Seeing as the sun is starting to peek its head out I thought I might take a moment to talk about summer hair care — especially if we’re all hoping the sun comes out to stay this year! Having color-treated hair does require a bit more to protect it during the summer months, particularly if you’re planning a trip that includes sun exposure.
Just like virgin hair, color-treated hair lightens when exposed to the sun. But instead of getting those natural looking highlights, colored hair will fade exponentially faster that natural hair. Anything that’s blonde will go almost platinum quickly, and everything else fades out several shades lighter and becomes quite brassy. Typically I end up seeing my clients right before a big trip, so imagine their frustration about the money spent for a fresh color and to come home and have it significantly faded out 1-2 weeks later! So here are my recommendations to keep your hair fresh and beautiful all summer long:
First of all, a keeping a beautiful color starts with a great color-safe shampoo. For my money I prefer the Joico line — I think it’s where cost and performance meet. Typically I don’t push color-safe conditioners, but in the summertime I most certainly do. Color-safe conditioners have SPF in them, which will help protect your color from the sun. In particular I recommend the Joico Color Endure Violet Shampoo & Conditioner duo — the violet tones in the products will counteract any brassy tones your hair may pick up from environmental damage (sun, chlorinated water, hard well water, etc.).
Secondly, I recommend Redken’s Color Extend Sun Sparkling Shield Leave-In Smoother. It’s a great leave spray (which, PS, smells amazing) that you can stash in your beach/pool/river bag. It’s water-resistant formula helps protect hair from UVA/UVB rays and the absorption of chlorine and minerals, plus the main ingredient (mango oil) nourishes and conditions hair creating a sleek, polished look with multi-dimensional shine.
If you’re noticing a crazy amount of “gunk” buildup from a lot of pool swimming this summer, I recommend this bad boy, Paul Mitchell’s Shampoo Three. It’s a clarifying shampoo that removes dulling build-up from hair such as chlorine, iron, minerals, and medication. It also helps to minimize future buildup in the hair, but most importantly helps prevent swimmers’ “chlorine green.” Be forewarned though: clarifying shampoos will also strip the color OUT of your hair, so use it veeeeery sparingly – they take out the bad stuff, but used too much it will also take out the good stuff, too! And be sure to use a hydrating conditioner when you’ve got a clarifying shampoo going on. :)
Finally, in terms of styling products, I like to keep things pretty simple for my clients in the summer. If you’ve ever been to the beach and loved the way your hair looked after playing all day, here’s the product to use to recreate that at home: Catwalk’s Styling Session Series Salt Spray. This will give a light pliable hold to your hair with incredible body and texture. It was designed to control frizz and fight humidity, while the sea salt adds body and definition to the hair to create the most amazing looks! Catwalk’s Salt Spray is great for creating a beachy waves, dishevelled layers and bohemian braids — just either spray into wet hair to add body or into dry hair for tousled texture! How simple is that??
So go enjoy that sunshine knowing that you’ll have beautiful, healthy, well-cared for gorgeous hair in all those photos and FB posts! 
