It doesn’t matter what colour or texture the crowning glory of fur on the top of your pip is; the more time you spend in the sun and the salt water – the lighter your hair becomes. This is the exact opposite of skin, which as we all know goes darker in the sun. Although the envy of the Jersey and Geordie Shore spray-tan crowd, a natural, “healthy” tan is actually sadly a sign of sun damage. But sun damage to your skin is no joke kids, so perhaps a topic for another day.
Anyway, back to hair. Those golden, coolly frazzled, streaky locks that most of us surfers end up with after hours in the sun and surf are indeed also the result of sun damage as well as salt water damage.
That’s coz seawater contains – wait for it folks – wait for it… salt. Good old, salty salt. Salt, if you’ve something of a scientist yourself – you should know it is made of sodium chloride. The scientific formula is NaCl. Somehow, by some weird twist of fate, Trident remembers this formula from high school science, and pretty much nothing else. Even though we write articles for Surf Science. Go figure.
Anyhow salt is part sodium, part chlorine. It’s no bloody wonder eating too much salt is bad for you. You may as well sit by your pool, swallowing great handfuls of chlorine straight from the HTH bottle. Yummy. Stomach ache and slow death.
So, with such potent chemicals in the salt makes up saltwater – it’s only logical it’ll do something radical to your hair. Indeed, pure chlorine often turns blonde hair green. Nice. So there’s another negative for wavepools. You end up looking like the Joker or a circa late 90’s punk band bassist.
Moving swiftly back on track.
So, yup – it’s the chlorine in salt as well as the sun itself that performs the magic hair bleaching effect. Combined with a bronzed, glowing, dark skin – the effect is attractive to most. Trident will bet even the most sunlight-averse Goths on the planet will grudgingly admit the “surfer” look is hot AF. So whether your hair is curly, straight, thick or thin – sun will bleach it like over exposed camera film. This is an old reference.
“John Frieda Beach Blonde” by ebaycoach is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Folks spend big bucks on hair lightening which we get for free.
Indeed, bleaching one’s hair in salons globally has to be an industry worth billions. If not in dollars, at least in rands. All those wannabe’s, spending their hard earned cash – while we surfers achieve the same damn thing for free as a simple by-product of a lifestyle.
Lemon juice, bleach, fancy hair products, hydrochloric acid (which also contains chlorine – Trident’s educational Surf Science strikes again, we amaze ourselves at times folks!), brake fluid – all of these lighten your hair. And some of these products might maim or kill you. But none of them are as cool as simply surfing and ending up looking like Pamela Anderson or Julian Wilson. (With apologies to the Brazzo’s.)
