Need to know how you can protect your hair from the summer sun? Every June, without fail, guests start coming in saying the same thing… “I don’t know what’s happened to my hair.” It was fine in April. Now it’s frizzy, dry, a bit dull, and nothing seems to be working.
Summer in Northampton isn’t the south of France (although it’s been hotter this week). But that doesn’t mean your hair gets an easy ride. What we actually deal with here is something trickier than pure heat, it’s that classic British combination of warmth, cloud, and humidity that shifts three times before lunchtime. And humidity, more than sunshine, is what really plays havoc with hair.
Here’s what we tell our clients when they come in with that look of defeat on their face…
Humidity is the real villain
When the air is full of moisture, your hair tries to absorb it. The cuticle, the tiny overlapping scales that coat each strand, lifts up to let that moisture in, and the result is frizz, puffiness, and that feeling that your hair has developed its own agenda.
The fix isn’t complicated, but it does require getting ahead of it rather than chasing it. Once frizz has taken hold on a humid morning, you’re not getting rid of it without starting again. So the routine needs to happen before you leave the house, not after.
Start with a genuinely moisturising shampoo and conditioner. Not volumising, not clarifying, moisturising. Summer is not the time for anything that strips the hair back. Conditioner needs at least two or three minutes to actually work, so leave it on while you do everything else in the shower, then rinse. While hair is still damp, apply an anti-frizz serum or leave-in conditioner before you do anything else. This is the step most people skip, and it’s the most important one.
Then, where possible, let your hair dry without touching it too much. The more you scrunch, rake, or repeatedly run your fingers through it while it’s drying, the more you disturb the cuticle and invite frizz back in.
Please, protect your hair from heat!
We know. You’ve heard this before. But we still see clients every week who are blow-drying and straightening without one, and their hair tells the story.
A heat protectant forms a barrier around each strand that limits how much heat actually penetrates the hair shaft. In summer, when your hair is already dealing with sun exposure, humidity, and probably more washing than usual, adding unprotected heat on top is genuinely damaging. The hair becomes brittle, loses elasticity, and starts to break.
Apply it to towel-dried hair before blow-drying, and again to dry hair before using any irons. It takes about fifteen seconds. It makes a real difference.
If you’re not sure which one to use for your hair type, just ask us next time you’re in. We’d rather spend two minutes on that conversation than watch someone’s hair take unnecessary damage.
Give the heat tools a rest sometimes
Heatless styling has become genuinely popular over the last year or two, and we think it deserves more credit than it gets. Overnight curls using soft rollers or a silk scarf, braids left in while you sleep, mousse scrunched into damp hair before air-drying. None of it sounds glamorous, but the results are often softer and more natural-looking than anything achieved with a curling wand.
Summer is actually the ideal time to experiment with this because your hair dries faster and the warmth helps set styles without any heat at all. If you’ve always relied on tools to get texture or movement, try going without for a week and see what happens. You might be surprised.
Your hair needs SPF too
This one genuinely surprises people. UV radiation breaks down the keratin in your hair the same way it damages your skin, and if you have colour-treated hair, the sun will fade it faster than almost anything else.
A UV-protective leave-in spray or a light oil with UV filters gives your hair a fighting chance. Wearing a hat when you’re out for extended periods makes a bigger difference than any product. And if you’re swimming, wet your hair with clean water before you get in the sea or a pool. Hair that’s already saturated absorbs far less salt or chlorine than dry hair does.
Rinse thoroughly after swimming and follow up with conditioner. Every time. Salt water in particular is incredibly drying if it’s left to sit.
One good mask a week changes things
We’re not suggesting an elaborate multi-step treatment ritual. Just one decent conditioning mask, once a week, throughout the summer months.
Keratin-enriched masks are particularly effective right now because they replace the protein that heat and UV exposure gradually strips away. They smooth the cuticle, reduce frizz over time, and make hair feel genuinely healthier rather than just temporarily coated.
Apply it after shampooing, wrap a warm towel around your head for ten minutes, and rinse well. That’s it. Done consistently from June through to September, the difference going into autumn is noticeable.
The right cut makes summer easier
A good haircut won’t just make you look better, in summer, it can genuinely change how manageable your hair is day to day.
Shorter styles dry faster, need less heat, and tend to handle humidity more gracefully. If you’ve been considering going shorter, early summer is actually a great time to do it. Layered cuts help hair dry more evenly and reduce the heavy, weighed-down feeling that longer one-length styles can develop in the heat.
One of our favourite recommendations at the moment is a textured cut with soft layers around the face. It works beautifully air-dried, which means less time with the dryer in the morning, and it grows out really gracefully too.
If you’re not sure what would suit you, that’s exactly what a consultation is for. Come in, have a chat, and we’ll figure out what actually makes sense for your hair rather than what just looks good on someone else.
If your colour is looking tired, that’s normal
Sun exposure lightens and fades colour more quickly than most people realise, and by August a lot of clients feel like their colour has lost its depth and vibrancy. That’s not a problem with how the hair colour was done, it’s just what prolonged UV exposure does.
A gloss treatment or toner can restore a lot of that richness without a full colour appointment, so it’s worth asking about that option if your colour starts to look flat before your next scheduled visit.
For anyone thinking about changing their hair colour this summer, balayage and softer blended techniques tend to hold up better over the warmer months because the grow-out looks intentional even as the sun shifts the tone a little. It’s something we’re happy to talk through properly before you commit to anything.
Come and see us
If any of this has made you want to take a proper look at your summer hair routine, we’re always happy to help. We’re an independent hair salon group and both our Northampton locations are welcoming new clients. No hard sell, no pressure, just an honest conversation about your hair and what might actually work for you.
Book online or give us a call on 01604 708228. We’d love to see you.
Major Hairdressing is an independent hair salon group with two locations in Northampton. We care about healthy hair, not just good haircuts.