For Troubled Tresses : Kitchen Staples and State-of-the-Art Hair Products Help Battle the Damaging Forces of Summer
Summer is here, bringing with it such oddities as blondes with green hair.
Of course, no one wants green hair. It’s just a chlorine thing, like redheads turning orange and perms turning to straw.
And those are only some of the hair hazards of summer when sun, chlorine, sea water and perspiration “cook” locks (as the experts are fond of saying).
Fortunately for tresses in distress, help is only a store counter, a salon seat or a kitchen cabinet away. Ounces of prevention--and cures--range from age-old remedies (hats, bandannas, turbans, swim caps, homemade brews) to state-of-the-art products that do everything from thwarting chlorine to correcting color.
Weathering the Water
Experts tell swimmers to think of hair as a sponge. If it’s dry before it hits the water, it will soak up more chlorine and minerals, which can be harmful to hair.
To erect a barrier, wet the hair first with water and apply a conditioner--preferably one high in protein, EDTA and vitamin E--such as Joico’s Phine (sold with shampoo in a $9 Swim Duo pack).
Or you can apply a couple drops of baby oil or a dot of mayonnaise, says Jason Zeng, owner of Zen 2002 in South Pasadena and Monterey Park. Wet the hair and apply the oil or mayo four inches down on long hair or on the last inch of short hair.
For hair treated with relaxers, Donna Neely, owner of Hair by Donna in Los Angeles, suggests a paste made of 1/4-cup olive oil and an egg yolk. Apply to dry hair and use either as a bake-in-the-sun treatment or as protection against chlorine. (Cover with a shower cap and a swim cap before diving in, Neely says.) To remove, use hot water and a conditioning shampoo, such as Dudley’s. Rinse with water and 1/4-cup cider vinegar and apply Razac’s Perfect for Perms conditioner, she recommends.
The general rule is to rinse hair immediately after a dip. If you’re a long way from a shower, “towel dry the hair first and rinse with club soda,” advises New York stylist Carmine Minardi, Clairol’s national spokesman. “A liter-size bottle should last the day.”
Dean Rhoades, owner of the eponymous salon in Beverly Hills and the Aveda Esthetique in the Beverly Center, likes a more complicated mix: a 16-ounce bottle of distilled water laced with 10 crushed aspirins.
Sun Tips
On the fuzzy subject of sunscreens for the hair, David Cannell, vice president of technology for Redken, says: “It’s more of an issue for people who have chemically treated hair.”
And a hair spray with added sunscreen won’t do. It has to be a product that saturates the hair. “You have to use a mousse or styling gel with sunscreen in it,” Cannell says. “That way it can be worked in and coat the whole hair fiber.”
Despite its bad rap, sunshine can actually help hair. Jeanne Braa, artistic director for John Paul Mitchell Systems, suggests “solar treatments,” whereby heat-activated products, like Hair Repair or Super-Charge Conditioner, are applied to freshly rinsed hair and left on in the sun.
Neely says one mashed banana mixed with 1/2-cup mayonnaise applied to freshly shampooed hair and baked in by the sun, brings out the hair’s natural oils and adds shine.
From New York, Minardi suggests a “solar” pomade made of five or six drops of silicone (available in beauty supply stores) added to a Logics Clay Pack, Pantene’s Protein Pack or Karite by Rene Furterer.
Moisturizing Locks
Summer hair needs all the help it can get “because hair is so dry,” says Rhoades. Supermarkets and salons sell deep moisturizing conditioners. Or there is the Rhoades recipe (for hair and skin), which calls for one small organically grown avocado blended with three ounces plain yogurt and one tablespoon honey. Wash hair with a gentle shampoo (Aveda’s Shampure is one), towel blot, comb the avocado mixture through, leave on five to 10 minutes and shampoo again.
Bringing Up Body
To add body, there are products like Aveda’s Confixor Conditioner and Spray On Gel. Or, in a pinch, Rhoades recommends that old standby: beer. Comb 1/4- to 1/2-ounce of light German brew through towel-blotted hair and blow dry.
Color Treatment
Achieving and maintaining color-treated hair seems easier than ever this summer. Artec, Aveda, Redken and John Paul Mitchell all have shampoos for home use to instantly change or refresh color and add shine.
In the salon, Linda Marie Stella, a member of the Sebastian color team, says she gets a high gloss and longer-lasting results by applying a semi-permanent color over a permanent color. But some stylists, including Neely and Rhoades, only use semi-permanent colors, which are free of peroxide and ammonia, even on gray hair. And to create a “summery effect,” Rhoades adds highlights that are two shades lighter than the darkest hair.
Summer Cuts
At Vidal Sassoon salons, new wash-and-wear cuts created for the Wimbledon championships are being promoted. “In the summer, it’s better to go with a shape you can dry naturally,” explains Tim Hartley, international creative director. “There’s less stress on the hair.”
A swim is all it takes to separate good cuts from bad. “If your hair is properly cut, you should be able to see the shape when you get out of the water,” says Zen 2002’s Jason Zeng. “You can just put on some mousse or gel. Anyway you do the hair, it should have a style statement.”
Clairol’s Minardi suggests making a statement in short, wet hair with zig-zag parts. Or apply gel and create grooves in the hair with a lift comb, available in beauty supply stores.
Long hair can be turned into a fashionable braid. And a ponytail can be turned into a number of elegant quick fixes, such as a chignon or a French twist, with the help of the plastic TopsyTail ($9.90 at Bullock’s).
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As for blondes with green hair, there is a one-application quick fix. John Paul Mitchell’s Jeanne Braa, whose “bleached white hair turned intensely green from scuba lessons,” recommends applying straight bottled lemon juice to just-shampooed hair. Leave it on 15 minutes and shampoo out.
