Sun Wrecking Your Hair? Here’s How to Protect It

Just before I went on vacation, I freshened up my hair with some blonde highlights. I knew that even a day outside sightseeing in the hot Mediterranean sun would bleach out my blonde hair, so I took a big hat and wore it everywhere I went.

It saved my hair from disaster, but it made my head hot and sweaty, and I had to keep popping my hat off every time I posed for a picture.

When I got home, I wondered, was there anything I could have put on my hair besides a hat to save my hair? I emailed our friend, The Makeover Guy, Christopher Hopkins, who specializes in hair, and this is what he told me about summer hair.

Hair that has been colored is susceptible to fading with U.V. rays. There are products that say they have sunscreens, but I seriously doubt the benefits as it is pretty difficult to cover every strand top to bottom and all around with sunscreen.  And if it’s sticking to your hair, it is likely going to make it flat or sticky.

Hats are pretty much it. And I know the boomers like to believe there is an answer to everything. Cake and eat it too.  But alas, coverage is it.  If you’re in the sun, the color will fade.  Creams don’t get rid of your wrinkles, and there is no weight loss without a diet change.

Shampooing is what really does the fading, more so than even sun, so shampooing less is always a better way of preserving color.  Try rinsing and using conditioner to cleanse.

I don’t really see any more problems with hair in the summer than with the winter.  Just slightly different with humidity changes.  Good or bad for curly or straight depending on how curly or how straight and how curly or how straight you WANT your hair compared to how curly or straight it is in the humidity (or lack of).

Damaged hair cannot be corrected; it can be band-aided.  It can be temporarily given the illusion of repair through styling, pressing the cuticle flat with heat or rollers.  It can be temporarily filled in with products like protein, moisture, fillers (like hair color and clear sealers).

Chlorine doesn’t turn blonde hair green; it is copper, usually found in algae deterrents in hot tubs, pools, etc.  The turquoise color combined with the yellow blonde makes, what?  GREEN!  You will need to open the cuticle of the hair with a detoxifying shampoo (several times) and heat and strip it out, then condition like hell.  Again, that’s why there are swim caps and conditioners.  I say to wet the hair, put on a good conditioning treatment and think of that time as a multi-tasking deep conditioning treatment.