September Summer Hair Strategies

In Northern California, “Indian Summer” is here. It’s hot, hot hot, one day and humid, foggy and cold the next. If you’re struggling with keeping your hair sanity while Mother Nature makes up her mind, here’s 10 summer hair strategies for the curly (and even the not-so-much) from our friend Beverly Turner of Hello Curls in Sacramento. Any tips of your own to share? Leave a reply at the end!

By Beverly Turner

SACRAMENTO HAS TWO SEASONS: SURFACE OF THE SUN OR FOGGY SOGGY

Summer weather can be challenging. The temperature can vary 50 degrees from first morning light to the oppressive heat during the evening commute hour. Our river city’s delta breeze does strange things with humidity levels. This won’t be news to any curly head, but our hair reacts to changes in the weather.

Summer routines must be different than Winter routines. Embrace the variance of your curl formation and know that September isn’t forever; it just feels that way.

CLARIFY. LESS CREAM. STRUCTURAL STYLERS!

1. Start with a REBOOT: Clarify shampoo! If you wash your hair 2-3 times a week, use a clarifying shampoo once a week or every other week. Do not use a clarifying shampoo at every wash. If you shampoo once a week, try it every other time. Your hair will spring back to life. Conditioner cannot do its job if the hair is coated with build up of creams, conditioners, pool chlorine or sunscreen.
2. Rinse your conditioner off a little and conditioned, not filled with left-over conditioner. Avoid heavy butters and oils.
3. Are you making your life and your hair more complicated with excessive deep conditioning? Do not sleep with conditioner or protein treatments in your hair. 30 minutes is all you need. Rinse it out! See Number 1.
4. Do not slather oils on your hair. Oils do not moisturize. Oils create a film over hair.
5. Reduce or eliminate cream stylers. Avoid the scalp/root area and apply a thin amount to the mid-shaft and ends. Experiment with skipping this “filler” product.
   

   Summer hair, satisfied: Three levels of hydration.

6. Drooping due to the drop. When the temperatures rise and the humidity drops, wavy to loose spiral types will notice their hair droop and appear less curly. Your hair needs structural stylers such as Innersense Organic Beauty I Create Volume or a gel product.
   Right now, the only styler in my hair is I Create Volume. I apply it to damp hair, palm to palm, one hard squeeze to get out the excess water, then I apply a small thin layer of Volume again to the mid-shaft to ends with a palm to palm then single squeeze.
7. Look at the ingredients. If glycerin is in the *First-Five* it will not be your hair’s best friend in high humidity/high dew point weather. I love the new Innersense Hydrating Cream Conditioner, but I can’t use it every time I wash in the summer. I’m now using it as a deep conditioning treatment about one to two times a month. My go-to conditioner right now is Innersense Color Radiance. If Color Radiance is too heavy for you, try rinsing out a little more or use the lighter weight Pure Inspiration Conditioner.
8. Olaplex. Use your Olaplex! Summer sun is heat damage. An Olaplex treatment will bring those curls back to life. Hello Curls offers two levels of treatments. You can also do your own at-home treatment with Olaplex #3. The directions on #3 say to apply to damp “unwashed” hair and leave on for 10. I recommend that you clarify shampoo first, towel dry, apply a generous amount, finger comb through with lots of smoothing tension between your fingers, cover with a plastic bag or towel and leave on for a minimum of 20 minutes. Shampoo, condition and style.
9. Second Day Hair: Use a puddle of water in your hands to reactivate product on specific curl groups. Smooth with your thumb over your index finger about 1” away from the scalp to the ends over and over until your hair regroups into a noodle and it feels smooth. Add more water if necessary. You might need to smooth 10-20 times before your hair melts back into form.
   

   Summer Hair drinks up Sweet Spirit!

   After your hair is damp, you can also add a small amount of Sweet Spirit Leave-In Conditioner (diluted 50% in the bottle with distilled/filtered water) sprayed on to your palm as an extra smooth down.

10. Play and experiment with up-dos. Need some ideas? Schedule a style-only appointment. I love showing my clients how to create easy up-dos that can be casual to professional and gussied up to a night out.
11. Finally, if your hair feels gummy, waxy or gooey, even after your hair is completely dry, you have excessive build up of creamy stylers or conditioner in your hair. Hair should feel like hair, not greasy or still wet. Extremely dense hair (you cannot easily see your scalp) is prone to build up at the root.

    Recently I had a client with extremely dense hair arrive at 4 pm at the salon with very damp-gooey feeling hair at the roots to mid-shaft…after having washed her hair the night before! Her hair couldn’t dry because the creamy residue had trapped all the moisture. This can create scalp issues (itchy and clogged pores/hair follicles) and ultimately hair loss.

Let’s get to the root cause

If you are having problems with your routine due to seasonal changes, schedule a style lesson appointment with a curly hair stylist near you. Let’s get at the root cause and make your life easier!