Beach hair? Bird's nest!

[Dilbertian]

After four days of swimming in the Channel every day, my hair is a dry, knotty, snarly mess. It looks like I've backcombed my hair, and it re-knots itself into a bird's nest very soon after I've brushed it out.

My hair is naturally wavy, with a tendency to frizz. It's about 16" long and hasn't been dyed or anything. I've shampooed and conditioned since I came home.

And here's the problem: I'm allergic to fragrances. The only hair products I have ever found that I can use are shampoos and conditioners. Nothing else is ever made fragrance-free.

How can I improve the condition of my hair?

Use OILS as a regular deep conditioning mask. Organic, cold pressed etc types of coconut or olive oils, the kind you can eat. I have frizzy, wavy hair and they SAVED my hair. Avoid sulphates in your shampoos - sodium laureth sulphate and sodium laurel sulphate - they are just basically harsh detergents that strip your hair of moisture. There are many sulphate free shampoos out now, find a moisturising one. I really like and recommend Shea moisture, but I don't know about the fragrance aspect...

I don't know what types of unfragranced hair products to recommend, they seem to all have perfume. I have trouble with perfumes too (gives me migraines). Perhaps a gentle natural product from a health food store like Whole foods?

@BinkyBoinky can you describe how you used the oil on your hair? I'd like to try this myself.

Sure, I start by massaging some oil into the ends of my hair and slowly work my way up the hair adding more oil till I get to the scalp and then give myself a good scalp massage for 4-5 minutes. I then leave the oil in my hair for anything from 2 hours to overnight. I put a plastic cap on too to keep in the heat. You'll look crazy greasy for a while!

Then shampoo out and condition as normal (if needed). You might need to shampoo at least twice to make sure the oil is all out.

It helps if you warm up the oil first as that helps absorption. So with coconut oil I run the tub under the hot tap for a couple minutes to help it soften and warm up.

Sometimes i do a 'cocktail' of oils, mix a little coconut, castor, olive together in a little bowl and add some rosemary/lavender essential oils, sometimes peppermint too. This is more for hair growth but it's so good for hair in general.

One more thing I just thought of - if you're allergic to perfumes you can try doing natural hair masks using food as well, I do avocado & honey mixed with coconut or olive oil. It's so moisturising and natural.

Look up hair oil masks on youtube, lots of 'natural' tips for wavy hair, it's very helpful :)

I have coconut oil, so I finger-combed some through my hair. I use coconut oil on my face, but cannot put it in my scalp - it soothes my face but irritates my scalp

I always use sulphate and silicone free shampoo and conditioner (Waitrose Pure) and I don't generally shampoo with every wash, either. But I was so skanky after 5 days camping that I shampooed twice, like in a salon, and maybe that was overkill.

Thank you!

I'm on a mission to sort out my hair, starting with an oil treatment tonight.