The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Healthy Summer Hair

One of the few social media trends I’ve resonated with long term is the idea of being “high maintenance to be low maintenance.” The concept is simpler than it sounds. Simply put, it’s about investing in long-term beauty solutions so that your daily rituals can feel seamless. Isn’t that what we all want out of our routines and rituals? Something intuitive and personal that we’ve honed over time? While I enjoy the therapeutic benefits of the occasional everything shower, my dream mornings aren’t spent attending to every detail of my appearance. I want pared-down, personal rituals that skew more minimalist than maximalist—from a streamlined skincare routine to an effortless hair care ritual.

On my way to achieving this, I’ve done everything from laser hair removal (goodbye tedious shaving time) to in-office skin treatments to reduce how much makeup I wear. But it’s harder to figure out how to streamline your haircare routine without only wearing slick backs. Whether you, like me, have tight curls or finer strands, hair can be the hardest part of your routine. But it’s possible to adopt a minimalist hair care routine that still makes you feel confident.

I spoke to Laina Killey, Education Coordinator and licensed hairstylist at Malibu C, to discover how to craft a minimalist hair care routine that nourishes your strands with simple styling, just in time for summer.

Featured image from our Wake Up Call with Iskra Lawrence.

How to Embrace Minimalist Hair Rituals This Summer

Summer is the best time to adopt a more carefree approach to all your rituals. I pare down my skincare routine to a hydrating serum and sunscreen (at least during the day), and my daily makeup is usually a skin tint and a multitasking color balm, a few swipes, and voila! That effortless, sun-kissed look. You can apply the same attitude to your hair.

What to Know About Summer Hair

Embracing hair minimalism doesn’t mean abandoning hair care. Your daily hair rituals are likely doing just enough to keep your hair clean. But your hair ritual can do so much more just by being intentional with your products.

“Crafting a minimalist summer hair care routine is all about simplicity, protection, and working with your hair’s natural texture,” says Killey.

In the summer, as your hair is exposed to different elements—from the sun to the salt in the sea—you have to be more diligent to keep your hair healthy. But it doesn’t have to be complex. The first step is knowing what to address—and how.

How Summer Affects Your Hair Based on Hair Type

The main obstacles you’re facing to your ideal summer locks are probably out of your control. Heat and humidity come for us all. So does pollution (yes, it affects your hair!) and saltwater. Chlorine, copper, and chemicals like hair dye are also sabotaging your summer hair.

According to Killey, different hair types are affected by the season in different ways:

Best Rituals for Minimalist Hair Care

According to Killey, a minimalist hair care ritual “focuses on protecting hair from sun, heat, humidity, salt water, and copper (commonly thought to be chlorine, which causes swimmers’ green)—while keeping it hydrated, frizz-free, and manageable.”

She recommends a routine that starts with clarifying treatments to rid the hair of excess product, sweat, and sea salt. Next, add a deep conditioning treatment to your regular hair care routine. Finally, use your choice of leave-in styling products with humidity, UV, and heat protection.

Step 1: Clarify and Protect

The least minimal thing about summer hair? How often you have to wash it. But a good cleansing ritual is just as important for your hair as your skin.

“Use a gentle exfoliating scalp treatment to remove sweat, sunscreen residue, and product buildup,” says Killey. “If your scalp tends to get dry or irritated in the sun, spritz on a protective and nourishing treatment (like Malibu C B5 Scalp, Skin, Hair Revitalizer Mist) to help soothe and hydrate.”

Step 2: Prepare

To keep your hair easy to style in the summer, you need to keep it healthy. So even if you’re not heat styling your hair, you have to protect it from the elements. Remember: The goal isn’t perfect hair, it’s healthy hair.

Just like applying makeup, a little preparation can go a long way to keeping your style fresh all day. This doesn’t have to take long. A quick spritz of a heat protectant or running your fingers through your strands with a gentle detangler might be all you need.

Killey recommends you look for “a lightweight, UV-protectant spray that hydrates, detangles, and shields hair from sun and heat damage.”

Step 3: Style

Here’s the big one: How do you style your hair in a minimalist hair care routine? The key is picking quality products. Most of us won’t achieve big, 90s-style blowouts or silky straight silk presses right out of bed—or even with a hairbrush. Accepting that summer hair will be less elaborate is the first step to summer styling, but summer hair can have a beauty of its own.

Romanticize the beach wave, the slick back, the protective style, the braid down, and all the other summer styles. The right products make it easy for your hair to hold a style while you’re rushing out of the door to enjoy the weather.

Trending summer styles include:

• Beach curls: Use wave-enhancing products like sprays and dry mousse to help your hair dry into effortless waves. Use the scrunch method — grab your hair from the bottom and scrunch upwards.
• Slick back bun: A strong hold gel or pomade is your best friend in the summer. You look put together, without having to swat away flyaways. Make sure your product is humidity-proof. And keep it from frizz with an anti-frizz spray.
• Braids: Braids are a great summer style because of their versatility. For every hair type, there’s a type of braid that works best — from loose braids to protective styles.

Step 4: Experiment with Hair Accessories

The beauty of summer is that summer hair accessories can be effortlessly chic. Goodbye to winter hats and scarves, or spring’s raincoats. Summer is the season of whimsical bandanas and headbands to keep the hair out of your face. In the rare combination of fashion and function, hair accessories can keep the strain from your hair in the summer months without compromising style.