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How To Save Sun-Damaged Hair With Coconut Oil After Beach Vacation

A Non-Believer's First Experience with Coconut Oil to Restore Sun-Damaged Hair After a Vacation.

You know the feeling when you come back from a wonderfully refreshing summer destination, full of energy, stories, and photographs?.. ….but few parts of you do NOT come back amazing? I am talking about your hair and your skin, and the damage sun and salty water can bring about. I love summer beach vacations, but I have bleached blonde hair – always a challenge. The last time we came back from Maui it was a total disaster! The sun damage to my hair was clearly visible this time. Luckily our new Hawaiian friend gave me some tips for healthy hair and skin, and recommended trying out using Coconut oil on sun-damaged hair to bring it back to life! As I soon found out – the best advice ever!

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Total disaster of sun-damaged hair

You’ve seen my pictures: I am a bleached blond. I already have dry and damaged hair. But then it had to go through a week of “saltwater to the sun to saltwater to the sun to shower to dry to the sun to wind to the sun to saltwater” madness… Spending 6+ hours on an airplane coming back did not help at all – that cabin air sucks all the life out of your body it seems like. By the time we were back home in Canada, I thought I am gonna lose it all – my sun-damaged hair was breaking at a finger’s touch! I definitely lost it emotionally, panicked, was almost crying, and braced for the potential need to cut it down to zero.

I desperately needed to know how to keep my hair healthy on vacation, what is the best summer hair protection, and how to fix my sun-damaged hair! Facebook mom groups to rescue!

As soon as I posted I got an overwhelming response, everyone was saying one thing: Coconut Oil is the way to go. One of my newly obtained Hawaiian friends, when telling me about coconut oil, instructed me to literally “bathe in it”… She said that's the best answer to the “how to keep your hair healthy?” question for any type of hair!

So I was like “ok why not. Let’s do it”.

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What Coconut Oil to buy, where to buy it, and cost.

Only natural organic coconut oil would do. I’ve been specifically directed to buy “food-grade” oil, with nothing else mixed up as an ingredient – no artificial scents, no perfume, etc.

I’ve got my first “trial” Organic Coconut Oil at Winners for the price of $10 for 400g. This amount lasted 5 hair applications, and some occasional skin rubbing. Since then, my husband has gotten me a 2.5kg jug from Costco, I think he paid around $30 bucks. So I’d say this absolutely natural and organic method of hair/skincare is quite on a budget if you compare it with prices for popular brand products…

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How to properly apply coconut oil to your hair

Ok great, I’ve got the goodies. Now what?! I’ve turned to YouTube for guidance to find out how to use the product. The steps for applying coconut oil to your hair are as follows:

1. Have clean DRY hair. The very first time I tried to apply coconut oil, I’ve done it on my hair while wet. I’ve learned since that was a mistake. Apparently, the proper way of applying the oil is on your hair while dry, as, who would have thought eh, oils and moisturizers can't penetrate the shaft of wet hair as well as they can with dry hair…
2. Undress to waist – coconut oil becomes liquid once you have it in your hands simply due to the warmth of your hands, so you do not want to ruin your favorite robe or t-shirt
3. Use comb and hair clips to layer your hair, starting from the bottom.
4. Apply with your hands to strands of hair, rubbing oil into the skull, and massaging it from top to tip.
5. After all, the hair was applied, I combed through it with my fingers, tied hair into a bun, and clipped it to the top of my head.
6. Use a shower cap or tie a plastic bag around your hair. I used a regular plastic bag. Attention: if you use a plastic bag make sure the colored side is OUTSIDE – you don’t want the dye soaking into your blonde hair and making it green purple or whatever color.
7. Put on a microfiber head wrap or a hat to keep your head and hair warm. I’ve actually used a winter ski hat I got as a Christmas gift and never had a chance to wear it.
8. Wrap a towel around your neck, or in my case, I’ve lined up my forehead and back of the head with kleenex. Depending on how tight you’ve made your shower cap or plastic bag sit – the oil may be leaking through into your neck/face.
9. Walk around just like that for about 1.5-2 hours …feeling sexy and inspired, of course, enduring comments and jokes from your family 🙂 hahaha
10. Wash your hair with warm water, apply conditioner, and rinse with cool water.

Done! Now you can actually feel sexy and inspired! And return all the good humor right back to your household members!

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The result of sun-damaged hair treatment with coconut oil

So far I’ve been using coconut oil on my hair and my skin for 3 months – I do it 2 times per week – so, about 6 or 7 applications. The result is through the roof! My hair has restored its shine and its softness. It no longer breaks and it looks much stronger. Also, my skin had become much softer than it was…

You know, I have been a skeptic about all this hype about naturals and organics. I was in a position and belief that hey, we have so much science going on in the past century, why wouldn’t I take advantage of the tech achievement and why don’t I trust that a hair mask with 50+ unreadable ingredients is definitely scientifically better than one simple natural solution. As you know, cosmetics companies are spending so much money on research… Surely if the answer was as simple as having one natural ingredient and nothing else – they’d certainly grab at a chance to well not spend all that money on their scientific research and new 50+ ingredient product development…  yet here is a good example of how to protect hair naturally. ..and it works!

Well, I might have been wrong after all. My sun-damaged hair has seen a considerable improvement. I am now on a search for more tips for healthy hair and skin.

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Additional lifestyle changes

Being an overachiever, I, of course, did not stop by simply buying only the coconut oil. In my newest commitment to all healthy and natural care products, I just had to throw away all the regular products I’ve been using to date, and pick up new all-natural all organic stuff. As we now travel a lot, I'm specifically focusing on how to keep your hair healthy on vacation.

I’ve probably spent good 2.5 hours at Winners staring at the Naturals section selection …that's while they only literally had maybe a dozen products there at most. I was literally googling every ingredient… In the end, I got the product with the most “No” on the shelf, which just happened to be these products: Essano Coconut Milk Hydrating Shampoo (for Canadian link click here) and Essano Coconut Milk Hydrating Conditioner, both have the longest “No” list:

• No Sulphates
• No Nitrosamines
• No DEA / MEA
• No Ethoxylates
• No PEGs / PPGs
• No Phthalates
• No GMOs
• No Mineral Oils
• No Animal Testing

I’ll do some digging and investigation on why “no” to all those are good for you, especially if you have dry or damaged hair. I will report back as soon as I have answers! I'll be also happy to research more tips for healthy hair and skin while traveling, on a beach vacation, or on your next hiking adventure!

If you are looking for more eco-friendly self-care tips, you may also like:
9 Best Natural Sunscreens For Kids. Organic. Chemicals-Free.

Cheerfully yours,

Alexandra

What was your first experience with naturals/organics?

What have you learned since then?

How do you treat your damaged hair?

What can you recommend for me or my 3yo to try out?  

Please share in the comments!

***This post is NOT sponsored. All product recommendations and feedback is based on personal experience. This post may contain affiliate links and we may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

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