Everything You Need To Know About Coarse Hair

Does your hair feel rough and difficult to manage at times? If you are someone with coarse hair, this might be common.

Coarse hair type makes your hair look voluminous and allows you to experiment with different hair styles. However, lack of proper care and chemical treatments can make it dry, rough, and brittle.

Worry not! Here, we tell you effective hair care remedies to manage your coarse hair type and make it look its best.

Highlights:

• What Is Coarse Hair Type?
• Causes Of Coarse Hair Type
• How Do You Know If You Have Coarse Hair?
• How To Take Care Of Your Coarse Hair?
• How To Make Coarse Hair Soft And Silky?
• How Long Does Coarse Hair Take To Grow?
• What Is The Difference Between Coarse Hair, Fine Hair, Thick Hair, And Curly Hair?

What Is Coarse Hair Type?

Coarse hair type is not just about having thicker hair strands, although it can be considered as a specific characteristic. This hair type can either be curly, wavy or poker straight. The most important characteristic is the diameter or width of the hair strands.

Generally, coarse hair type has the thickest diameter among all the hair types. Due to this reason, it is considered as the strongest hair type. Thickness of hair is defined as the volume or density of hair on the scalp, whereas coarse hair is the width of the individual hair strand. Another important characteristic of this hair type is that it is rough and dry in texture.

Causes Of Coarse Hair Type

There are several factors which may cause your hair to switch its original texture. This commonly occurs during pregnancy, when your changing hormones promotes excessive hair growth and lesser hair fall. This hormonal imbalance may cause your soft and light-coloured body hair to become darker and coarser during the course of your pregnancy. Additionally, changes in the original hair texture may occur due to specific health issues. If you have an inactive thyroid gland, you may experience brittle and dry hair. Even poor dietary habits can cause dry and rough hair.

Even factors like how you style and take care of your hair may affect its natural texture over a period of time. Blow-drying, relaxing, and perming your hair may change how your hair feels and look. Flat irons and curling irons, which are heating appliances, may lead to change in your hair texture.

Vedix Tip: Please consult an Ayurvedic doctor or dermatologist immediately if you observe any unexplained or sudden change in the natural texture of your hair. If you act proactively on time, you may avoid any long-term ill effect.

How Do You Know If You Have Coarse Hair?

You can easily identify whether you have coarse hair or not with the help of a self-test.

1. Hold up an individual hair strand.

2. Feel the texture by running your fingertips gently along the hair strand.

3. If you don’t feel any thickness or brittleness, you have thin and fine hair.

4. If you are able to feel any dryness, thickness or brittleness, you have coarse hair type.

If you still have any doubts regarding your hair type, then you can compare a single hair strand with the thickness of a fabric thread. If your hair strand is thicker than the thread, then you have coarse hair type.

How To Take Care Of Your Coarse Hair?

1.Ayurvedic Remedies To Manage Coarse Hair

The ancient science of Ayurveda explains the underlying reason behind dry and rough hair as imbalanced or excessive Vata dosha. This aggravation leads to lustreless, brittle, frizzy, and dry hair. Additionally, the aggravated Vata dosha causes your hair to become thin, break easily from the roots, difficult to manage and exhibit split ends. As per ancient Ayurvedic principles, there are many beneficial herbs and oils which can help you to take care of your dry and rough hair.

A. Sesame Oil (Sesame indicum)

Sesame oil is renowned for its potential benefits and it is considered as one of the best head massage oils. In Ayurveda, sesame oil [1] is used popularly as a base oil in several medicated oils.

• You can gently massage your scalp and hair with this potent oil to prevent hair fall and boost hair growth naturally.
• Additionally, you may consume the sesame seeds after roasting them for a few seconds in low flame.
• Consuming a few dry-roasted sesame seeds along with a glass of lukewarm water is an excellent practice for managing your dry and brittle hair.

B. Bhringraj (Eclipta alba)

Bhringraj is popularly known as ‘Kesha raj’ and considered as one of the best Ayurvedic remedies [2] for soft, lustrous and thick hair. The powdered form of this potent herb can also be included into any hair packs to boost natural hair growth, minimize hair loss, and retain the natural hair colour.

• You can apply a thick paste of Bhringraj onto your scalp and hair roots, leave it to dry for 30 minutes and rinse with lukewarm water.
• You may also gently massage your scalp and hair with its oil, leave it for 20 minutes and rinse with a herbal shampoo.
• Alternately, you can consume 500mg of Bhringraj extract twice daily as advised by your Ayurvedic doctor, along with the external application.

C. Jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi)

The roots of this herbal plant appear like thick, long hair and hence, it’s usage. This potent herb helps in natural hair growth. As an excellent blood and liver purifier, Jatamansi [3] helps in purification of blood, giving you a radiant complexion.

