Sunburned Hair?

[NorthernDancer]

My mom has a problem and asked if I could come out of stalker mode to ask for your help.
She believes that she has sunburned her hair. :agape:
She was spending a lot of time outside weeding in the garden and now her hair is suddenly super dry and brittle. It's been a week or two now and it doesn't seem to be getting better no matter what she does.
Has anybody heard about this/experienced it? Is it even possible to sunburn your hair? What can I tell her to use? She's normally just a S&C type of person, but she's so desperate that I think she'll try just about anything! But I don't know were to tell her to start. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!:flowers:

[manderly]

Um, well, the sun does bleach your hair, as you can tell by looking at everyone's hair (lighter on the top, lift it up and darker), but I don't think it's actually sunburned per se.

Has you mom tried any deep treatments? Perhaps a SMT?

[Flynn]

Yeah, I can see that it could have heated up and dried out. Try making her up a SMT; that should fix it up nicely ^__^

[Heidi_234]

Some of the sun bleaching damage is irreversible actually. The UV rays can (and do) disassemble double chemical bonds in the hair and turn them into single one, thus causing hair to become drier and velcro like. Your mom could baby it back to an acceptable condition again (with moisture treatment suggested above), but preventing further damage is essential if she's bothered by the condition of her hair - hats or scarfs are a good idea.

[Rohele]

Yes I have experienced this.

It's not really "sunburned" - it's been damaged by the sun. Mine was so bad I had 1" long pieces breaking off the ends every time I combed (the sink was filled with them). I also dyed and heat styled my hair at the time, so my hair was fragile to begin with.

Mine never has recovered (still growing it out :( ), but I second the advice about deep treatments. Heavy pre-wash oilings with EVOO has helped my hair a lot.

She can prevent it by wearing a sunhat/scarf etc. There are also hair products that have UV protection in them, which help to a certain degree (but personally I wouldn't rely solely on them if I was spending a prolonged amount of time in the sun).

[ZenBird07]

Yes and it took me three years to get rid of it -and my hair grows pretty fast... Lots of trims. At the time I didn't know about COing and CWCing and hadn't yet found the monoi that I use today. Whatever ya do don't let her use cones because it'll just mask the damage -or maybe the opposite, in fact, to ease her mind about her hair until she can grow it out and start her trims :idea:. Good Luck.

[NorthernDancer]

Thanks guys! I'll tell her to try an SMT.