It’s officially music festival season. Coachella has kicked off a summer full of incredible live music, food, and fashion. People agonize our their festival outfits for weeks, trying to craft the perfect combination of clothes, makeup, and hairstyles. I sat down with Sonika Malhotra, the Chief Marketing Officer of U.S. Haircare at Unilever and Co-Founder of the hair care brand, Love Beauty and Planet, and celebrity hair stylist, Jennifer Buchalla, to get some tips and tricks of how to protect and style your hair this festival season.
Start with a good base
For festivals, it’s important to have products that will keep your hair looking and feeling it’s best all day long. “The best hair care routine and products for any one person will always be specific to the nuances and individual traits of their hair,” said Malhotra. She emphasizes the importance of the products that are used to wash your hair. “Everyone, no matter their hair type, needs a quality base – a shampoo and conditioner as the foundation for a good hair day. What you do to your hair in its wet stage affects how it looks and feels in its dry stage.”
If you’re on the hunt for a good shampoo and conditioner, try out the Love Beauty and Planet Volume & Bounty Shampoo and Conditioner. This product line is “infused with natural coconut water to build bounce, volume, and strength into hair,” shared Malhotra. “What it also does is use natural conditioners that help your hair weightlessly moisturize and align beautifully in its wet stage, so as you build up your stylers or simply choose to let your hair down natural, it remains touchable, weightless, aligned and smooth for the day. You want to be able to run your fingers through your hair and not worry about it!”
Be sure to wash out all of the products
After a long day with gel, hairspray, and other oils in your hair, it’s important to make sure that your hair is as clean as it possible. “You’ll want to select a shampoo with an efficacious, yet gentle formula – you don’t want to use a shampoo that removes the buildup but overly strips the natural oils or lipids in your hair,” Malhotra said. “Look out for brands like Love Beauty and Planet that are made with plant-based cleansers and detanglers that are free of parabans and phthalates or colorants and sulfates. This gives you a gentle lather that’s effective at washing out the day’s wear & tear or styling build up, but not by overly stripping or drying your hair. Make sure you take extra care to clean your scalp again with these gentle cleansers.”
Protect your hair
It’s important to keep your hair healthy and strong. Heat styling can do a lot of damage but luckily, there are ways to protect your hair. Buchalla shared some of her favorite products to use on clients. “I like to pull double duty on clients if I’m starting from wet hair. I will add a foam protectant like Kevin Murphy’s Heated defense first before blow drying. Then before going in with a flat iron or curling iron, I will section the hair and spray on a dry style heat protectant like Tigi Catwalk Haute Iron Spray.”
gather inspiration
Have a game plan ahead of time so you know everything you need to achieve the style you’re dreaming about. Look on TikTok, Pinterest, and other social medias to figure out the look that you want to go for! Buchalla shared some of the trends that she’s been seeing this year. “This year the most popular hair trend for Coachella is waves with baby braids and butterfly clips. People are using either a 3-barrel waver or a flat iron to achieve the “indie sleaze wave.” A 3-barrel iron is the most user friendly way to achieve this style at home. Leave the flat iron with the ‘S wave’ technique to the pros. Other popular hair trends this year are bubble braids, hair tinsel, and a sleek straight middle parted style with oversized barrettes clipped in front.”