Summer Hair Treatments: 3 Ways to Protect & Treat Your Locks
Happy first day of summer! With the official start of the season finally here, it’s time for beach parties, cookouts, and sitting poolside with a stack of your favorite magazines. However, these fun activities have a downside: Salt water, chlorine, and sun can wreak havoc on your hair, leaving you feeling less than goddess-y.
To help keep your locks looking gorgeous all season long, below, I’ll show you three ways to take care of your hair this summer.
1. Try a DIY Treatment
DIY conditioning treatments are usually less expensive than treatments you can buy at the store or salon. You can also find most of the ingredients you’ll need in your kitchen!
Super Duper DIY Deep Conditioning Treatment
We’ve talked about DIY hair treatments, and summer DIY treatments before, but I just found an amazing new at-home treatment in an unusual place, Food.com. While this recipe is something you’d never want to eat, it worked like a charm on restoring the moisture and shine to my hair!
You’ll need:
- 1 cup of room-temperature mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- 3 egg yolks
Instructions:
Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl then work into your hair, focusing on the ends. For the best results, wrap your hair in a towel to retain heat and leave the treatment in for 10-20 minutes. Rinse out the treatment and don’t use shampoo, according to the website. The recipe says to not do this on a day you’re going out because there will probably be excess oil that stays in your hair and keeps conditioning it.
Personally, mayo creeps me out a little bit, so I like to use:
- 1/2 of an avocado, mashed up
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
Again, focus on the ends of your hair and leave this mask on for 15-20 minutes. Then rinse it out with cool water and shampoo, if you’d like.
2. Store Treatments
If you don’t have time to put together a DIY hair treatment, there are lots and lots of store-bought hair treatments out there that promise to give you shiny, moisturized hair. Here are a few favorites:
Bumble and Bumble Leave In Conditioner, Carol’s Daughter Khoret Amen Hair Oil, Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Mask.
Bumble and Bumble’s Leave In Conditioner moisturizes while helping to control frizz, though it is on the expensive side. Carol’s Daughter Khoret Amen Hair Oil has no parabens or sulfates in it, and is pretty affordable. Aussie’s 3 Minute Miracle is an awesome, inexpensive treatment that you can find at the grocery or drug store.
3. Protect Your Hair from the Sun
Finally, if you’re heading out in the sun all day, know that your hair can become just as dehydrated as your skin. Sunscreen for hair? It exists! Aveda has a Sun Care line for protecting your hair with a “water-resistant UV defense”.
Aveda Sun Care Protective Hair Veil, Aveda After-Sun Hair Masque
A true lifesaver if your hair is already damaged or color-treated, this line helps to protect your hair from the sun’s rays while preventing dryness, further damage, and even color fading.
What Do You Think?
How do you protect and treat your hair during the summer? Do you have a favorite product? Let us know in a comment!
Posted on on June 21, 2011 / Filed Under: Beauty & Hair / Tags: Beauty, conditioning treatments, DIY, Hair, hair treatments, Summer
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jiturka
Homemade mayo is basicly made of oil and egg (or just the egg yolks). So I’d recommend to skip mayo. Especially because the bouht one sure doesn’t contain only these yummy ingredients, but things like conservants so that it lasts edible longer.
Carly
Every time I find a great conditioner, it ends up working for like, two uses before creating a waxy buildup on my hair. I’ve basically just given up.
Laura
I highly advise you all NOT to put mayo in your hair! Only because I’ve tried it and my hair just smelled like a giant sandwich… eek! Really it’s just not a great scent to be wearing.
Tara
For conditioner, I reccomend Master Cuts Tea Tree Conditioner. I have very fine, thin hair thats prone to hardcore greasy roots and have dry ends (from previous hair dying) that do a weird wave/flip out.. but since I’ve been using these products my hair is shiny, bouncy and actually feels fuller- and it stays straight when I blow dry. And no grease! Not even half-way through the day when I’ve been running to classes. I like the clean tingling sensation it gives (you have to spend a bit more time massaging it into your scalp but it’s worth it)
Sammy
Question (not sure if you guys know the answer): for the first hair treatment from Food.com, do you apply it to wet or dry hair?? I followed the link and didn’t see it there either. Just curious!
Nikki
WARNING:
Every once in a while, I see a recipe for homemade leave-in conditioner that includes egg yolks and I shudder. Please do NOT try this on your hair. I tried this when I was in junior high after reading about it in some fashion magazine and my hair had a rotten, putrid, horrifying odor in it for about a week and a half. No matter how many times I shampooed my hair, the smell would not come out. Don’t put eggs, particularly egg yolk, in your hair unless you want to smell like rotting garbage. I couldn’t even go to school because I was so embarrassed. People ten feet away from me could smell it. As a matter of fact, I can almost guarantee that the writer didn’t try this recipe, because if she did, she would know how badly it makes your hair stink. I have no idea what the scientific explanation is, but when the egg yolk enters the hair shaft, you could wash your hair a hundred times and still be able to clear a room. Ladies, learn from my mistake, good leave-in hair conditioner is not that expensive and you can find it at any drugstore.
Erin - Western Washington University
Sammy–I tried the recipe with dry hair and it worked out okay.
Nikki–I’m sorry to hear about your experience with smelly egg yolks! It worked out fine in my hair when I tried it, though I concentrated more on my ends rather than all over (which could explain the lack of gross smells after washing it all out). Granted, I did wash it twice through. Thanks for your input! It’s good to hear others’ experiences with recipes since there can be definite variation between experiences!
Raven Buchanan
I usually use a mixture of honey, EVOO, and conditioner.
Elle sees
Holy crap! My blog has a similar post on this today as well! Glad we’ve both got summer on the brain :)
Cierra
I love Carol’s Daughter! The scents of the products alone had me hooked. Especially the Lemongrass and Rosemary Shampoo. My hair always feels great after I use it and now I have to buy some more after reading this post! : )
Megan Mae
Additional reasons not to use store bought mayo in your hair: It’s really bad for hair that has had chemical or dyed treatments. It will strip your hair color over time for one. There are acids in store bought mayo like lemon juice. My grandmother and aunt used to swear by mayo – until they had me trimming their frizzy ends and re-dyeing their hair.
Stick to trying olive oil or avocado, and leave the mayo for your sandwich.
My suggestions is that if you swim a lot use a good swim-shampoo. If you experience dryness, try a deep conditioning product like the Aussie 3 minute miracle listed above.
Maria
Coconut oil. Supermarkets (Target or Walmart) sell packets for around $1.50. It smells great, you leave it in for 20 minutes, and my hair always smells, looks, and feels great after I use it. The packets are big enough for me to get 2 uses out of them, too.