B00AFU6252 EBOK by Jessica Alba Page A

(my current favorite is by Tory Burch) to cover my face, ears, and neck on sunny days. I also love sun hats for my girls. And when we’re at the beach, I make sure we all have tunics or T-shirts on hand to throw over our swimsuits. You want something loose, not only because it will be cool and breezy but also because the closer fabric is to skin, the less sun protection it provides.

Pure & Simple: Hair
    Y OU KNOW ALL those bad hair days where your locks are totally flat and lifeless, or worse, frizzy and out of control? You weren’t born that way, lovely. Mainstream hair care is tough on our heads. Heat styling and coloring dry out and damage the hair follicles, making us even more prone to frizz because the hair shaft is constantly roughed up and trying to suck up whatever little bit of moisture it can find in the air. Plus most of the products we use at home contain harsh detergents and more dehydrating ingredients like alcohol or silicones and gels that just weigh you down.
    Since my hair is put through the ringer on most acting jobs, whenever I’m not shooting, I give it a chance to detox: no heat styling, just a gentle shampoo and a deep conditioner or a leave-in one. Sure, we’d all love blowout-perfect hair all the time, but these recovery days are so important—and I actually like that beachy, free-flowing, air-dried look, especially in the summer. And remember: Your next blowout will be even more awesome because you’ve given your hair this opportunity to bounce back.
SHAMPOO
    How often you need to shampoo depends on your hair and scalp. I try really hard not to overwash my hair because it gets subjected to so much heat styling and such; I need to let it breathe when I can! But my hair is too fine to go for very long between shampoos (it just falls flat). Like my preferences for soap and shower gel, I like to stick with a pretty basic, plant-based formulation for gentle cleansing. If you’re dealing with dandruff or buildup, try to avoid conventional dandruff shampoos—they’re very harsh. Rinsing your scalp weekly with apple cider vinegar (see recipe ) will help keep flakes at bay naturally. But do rinse well with water and follow up with a conditioner—otherwise you’ll smell like a salad! For oily scalps, adding a bit of tea tree oil to your shampoo and only conditioning the ends will work best even if you have to shampoo daily.
    FORMALDEHYDE
    * Includes formaldehyde-releasing preservatives like DMDM hydantoin, imidazolindinyl urea, and quaternium-15
    FOUND IN: Shampoos, body washes, nail polishes, polish removers, keratin hair straighteners, hair gels, and eyelash glues
    WHAT IS IT? A preservative (or sometimes, a by-product released by other preservatives) that prevents bacteria growth and (weirdly) makes your hair silky smooth
    WHY IS IT SKETCHY? Formaldehyde can cause cancer after chronic, long-term exposure, plus it can trigger allergic reactions, rashes, nosebleeds, asthma, and other respiratory issues.



TRY “NO-POO”
    If you have coarse, frizzy, or curly hair, you’ll need to be careful
not
to shampoo it too often. In fact, a lot of curly girls I know swear by the DevaCare No-Poo method—or rarely even shampoo their hair at all! Shampooing strips hair of the natural oils it needs to keep frizz at bay, so when you switch from shampoo to a cleanser, your curls will have more definition and fewer flyaway issues.
    If you are used to daily shampooing, going No-Poo does require a serious level of commitment—I suggest starting on a vacation (like camping!) when you can rough it and not care how you look for a week, because there’s definitely a detox period where your scalp sort of freaks out and gets mad oily, wondering why you aren’t sudsing it up every day like usual. But after a week or two, this usually calms down and you start to see hair ah-mazingness.
    Other curly girls find they really do need to wash a couple times a week—every two or three days, say—to keep the grease at bay.