Sun damage to men's hair happens in two separate places and they need two different fixes. UV breaks down the keratin inside the shaft, which leaves the hair dry, brittle and splitting at the ends. It also oxidises the pigment, which is why your hair looks lighter and a bit brassy by September. The scalp underneath just burns. Cover the skin, condition the ends, and cut off what has already gone.
Most men who come in with this have not noticed a thing until we run a comb through it at the basin and it catches halfway down.
What the sun actually does
Two jobs, done by two different parts of the spectrum.
UVB goes after the protein. It breaks the sulphur bonds holding keratin together, and because the cuticle is the outer layer taking the strongest dose, that is where the wear shows first. Once the cuticle is roughed up, the hair holds less moisture, tangles more and snaps at the ends.
UVA does the colour. It oxidises melanin, the pigment sitting in the shaft, which is the same reaction bleach uses deliberately. That is why a fortnight abroad leaves dark hair looking reddish and mid brown hair looking like straw. The sea gets blamed for it. The sea only speeds it up.
Two things make all of it worse. Wet hair swells and the cuticle lifts, so UV gets further in. And chlorine strips the natural oil that would otherwise sit on the surface doing a small amount of protecting. Wet, chlorinated hair in full sun is the worst version of this, which is most of a swimming pool holiday. We went through the rinsing side of that in our rundown of summer cuts.
If you colour your hair or have anything bleached in it, everything above happens faster, because the cuticle has been opened once already.
How to spot sun damage on men's hair
You will feel it before you see it.
- The ends feel rough and straw-like while the roots feel completely normal
- Hair that used to lie down frizzes at the crown and along the parting
- A comb runs in and then catches halfway
- The colour is lighter at the tips and on top than at the back of your head
- Ends split, and the split runs further up than it used to
That last gradient is the giveaway. Sun damage lands where the light lands, so it hits the top, the parting and the ends and leaves the hair underneath alone. Damage from heat or from a bad box dye is more even all over.
The scalp is the part we worry about
Hair takes the damage. Skin takes the risk.
Scalp skin is thin, it is usually the highest point on you, and it faces straight up all day. If you keep it short, if you have a skin fade or a head shave, or if your parting has widened over the years, there is a stripe of skin up there that never gets covered. Men burn on the crown and find out about it that evening, because it is the one part of yourself you cannot see.
If the skin on your head is flaking, sore, or there is a spot or a rough patch that has not settled after a couple of weeks, that is a GP or a dermatologist and not a barber. We are up there every few weeks and we can see the top of your head far better than you can, so we will say if we notice something. That is where our job stops.
While we are on it: an oily, itchy scalp in August is usually a different problem with a different fix, not sun.
What to change
Cover the skin first. A cap beats everything else and it is the only thing that works while you are actually out in it. If you will not wear one, factor 50 along the parting and the crown, reapplied like you would on your face. Dermatologists point people towards leave-in products with zinc oxide in them, made for hair and scalp, which are easier to live with than working beach lotion through your hair.
Rinse before and after the water. Wet your head with fresh water before you get in. Hair already full of clean water takes on less chlorine and less salt. Rinse again after, and never let salt water dry into your hair in direct sun, which is precisely when the colour goes.
Condition the ends, not the roots. The damage is at the far end of the hair, so that is where a conditioner or a leave-in belongs. Roots do not need it and it will only leave the top of your head looking flat.
Stop adding heat on top of it. Blasting it dry on full heat every morning after a fortnight in the sun is the same damage arriving by a second route. Cooler setting, or a towel and your fingers.
There is a real trade-off with length, and it is worth saying out loud. Longer hair on top is the only sun protection that never needs reapplying, so if your parting is wide, keeping some length up there does a job. But length is also where the damaged ends live. Which way you go depends on how much cover you need against how rough the ends have got, and that is a conversation rather than a rule.
What we do about it in the chair
The honest answer is that you cannot repair it. Nothing in a bottle rebuilds a broken bond inside the shaft. Conditioner makes damaged hair behave, shine and comb properly, and that is worth having, but the damaged hair stays damaged until it is cut off. Hair grows roughly a centimetre a month, so if the last two inches took a beating in July, you are either cutting them or living with them until Christmas.
So the fix is a haircut, and there are two ways to take it.
Take the ends off, keep the top. The right call if your parting has widened or your hairline has moved, because you want that hair up there for cover. We take the tips back to where the hair feels like itself again, texturise so it does not sit like a helmet, and tidy the sides.
Go short and commit to the hat. A crew cut at £10 or a short back and sides removes every damaged end in one go, and it is the fastest reset there is. Just accept that you have taken away your own shade, and buy a cap on the way home. Same for a head shave.
Either way, have it washed first. A wash and cut is £18 and takes 40 minutes, and in this situation it earns the extra over a dry cut, because hair carrying a fortnight of salt, sand and product does not show us what it is really doing until it is clean and combed through. If your scalp is tender from a burn, say so before we start. We will keep the water cooler and go gently, because nobody wants a grade one run over peeling skin.
What to ask for
Say this, more or less:
"Take the ends back until they feel right, leave me enough on top to cover the parting, and tell me how far up the damage goes."
That last part is the useful bit. We can feel where the hair changes texture, and it is almost always further up the shaft than men expect. If it is the last centimetre, you are having an ordinary haircut. If it runs three inches, there is a decision to make, and it is better made out loud at the start than discovered in the mirror at the end.
We are at 354 Harrow Road, a few minutes from Warwick Avenue, six chairs running, and walk-ins are welcome if the day has got away from you. Book a chair if you would rather not chance it.
