Sun, Chlorine, and Your Hair: What Nobody Tells You

Every July it’s the same story. Somebody sits down in my chair, the color we worked so hard on back in spring has gone flat and a little orange, and they swear they didn’t do anything different. And they didn’t, really. They just went outside. They went swimming. They lived their summer.

After forty years behind the chair I can usually tell what a person did all summer just by looking at their ends. Sun and pool water leave fingerprints. So let me tell you what’s actually happening up there, because most folks have no idea.

What the Sun Is Really Doing

We all know the sun fades a car’s paint and the cushions on the porch. Your hair is no different. Ultraviolet light breaks down the melanin that gives hair its natural color, and it breaks down the dye molecules I put in too. That’s the fading. On color-treated hair it shows up fast — reds go first, then brunettes turn brassy, and blondes can get that yellowed, straw-like look nobody asked for.

But here’s the part nobody tells you. The sun doesn’t just lift color. UV actually damages the protein structure of the hair shaft itself, the same way it damages your skin. The cuticle — those little shingles on the outside of each strand — lifts and roughens. That’s why summer hair feels like hay even when you haven’t changed a thing. It’s not in your head. The hair really is rougher.

So a hat genuinely helps. I know that’s not glamorous advice, but a wide brim on a long day at Lake Holiday does more for your color than any product on my shelf. When a hat isn’t practical, that’s where a UV-protectant leave-in earns its keep. I keep Redken on hand for this — a little of their leave-in worked through damp hair before you head out puts a layer between your color and the sun. It’s the cheap insurance most people skip.

The Pool Is a Whole Different Animal

Chlorine is harsh by design. It’s in there to kill what shouldn’t be in the water, and it doesn’t know the difference between bacteria and your blonde. It strips the natural oils that keep hair soft, and on already-porous color-treated hair it speeds the fading right along.

And then there’s the green. Every summer somebody comes in convinced the chlorine turned their blonde green. It’s a fair guess, but it’s usually not the chlorine itself — it’s copper. Copper from the pool’s plumbing, or out here, copper and minerals in well water, which a lot of folks around Cross Junction and Gore are on. The chlorine oxidizes that copper and it binds to light, porous hair and turns it that swampy green-gold. Once it’s in there it does not rinse out on its own.

The simplest trick I can give you is free. Soak your hair with clean tap water before you get in the pool or the lake. Hair is like a sponge — if it’s already full of clean water, it can’t soak up nearly as much of the chlorinated, mineral-heavy stuff. Wet it down, work in a little leave-in if you’ve got it, and you’ve cut the damage way down before you ever touch the water.

Top Down, Windows Open — The One Nobody Warns You About

Here’s the one that really surprises people. Wind. If you’ve got a convertible, or you ride a motorcycle, or you’re just the type who drives with all the windows down and the radio up on a July evening — your hair is taking a beating you’re not accounting for.

Wind doesn’t fade your color the way sun does. What it does is mechanical. It whips your hair around for an hour, ties it in knots, and forces the strands to rub and tangle against each other. Then you get home, drag a brush through it, and rip half of it out fighting the knots. That tearing is where the real breakage comes from — not the wind itself, but the war you wage on the tangles afterward. On color-treated or longer hair, which is already more fragile, it adds up fast: split ends, frizz, that broken little halo of short pieces around your crown.

So if the wind is part of how you get your summer freedom — and I’m not about to tell you to roll the windows up — just protect for it. Tie it back or braid it loosely before a long ride. A low, soft braid takes the wind out of the equation almost entirely. And keep a detangler in the car or the saddlebag.

This is where a good leave-in earns its money. I keep Redken One United on hand — it’s a multi-benefit spray that detangles, smooths, and adds heat and UV protection all in one step, so it covers the sun and the wind at the same time. Spritz it through your ends before you head out, then again before you brush when you get home, and the comb glides instead of yanking. For hair that frizzes up in the wind and humidity together, Frizz Dismiss is the one I reach for. And if you’re already seeing breakage from a summer of riding, Acidic Bonding actually reinforces the weak spots so you’re not snapping strands every time you detangle. Same idea as the swimmers, really — rinse and protect before you’re exposed, then repair after.

What Actually Fixes It

Once the damage is done, you can’t scrub it out at home, and please don’t try with a clarifying shampoo every day — that just dries you out worse. For the day-to-day, I send people home with Redken Color Extend. It’s built to hold color and shield it, and it’s gentle enough to use all summer without stripping. For hair that’s gone genuinely brittle — that hay feeling, the breakage — I reach for Acidic Bonding. It works on the actual bonds inside the strand, not just the surface, and the difference after a couple of uses is real.

But the brassiness and that green tinge are a chair job, not a bottle job. That’s a gloss or a toner, and it’s honestly one of my favorite things to do, because it’s fast and the payoff is huge. A color gloss neutralizes the orange and yellow, knocks the green back out, and lays the cuticle down so the light reflects again instead of scattering. People walk in dull and walk out shiny in under an hour. I usually pair it with a conditioning treatment while you’re sitting, since the hair’s already thirsty.

A Little Summer Plan

If you do nothing else this summer, do these three: rinse with clean water before you swim, put something between your color and the sun and wind, and come see me for a gloss when things start looking tired instead of waiting until fall. The longer that copper and brass sit in there, the harder they are to talk back out.

I keep one chair and one client at a time, so there’s room to actually look at what the summer did and sort out a real plan for your hair — whether you’re blending some grey, holding onto a dimensional color, or just trying to get the shine back. If you’re not sure what your hair needs, the consultation’s free and we’ll figure it out together. You can book right at stonyhillstudio.glossgenius.com, and I’m here in Gainesboro for folks all around Winchester and Stephens City whenever you’re ready.