It’s time to look after your parched post-summer mane, helping your hair get its mojo back.
A heat wave can take its toll on your hair: throw sea salt and chlorine into the mix and you may be packing some pretty lacklustre locks.
Now the seasons are changing, its time to take action – at home and in the salon – bringing your hair back to its best condition and reinvigorating your colour.
Daily care
Using a gentle shampoo and conditioner is a first step – particularly if you’re a gym bunny, or you’re still jumping in the pool on a regular basis. Dermalogica’s nourishing duo is great for daily use: the Daily Cleansing Shampoo has a non-stripping, daily use formula that gently cleanses with a robust, foaming lather. It contains Argan oil to help protect from sun damage, while increasing softness, shine and manageability, avocado oil to help retain moisture and prevent breakage, and coconut oil to strengthen and moisturise the cuticle. Follow with Dermalogica Daily Conditioning Rinse, a moisture-rich conditioner to restore softness and shine for vibrantly healthy hair. Those thirsty, post-summer ends will thrive on the nourishing ingredients in this strengthening formula with Panthenol (pro-vitamin B5) to intensify shine without adding extra weight and grapefruit, lavender and geranium essentials oils to invigorate the senses.
Finish your daily routine by blotting hair dry with a microfibre towel to avoid frizz, then working a pea-sized amount of hair oil or serum through the ends to work wonders on sun-parched locks: try Shu Uemura Urban Moisture Double Serum or Kerastase Resistance Serum Extentioniste.
Colour clinic
Prolonged sun exposure can turn warm, blonde shades into harsh, brassy tones – an unflattering look against most skin tones, and a surefire way to leave your roots standing out in contrast. On your next salon visit, you could ask your colourist about using a toner on brassy shades and avoiding adding bleach to the lengths. You can ask them to break up lowlights with fine highlights at the root if you want to stay as blonde as possible. To beat the brassy look next summer, switch to a purple shampoo to neutralise yellow tones: Tigi Catwalk Fashionista Violet Shampoo is a colour caring shampoo for blonde, highlighted and non-pigmented hair that will keep your colour looking fresh as it gently lathers impurities away. It boosts cool tones, reduces brassy tones, and delivers captivating shine.
If overdoing your exposure to the summer sun has made your hair too blonde, talk to your stylist about root blending: applying darker colour to the roots can really tone down overly blonde shades.
Mask it
Using a nourishing mask, applied once a week at home, will coax post-summer hair into good condition – and if your hair is super dry, or very thick, you could go for a twice-weekly treatment. New from L’Oreal Professionnel, the Inforcer Masque is designed to target breakage and split ends, leaving hair soft and healthy; Alterna Bamboo Smooth Kendi Intense Moisture Masque is a nutrient rich, deeply penetrating treatment that visibly transforms hair, leaving it healthier, shinier and frizz free; and MoroccanOil’s Restorative Hair Mask, for all hair types, penetrates deep into the hair shaft to help prevent damage caused by chemicals and environmental elements, including the sun, leaving it feeling soft and shiny.
Adding a pre-shampoo treatment as we go into the autumn will enhance the impact of a mask: Alterna Caviar Moisture Intense Oil Creme Pre Shampoo Treatment revitalises dehydrated strands, allowing your mask to moisturise the hair more deeply while repelling the minerals present in water to help defend against build-up.
