Here’s How to Enjoy the Great Outdoors With No Hair Regrets

You know you’re feeling summer vibes when you start browsing swimwear and sandals. Long evenings, barbeques, and beach days are calling your name. 

Hopefully, you are also adding a hat and sunscreen for your hair to your summer shopping list, because sunshine and saltwater play havoc with your hair. 

If you’re anything like most of my clients, you’ve taken great care of your mane all year. And it shows in your healthy, happy, and hydrated hair.

Then the weather warms up. Your social life moves outside. The top goes down on the convertible. Sounds perfect? But your happy place might not be your hair’s idea of a good time. 

In my 20 years as a stylist, I have seen this story play out so many times. 

As a human, I’m excited for your upcoming beach holiday. But as your stylist, my heart sinks. Especially when you’re back in my chair with dry, damaged, brassy, and sun-faded tresses. My grey-haired clients even get a yellow tinge from sun damage.

 

You Need SPF for Your Skin and Your Hair

You deserve fun in the sun. But without sunscreen for your hair, your damaged, unmanageable hair will be with you long after summer memories fade. Obviously, you don’t want to spend your whole summer hiding from the sun. And you don’t have to. 

You’re used to protecting your skin from sun damage – you can protect your hair the same way. 

And I don’t mean smothering your head in thick sunscreen. At Arey, we created a sunscreen for your hair that goes above and beyond simple protection. 

5 Reasons Why Your Natural, Colored, or Grey Hair Needs UV Protection

You use SPF on your skin to protect against cell damage and premature aging. You need to do the same for your hair. 

According to haircare experts, your hair needs sunscreen to prevent:¹ 

• Fading - sun exposure bleaches natural and colored hair 

• Yellowing - UV exposure can turn your grey hair yellow

• Brassy tones - blonde and highlighted hair can turn reddish

• Dry, brittle hair - heat and UV rays damage and roughen your hair shaft 

• Premature greying - sunlight can cause irreversible loss of pigment 

Nothing says ‘summer’ like beachy waves with sunkissed highlights. But those summertime strands are a sign of something sinister.² 

You already know that sun exposure can damage your skin cells, causing wrinkles, sunspots, and even cancer. Turns out, UV rays also attack your hair.

Your scalp reacts to heat and sunlight by triggering a chemical process. Known as oxidative stress, this process attacks your hair follicles. It causes irreversible damage to the cells in your hair that produce melanin (the pigment that gives hair its color).  

Bottom line – unprotected exposure to UVA/UVB rays can cause your hair to lose its ability to produce pigment and turn prematurely grey.³ That’s why we are obsessed with finding the best sun care for your hair.

Can Sunscreen Stop Your Hair Turning Grey?

At Arey, we are all about science, and the science is strong on this – only 30% of greys are the result of genetics. The good news is that the rest is caused by environmental and lifestyle factors. 

Here are a few ways you can help slow and prevent grey hair:

✅ Lower your stress - your body's fight-or-flight response plays a key role in turning hair grey. Don’t skip those meditations – good mental health means better hair health.⁴ 

✅ Get your vitamins - a diet lacking in essential nutrients can turn your hair grey prematurely. The right diet and supplement make a big difference. 

✅ Quit smoking - a major cause of premature greying.⁵

✅ Use sunscreen for your hair - UV rays damage your hair and scalp resulting in dry and grey hair.⁶

Light-colored or greying hair needs the most protection from UV rays. Darker hair, like darker skin, has more melanin to protect it from the sun, but all hair and skin colors need protection from long-term exposure.⁸ 

 

SPF for Your Hair Stops Premature Greying 

Greying hair is aging hair and it needs a little extra love. Signs of aging hair include:

• Changes in texture - environmental damage causes coarseness and frizz

• Greying - 70% of greying is caused by lifestyle factors

• Thinning - hair loss or overall weaker, finer strands

• Dehydration - lifestyle factors dry out your hair and scalp over time

Your beach bag is probably already stuffed with sun protection – one for your face, another for your body. Yet another one for your kids. It’s a lot to drag around. 

That’s why we created an easy, purse-sized sun and haircare multitasker for you to fall in love with. We think you’re going to want to take this everywhere.

The Best Active Ingredients That Protect Your Hair From Sun Damage

Like with all Arey’s products, we don’t like to stop at just one benefit. So we packed Live in Mist with anti-aging ingredients to boost your hair health all year round. We want to be more than just your summer haircare crush:

Panthenol 

A powerhouse hair care ingredient valued for its moisturizing, soothing properties. Panthenol helps seal and smooth the outer layer (cuticle) of your hair strands. The result – less frizzing, splitting, and coarseness. 

Your hair strands need moisture to plump them out. Panthenol attracts moisture into your hair and seals it there. The result – thicker, fuller-looking hair.¹⁰  

Hydrolyzed Barley Protein 

Hydrolyzed protein passes through your hair’s cuticle to hydrate strands from root to tip. Hydrated hair is stronger, shiny, and full. As well as boosting shine and preventing breakage, barley protein makes your hair look thicker by helping strands retain moisture. 

