If your hair feels like it needs a holiday even after you’ve come back from yours, you need our summer hair repair guide.
Struggling with dry, frizzy, or damaged hair after your summer holiday? You’re not alone. Between sun-soaked sightseeing, long-haul flights, and salty beach swims, the combination of sun exposure, chlorine, saltwater and heat can leave your hair looking less than its best by the end of your travels.
Whether you’re dealing with split ends, faded colour, an overall lack of moisture, or want to ensure that none of this happens to you in the first place, we’ve tried-and-tested the quick fixes you can trust to reverse and protect against the damage. From nourishing masks and leave-in elixirs to damage-reversing treatments, this is your summer hair repair guide for both pre- and post-travels.
Why can your hair struggle in the summer?
“The core concerns for summer hair start with the sun,” explains the founder of STIL hair salon Christel Barron-Hough. “The sun can create damage to your hair, as it can affect the hair’s structure if it is left overexposed to heat and UV. Another issue is a lack of hydration, as people don’t tend to hydrate their hair enough in the summer months.”
Curly and coily hair should be especially careful. These hair types “can be a bit more sensitive to the sun due to the protein structure of the hair, which tends to become affected by heat more quickly than straight hair. Curly or coily hair also often becomes more dehydrated than straighter hair because moisture can evaporate more easily, as the cuticle layers in curly hair don’t lie completely flat.” Equally, “coloured and bleached hair is more susceptible to damage as the cuticle is already lifted,” reveals the consultant trichologist Anabel Kingsley.
How to protect against hair damage in the first place
1. Perfect your travel-friendly haircare kit
The best way to look after your hair is to prevent the side effects of your summer travels before they happen in the first place (or at least guard against them as much as possible). That firstly means planning ahead, and prioritising nourishing, protective formulas throughout your routine in the run-up to and during your holiday. The more hydrated and soft your strands are the more resistant they are to knotting and levels of dryness that cause significant damage in the sun.
Some of our favourite haircare brands, including Olaplex and Fable & Mane have delivered damage-proofing sets (in flight-ready sizes) to ensure you are never caught wanting when travelling. The best contain not only moisturising masks but also shielding products that leave your hair protected against UV, chlorine and other hair health-depleting factors.
2. Prep your hair before you get in the water
“Your first line of hair defence starts before you even step into the pool or sea,” explains the consultant trichologist Anabel Kingsley. “I recommend wetting hair with fresh tap water first, as this helps to swell the hair shaft so there is less room for it to absorb salt or chlorinated water. You can also apply a water-resistant hair mask [like Philip Kingsley’s iconic Swimcap] before swimming to create a protective barrier and follow up with a leave-in conditioner or hair oil, as oils are naturally water-repelling and help lock moisture in. Look for products containing olive oil or castor oil, which help to reinforce the hair’s natural lipid layer.”
How you wear your hair before you go for a dip is just as important. Opting for protective styles such as a loose bun, and securing your hair with soft scrunchies or clips rather than tight hairbands can help limit damage by avoiding pulls and knots.
3. Defend against UV damage
Sun exposure is just as damaging to hair as chlorine and salt water, especially when all three combine. In fact, UV rays act on the hair much like bleaching; they oxidise hair pigment cells and can also degrade the protein structure of your hair. That can lead to extreme dryness and straw-like strands without even entering the water. To help avoid this, the easiest approach is to find the chicest sun hat and actually wear it. This will physically protect your hair from direct sun exposure.
However, for longer hair you want to wear down or for moments when you want to go out sans-hat, make a UV protective spray your summer travel must-have. These leave-in formulas – applied like detanglers or hairspray – work like an invisible defence against the sun’s rays, and don’t worry, they aren’t heavy or chalky like rubbing sunscreen into your hair. Many are really lightweight mists that you won’t feel, and, as a nice bonus point, a lot of them come in suitably summery scents that you’ll actually enjoy wearing.
How to tackle common summer hair mishaps
1. Tackle straw-like strands with nourishing masks
Straw-like strands are one of the most common side effects of our summer travels because so many of our favourite summer activities can cause dryness. Prolonged UV exposure from the sun damages the hair’s outer layer; hot, humid weather increases moisture loss; and swimming in the sea and chlorinated pools can strip your hair of its natural oils. More frequent hair washing due to sweat buildup, plus air con in your hotel room, can all play a part as well.
