Summer is the season of fun and freedom. Who has time for labor intensive get ready sessions? Not us. Use these summer beauty hacks for a stress free beach season.

1. Sea Salt Scrunch // Hair should be easy, breezy this time of year. Put the blowdryer, straightener, and curling iron away, and get your scrunch on. At the beach? Use seawater. For the landlocked, try John Masters Organics Sea Mist Sea Salt Spray with Lavender.

2. Sand Scrub // You know how your feet get super dry over winter? Well those babies are coming out of hiding and it is time to get them flip-flop ready. When hanging at the beach, exfoliate tootsies with sand. Otherwise, Chocolate Sun White Tea Leaf & Citrus Blossom Body Scrub uses Dead Sea salts, Turbinado sugar, and antioxidant White tea for sloughing and softening.

3. Brush Off // Feel you are in a constant state of sand battlement when spending time at the beach? Just before heading inside or getting into the car, dust skin with Beach Organics Beachcomber Organic Body Powder (talc-free) to absorb moisture and get rid of sand. This works on little bodies post beach or sandbox too.

4. Tea Relief // When you’ve overdone the sun, relieve discomfort and inflammation with the help of anitioxidant tea. Apply cooled green tea bags to affected areas or stand in shower and spritz body with chilled tea.

5. Big Chill // Sun exposure, alcohol, party foods, and lack of sleep all contribute to puffiness. Freeze green tea and run cubes over puffy skin and eyes for instant calmed, toned skin. Helps soothe summer acne too.

6. Fight the Burn // One thing we all deal with at some point during summer is the dreaded razor burn. Chilled chamomile tea bags are said to soothe this problem. Dr. Shannon’s Organic Skin Balm also works like a charm for this and so many other things.

7. Soy Good // Already tired of the regular leg shave? Soy may be good at stunting hair growth and making the hair finer, so you need to shave less often. Worth a try. LOVEFRESH Body Butter contains soy and other yummy smelling ingredients.

8. Frizz Co-control // Coconut oil is soothing, hydrating, and cooling. This makes it an ideal body moisturizer for summer. Did you know it works on hair too? Add a dab to ends of strands to combat frizz.

9. Fresh Pits // Another use for coconut oil – mix with just a bit of baking soda and use as an armpit scrub to lighten and brighten skin in this area.

10. Tan Fix // Baking soda also comes in handy as a sunless tanner fix. Did your faux tan go awry in a few spots? Put a small amount of baking soda on a wet washcloth and rub onto mistake until it disappears.

11. Ready, Set, Tone // Let your toner double as a setting spray. Mist over freshly applied makeup to keep from melting and smudging. Also great for freshening skin throughout the day. Dr. Alkaitis Organic Herbal Toner is perfect.

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Image of woman on beach via Shutterstock

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Over winter yet? Us too. Snow, blustery winds, and freezing rain have not only taken their toll on skin and psyche, but winter hair woes have set in too. These tips to battling blizzard head will ensure good hair days straight through to spring.

Feel your hair care efforts have become futile in the face of blizzard hair season? Ditch the chemical hair products and back away from the blow dryer. A few simple product and technique switch ups will buoy your ‘do straight into warmer weather.

We’ve talked dry winter skin here but the season has its disadvantages to hair too. If you are you tired of dealing with dryness, flyaways, or limp locks, a little TLC will have your tresses back to bouncy before the first tree buds.

7 Winter Hair Tips

Acure Organics Dry Shampoo

1 Suds Less // The most common hair complaint in winter has to be dryness. If you are battling hay head there are steps you can take to banish sapped strands. Enlist the help of a dry shampoo. Rather than suds up each day, don a pretty shower cap and reach for the dry shampoo instead. It will add volume without stripping away hair’s natural oils.

Rahua Omega 9 Hair Mask

2 Moisture Infusion // For added moisture try a weekly hair mask. One made with rich plant oils, like Rahua Omega 9 Hair Mask, hydrates strands and moisturizes scalp. Leaves hair strong, bouncy, and shiny. More the DIY type? Try this homemade natural hair mask recipe.

Jao Brand GOE Oil

3 Cling Control // Those dreaded flyaways. Indoor heating, dry air, coats and scarves all contribute to static. Tame stray strands with a hit of oil. GOE Oil by Jao Brand provides instant control when smoothed over hair. Remember, a little dab’ll do ya. Too much oil will cause limp locks.

Yarok FEED YOUR ROOTS Mousse

4 Amp It Up // Fine-haired women tend to go flat in dry weather. If winter has sucked the life out of your hair, pump up the volume with a root lifting product. Yarok FEED YOUR ROOTS Mousse provides body without drying hair. Another tip? If you are prone to lifeless locks, ditch the hat for better hair days.

