Summer hair: sun, salt, chlorine — and what to do about them

By late August the summer shows in the chair: flatter colour, drier ends, and on blonde hair a greenish or orange cast that was not there in June. None of it is an accident.

UV fades the colour

Sunlight breaks down the pigment in the hair shaft the same way it fades a curtain in a window. Coloured hair loses its shade over a few weeks; natural hair simply lightens.

What helps: a hat or a scarf during the strongest hours, and a leave-in spray with a UV filter. Not perfect protection, but over a whole summer the difference is obvious.

Salt water dries it out

The salt in seawater draws moisture out of the hair shaft, and stays on the surface, where it keeps working. That is why your hair feels stiff after the beach.

Rinse with fresh water as soon as you can after swimming. If that is not an option, a leave-in conditioner helps a lot.

Chlorine shows up on blonde hair

The greenish cast does not come from chlorine itself but from copper in pool water, which the chlorine oxidises — and that copper binds into lightened hair. The more porous the hair, the more easily.

The trick is simple: soak your hair in tap water before you get in. Hair that is already saturated takes up less pool water. Rinse afterwards, and wash the same day if you can.

If it has already happened

This is why colour correction fills the diary at the end of summer: faded colour, brassy blonde and dried-out ends all turn up in September.

A toner is often enough to put the shade back where it belongs — two hours, and no further lightening involved. For dryness, the salon treatments are the answer: Fibre Clinix Hydrate takes ten minutes and does not need its own appointment; it can be added to a cut.

And one thing that does not help

Washing more often will not bring the hair back. Summer hair is not dirty, it is dried out — daily shampoo takes away what little natural oil is left. Two or three washes a week, with a mask alongside: that works.