Luckily, there’s a pretty simple solution: add a nourishing hair mask onto the end of your summer haircare routine once or twice a week to remoisturise your tresses. Briogeo’s Deep Conditioning Mask and Color Wow’s Dreaming Mask will quickly get to work when left on for 10 minutes and are especially good for curly hair that has become coarse. Our tip? Apply them in the bath so you can lie back and relax for a little while longer. There are no excuses if you don’t feel like you have the time for a hair mask, either. Amika’s Soulstruck Nourishing Dry Hair Mask is designed specifically to work like a conditioning mask, hydrating dry strands and reinforcing your hair fibres, but without the need to rinse it as its a leave-in solution.
2. Win the fight against tangled, knotty hair with leave-in conditioners
The sea breeze, the aforementioned dryness, and being in and out of the pool can all leave your hair tangled, knotty and difficult to brush. But before you simply try yanking a comb through all the knots, there are two things to bear in mind. Firstly, consider the brush you are using, and look for ones that are specialised for detangling, such as Tangle Teezer’s Ultimate Detangler. This also comes with a curved handle that gives you more control without you needing to apply a lot of force, which is otherwise a recipe for breakage.
Then, with your better brush in hand, spritz on a leave-in conditioner to help reduce friction and pulling as well as to add some extra sun-reflecting shine so your hair always looks glossy this summer. Living Proof and Unite have some quick and easy solutions that leading beauty experts really trust to detangle without weighing down your tresses. Another tip is to always start brushing from the bottom of your hair, working upwards. This avoids too much strain being put on your roots, which can lead to more breakage.
3. Protect and correct faded colour with tone correctors
Another nuisance of the summer sunshine is that it can quickly cause your colour to fade – which is extra annoying if you went to the salon especially for a pre-holiday appointment. That colour fade happens because the sun’s UV rays break down the chemical bonds in hair dye, while also acting like natural bleach, lightening both natural and dyed hair over time. Higher temperatures, humidity and salt water can also make your hair cuticle lift, leading dye molecules to bleach out and dull your shade even faster.
To protect your hair colour, you want to use gentle shampoos and conditioners throughout the year. But, for boosted protection in the summer, look to colour-safe protection products, such as Wella Professionals Ultimate Color range, and L’Oréal Professionnel Vitamino Color Spectrum Bundle, which impressively claims to lock in colour for 100 days.
And, for blondes who may know the irritation of the greenish tint their hair gets (caused by the chlorine in swimming pools) all too well, try Josh Wood’s at-home colour corrector to see you through.
4. Start fighting back against breakage with damage repairers
If you look at your hair after your holiday (or even before it!) and see visibly dry, split ends, as well as unevenness in length and thinning, that’s a massive red flag for breakage and hair damage, which means your hair is probably in need of some real TLC. A salon appointment can help a lot to quite literally cut the problem out of your hair (and that may be your best port of call), but if you don’t want to lose all your length, you also want to help strengthen your existing strands so they can grow as healthly as possible going forward.
Look to weekly treatments that focus on bond repair and overall hair revival, which could include our beauty director’s favourite bond repairing mask from K18, as well as Dcypher’s 98 Hydra Bond Masque and Redken’s Acidic Bonding Concentrate 5 Min Liquid Mask. These clever products work by penetrating the hair shaft to infuse your hair with strengthening proteins, moisturisers, botanicals and peptides, which help support and replace the broken bonds that have caused breakage in your hair.
5. Find long-term hair health with scalp care
Finally, here’s a reminder that it isn’t just your hair itself that can be affected by your summer activities. Your scalp probably needs some TLC too! “Heat increases both sweating and oil production, which can disrupt the scalp barrier and microbiome,” reveals the dermatologist Dr Nora Jaafar. “That creates an environment where irritation, inflammation and dandruff-related symptoms can flare more easily. The scalp is also exposed to UV damage, but many people forget it’s still skin and needs protection too.”
Dr Jaafar therefore recommends embracing functional products, such as a targeted anti-dandruff shampoo, consistently during hotter periods, rather than only treating flare-ups once they appear. It might not feel ‘glamorous’ but your hair will thank you for it. She also suggests looking to ingredients, such as salicylic acid, to keep oily, irritated scalps at bay. This will not only protect your scalp throughout the summer but also lead to healthier hair growth in the long term and avoid that greasy, flat look that can be so common when the mercury starts to rise.
Lead image: Tresse
Becki Murray is Citizen Femme’s Beauty and Wellness Director. As one of the only UK journalists to hold a Distinction-grade diploma in cosmetic science, she combines her unique knowledge with an editor’s eye to help you make smarter choices about beauty, wellbeing, and aesthetics. Becki also heads up CF’s spa guide so you could say she’s an expert in the science of relaxation too…
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