A Summer Hair Essential
Picture this: you’re on vacation at your favorite beach, and you’re finishing up another day spent under the beaming summer sun, breathing in the fresh ocean air. After hours of floating in the pool, lounging in the sand, and being lightly tossed around by the salty ocean waves, you’re excited to hop in the shower before styling yourself for dinner and a fun night out—
Everything’s easier on vacation…your lifestyle, especially, and with that, the way that you get ready for a day’s or night’s “adventure”
—As you’re drying off from that refreshing post-beach shower, picking out your clothes for the evening, and moisturizing your newly sun-kissed (or sunburnt, in my case) skin, the ever-present ocean air flooding your hotel room is, once again, hard at work preparing your hair to be styled with ease…that is, with effortlessly tousled beach waves, a much more controlled version of your ocean-touched hair from earlier in the day.
My beach vacation hair is, without a doubt, one of my favorite looks for my long and distinctly wavy locks. With hair as thick as mine is, styling it can be, and often is, extremely difficult—frizzing of my natural hair is inevitable in the heat, and my intensely flat-ironed hair refuses to hold its structure for more than an hour at a time. This, however, can be used to my advantage when it comes to summer vacations spent at the beach. The ocean air, in my opinion, brings out the best in my hair, with its slight susceptibility to frizzing only enhancing the relaxed and effortless look of the beachy waves.
…If only I had the ocean in my backyard to keep this desired hair look around all year long…it turns out, however, that I don’t need the salty ocean water or air to accomplish my favorite summer hairstyle.
On our past few beach vacations, my mom and I would always be sure to bring with us a bottle of sea salt spray to use for styling our hair. Not only did it smell amazing, but it enhanced the presence of our natural beach waves, further creating those “messy” and “wild”, yet controlled and appealing, tousled waves within our hair.
The life of this product, however, does not begin and end at the ocean. It can also be used as an everyday hair product, and has actually become a favorite of mine within the summer months. In order to accomplish that desired wavy look for my hair in the warmer weather, I simply dampen half the length of my hair, specifically from shoulder length down to its ends, spray an appropriate amount of the product into my hand, and then use my fingertips to run the product through the dampened portion of my hair. Once the product is about evenly applied (as best as I can tell), I scrunch my hair from the ends up, ultimately creating those “wild” beachy waves.
I have used a couple of sea salt sprays in the past, the first being the “At the Beach Sea Salt Hair Mist” from Bath and Body Works, and the current one being the “Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray”. For no particular reason, I tend to bring the Bath and Body Works Mist with me when I travel, and keep the Texturizing Spray at home as a part of my everyday summer hair styling routine. Both of these products are extremely lightweight, and work well on various textures of hair—whether that be straight, curly, or wavy like mine. Beyond their functionality, they both smell AMAZING, and contribute a natural looking glow to the surface of your hair, all while bringing to you those desired beachy waves…whether or not you’re at the beach.
