Easy, breezy summer hair
If you long for beachy waves, but want to avoid damage from sun and salt, keep these products – and a hat – to hand.
Summer is a great season for hair, a time when you can get away with beachy waves and set down your straighteners for a few months.
Unfortunately, it’s also the season when hair can sustain the most damage, leading to faded out colour and split ends that get left to your stylist to sort out come autumn. Lest we forget, there’s also the onslaught of oily roots, which leave one looking akin to having collided with ExxonMobil’s finest vessel.
Which brings me to one hair problem that is specific to the warmer months: combination hair. And yes, that is an actual thing. This is when you have oily roots and super dry mid-lengths and ends, and the longer the hair the more you have to deal with.
Starting at the root of the issue, a great addition to your hair prescription to help with this are products such as Kérastase Bain Divalent ($43), a daily balancing shampoo for combination hair that’s gentle too – unlike many other “detox” shampoos that smell medicinal and get your locks a little too squeaky clean. Use it only on roots then add in a nourishing conditioner like the same brand’s Nutritive Fondant Magistral ($49) for dry to severely dry hair on the mid lengths and ends. Redken’s latest range, Clean Maniac Micellar, is a great one for dealing with product build up over party season by calling upon the cult-like popularity of micellar water. It brings removing-dirt-magnet technology to the world of haircare and does it well. Both the shampoo and conditioner ($35 each) are sulphate and silicone-free but powered by micellar technology, gently washing away dirt, pollution, product build up and excess oils, leaving hair ultra clean. It also makes them safe if you’ve had a keratin or straightening treatment, and safe for colour. Summer’s beachy waves are best achieved with sea salt spray, but steer clear of actual sea water, which while free, has high salt content and is thus osmotic, meaning it leaches moisture out of your hair.
When ends start to split and your colour is rapidly fading, you’ll wish instead that you’d reached for something like Bumble & Bumble’s Surf Foam Spray Blow Dry ($49), which is perfect for those seeking sun-dried waves with a polished edge. It’s a foammousse hybrid to be used on damp hair before blow drying, and is ideal for fine-to-medium hair in need of some sea-swept volume with less grit than the brand’s traditional Surf Spray.
For those who suffer from excessively dry ends, keeping a nourishing hair oil in your bag at the beach or by the pool is a good idea post-swim, when if long, you can use it to pull your newly slick hair into a braid. Morroccanoil and Davines OI/ OIL are both rich options in portable form, and will keep things manageable until you can get to a shower. If your hair is regularly coloured and you want to keep it looking fresh over the summer, consider investing in a bottle of Kardashian-endorsed Olaplex Number
3 Hair Perfector ($50). Apply to damp hair, comb through, and leave on for a minimum of 10 minutes before washing as normal. If you want to maximise the effect, leave it on overnight (as Kim K recommends) and reap the benefits.
Another summer essential is a good dry shampoo, especially if you have a fringe or hair that’s prone to oiliness around the face. Oribe’s Gold Lust is pricey ($72) but highly effective. It smells amazing, and leaves zero telltale white residue.
A pro tip is to apply a dusting of dry shampoo before you sweat – thus absorbing any oil before it has time to properly bed in and weigh down your ‘do.
Lastly, many haircare brands offer products containing sunscreen at this time of year, but the experts agree that a hat is always the best option as it will protect both your colour and your scalp.