It takes a day with terribly drizzly weather to remind me how hard it can be to keep your hair cute, no matter where you go to school. I made the transition from the dry air of Colorado to the ridiculously humid East Coast, and totally appreciate how tough it can be to revamp your hair styling habits.
Here are some of the tricks I’ve learned over my college transition to keep hair looking fab, no matter the weather.
Photo: JustJared
1. Let gravity work for you: There have always been general rules about thick haircuts versus thin haircuts–if your hair is thick, get lots of layers so you’ve got some movement and so that it doesn’t feel as heavy. If you’ve got thin hair, keep it closer to one-length so that your hair looks fuller. However, these rules can cause problems in humid areas.
- If the weather in your area is wetter, keep your layers long–short layers are more likely to become flyaways. If it’s a particularly wet place, keep hair at all one length so that the weight of the hair will help keep frizz and puffiness under control.
- If you’ve got a super-thick mane, tell your stylist to thin hair out underneath and closer to the ends.
2. Learn the lingo: Have you heard of humectant styling products? What about humidity resistance? There are certain words to look for on your products that are especially suited to challenging climates. A humectant is a product that will pull in moisture from the air and embed it in your hair strands. These are great for gals in dry climates. Try Suave Humectant Conditioner. An anti-humectant, conversely, will block moisture from affecting your hairstyle. This is ideal for curly gals, or people who live in humid areas. Aveda makes a nice anti-humectant product. You can also try humidity-resistance hairsprays like Sunsilk Hold Me Forever, although I find that too much of this kind of spray can make hair look crunchy (not cute!!).
- Thin-haired gals, take note: too many products will make your hair look limp and sad. Try a lightweight serum like got2B Smooth Operator Smoothing Satin Drops, and maybe work a small amount of mousse into your roots for some volume, but stay away from gels, pomades, or heavy cremes.
3. Change up your routine: Winter means dry skin and a dry scalp for me, no matter the climate, so I make sure to change up my shampoo and conditioner to suit the season, too. In winter, I switch to a moisturizing shampoo with tea tree oil, like Nature’s Gate Tea Tree Calming Shampoo, or just to Head and Shoulders for a few weeks if my scalp starts to get itchy. Fittingly, you’ll probably want to work an extra-heavy moisturizer into your ends during the winter as well. My favorite mask is the Bumble and bumble Creme de Coco masque, but I’ve also heard great things about using Vo5 Hot Oil treatments on your ends.
- Added bonus: gentle shampoos and rich conditioners will help keep your hair healthy and prevent those dreaded split-ends!
4. Fight static: My nemesis during the super dry winter months in Colorado was static. You’d be going from indoor dry heat to a dry cold and back to heat again – static-y hair was practically inevitable. If you’ve changed up your routine to include more nourishing, moisturizing products and are still experiencing static and flyaways, keep a travel-size hairspray and a dryer sheet in your purse. Rubbing a dryer sheet (lightly!) over static hair will help to balance out the electric charges in the air, and a quick fix spritz of hairspray will help put your hair back in its style.
5. Don’t fight nature: Even with the best hair products in the world, curly girls are going to have a tough time, no matter what, trying to straighten their hair during a monsoon. (Straight-haired gals are going to have trouble holding curls in humidity, too.) So go easy on your hair follicles and consider embracing your natural hair texture during extreme weather–everyone looks like a wet dog sometimes!!
Photo: IMDB
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