Its that season where you care for your hair and scalp with some preventative maintenance so you don't have dehydrated crispy locks at the end of the beach days. Here are our Top 5 Tips for practising some hair self-care this spring and summer.
Heat style less.
Reducing heat styling can be helpful all year round in maintaining hair health and retaining that length you're trying to grow. Its just easier to ditch the styling heat when its hot outside. To be clear, we're talking about direct heat styling like round brush blow drying, flat-ironing, etc, not indirect heat like diffusing. Instead try heatless curls, twisted curls, or using a sea salt spray like Innersense I Create Waves for perfect beachy hair or to add movement to straight hair.
Wear a hat.
Enjoy those beach days and ballgames as much as possible but consider the sun damage that can occur to your scalp during these essential summer experiences. Wearing your favourite hat not only protects your face and scalp but helps prevent your hair colour from fading.
Add a leave in and/or do regular deep conditioning.
To help mitigate the effects of the sun, the pool and lake water, and driving around with the windows or sun roof open, we need to add extra moisture to the hair routine. This can be done in several ways:
Use a leave in conditioner like Innersense Sweet Spirit Leave In to add moisture daily on damp or dry hair, take care of windblown tangles, or at the end of beach day. Just a little bit of this luxe creamy spray leave in makes a huge difference. It saves a ton of tears (from both parents/guardians and children) when detangling kids' hair too.
Use a more moisturizing conditioner for regular wash days. Ask your stylist for a personalized recommendation on what that would be for you at your next visit.
Do a deep conditioning treatment like Innersense Hydrating Hair Mask once or twice per month. This gives your locks an intensive moisture infusion without needing to invest a lot of time every day or week. Pro Tip: Time it on the same day that you clarify to maximize the benefits from both.
Schedule maintenance haircuts aka "trims".
Reserving regular haircuts isn't just because we want to catch up with you (ok, that's part of it), it's honestly to stay ahead of split ends, maintain the shape of your style, and help you live your healthiest hair life. The frequency of maintenance is going to vary based on hair length and current hair health but here's a general guide on how often we should be seeing you:
Cropped Length: 4-8 weeks
Short Length: 6-10 weeks
Moderate Length: 8-14 weeks
Long Length: 10-18 weeks
Descriptions of the range of how long each length is can be found here.
Focus on scalp health.
A clean and healthy scalp is the foundation of healthy hair which is why its so important to make that a priority. An itchy scalp is not "normal" and can be an indicator of build up, a product sensitivity or allergy, or a scalp condition or internal imbalance that will require medical care potentially. We recommend regular clarifying if you live in Waterloo Region or anywhere else that is known to have hard water. Click here for our favourite scalp care products or ask us to have a closer look at your scalp during your next visit if you have scalp concerns.