California summers means plenty of outdoor activities out in the sun. During all the smiles, laughter and romantic moments outdoors exposes our skin and hair to the extremes that come with the good weather. The natural moisture is stripped from the hair. The hair becomes dry and brittle and can have a very frizzy appearance.
Conditioning treatments rich in emollient oils is the optimal solution to keep your summer hair health. Olive oil is used throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa. In many of the tropics and Africa cocoa butter is use. Indigenous Americans well known for their lustrous hair even living in the elements utilized jojoba oil combined with herbal blends.
A simple home treatment is to brush out your hair dry without shampooing. Oil and water don’t mix. Applying hot oil and letting it set twenty to forty minutes will penetrate the hair cuticle and restore the damage caused by the sun, salt water, pool water and wind.
Some LA stylist recommend a blend of oils because the different size molecules penetrate the hair shaft better and condition very effectively. Ken Paves, is a top L.A. hairstylist whose clients include Jennifer Lopez, he notes; “People with long hair need to treat it with special care or it can get strawlike.”
The extra dryness also exacerbates scalp dryness; this really can be an issue for people who suffer with dandruff. Since shedding of dead skin cells form the scalp is normal; it is important to understand that dandruff is nothing more than the increased dryness and the slowing down of the natural sloughing off of these cells
There are many factors that contribute to dandruff:
- excessive alcohol consumption
- heredity
- high sugar, high salt, and spicy foods
- hormonal changes
- lack of essential fatty acids and vitamin B
- summer weather
- stress
Hot oil treatments also help with rejuvenating the scalp and decreasing issues with dandruff.