With these tips, your bad hair days are over.
Welcome; to a season that tries three important aspects of you: your patience, your skin, and your hair health. For this reason, you subconsciously dread summer. In the past, you might have found your hair shedding, or taking on unflattering looks during this season, making you have a love-hate relationship with summer.
And when you swim; ah, your hair is a glorified mess. If your hair happens to be color-treated, the mess is very obvious: a lump of bleached and faded hair with zero appeal.
The sun and ultraviolet rays- induced stress on the hair is enough to put you on the edge, so let’s get to know exactly what happens to our hair during summer; and how to make our relationship more ‘love’ than ‘hate’ (since we can’t exactly break up with summer…lol!)
Frizz, frizz and more frizz.
Dry hair is as incompatible with summer; as light clothing is incompatible with the snow.
Hair that’s parched will readily soak up humidity from the air and cause swelling of the hair shaft. This would eventually cause breaks in the hair cuticle, leading to hair that’s puffed up, and very uncontrollable.
Need to go for a swim? This should interest you.
While swimming is indeed an enjoyable sport, you need to reduce the rate at which you engage in it because of some of its negative side effects on your hair.
As you take a plunge into the pool, the chlorine found in the water is very happy to strip your hair of natural protective oils; making your hair to take on an unattractive look like copper and other chemicals bind to the protein found in your hair shaft.
As well, the heavy salt content of seawater draws water out of the hair, further worsening the parched state of the hair and even the skin.
Knowing These, How Can You Care for Your Hair Naturally this summer?
Even on the worst days, your summer hair can be as gorgeous, or even more gorgeous, than your spring hair; with some extra care. Some tips to follow are:
1. Trim Your Hair at the Start of Summer
Many of us are emotional about our hair length, aren’t we? We become so attached that we refuse to let go of even the split ends. So here’s the first tip: at the start of summer, give your hair a trim. Because hair grows faster in summer (since more hairs are in the growth phase i.e. anagen during late spring and summer), when you trim it, you give it more space to grow. As well, you might need a mid-season cut, and so keep that in mind.
2. Buy Hair Care Products with Ultraviolet Ray Filters
Your precious hair strands should be protected at all cost from UV rays, and you can do this by a daily application of hair care products which filter these rays. If your hair is color-processed, you also reduce the chances of having fading hair. However, long stretches of time spent outside would warrant you putting on a wide-brimmed hat, to protect your scalp & ears (thus reducing exposure to the sun, of areas prone to skin cancer) and keep your hair strands from being scorched by the sun.
3. And If You Need to Go for a Swim, Saturate Those Strands
Before you go for a swim, it helps to saturate your hair strands with a leave-in conditioner. This way, your hair doesn’t absorb as much salt water or chemicals in the pool. Also, about that swim, afterward, be sure to rinse your hair off, or spray with some fresh water; as this can serve as a hair loss solution.
4. Shampoo and Condition your hair, perhaps weekly
In summer, prepare to wash and condition your hair more often, as you’d often have to deal with weather that’s filled with sweat and grime. Therefore, your hair products should be carefully thought out; an anti-residue shampoo for instance, which would help clear off chemicals and product buildup, and follow up with deep-conditioning.
5. Let go of the hot tools
Wisdom in hair matters requires that for a while, you should let go of the hot equipment: flat irons, curling irons, blow dryers; and simply wash your hair. Before going to bed, it is also a smooth move to pile it up in a bun.
6. On Frizz Again: Is There Any Means of Escaping It?
If you stand a chance against frizz at all, it is by properly maintaining your hair. That is, do your best to trim and condition it regularly, and then add in some anti-frizz serum or oil to keep the shine in. However, you need to realize that frizz is too much of certainty during summer, for you to escape the effects of such humidity. Therefore, your best bet is to do protective hairstyles while paying interest to your overall hair health.
Wrapping Up
This summer, your hair doesn’t have to look like or feel like crap. Follow the above tips and watch your hair blossom, as though in full spring!
