Everyone is Talking About: Surfer Hair
- TRI Princeton
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
A cool aesthetic with bleached and tousled locks – but how do you achieve it and what’s the science behind it?
It’s coming up to summer and that means that summer hair is back. And surfer hair is big news. But what is it, how do you get it, and how does it work (scientifically)?
Image taken from Relentless Grooming
What is surfer hair?
Surfer hair is embodied by a cool, casual aesthetic where locks are tousled and (often) sun-bleached – essentially the hair you might have if you’d just been surfing in the Pacific Ocean. The style is intended to be low maintenance, and often features a longer cut, with layers, but lots of texture, volume and flow.
How do I get it?
This crux of this hair style is to combine tousled locks with texture. Tousled locks can be achieved through use of a hair styling spray to fix hair in place, as well as allowing hair to air dry (or, if you need to use a hair dryer, using a diffuser). This is arguably the opposite to glass hair, where hair is highly shiny and manicured – flat irons are essential.
Texture can be achieved by addition of a salt spray, which causes salt crystals to deposit on hair fibers and changes their physical properties, both causing friction between strands (ideal for this style, where sleekness is not the intended outcome) and the slight dullness you would also after swimming in the sea.
The science part
We have already covered how hair is impacted by exposure to salty water in “Aqua-Mane-ia: The Science and Art of Water on Your Hair: Part 2. The Impact of Salt”, however, in this short piece we’ll do a quick recap.
Salt on the surface of the hair can make it feel dull and tangled, which is due to the presence of salt (NaCl) crystals. The impact of salt on the hair fiber can be quantified through use of several analytical techniques, including ease of combing for friction measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging for visualization of salt crystals on the cuticle, shine analysis to investigate luster, and tensile strength testing to see if the salt impacts upon the internal hair properties and overall hair strength.
The TRI team have also undertaken several studies on the impact of salt and found:
Friction: After exposure to salty water TRI research has confirmed that there is increased friction between hair fibers, which could lead to substantially increased risk of split-ends or fiber breakage. However, rinsing with freshwater immediately reduced the impact, and use of shampoo and conditioner restored hair to control.
Dullness: Hair shine analysis revealed that salt residues can lead to a reduction in shine, leading to hair looking duller when compared to a control. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging allows individual crystals of salt to be identified, alongside their location.
Potential for hair damage: Bleached hair was impacted by exposure to salt more than virgin hair, likely due to the increased presence of OH groups on the surface, which will interact with sodium ions more. In addition, the bleached fibers became less stiff and fibers broke more easily.
Conclusions
Surfer hair is all about texture and a relaxed style. While using saline sprays can lead to hair being more prone to damage, mostly due to the increased friction between fibers, removal of the product through shampooing and conditioning quickly restores hair to its former condition. Hair that has been subjected to bleaching, either through exposure to the sun or chemical treatments, is more affected by addition of salt. Further information about our studies into the effects of salt water on hair is available in a poster presented at the 10th International Conference on Applied Hair Science, 2022, which is in the TRI library.