Barley also contains an amino acid called lysine which is necessary for the formation of collagen. Collagen is the main component of keratin – a major building block your body needs to create hair.¹¹

Raspberry Seed Oil

A natural sunscreen that offers protection equivalent to a 28-50 SPF (Sun Protection Factor). Raspberry Seed Oil is packed with vitamin A, which heals UV damage and repairs cells. It is also a natural source of Ellagic acid, which strengthens hair roots and prevents hair loss.¹² 

Jojoba Seed Oil 

Jojoba is a great moisturizer for your hair and skin. The better conditioned your hair strand is, the less likely you are to experience dryness, breakage, and split ends. 

Jojoba strengthens your hair from the inside out by filling in the structure of the hair strand. It also acts as a natural sunscreen for your hair. 

At Arey, we don’t just look out for your hair health – we care about your overall health. That's why all our products are free from Sulfates, Parabens, Phthalates, Synthetic Fragrance, Polyethylene Glycol, Formaldehyde, and Dyes. 

Our gluten-free, vegan, and cruelty-free products are naturally fragranced with cedar and sage.

We designed Live In Mist to protect your hair from UV damage but its conditioning and styling benefits have made it a customer favorite. The reviews speak for themselves:

Meet Live in Mist – Your Hair’s Secret Weapon Against Sun Damage 

Live In Mist is a lightweight daily sunscreen for your hair. It’s also a leave-in conditioner that soothes and protects your hair with plant-based moisturizers. 

Here’s how Live In Mist benefits your hair:

✅ Protects your hair from UV damage – exceeds haircare-experts recommendations of SPF 30 or above⁹

✅ Creates silky, defined strands – tames flyaways without stiffness 

✅ Detangles hair – makes wet or dry hair easy to comb and style

✅ Deeply moisturizes hair from root to tip – leaves no heaviness or sticky residue

✅ Combats humidity – provides a lightweight anti-frizz protection 

✅ Preserves color-treated hair – prevents UV-induced fading and brass

Your best buddy for perfect summer hair also comes in a purse-sized pump bottle, and is also available in an even more portable size along with Wash Shampoo and Smooth Conditioner in The Travel Kit! And it smells good too – lightly fragranced with our signature natural cedar and sage scent.

How to Use Arey’s Live in Mist 

Live in Mist is so much more than a sunscreen for your hair – it's your summer styling secret.

Here’s how to use Live In Mist based on your hair type:

• Fine hair: use on dry hair to smooth flyaways and create texture

• Medium / Wavy hair: use on wet hair to defrizz and smooth

• Coarse / Curly hair: use on dry hair to hydrate and define curls 

You can use Live In Mist daily as sun protection and as a convenient style-refresher between washes.

Your hair will thank you and so will your stylist.

At Arey, We Care About Your Hair Health

That’s what motivates us to create innovative science-based products to slow the signs of aging hair and improve hair health. We want to make it easy for you to do the right thing for your hair. 

Your hair health is important to us – that’s why we offer 25% off on all subscriptions to help keep you on track with your hair health goals. Because we believe that science + consistency = results.

We are Arey.

Aging is beautiful – but if your greys are growing faster than you wish, we are here for you with science-based, effective solutions. We want you to feel happy and confident with your hair. Have questions? Say hey@areygrey.com

 

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REFERENCES:

1. Best Ways To Protect Your Hair From Sun Damage:
2. Does Your Hair Need Sunscreen? Everything You Need To Know | Hair.com By L'Oréal
3. Trueb, Ralph M (2009). "Oxidative stress in aging of hair". 
4. How Stress Causes Gray Hair | NIH News in Health
5. Zayed AA, Shahait AD, Ayoub MN, Yousef AM. Smokers' hair: Does smoking cause premature hair graying? Indian Dermatol Online J. 2013 Apr;4(2):90-2. doi: 10.4103/2229-5178.110586. PMID: 23741662; PMCID: PMC3673399.
6. Zhai X, Gong M, Peng Y, Yang D. Effects of UV Induced-Photoaging on the Hair Follicle Cycle of C57BL6/J Mice. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2021;14:527-539
7. Common habits which cause premature greying of hair
8. Gao, T & Bedell, A. (2001). Ultraviolet damage on natural gray hair and its photoprotection. Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. 52. 103-118. 
9. 8 Best Hair Sunscreens of 2023 | by Health
10. Panthenol: Uses, safety, and risks
11. The structure of people’s hair - PMC 
12. Angad Patole, Rajendra Ganjiwale, Achal Ghate, Jyotiranjan Roul and Bhushan R. Gandhare, 2020. Protective Effect of Ellagic Acid on Testosterone-induced Alopecia in Rats. Asian Journal of Biological Sciences, 13: 158-167.