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Crisis of the month: Winter Hair! O's beauty director, Valerie Monroe, to the rescue.

Dear Val:
Drab color. Flat texture. Flyaways and breakage. As the light fades and weakens in winter, so does my hair. Is there any way to keep it healthy and shiny?

Response:
Several years ago, I saw an off-Broadway show featuring the mentalist Marc Salem. He guessed things about people in the audience—people he'd never met—that were uncannily correct. After he'd had coins taped over his eyes, and been tightly blindfolded, a number of items donated from the audience were brought to him onstage. As each thing was held before him, without touching it, he identified what it was (a man's ring, with a Civil War insignia; a key chain, with a Rolls-Royce charm; my son's watch, with exactly 12 different functions, including an alarm). How'd he do it? Beats me. But I think I can divine a few things about you from your question. You color your hair; you wash it more than once a week and don't always condition; you're pretty diligent about brushing it regularly; and you blow-dry it with the setting on…let's see…wait a minute, it's coming to me…hot. Is that your profile? Anyone?

It doesn't take a mentalist to figure out why you're having hair problems in winter; it takes a smart scientist like David H. Kingsley, PhD, with a specialty in hair and scalp issues. The main culprit, he says, is dryness—in the air and, consequently, in your hair. When there's little humidity, the hair shaft doesn't retain moisture, which makes the strand vulnerable in a number of ways. First, dry hair is brittle and breaks easily. The outer layer (cuticle) on a damaged strand doesn't lie flat but peels up, the way a shingle might on a parched roof. When the cuticle lies flat, your hair looks smooth and shiny; when it lifts, your hair looks a little rough and dull. Blow-drying exacerbates the breakage problem, says Kingsley, because if the dryer blows too hot, it can cause "bubble hair"—actually boiling the water in the strand. The water bubbles, the strand breaks. The lack of moisture also makes your hair a good conduit for static electricity; brushing it (or even rubbing it with a towel when it's wet) creates an abundance of positive electrical charges on the strands, which—remember the science?—repels them from one another, heightening, so to speak, your static issues.

So, what to do about it all? Most important, says Kingsley, is to condition your hair every time you wash it. If your hair is fine, apply conditioner only to the ends so that it isn't weighed down. While a daily rinse-out conditioner will add shine by sealing the cuticle, a deep conditioner will help trap moisture in the center of the shaft (cortex), not only sealing the cuticle but also strengthening the hair. Conditioners also make the hair less susceptible to static. (A natural bristle brush or a wide-tooth comb will cut down on some static, too.) Use the warm rather than hot setting on your blow dryer, or hold the dryer as far as you comfortably can from your head. It's also easier on your hair if you blot some of the water out first or blow-dry it just enough before styling so that it's not sopping wet.

By the way, the serial number on your blow dryer is 0301LA. Am I right?

Dr. David H. Kingsley, trichologist, British Science Corporation, New York (888-980-4700).