If you've got beauty questions, Cosmopolitan.com's beauty editor, Carly Cardellino has the answers. Email your beauty Q's to ccardellino (at) hearst (dot) com or tweet your questions to @carlycardellino.
Q: My hair has a mind of its own when it's humid out, causing it to be a ball of frizz. How can I keep it under control?
A: Here's the deal: If your hair has any kind of natural texture and you're trying to keep it frizz-free or straight, any moisture in the humid air will cause it to slowly revert back to its natural curly or wavy state and most likely frizz up.
The trick to controlling frizz and keeping your hair from puffing up is targeting the problem in the shower with the right shampoo and conditioner. "You'll want to use a lightweight moisturizing formula that will inject your hair with the hydration it needs so that it doesn't soak up excess from the humid air," Ammon Carver, a celebrity hairstylist in NYC, says. In desperate need of a new formula to try? If your hair thickness is fine to medium, go for Nexxus Hydra-Light Weightless Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner or Biolage SmoothProof Shampoo and Conditioner, and if it's textured or on the thicker side, pick up Dove Pure Care Dry Oil Non-Greasy Shampoo and Conditioner.
After you've layed a solid frizz-fighting foundation with the right shampoo and conditioner, while your hair is still damp you're going to want to use a lightweight serum or oil, like Living Proof Satin Serum or MoroccanOil Treatment Light. These formulas help control flyways since the dimethicone in serums and the oils they contain act as a repellant to the humidity. Again, depending on your hair texture, apply it from the mid-length to your ends if your hair is fine, and from roots to ends if your hair is textured or on the thicker side.
Once you've applied the necessary stylers to your hair, it's time to seal the cuticle, which will help lock the hydration in from the previous products you used and keep any humidity out. The easiest way to do that is to use a boar bristle brush while directing the heat from your blow dryer downward toward your ends (this helps the cuticle lay flat compared to rough drying without a brush, which can ruffle the cuticle and result in flyaways), and then hitting your hair with a cool shot of air all over to seal the cuticle. Just remember to make sure your hair is 100 percent dry, since hair is less resistant to humidity if it's still damp before you step out the door.
Then, after you've styled your hair to your liking with the hot tool of your choice, use a super-fine, anti-frizz aerosol hairspray to lock in your style, like Kérastase Laque Couture Micro-Mist Anti-Frizz Fixing Hairspray. Using a non-aerosol spritz could reintroduce moisture into your hair again, causing you to be more susceptible to frizz, which you don't want.
Voila! Prepare to be frizz-free and ***flawless!
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
Carly Cardellino was the beauty director at Cosmopolitan. If you follow her Instagram, then you know she'll try just about any beauty trend or treatment once (the pics of her purple hair are on IG to prove it). But her favorite part about being in beauty is finding the most effective products, and then sharing that intel with others—because who wants to spend money on stuff that doesn't work? No one, that's who. Her most recent discovery: De La Cruz Sulfur Ointment, which will change your blemish-clearing game! Hopefully through the beauty stories she writes—and the experiences she shares—you can see exactly why she's in this business.
