Beach Hair

With the change of season, your hair requires special summer care. Sun, chlorine and salt water can wreak havoc on even the healthiest tresses, leeching color and leaving your strands looking and feeling as brittle as straw.

Hair stylist extraordinaire Antonio Venegas from Kim Vo Salon, San Francisco, has a few tips to keep your locks looking sexy and feeling healthy.

“Your hair can get sunburned just like your skin,” Antonio cautioned, “so make sure you use a leave-in styling product or hair spray that has UV protection.”

We’re addicted to Philip Kingsley’s awesome line of finishing products, spiked with UV guards. Try Philip Kingsley’s Smooth Cream, a lightweight leave-in that moisturizes your mane while protecting it from UV damage. It will prolong and protect your color and drench dry ends in much-needed moisture.

For a limited time while supplies last, you can try the amazing Smooth Cream, regularly $21 for 1.6 fl. oz., for the sale price of $10, a beauty bargain if there ever was one, and an excellent way to experience a little of the luxe Philip Kingsley line.

“Summer heat may leave your hair feeling dry and frail,” Antonio said. “Use a rich moisturizing masque to resuscitate dehydrated hair.”

Philip Kingsley’s Elasticizer Extreme, $45 for 5.07 fl. oz., is a powerful remedy for dry, porous and thirsty hair, adding elasticity, manageability, bounce and shine.

An at-home treatment made in the blender is a great, cost-effective way to treat your hair as well. Age-old ingredients like olive oil and egg yolks feed and fortify the follicles, moisturizing the hair shaft with shine-inducing oils and proteins.

For the perfect at-home masque, mix two eggs with some olive oil in the blender until you have a thick paste, making a rich hair treatment. It’s similar to a mayonnaise hair pack, but much more effective because you are getting more of the active ingredients than contained in commercial mayo.

Apply the masque as a pre-shampoo treatment. Just massage the mixture onto dry hair, concentrating on the ends. Cover with a plastic cap so your body heat will warm the conditioner allowing deeper penetration into the cuticle.

You can sleep in it overnight, or shampoo it out after about 20 minutes. The important thing is to do it regularly. Try to give your hair a pack once a week.

Other hair-nurturing ingredients can be added to the mix; try half an avocado or a tablespoon of avocado oil, rich in vitamin E.

Or add some banana, which is high in vitamins C, B and E, as well as potassium. Bananas strengthen the root of the hair and moisturize the scalp, making hair smooth and less prone to breakage.

It is important to blend your masque until smooth and creamy so you aren’t left with big chunks that will not shampoo out easily. And if you add eggs to the masque, rinse out with cooler water at first. If you start with hot water, the heat will cook the eggs and you will end up picking scrambled egg yolks out of damp hair. Not fun!

Regarding the summer hair style, you don’t want to look overly-coiffed in these hot months.

For casual, tousled beachy waves, Antonio recommends this old trick: “Braid your hair at night and sleep on it.” Unravel the braids in the morning and gently finger-comb to separate the waves.

You’ll be the belle of the beach.