Skincare and haircare are two of the most popular beauty categories across the board. But when it comes to scalp care, many people overlook this important routine—which in fact, is connected to both skin and hair health.
It’s a common misconception that regular shampooing and conditioning will take care of our scalp concerns, but they don’t come close to scratching the surface of our specific scalp care needs. Your scalp is an extension of the skin on your face and the key to healthy hair, so we should all be devoting much more time and effort to our scalp care regimen. Our scalp routine should mirror our skincare routine with cleansing, exfoliation, and hydration to prep and prime the delicate skin on our heads for optimal health and results.
Scalp exfoliation may look a lot like your facial skincare routine and serve as a quick addition to your washday, but discovering the benefits, learning how to add in exfoliation, and finding the best products and tools for your specific scalp needs may be a little hard to pin down in the beginning. As pioneers and advocates for the importance of scalp care, we believe that scalp-care can positively impact the long-term health of your hair to promote stronger, nourished strands that will ultimately lead to healthy hair growth on your hair journey. If you’re already familiar with scalp exfoliation, need a quick refresher course or you’re ready to embark on your first scalp exfoliation session, we’ve got you covered. Let’s read on to discover why scalp exfoliation is such a vital part of your healthy scalp and hair routine.
What is scalp exfoliation?
Scalp exfoliation is very similar to all your other exfoliation routines: it removes impurities, dead skin cells, oil, dirt and buildup to reveal cleansed, hydrated skin and hair follicles in their optimal condition for long-lasting, strong hair health and growth.
Exfoliation helps our hair follicles breathe, balances our scalp to thwart an overgrowth of detrimental bacteria and yeast, and normalizes our natural oil production. Similar to your facial and body exfoliation routines, you can choose to use a physical or chemical exfoliant to detoxify and decongest your scalp.
What are the benefits of exfoliating your scalp?
Scalp Care = Healthy Hair™. The benefits of concentrating on your scalp health are incredibly lucrative and essential to your healthy hair journey, especially when you implement regular exfoliation on wash days. Here’s what makes exfoliation so crucial:
Prevents dry scalp, flakes, and dandruff: Flakes on your scalp aren’t always indicative of dandruff. Oftentimes flakes and itch are symptoms of a dry, irritated, or inflamed scalp. Through exfoliation we can help reduce irritation, itch, and flakes by encouraging the natural beneficial oils on our scalp to shine. The correct balance of natural oils on a cleansed scalp encourages natural nourishment and moisture from our own sebum to soothe and revitalize a dry and/or irritated scalp.
Removes buildup: Our scalps need our help to clear away and cleanse any buildup that occurs over time. When our hair follicles are obstructed by buildup, they can’t cultivate healthy hair growth. By exfoliating, we create the optimal environment for our follicles and scalp skin to thrive.
Promotes healthy hair growth: Growing long, healthy hair becomes much more attainable when we exfoliate because removing debris from our scalp creates the optimal conditions for hair growth. Consistently exfoliating will slough away dead skin cells, stimulate our hair follicles, and promote cellular turnover—an essential for hair growth.
Restores lustre and promotes shiny hair: Prevent dull, lifeless strands with regular exfoliation. Removing the excess buildup helps any hair growing in to look its healthiest.
How often should you exfoliate your scalp?
As tempting as it may be to exfoliate during every wash day (it feels so good!), experts recommend scheduling exfoliation sessions no more than 1-2x a week. Exfoliating too often can damage your scalp, damage your follicles and lead to hair thinning and hair loss. Over-exfoliation can also dry out your scalp, resulting in irritation and an overproduction of oil that throws off the delicate balance of your scalp and is harmful to your scalp health.
