12 Easy Styles that Will Keep Your Beach Hair Picture Perfect
The beach can be tough place to maintain your carefully put-together style. Wind, saltwater, sand, heat, and humidity… The truth is, these environmental ingredients can easily turn your hairstyle into a potential hot mess. Keep reading here for some proven tips on how to keep beach hair picture perfect.
On the beach: Hats and Scarves
There’s no denying that the easiest and most effective way to keep your hair looking like you just left the comfort of your Sunset Beach vacation rental is by covering your head with something cute. Hats and scarves achieve this goal and more, since they are also great at helping to protect your face, ears and eyes from some of the most damaging effects of the sun’s rays.
While hats are easy to just throw on and go, scarves require a little more finesse. The good news is that there’s really no ‘wrong’ way to wear them, you can achieve tons of different looks with the same scarf, and all of those styles look super cute on the beach.
Start with this quick scarf tutorial from BRIT + CO or this one from Curls Understood.
On the beach: Simple Braids, Ponytails, and Buns
While hats and scarves are great options, the fact is that some of us were just not made to rock head covers. If you fall into this category, then you may want to consider some one - or all! - of the following options. Just remember to follow the K.I.S.S. principle – Keep It Simple, Sunshine!
Braids
Braiding can get incredibly complex, so while we think that fishtails and six-strand braids are uber cute and we’d love to see you sport those while you’re enjoying Sunset Beach, we know that not everybody has the time and/or the patience to pull off those options.
We think that this YouTube video by MissySue is
a great place to start for easy braid advice. In less than 5 minutes, she walks
you through a straight braid, a French braid, and a Dutch braid.
Ponytails
Ponytails are a little more straight-forward but can be just as stylish. Low ponies, high ponies, and side ponies take practically zero effort and you can change them up throughout your day at the beach according to your whims or needs.
You don’t have to stop there though! Ponies have come a long way, baby. You can combine them with braids, twists, or use them as a base for your bun. This roundup article over at Love Hairstyles offers lots of fun, beach-worthy ideas.
Buns
Buns are one of those styles that can be dressed up or dressed down, and they look good regardless of how messy they get. Buns are like ponytails too in that they can be easily combined with braids and twists to create an individual look.
From top knots to side buns to the classic chignon, buns are fun! This article from Pretty Designs will help get your buns moving in the right direction.
Off the beach: Beachy Looks
There’s something special about hair that’s rocking the post-beach, wavy, wind-blown, sun-kissed look. Some people spend lots of time and money trying to achieve the perfect balance of those qualities. We’re going to help you get there with much less investment.
Wavy
Nothing says ‘beach’ like waves, both at and away from the ocean. Waves are relatively simple to accomplish and can be done with zero specialty equipment. One simple method involves allowing your hair to dry until it’s just slightly damp, then braiding it and letting it dry completely before removing the braid.
Three factors to consider with this method: first, pre-treating hair with a lightweight hair oil or leave-in conditioner will help keep the waves more defined when you remove the braid; second, the tightness of the braid will directly impact the nature of the waves; and third, the higher you start the braid in your hair, the more “natural” the waves will appear.
Tousled
A big part of any beach hair look revolves around its perfectly imperfect style. Being at the beach means running in and out of the water, air drying in the sun and allowing the ocean breeze to ruffle your head feathers (in the best way, of course)!
If you want to pull off your perfect beach hairstyle while you’re out enjoying some of Sunset Beach’s local shopping and dining, you may want to consider ditching your blow dryer and giving your locks permission to go au naturel.
Has it been a while since you’ve trusted your hair to do its own thing? This article from Allure can help ease you into this look.
Lightened
Sun worshippers have been devising methods to lighten their hair probably since the first cavelady brought her first lemon alng on her first beach vacation. Keep in mind that your hair will to some extent lighten naturally simply as a result of being out in the sun.
While there are loads of over-the-counter products that you can buy and use to lighten your beach locks, there are also numerous home remedy type options as well. We trust the advice of the style editors at Elle not to lead us down a DIY hair-lightening horror path.
Just remember that YOU know your hair best.
Off the beach: Post Beach Hair Care
As you transition back to your post-vacation routines, you’ll want to make sure that you treat your hair to some post-beach TLC to combat any tolls taken by wind, sun, and saltwater.
No hairstyle looks as good as it could when your hair is suffering the effects of dehydration. Hair masks, deep conditioning treatments, and oil treatments are all effective ways to give your thirsty hair a much-needed drink. These options can also help you manage the effects of any hair breakage that may have occurred due to those often-windy beach conditions.
You can also prevent damage to post-beach hair by changing up your home routine. Consider switching to a milder shampoo and only washing your scalp area, thereby giving the ends of your hair a bit of a reprieve. Continue to use the air-drying methods discussed above and turn down the temperature of your summer showers to help mitigate potential heat damage.
Finally, you may also want to schedule a quick trim with your favorite hairdresser when you return from Sunset Beach so that he or she can clean up your look and offer professional suggestions to meet your specific requirements.
We hope you use the many tips offered here to achieve your best beach hair both during and after your stay in one of our Sunset Beach NC vacation rentals. Mix 'em, match 'em, and customize 'em and you can end up with dozens and dozens of fun beach-inspired looks!
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Check back next week to read about 21 of the Best Books for Your Sunset Beach Vacation!