It’s summertime, but the livin’ isn’t always easy, particularly when it comes to your hair. While beach days, longer days, and short sleeves are on the cards, the heat can take a toll on your mane, bringing with it frizziness, lank strands, split ends, greasy roots, and colour fade. Here’s how to tackle your most common summer haircare woes, and keep your locks looking on point all season long.
IMAGE: PETROVSKY & RAMONE IMAGE: PETROVSKY & RAMONE
You’ll also enjoy:
How To Make Your Spendy Salon Hair Colour Last Longer
The Secret To Healthy Hair Starts At The Scalp
Eat These Nutrients For Healthy, Glowing Skin
1. Frizz
Unfortunately, almost everyone has to deal with frizz at some point, with the higher temperatures and humidity levels during summer forming the ideal environment for frizz. Exposure to heat and humidity can damage hair quality, making it more porous and prone to absorbing moisture, causing hair strands to swell and eventually split off, resulting in a frizzy appearance.
The key to keeping frizz at bay is controlling moisture levels and sealing the hair cuticle to keep it smooth and prevent water absorption. Before leaving the house, try spritzing your hair with Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray, which works to form an invisible hydrophobic matrix that compresses each strand of hair into a sleek, supple shape and also sheathes each strand in a protective coating that repels moisture.
Alternatively, a surefire way to combat frizz is through an intensive leave-in treatment. Olaplex No.6 Bond Smoother is a leave-in conditioning cream that provides targeted relief from frizz for up to three days, working to moisturise and hydrate all hair types.
2. Oily, greasy roots
While oily, greasy hair may seem to be an inevitable part of summer, it’s easily avoidable. The combination of humidity, sweat, and product buildup can leave your scalp feeling far from fresh, regardless of how many times you wash your hair.
Put down the heavy duty shampoo and conditioner and opt for a scalp scrub instead. A once or twice a week treatment, a scalp scrub will reduce oiliness and prevent sweat and product buildup. If your scalp is particularly dry or irritated, try a toner instead.
Another option is to use a dry shampoo that works to absorb excess oil from the scalp, like Grow Haircare Thicker Fuller Volumising Dry Shampoo or Kristin Ess Style Reviving Dry Shampoo.
3. Colour fade
Sun damage, chlorine exposure, and saltwater are likely to deplete your salon colour. Rather than resorting to wearing a latex silicone cap like you’re participating in the Olympics, protect your hair from the sun with an SPF hair product like Sachajuan Hair In The Sun. When you’re not in the water, protect your hair the old-fashioned way with a chic bucket hat.
Leave-in hair masks and treatments are also your friends, helping to protect hair from drying, damaging elements while offering nourishment and hydration. Initially designed for the Olympic Swimming Team, the Philip Kingsley Swimcap Water Resistant Mask protects hair from the effects of chlorine, saltwater and UV rays, while the Davines Su Hair Mask restores softness, hydration, and shine to hair already damaged by the elements.
4. Limp, lank locks
For those with fine hair types, lack of volume can be an all too common summer haircare problem, with the combination of moisture, heat, and humidity nullifying the effects of even the best blowdry. Rather than trying overly styled hairstyles, add volume to your natural hair texture by using a texturising or volumising product, like R+Co Balloon Dry Volume Spray or Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray.
5. Split ends and dryness
Not everyone is prone to the effects of humidity and moisture retention during summer, some locks tend more towards the dry side, with sun and heat exposure resulting in dry, brittle hair prone to breakage and split ends. Combat the effects of summer with a nourishing hair mask like Sachajuan Hair Repair or Grow Haircare Longer Stronger Anti-Breakage Hair Mask. For particularly damaged hair, go for a leave-in product like Olaplex No.6 Bond Smoother or Sachajuan Intensive Hair Oil.
Words by Arabella Johnson
Feature image courtesy of Petrovksy & Ramone for Vogue Netherlands
