How to Stop Static Hair in Winter

Static hair in winter comes from two things meeting: dry air and friction. Pulling off a beanie or a jumper rubs electrons off your hair, every strand ends up with the same charge, and strands with the same charge push away from each other. In damp air that charge leaks away in seconds. In a flat with the radiators on it has nowhere to go, so it stays and your hair stands up. Stop either half and the static stops.

What static hair in winter actually is

Hair gives up electrons easily. Most hats, scarves and fleeces are made of things that take them. McGill University's Office for Science and Society puts it plainly: human hair sits high on the triboelectric series, so when you pull a toque off, electrons flow from your hair to the hat. Acrylic is near the other end of that series, keen to grab electrons, and acrylic is what a lot of cheap beanies are knitted from. Cotton is near the middle and barely charges at all.

Humidity is the other half, and McGill call it the biggest factor of all. Water in the air carries charge away. Cold air outside holds little water to begin with, and once it is heated up indoors it is drier still. That is why the same hat that did nothing in September has your hair crackling by November.

So the fix is not one product. It is less rubbing, more moisture, and a cut that does not give the charge much to work with.

The moments it happens, and what to do at each

Static does not build slowly through the day. It arrives in a few specific moments, and you can deal with each one.

When it happens	Why	What to do
Beanie comes off	Knit drags across the top as you pull it	Lift it straight up off your head rather than dragging it back
Jumper over your head	Same rub, front to back, over the whole head	A cotton layer, or a zip top that never goes over your head
Towel drying	Rubbing a dry towel hard over hair that is nearly dry	Blot while it is wet and stop before it is bone dry
Blow drying	Hot air takes the last moisture out of the hair	Medium heat, cold button to finish, then a little cream or clay straight away
Brushing in the office	Plastic comb on dry hair in dry heated air	A carbon or wooden comb, or damp fingers instead

The hat is the big one, because it is the one you take off every day. Check the label. If it says acrylic, it is doing most of the damage. Wool charges too, but less, and a cotton or satin lining inside any hat cuts the friction down a lot.

The ten-second fix when it is already up

Run your hands under the tap, shake most of the water off, and smooth them over the hair that is standing up. You only want your palms damp, not wet. The water lets the charge go, and the hair drops back down in a few seconds.

If you carry product, a smear of cream or a little clay rubbed thin between your palms does the same and gives you some hold back as well. Hand cream works in a pinch as long as you use a tiny amount, because too much leaves the hair greasy until you next wash it.

What does not work is more brushing. A plastic comb dragged through dry, charged hair adds charge rather than taking it away, which is why the more you try to flatten it, the worse it gets.

Washing and product through the cold months

Most of this is about putting back the moisture the heating takes out. Wash a bit less in winter than you did in summer, use conditioner even if you skip it the rest of the year, and do not dry your hair until it feels like straw. We go through how far to drop the washing, by hair type, in how often you should wash your hair.

On product, the rule is weight. A cream, a paste or a clay with a bit of oil in it holds the strands together, so they cannot spread apart even when they are charged. The products that make static worse are the dry, light ones: salt spray above all, because it is built to dry the hair out and add grit. Our autumn hair advice covers swapping the summer salt spray out once the heating comes on.

Why your haircut matters more than you would think

Static only shows where there is hair long enough to stand up. A short back and sides with a grade 2 on the sides will not show it there. A crop, a quiff or anything with three or four inches on top will, and fine hair shows it first because each strand is so light that a small charge can lift it.

If winter static bothers you, there are two things worth mentioning before we start. First, tell us. On fine hair we leave the ends blunter and go easy with thinning scissors, because thinners leave lots of short, loose ends and those are the first to lift. There is more on that in our guide to cuts for fine and thinning hair. Second, think about keeping the top a little shorter through to spring. Half an inch less on top changes how much there is to fly about.

An ordinary haircut is £15 for 30 minutes. If the hair is dry and full of static when you sit down, a wash and cut at £18, 40 minutes, is the better booking, so we are cutting clean hair rather than a charged, flyaway top. Ask for a little product through it at the end, rather than walking back out into the cold with it bare. You can book either one online.

Before you head out tomorrow

Put the product in before the hat goes on, not after. Lift the hat off rather than dragging it. If your hair still stands up when you get to work, damp palms, ten seconds, done.