You’ve enjoyed the sun, sea and sand to the absolute max, but what happens when post-holiday hair is left looking, well, in need of a holiday? Dry, brittle strands, frizz and split ends are the type of holiday souvenir we can all live without, so if the sun and sea have taken their toll, then it’s time to treat your tresses to a little TLC.
Beat the build-up
Any salt or chlorine, and chemicals from the likes of heat protector sprays and styling products, will have built up over your holiday. If you don’t have coloured hair, use a clarifying shampoo to rinse it all out and deep-clean tresses. Stick to something that is gentle but effective, such as Kebelo’s Clarifying Shampoo. This paraben-free, deeply cleansing shampoo uses a blend of mild ingredients to exfoliate and rejuvenate hair.Clarifying shampoos only need to be used now and again – once a month may well be enough – so it’s a nice deep-cleansing boost to help you on the road back to soft, silky strands.
For over-processed, dry hair that is coloured, try L’Oreal’s Hair Expertise Everpure Colour Care & Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner, which will leave hair feeling nourished.
Conditioning care
You should be conditioning after shampooing as part of your normal routine – concentrate on ends if hair is more prone to oiliness - but this is the time to really rehydrate hair, so up the conditioning treatments on all fronts. Try L’Occitane’s Repairing Conditioner for Dry & Damaged Hair, which is formulated with essential oils, including ylang ylang and sweet orange, as well as sweet almond oil, to strengthen and regenerate strands.
You could also switch up from your normal conditioner to a nourishing leave-in product. The label.m Leave-In Conditioner will smooth and strengthen hair, combining ginseng and vanilla, this has the added benefit of controlling frizz. Simply add a little to shampooed hair and massage it into the ends.
Mask magic
Choosing a deep-conditioning hair mask twice a week until your hair feels stronger is great for dry and parched hair. Phyto’s Ultra-Smoothing Hair Mask is particularly good for colour-treated hair to help strands retain moisture, which helps to leave hair sleek, smooth and shiny. For really brittle hair, the Dry Remedy Moisturising Hair Mask from Aveda will deeply nourish super-dry hair, and is safe to use on colour-treated hair. It also has a lovely soothing floral scent.
Keep up the TLC when it comes to styling hair. Let it dry naturally if possible and protect it from heat when you are styling. Using something like the John Frieda Frizz Ease Heat Defeat Protective Styling Spray, will help protect against further damage from blow-dryers and flat irons.
Go for a trim
One of the side effects of too much chlorine or salt in sun-dried hair, is dry, brittle ends, and worst case scenario, split ends. The only way to get rid of split ends is to have them cut off, so book in for a trim to stop any damage travelling further up the hair shaft.
Allocating just a little extra time to treating hair kindly and gently in those post-holiday weeks will really pay off.