The summer months are approaching. While our bodies are looking forward to the warm sun and that calming heat, our hair is ready for the annual damage that it endures. If you’re someone who has dry hair and dandruff or oily hair, then listen up! Here are some summer hair care tips to make your hair look amazing despite the weather.

1. Use dry shampoo to absorb oil and to protect hair from becoming oily

Dry shampoo has been around for quite some time but only has gained popularity recently. Rest assured that once you try it, you’ll find yourself wondering where it has been your whole life. As its name suggests, you apply dry shampoo to your dry hair. It works well after a few days of not washing your hair (which you’re not supposed to do every day). It works to absorb the oil in your hair and leaves it soft and full of body.

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Another lesser known way to use dry shampoo is as a preventative measure to avoid oily hair. After you wash and dry your hair, apply dry shampoo to your roots and massage it in. While your hair is indeed clean already, the dry shampoo adds a sort of protective barrier between your hair and the dirt and oil that it inevitably will encounter throughout the day. Instead of the dirt and oil being absorbed into your hair, it’ll simply wash out when you rinse it at the end of the day. If you had a day where you particularly active and sweating, rinse out your hair with cool water, allow to air dry, and then reapply your dry shampoo.

2. Avoid blow drying as much as possible

Dandruff or dry scalp is sometimes the result of excessively dry hair and scalp. If there isn’t enough moisture in the scalp, it will dry out and begin to flake. It’s just like when your skin becomes dry. After all, the scalp is essentially the skin on your head.

In the summertime, your head is subjected to quite a lot of heat from the sun naturally. Whenever you’re outside and the sun is shining, your scalp and hair are getting a dose of sunshine and UV. This will naturally dry your hair and scalp out. Blow drying or flat ironing will only further dry out your hair. If you can, limit your blow drying to once every week or less. Instead, after washing or rinsing your hair, allow it to air dry to prevent your hair from getting more heat than it needs to.

3. Wear sunscreen – not just on your body

Sunscreen is something that you should never forget to bring for a day out in the sun. The reason, of course is to protect your skin. There are a number of shampoos that have UV protection in them, however they often have a lot of extra chemicals that may do more damage than good. What good is UV protection if you’re going to suffer in other ways? A great way to add a level of protection to your hair is to run your hands through your hair after you apply your sunscreen to your body. Depending on the type of hair you have, the sun can increase dryness or promote an over production of oil. Adding the UV protection of sunscreen in small amounts can help to prevent the results of sun exposure.

4. Cover up your hair

Because the sun is more abundant during the summer months, you’re going to get your dose of it even doing simple things like walking to work. Even a short amount of time spent in the sun can damage your scalp. When heading out into the sun, grab a scarf or hat, or even both to cover your scalp. The scarf will not only give you protection from damaging UV Rays, but it will also help retain moisture to prevent your hair from becoming excessively dry. It also helps the scalp from drying out and producing more dandruff.

5. Think twice before shampooing

After a day in the pool or on the beach, the first thing that you will likely want to do is to wash your hair. After all, it’s been subjected to chlorine, salt water, sand, and other dirt and oils, so you want to get as much of the foreign matter out of your hair. It would seem that shampooing would be the logical choice, right? Not really.

Shampooing your hair too often can actually rid the hair of it’s natural oils that are necessary to keep hair strong. Cutting back a bit on the frequency of washing your hair will promote the hair’s natural oil to rebalance itself.

Of course, you’re still not wrong that you need to get the dirt, sand, and chlorine out of your hair after a day in the sun. Instead of applying shampoo, simply rinse the hair in the shower and give yourself a bit of a scalp massage. Doing this will stir up cells and exfoliate them. It’ll also increase circulation and promote hair growth.

Final words

These are just a few of the many summer hair care tips for maintaining dry or oily hair during the summer months. Do you have a tip that we didn’t talk about here? Share some of your favorite summer hair care tips below in the comments!