• You can consider taking 500 mg of jatamansi ghana twice a day as advised by your Ayurvedic doctor.

2. Use Silk, Satin Or Soft Muslin Pillowcases To Sleep

As silk is extremely soft in texture, it helps in minimizing external damage, snarls, frizz and friction to your hair strands. You may also use satin or soft muslin pillowcases to safeguard your hair from any pull or damage. It doesn’t ‘pull’ on your hair as cotton does, and assimilates lesser moisture from your scalp and hair. This means that silk allows your hair to keep the natural oil without drying it out.

3. Avoid Overexposure To Hot Hairstyling Appliances

When you overuse any heat styling appliances, it depletes the natural moisture content from your hair and provides unnecessary stress. Remember that as your hair type is coarse and thicker, you will have to divide your hair into small sections before using any hot hair styling tool. This step will ensure that you avoid exposing your hair repeatedly over the same area.

4. Brush Your Hair Wisely

You should invest in a good quality nylon/boar-bristle type of hair brush to comb and manage thick, unruly hair. A flat brush is highly recommended as it is versatile in its use, and a round brush is helpful in giving waves or curves while blow-drying. Many hair experts recommend using nylon hair brushes for coarse hair type. Additionally, the size of the hair brush will be based on the density and volume of your hair. The thicker your hair is, the bigger will be your hair brush.

5. Use Botanical Oils For Deep Nourishment

In order to keep your coarse hair under control and manageable, consider using hair products which contain natural, botanical oils to nourish your hair and prevent dryness and frizz. You may consider using these botanical oils for taming your thick hair:

• Coconut oil [4]
• Sweet almond oil
• Avocado oil
• Olive oil
• Sunflower oil
• Evening primrose oil
• Jojoba oil

6. Use Aloe Vera For Your Hair

Aloe vera offers you a host of amazing hair and skin benefits such as soothing, cleansing and controlling damage to your scalp and hair from the overuse of styling products and devices. [5]

7. Mind Your Daily Diet Plan

Healthy fats, lean protein, fresh vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts promote natural hair growth. You should consider foods which are an excellent source of zinc like pumpkin and oysters; biotin found in eggs and Omega-3 fatty acids like chia seeds, flaxseed oil, beans, sardines, and salmon.

Foods with loads of Vitamin C like kiwi, strawberries, kale, red pepper, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and citrus fruits provide protection from free-radical injury which stops healthy hair growth, due to its antioxidant properties. It also helps in the production of collagen for healthy hair.

8. Trim Your Hair Regularly

You should remember to trim your hair regularly as it helps in preventing split ends. It also helps in managing your thick hair.

How To Make Coarse Hair Soft And Silky?

To make your dry and rough hair feel soft and lustrous, choose using a water-based or botanical conditioner which contains fats and essential oils. These natural ingredients help your hair cuticles to remain closed to give a lustrous after-effect. Cuticles help in maintaining the balance between hydration and moisture content in your hair. Hydration is the water content absorbed by your hair, whereas moisture is the lipids and natural oils which are essential for your hair health.

You may also consider using hair conditioning creams which have essential oils and glycerine which helps in taming your frizzy hair.

How Long Does Coarse Hair Take To Grow?

On a daily average, your hair grows between 0.35 – 0.45 mm. Simply put, your hair grows by half an inch every month if not trimmed. Based on your hormonal level (women during pregnancy experience faster hair growth which is shinier and thicker), diet and genetics, your hair will either grow at a lower or higher rate.

What Is The Difference Between Coarse Hair, Fine Hair, Thick Hair, And Curly Hair?

You can self-identify whether you have coarse, medium, or fine hair by doing a strand test.

• When you take a hair strand and hold it between the fingertips without feeling anything, then your hair is fine in texture.
• If you can feel your hair strand, then you have medium texture.
• If you feel a thick, strong hair strand, then you have coarse texture.

Avoid confusing your hair density or volume with the diameter or width. Individuals with fine hair texture can have a high volume or density of hair, however, it is still considered as a fine hair type. You must look at single hair strands to identify your hair type.

The Last Word

To summarize, coarse hair is wider and thicker when compared with other hair types. If you’re blessed with coarse hair, remember that you naturally have hair which looks voluminous and lustrous.

Even though coarse hair is considered robust and strong unlike other delicate hair types, it should be treated with utmost care and patience. Avoid using excessive heating and styling which makes coarse hair frizzy, brittle, dry and fragile. At Vedix, we suggest the best hair care regimen well-suited for your hair type. We bring you customized Ayurvedic products formulated based on your dosha levels.