thought of this before. I do spend time walking around campus to classes. It takes about 15 min to get to class from my dorm. Outside, the dewpoints are regularly under 20. Temps have been in the 40s.
I guess this is something new to experiment with. There was one other reply in this thread, in which the author theorized that if the hair dries in the humid environment, it retains moisture. I'm interested to hear other thoughts on this!
4 comments:
Regarding your sinus issues, are you on any nasal steroid like Flonase? I used to have chronic sinus infections until a doctor at college (not my regular doctor from home) finally told me I have narrow nasal passages and that's what was causing the problem. I've been on Flonase for over two years now, and I haven't had a sinus infection since. I still love my humidifier, though!
Yeah, I've been using sprays like that on and off for the past two years. They worked alright up until this summer. I finally saw an ENT in October and we did a CT scan. I had a bone spur on one side, but was having drainage problems on the other side (which was weird). I also had narrow sinus passages.
So I had surgery the day after Christmas to remove the bone spur and open up my passages. I'm still dealing with the effects of that, but overall it's better. Have you ever tried rinsing your sinuses? I LOVE it! Almost as much as I love my humidifier!
I think I've heard about that surgery... is that like angioplasty for your sinuses? I'm just happy the Flonase has been working for me--I use it twice a day without fail.
Are you talking about the salt water rinse? I swear that I'm just not coordinated enough to do it--it just seems gross to me. I'm sure it is wonderful if you do it successfully. I like to inhale the steam in the shower--it's like magic!
I don't think so...but I honestly don't remember what they did, lol. But it was pretty minimally invasive. I went home right after.
I'm glad Flonase is working for you! I think the main reason we went with the surgery was because we had met our deductible pretty early in the year (my brother had major knee surgery and I had heart surgery - another fun time...) so it was "free." I also didn't like the idea of having a bone spur up there...
Yeah, it's surprisingly easy! I use the squirt bottle and pre-mixed salt packages by NeilMed. I don't think I'm coordinated enough to use a neti pot!
http://www.neilmed.com/usa/sinusrinse.php
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