Your scalp exfoliation routine
Ready to experience the scalp-healthy benefits of exfoliation? Here are a few pro tips to keep in mind to make the most of your exfoliation routine:
For optimal results choose a scalp exfoliant that harnesses the benefits of naturally powerful, nutrient-rich ingredients like Binchotan charcoal, coconut oil, tea tree and peppermint oils that are sought after for their scalp-healthy benefits. We’ve packed our award-winning Scalp Revival™ Charcoal + Coconut Oil Micro-exfoliating Shampoo with these ingredients to give you the best ingredients for your scalp care journey.
Be sure to exfoliate your scalp gently. Many scalp exfoliators use harsh abrasives like finely ground seeds and nuts to scrub away impurities, but those can often be too abrasive on our scalps. Look for scalp exfoliators like our award-winning, Scalp Revival™ Charcoal + Coconut Oil Micro-exfoliating Shampoo that harnesses the power of plan-tbased, eco-friendly, tiny granules or micro-exfoliators to gently scrub your scalp.
Always choose an exfoliation method that is gentle on your scalp. Use your fingertips (never your nails) or a scalp massaging tool like our Scalp Revival™ Stimulating Therapy Massager in short circular motions to prevent tangling, boost circulation and promote cellular turnover on damp or wet hair.
Here’s the ultimate scalp exfoliation routine to will transform your scalp health:
Step 1: Wet your hair and apply Scalp Revival™ Charcoal + Coconut Oil Micro-exfoliating Shampoo to your scalp, avoiding the mid-lengths and tips of your hair.
Step 2: Vigorously massage the shampoo with your fingertips or use our Scalp Revival™ Stimulating Therapy Massager for a soothing spa-like experience.
Step 3: Rinse your hair with cool water and follow up with your favorite Briogeo conditioner to target your specific hair care concerns.
Pro tips:
- Pop the jar in the fridge to prevent separation of our naturally derived ingredients and for an instant cooling effect.
- Give our Scalp Revival™ Charcoal + Coconut Oil Micro-exfoliating Shampoo a stir with a spoon to thoroughly mix ingredients before you apply it to your scalp.
A complete hair and scalp care routine should also include hydration post-exfoliation. Exfoliation helps to remove impurities and detoxify our scalps. Restoring essential hydration creates the optimal balance of moisture and oil production. Add hydration with a hair masking routine, 1-2x a week to target your strands specific needs. To really boost the benefits of masking, we recommend multi-masking to simultaneously target your specific hair and scalp needs. Here’s how to rehydrate with multi-masking:
Always start with scalp: 1-2x times per week, treat your scalp to our Scalp Revival™ Charcoal + Tea Tree Cooling Hydration Scalp Mask, which soothes, nourishes, and detoxifies a dry, irritated scalp while restoring vital scalp hydration post-exfoliation.
While it works its magic, choose a Briogeo hair mask to apply from mid-lengths to ends and leave on for up to 10 minutes to target what your strands are craving at the same time:
Dry + damaged hair: Our award-winning Don’t Despair, Repair!™ Deep Conditioning Mask gives hair strength with the optimal balance of protein and moisture.
Thirsty hair: Boost moisture with our protein-free Superfoods Avocado + Kiwi Mega Moisture Hair Mask.
Waves, curls and coils: Our protein-free Curl Charisma™ Rice Amino + Avocado Hydrating & Defining Mask hydrates + enhances natural waves, curls + coils.
Extra thirsty hair: Our cult-favorite Don’t Despair, Repair!™ Apple Honey Deep Conditioning Hair Mask is back! Our limited-edition Apple Honey Hydration Don’t Despair, Repair!™ Hair Repair Kit comes with two bonus gifts: a deluxe mini Super Moisture Shampoo and a deluxe mini Super Moisture Conditioner- our favorite healthy hair essentials for a deeply nourishing and reparative routine.
Healthy hair starts at the roots. Our Scalp Revival™ collection is formulated with high-performing, naturally derived, scalp-healthy ingredients that treat, soothe, and revitalize your scalp to give it the much needed attention it deserves. Shop everything you need to kick off your scalp care journey below!
