Trisha Buller, the founder of Ciente in Berkhamsted, on how to protect your hair this summer
With summer holidays fast approaching, now is the time to prepare for the potential harm that the sun, sea, UV rays, and environmental toxins can cause to our hair and scalp condition. Overtime this can create dull, limp and lifeless hair, leaving you struggling to maintain and hold your style, and achieve the great colour results you were expecting at the hair salon.
Hair is hygroscopic, so will absorb atmospheric moisture, such as sea water, chlorine from swimming pools, fumes from traffic and many other pollutants. To protect your hair from absorbing harmful elements it is essential to use the correct products on your hair to protect the inner fibres and avoid potential breakage.
Shampooing your hair daily will help to remove unwanted waste, toxins, and product build up and is essential in maintaining healthy hair growth, also assisting the oxygenation of blood supply to the hair follicles. Cleansing the scalp correctly helps to keep pores clear, allowing the new hair growth to emerge in the best way. It is essential to use a good quality shampoo for your scalp and hair type, it will protect, and improve the quality of your hair fibres.
It is a common myth that daily shampooing will cause excessive dryness of the hair shaft; providing you are using the correct product for your scalp and hair type this will not happen, in fact it’s the reverse, helping to rehydrate and strengthen the hair shaft.
Products contain far better quality ingredients now than in previous times, and now play an important role in rehydrating and strengthening the hair fibres. Conditioner protects the outer layer of the hair called the “cuticle”; this resembles scales of a fish, laying in an overlapping downward movement. This not only protects the inner structure, which is where colour molecules and structural changes take place, but also helps to reflect day light, creating a healthy shiny glow.
If cuticle scales become damaged, for whatever reason (and there are many), gaps can be created in the structure, and sunlight is absorbed as opposed to reflecting, causing a dull matt appearance. This can also be the reason for colour fade and or lack of hold once styled.
An intensive hair treatment should be applied at least once a week. The treatment has smaller molecules and acts quite differently from a conditioner; penetrating the cuticle it enters the inner structure helping to replace lost moisture, protein, carbohydrates and essential fatty acids. An intensive treatment can be left on the hair from as little as five minutes to 30 minutes, depending on your hair type, texture, and density.
Always rinse thoroughly and apply the conditioner which protects the cuticle and or a heat styling protector spray or cream, again depending on your hair type and texture as to what you should be using. This is why it is important to seek advice from a professional knowledgeable stylist, to establish your own personal recipe for your best hair health.
