Your Best Summer Hair – Stop Sun Damage With UV Protection

Summer is here. That means longer days and more time outside enjoying the sunshine. It also means you need to stop sun damage to your summer hair with UV protection, because Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can play havoc with your hair health, color, and texture.¹ You wouldn’t skip the sunscreen for your face, so do your summer tresses a favor and don’t skip the UV protection for your hair.

How to Prevent Sun Damage to Your Hair

The best way to protect your summer hair from sun damage and fading is to reduce your exposure to the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays. Here are the two best ways to keep your summer hair healthy:

✅ Get a hat: physically blocking the sun from your hair is the best protection.

✅ Use UV protection: UV protection plus conditioner delivers double benefits. 

If you’re still craving that summer sun-bleached look, trust me, you’re better off achieving it in a salon. That’s because sun-lightened hair is one of the more obvious signs of long-term sun damage to your hair, also known as photodamage. 

 

 

As a Trichologist (a scalp and hair health expert), I know that healthy, hydrated hair can defend itself better against the effects of UV rays. That’s why all Arey haircare products are clinically-validated solutions for your best hair health, and why we created our leave in conditioner Live In Mist® specifically for UV protection. So, when you’re looking for the best ways to protect your summer hair, you need to address the problem of sun damage in two ways:

1. Protect your hair with conditioning extracts that act like sunscreen for your hair – including Raspberry seed extract, and Black Spruce bark extract that nourish, hydrate and condition your hair while also providing UV protection. 

2. Use antioxidants to combat harmful free radicals triggered by UV exposure – free radicals are unstable molecules which can damage your hair structure and ability to produce pigment at a cellular level.¹

Pigment (melanin) is what gives your hair its natural color. Studies show¹ that free radicals caused by UV exposure can cause fading of your hair’s natural color, and even premature greying. Antioxidants are like an off-switch to free radicals, stopping them from damaging cells. Related: how free radicals cause hair aging from oxidative stress.

 

How the Sun’s UV Rays Damage Your Hair

The sun emits many kinds of ultraviolet rays, but the two types that mainly affect your skin and hair health are UVA and UVB rays. Because UV exposure can trigger oxidative stress (when free radicals overwhelm your healthy cells) it can damage the cells of both your hair and scalp skin.

 

 

Here’s how UVA and UVB rays can cause sun damage to your hair: 

UVA Rays And Your Hair: 

UVA rays can penetrate deep into your skin, causing wrinkles, fine lines and sagging skin. When it comes to your hair, UVA radiation actively breaks down melanin in your hair follicles² (roots), and can cause hair color changes including fading and even greying. 

Melanin acts as a kind of natural sunscreen for your hair because it can absorb some UV rays and protect your strands’ core proteins (keratin) from sun damage. The more melanin you lose from repeated UVA exposure, the more vulnerable your hair becomes to the effects of UVA radiation. UVA rays are present all year round so don’t think your locks are safe even on an overcast day. UVA rays can easily pass through clouds and even glass.

UVB Rays And Your Hair: 

UVB rays are the ones most associated with sunburn and skin cancer. And yes, you can get skin cancer on your scalp, especially if you have light, fine or thinning hair. UVB rays are strongest during summer and if you’re at higher altitudes. The good news is that UVB is effectively blocked by glass. 

Your hair is vulnerable to the effects of UVB rays because they directly affect the amino acids in your hair shaft. UVB rays damage the amino acids that are the building blocks of keratin – a crucial protein that is key to your hair’s health, growth, elasticity, shine, and resilience. 

 

Ingredients That Help Protect Your Hair From the Sun

Live In Mist® leave in conditioner is packed with ingredients that act like sunscreen for your hair. UV protection combined with antioxidants and conditioning oils defend and nourish your summer hair so you can help stop sun damage and have fun in the sun with no regrets. 

Here’s how the UV protection ingredients in Live In Mist® work: 

☀️ Raspberry Seed Oil: 

Raspberry Seed oil, also known as Rubus Idaeus, does double duty in Live In Mist® as a natural sunscreen and a powerful antioxidant. Even though it is not commercially rated with a specific Sun Protection Factor (SPF), Raspberry Seed oil is estimated to have an SPF of around 30-50 (moderate to high protection level). 

 

 

Raspberry Seed oil is rich in essential fatty acids, including Omegas 3 and 6, which work to soothe your scalp’s protective skin barrier and promote collagen production. It also contains antioxidant vitamins A and E that are associated with stronger hair and increased hair growth.³ 

🌿 Black Spruce Extract:

Black Spruce extract is distilled from black spruce trees, a coniferous evergreen tree native to North America. This essential oil is rich in vitamin C – a powerful antioxidant that supports healthy scalp skin and guards against damage from oxidative stress. Black Spruce extract also provides natural UV protection because of its antioxidant properties. Related: the power of antioxidants to slow grey hair and promote hair growth and shine.

 

What Hair Type Is Most at Risk From UV Damage?

When your hair lightens as a result of UV exposure, it is called photobleaching. In a similar way to how bleach in hair dye lightens your hair, photobleaching from the sun reacts with the melanin in your hair, removing the color in an irreversible chemical reaction.⁴  Photobleaching also adversely impacts your hair’s texture and strength.

While anyone can suffer scalp skin damage from UV rays, certain hair types are more vulnerable to hair sun damage. Here’s what you need to know:

 

Dark Hair Types: 

Darker hair colors contain higher levels of a pigment called eumelanin which is more resistant to the fading and bleaching effects of the sun. While darker hair types might notice less obvious lightening effects, the amino acids and keratin that make up your hair strands are still being attacked by the sun’s rays. If you don’t protect your hair from UV rays, you may still experience dryness, a rougher texture, and increased breakage.

 

Medium to Light Hair Types:

Lighter hair types have less eumelanin pigment and more pheomelanin, so your hair is more vulnerable to photobleaching. Lighter hair types will notice sun damage more quickly than people with dark hair. This also applies to bleached or chemically treated hair, because your keratin bonds are already weaker than those in natural hair.

 

Grey Hair Types:

Because melanin offers some UV protection to your hair, grey hair is extra vulnerable to sun exposure because it has little or no melanin left. Even if you are only seeing your first greys, you need to protect your tresses because⁴ heat damage from the sun actually speeds up the greying process. For those of you happily rocking a silver mane, proper UV protection for your summer hair can also help stop your silvers turning yellow, or becoming brittle and fragile.  

 

Because Proactive Care Means Your Best Summer Hair

When it comes to sun damage, your best strategy is to get proactive and use UV protection to prevent hair damage before it happens. That's why we offer up to 25% off on all subscription orders to help keep you on track with your hair health goals. Because we believe that science + consistency = results.

We are Arey.

Have questions? Check out our FAQ page or email us at hey@areygrey.com.

 

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REFERENCES:

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2929555/ 
2. https://www.verywellhealth.com/hair-photobleaching-8659833
3. https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/vitamin-e-for-hair#benefits 
4. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/best-ways-to-protect-your-hair-from-sun-damage