Problem Of Hair In Surf How To Prevent Damage

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 58, 1 December 1937, Page 14

Problem Of Hair In Surf How To Prevent Damage

Gay days ahead! With hats off to surfing, tennis, golf, sailing and riding, you outdoor lovers will want your hair looking its. best, so something will - need to be done to keep it healthy and lustrous against the ravages of salt water, stm and suxrimer winds. It is going to be difficult, for salt water and sun combined ruin the textilre of the hair quicker than anything I know. Pity the poor hair-dresser faced with the problem at the end of the surfing season of putting a satisfactory permanent - wave into hair exposed all summer. Moderate doses of the sun— one of the sources of vitamin D— are good for hair and health generally; but, like the skin, the ' hair is just as sensitive to the sun, and needs similar protection.

You can partially waterproof hair against any prolonged siege in salt water by using a heavy application of a cream preparation of which there are several to be had. One with a lanoline base is good, particularly for children, as, apart from proteeting the hair, it replaces the oils dried out by constant exposure. There are other lighter creams that will do the trick almost as well and are not .quite so heavy. If your hair becomes wet, don't dry'it in the sun, as this causes ugly bleached streaks. Wash it at the first " available moment, and do not imagine that a dip under the cold shower will remove the salt water. A light iiquid shampoo should be used. with warm water, or, better still, one of the vegetable oil compounds (soapless oil shanipoos, they are called) will remove the coating of salt water quickly and effectively.-

If you cannot manage the shampoo, give the hair a good brushing, and then rub it over with a spirit friction lotion. This temporary expedient will do until you can get to your hair-dresser, where you should have an oil treatment, in which the hair is soaked in warm oil and, hot packs, which remove all the' impurities. • Or you could have one of the comparatively new reconditioning life-savers-va treatment with a creamy substance, which, it is claimed, furnishes necessary -vitamins lacking in hair suffering from exposure to cver-baking by the sun or other agents. There is a great diversity of opinion as ' to whether vitamins can be suppped externally per medium of creams and lotions to the hair . and skin, or whether these essentials to life and health can

only .be supplied through our food intake. Whichever is right, it is a f act that the above-mentioned cream has an immediate and beneficial effect on the hair, softening and. restoring the lustre in one treatment." The hair is first washed and, while still damp, massaged tnoroughly with the vitamin cream (reversing the usual order). from. the tips to the roots. An electrically-heated hood is then placed over -the head, while heat— very gentle heat— causbs the cream to permeate to the scalp. The theory that a mild degree of heat is more beneficial than a higher temperattire is based on a scientific fact that the greater amount of heat causes the scalp to perspire and prevents the absorption of the cream.