Do you see the problem in that image? It’s not just that my hair wasn’t braided or kept up off of my jacket–it was being allowed bleach in the sun. I thought I wanted to keep it down and let it look pretty, but that was one of my biggest mistakes.

When sunlight hits your skin, it causes UV damage and results in a sunburn. People consider this a problem, and rightly. Yet when sunlight hits your hair, it tends to lighten its color, and people consider this a goal. There’s a hidden danger in this. While I, too find highlights attractive, only the ones you may or may not have been born with are safe for your hair. This is because that lightening effect you see when you stand in the sun–especially if you’ve put honey, lemon juice, vinegar, or any number of other natural agents into your hair–is actually damage.

It’s the same thing that happens when you bleach your hair. The outer cuticle is perforated and split open, and this allows a bleaching agent, or in this case UV rays, to reach the interior of your hair where the pigments are and denature them. Loss of pigment itself is not a danger, but that irreversible damage to your hairs’ cuticles is.

Despite what modern haircare brands want to tell you and will advertise up and down across social media, there truly is no going back when this happens. Hair cannot be repaired once destroyed. The best these products do is coat your hairs so they feel healthier only for a time, hiding the true state of your hair and delaying what otherwise could be a transformation for the better.

This is a struggle I ran into over and over. Growing up I wasn’t able to wear a hat or sunscreen when outside (though I wanted to!), and my skin and hair suffered for it. I know we’ve been talking about hair so far, but I do want to mention that though your skin replaces cells and can heal, sun damage is still cumulative and the effects build over time. It’s just that hair shows it much faster.

At first my hair would feel just fine and have a bunch of new highlights. Being a shade or dirty or dark blonde depending on who you talk to, it doesn’t take much to change color. Originally I felt happy about this. Later I found it just meant headache–after the initial “just fine” stage, all the areas with highlights would turn dry and brittle, tangling easily and getting split cuticles along its length. I’d get compliments from people asking if I had gone to a salon or if I had done them myself, but I don’t think it occurred to anyone that my hair wasn’t healthy. Using shampoo only made it worse, despite being a “gentle” formulation.

This is why, among other changes to my lifestyle that I go into elsewhere in my blog, I always go out wearing a hat. Always. Preventative maintenance is better than curative–the exact reason why in ages past, everyone wore a hat. There’s even a children’s book about this! Hats were definitely part of the fashion at the time, but primarily because they came as a practical, utilitarian item first and foremost.

My Hemlock hat has a UPF band of fabric on the underside of the rim to make it extra shielding of the sun. The rim is also wide and firm, perfect for covering my neck and face as well as being happily resistant to strong wind. The weave of the straw is tight enough to shield my scalp, but just loose enough to let in a little air.

I also wear Coolibar fabrics for my everyday clothing. Their slacks (which are insanely comfortable!) protect my skin from my waist down to my ankles, and their jackets go over whatever shirts I already have in my wardrobe. The variety of jacket I have, of which I own two pairs so I can trade off when one is dirty, has extra long sleeves with thumb-holes so you can shield up to the backs of your hands and knuckles. The hood is surprisingly unobtrusive and I often leave it down at the base of my neck for extra protection.

Coolibar fabric is my all-time favorite because it is soft, stretches, breathes, flows, and never ever loses its UPF-50 rating. This is because the protection is innate to the properties of the fibers. This stands in contrast to a lot of inexpensive UPF fabrics on Amazon that have a chemical treatment. Once it washes off, you’re left with sunburn again, and a disappointingly ineffective product.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a sunburn, or any sub- sunburn dryness or itchiness. My walks outside have been much more enjoyable and the lack of inflammation has been great. I feel confident knowing I am avoiding so much damage to my body and hair that I’d otherwise be getting, and my body and hair have been thanking me for it.

Prettier looks today, longer life tomorrow. 🙂