How to Look After Your Hair in Summer
Looking after your hair in summer is often not an easy matter. Unlike other seasons, during the summer you expose it to a degree of stress that can affect it in many ways. Check out our article as we’ll probably be answering any questions you may have.
7 tips to look after your hair in summer
Sweat, the sun’s rays, the increase in ambient temperature, and other factors all cause the hair to become dry, stressed, and even fall out or become frizzy. Likewise, it makes it prone to cracking and breaking if not properly cared for at this time of the year. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, check out these 7 tips to look after your hair in summer.
1. Protect your hair when swimming
The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) recommends the use of swimming caps to avoid the adverse effect that chlorine has on hair. In addition to this, it recommends using a swimmer’s shampoo and deep conditioner after swimming to replenish lost moisture. It’s something that you should also take into account when swimming in the sea, lakes, or rivers, as the pH of the water can dry it out and compromise its structure.
2. Use sunscreen for hair
As experts warn, UV radiation can damage hair in many ways, and can even encourage photoaging of the stems. Faced with this, the ideal is to limit direct exposure through hats, caps, and other things. You can also consider the use of sunscreens for the hair, products that are becoming more and more popular on the market.
These are different from sunscreens for the skin, as, in addition to including a sun protection factor, they add compounds that improve their aesthetic appearance. For example, they can hydrate it, make it acquire more volume, be more malleable, and so on. It all depends on the type of product you choose and what you want to get besides UV protection.
3. Change the shampoo and conditioner that you use
For obvious reasons, the frequency with which you wash your hair in summer increases. Another of the essential tips to take care of your hair in summer is to change the shampoo and conditioner.
As specialists suggest, the best thing you can do is opt for variants with a lower pH. This way you minimize the damage to the hair due to the frequency of washing, and they’re coupled to possible changes that you have made to it, such as dyeing and permanent waving.
4. Reduce the use of hot tools
Although the hair dryer, curlers, and straighteners are your favorite tools to give your hair the shape and volume you want, the truth is that to look after your hair in summer it’s best to reduce its use. This season is the most stressful for hair without their participation, and if you add them to the equation you only push it to the limit.
We’re not saying you should cut out their use completely, only that you should use them a bit less. Making braids, a ponytail or directly covering it with a hat will help you on the days when you don’t use these items.
5. Consider getting your hair cut before the summer starts
This is one of the best-known tips for taking care of your hair in summer, both for aesthetic reasons and for comfort. In the first case, it’s perfect for taking on a new style, one that matches the fashion of the moment, your wardrobe, or the places you plan to visit. More importantly, even a few centimeters can mean the following benefits in comfort and maintenance:
- Shorter hair helps keep your head cooler
- You can use hats, caps, and similar items more easily
- You can shape it better without the need to use a dryer, straighteners etc
- Avoids an excessive accumulation of sweat, which means you don’t have to wash it so often
- Provides you with a lesser feeling of suffocation when sleeping
- Summer is the time of the year when the largest amount of hair is in its growth phase (anagen), and it’ll grow faster after cutting it than doing it at another time of the year
6. Avoid very tight hairstyles
This is something to avoid during any season, but especially during the summer. We have already highlighted the high level of stress it’s exposed to, so adjusting it more than necessary only enhances this effect.
In addition, it favors the accumulation of sweat; something that can play against you aesthetically. Braids and ponytails are good, but only when they don’t exert excessive stress on the hair.
7. Use a wide toothcomb
Wide toothcombs are gentler at detangling hair. With them, you avoid breaking and pulling the hair, which, when exposed to the sun, can cause it further harm.
Looking after your hair in summer doesn’t have to be a complicated affair. As you have seen, you only have to take on a couple of habits, which won’t involve a great deal of effort in your routine.
- Draelos ZD. Sunscreens and hair photoprotection. Dermatol Clin. 2006 Jan;24(1):81-4.
- Draelos ZD. Essentials of Hair Care often Neglected: Hair Cleansing. Int J Trichology. 2010 Jan;2(1):24-9.