Widu Elite Bubinga Wood Boar Bristle Brush

5 Dry Hair Brushing // Are you making the most of your scalp’s natural oils? Be sure oils are reaching the ends of strands with a proper brushing. A boar bristle brush (ethically sourced, of course!) is gentle on hair and scalp, while invigorating skin and distributing oil. Feels great too.

Twitstband

6 Winter Up Do // The pony isn’t only for summer, you know. This classic style is a year ‘round hair saver. Just be sure you aren’t doing more damage. A sure way to look stylish while going easy on strands is with Twistband hair ties. Perfect for no wash days.

Image via Shutterstock

7 Mane Food Group // You know how what you eat shows up on your skin? This goes for hair too. Be sure to up your healthy fats intake during winter months to keep hair shiny and at its best. Good sources include ghee, olive oil, nuts, and seeds.

Related on EcoSalon

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A Guide to the Most Safe, Eco Friendly Shampoos for All Hair Types

9 Alternatives to Elastic Hair Ties for Adorable Up Dos and Pull Backs

Image of woman with blowdryer via Gratisography

The post 7 Winter Hair Tips to Stave Off Blizzard Head appeared first on EcoSalon.

Thoughts from a boho, kooky, unserious, curly-haired woman.

If I’ve learned anything from the News of the World hacking scandal, it’s that if I’m ever called to testify in front of Congress, I really should stop and get a blowout first.

Because like former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, I have very, very curly hair. The kind of hair where each strand twists and contorts itself until they all join up to form a labyrinthine web of kinky corkscrews. The kind of hair that is, by nature, untamed and wild.

The kind of hair that Robin Givhan, writing about Ms. Brooks in The Daily Beast, characterized as “boho,” “distracting,” “look-at-me hair.” “It was a ballsy rebuke of our expectations…There was no suggestion of humility, timidity, or caution…no attempt to disappear into doleful anonymity.”

Basically, Givhan argues that by virtue of its natural existence, Ms. Brooks’ hair sticks a finger in the eye of all things proper, righteous, and upstanding, and that if she cared about looking like a real CEO, she might have put it in a bun. I can’t speak for Ms. Brooks, but when you have the kind of hair that prompts entire columns about its perceived implications, trust me – doleful anonymity sounds pretty good.

I don’t mean for my curly hair to be a declaration of my identity. I didn’t ask for it to be this way. But whether I like it or not, my hair walks into the room before I do. It is and always has been the singular defining feature of my physical being, and it’s all people want to talk about. I have been forced to discuss it in job interviews and at funerals. When you have curls, no one cares about your big heart or your big thoughts; you are reduced to a person with big hair. My curls signify to the world that I am kooky, scatterbrained, free-spirited, unconventional, unruly, unkempt, unprofessional, un-corporate, rebellious, eccentric, quirky, and nonconformist. Or at least that’s how people like Givhan interpret them.

The idea of a curly-headed woman as distracting and unpolished is well-woven into our pop culture fabric. On any makeover show, the hair transformation will always involve a straightening iron. As they say, Messy Hair = Messy Life. In The Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway isn’t princess material until she tames her frizz into a sleek blowout. On Friends, it’s no accident that ditzy Phoebe is the only female character with long waves. Even in the Harry Potter series, whip-smart Hermione is considered downright fugly until she emerges for the big dance with her usually wild hair fashioned into a demure straight style. I’ll stop here, but believe me – I could go on.

But curly hair isn’t just a semiotic concept; an idea to be parsed and analyzed in a what-does-it-all-mean kind of way. It’s personal. It’s personal every time I see a news segment showing how employers are less likely to hire curly-haired women, and men are less likely to want to date them. It’s personal when my husband asks, “If we have kids, what’s the chance they’d have hair like yours?” as if it were a disease. It’s personal when I assure him that genetically, it’s unlikely, and realize that I’m relieved, too. And it’s personal when fashion editors write columns decrying women who look like me as messy, defiant, and brazen.

Mostly, it gets personal every time some random stranger comments, “Oh, I’d love to have hair like yours!” Trust me – if people really wanted curly hair, fashion magazines wouldn’t be so full of blowout tips. Curls may be okay in theory, as long as they belong to adorable orphans or cartoon characters, but not on an adult woman. That is, assuming she wants to be taken seriously.

I was walking with my best friend once when a little old lady stopped me on the street to regale me with stories about how much she paid for perms, and how I was just the luckiest gosh-darned girl in the world. As we walked away, my friend said, “I have to tell you – your hair is great, but I would never want it in a million years.” I really loved her for that.

Image: lupzdut

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