PROTECTING YOUR AFRO CURLY HAIR FROM SUN DAMAGE

Sunny days are for fun! Pool fun, beach fun, drive with the top of your convertible down fun. When the sun’s out, we are very careful to pull out our bottles of sunscreen to protect our skin against skin burn and damage. However, we often forget that our hair is not exempt from the potentially-damaging power of sun rays.

It is important for us to protect our hair as much as we protect our skin from sun damage, and this is something we need to remind ourselves about again and again.

How sun rays damage hair

Science teaches us that sunlight has three different kinds of emissions: Infrared light, the one we feel as heat, is actually the least damaging to hair. Visible light, the one we see as light or colours, is the next most damaging of the emissions, while Ultraviolet Radiation (UVA & UVB), the emission we cannot see or feel, is the most damaging.

UV light from the sun causes micro-inflammations within the hair follicle and causes the follicles to sustain tissue and stem cell injury, resulting in shedding and increased thinning. UV emissions also create free radicals, which eventually photo-oxidise the hair and break the disulphide bonds between the proteins. Finally, UV rays quickly dry out hair in hot, sunny weather, leaving it frazzled and frizzy.