Or, in other words…protecting your hair from the sun.
The sun is out – and it’s time to get out there and strut your stuff – in the park, in town or on the beach. But do you know that exposing your Sisterlocks to the sun for long periods at a time can damage your hair?
Keep reading to find how to protect your hair from the sun – and why?
Why protect our Sisterlocks from the sun?
There are a few reasons why we should protect our Sisterlocks from the sun.
- Ultraviolet rays such as UVA and UVB from the sun can damage our hair – in the same way they can damage our skin by damaging our hair follicles. Damaged hair follicles affects the health of our hair and the rate of growth. And there is another important reason to avoid ultraviolet rays; it’s the main cause of skin cancer.
- Over-exposure to the sun can affect our hair follicles by causing the follicles to switch off growth and enter the shedding – which can lead to hair loss.
- The heat of the sun can dry out our hair, and as we don’t use all the moisturising treatments or methods that we might use when loose natural (such as combinations of liquids, oils and creams – loc), deep conditioning treatments or moisturising treatments on Sisterlocks, the dryness can lead to our Sisterlocks being very dry and brittle.
- Over-exposure to the sun bleaches and destroys the melanin in our hair and lightens the colour of the hair. And because the hair is dead, once it is stripped of its colour, the hair will not naturally recover the colour it has lost. Only the new growth will have its natural colour, but it too will be stripped, if over-exposed to the sun.
- Our scalp, which is made up of skin, also needs to be protected from the sun in the same way the skin on the rest of our bodies does.
How can we protect our Sisterlocks from the sun?
With hats or headwraps.
Take a look at the video to see the hat/head wrap options I use.
But which one of the hats is best?
Whether you use a hat, headwrap or anything else, the best ones to buy are the ones that offer UV protection.
To check whether they do, look out for this on the label:
UPH 50+
It stands for: ultraviolet protection factor – and the 50+ means that only 1/50th, in other words, 2% of the ultraviolet radiation is able to penetrate the fabric.
Now that I have a sun hat (with UPH 50+), I’m going to try to wear it whenever I go out in the sun.
