07/31/12 - 0 Comments
Your Guide to Easy, Breezy, Effortless Beach Hair
Among our countless reasons for loving summer is that it’s a time to let our hair down, quite literally. Few things are as liberating as foregoing the blow dryer and round brush combination and allowing our hair to run a little wild. This is especially true if you’re cursed (or blessed? The grass is always greener!) with naturally wavy or curly hair. Those of us with tresses that are more inclined to kink in the summer’s heat and humidity are all too familiar with the coos of admiration from our fair-stranded friends who are desperate to know our secret to apparently effortless, just-home-from-the-beach hair. In some cases, it is as simple as a little salt water. The rest is in the genes. If your DNA didn’t grant you natural curls, we’ve got a no-fail guide to get that beachy look you’d love to strut. It’s already almost August, so quit fussing with your tresses—get out there and enjoy the summer sun!
- First things first: regardless of your hair’s texture, moisture is absolutely key. We recommend that everyone start by cleansing with a super-hydrating shampoo, like Paul Mitchell’s Moisturizing Lather Awapuhi Wild Ginger, followed by the Keratin Cream Rinse, also from the Awapuhi line. If you just washed your hair yesterday though, you can jump straight to step two.
- Can’t actually go to the beach? That’s ok—you can create a saline solution in your own home (just add a teaspoon of salt to a few cups of seltzer water. Doesn’t get much easier than that.) Spritz the solution all over your hair using a spray bottle.
- Set your part using a comb. Now you can either let your hair air dry or you can blow dry. If your hair is naturally curly, you can probably get away with skipping this part; but, if it’s pin-straight, here’s where you’ll get a little bit of a work out. Using a quality curling iron (we recently discovered the Goody Wave Creator Curling Iron—perfect for the job!) start curling one-inch sections from the underlayer of hair and work your way up, until you’ve curled your entire head of hair.
- Next, you’ll need to define the waves. You can do this with either an all-purpose pomade or one of many products created specifically to enhance curls. We love Pravana The Beach Wave Control Mist for its ability to actually hold waves and not make our hair feel crunchy.
- You’re almost done! Now just flip your head forward and scrunch your hands through your hair to tease the waves out. Flip your head back up, repeat the scrunching and you’re good to go! Now even more admiring glances are bound to be directed your way.
Photo credit: Kendee Johnson
