Although the weather may have cooled slightly, the past few weeks of gloriously sunny days and baking hot temperatures have done wonders for our emotional wellbeing. Sunshine not only boosts our mood, soaking it up can increase vitamin D which is good for our bones and our health.

Getting outside in the sun is the perfect tonic for most ails, and we all know how important it is to guard against the risk of sun damage to our skin. However, despite being well aware of the risk to our skin, we regularly forget about protecting our hair.

Overexposure to sunlight can make hair dry and coarse. And for coloured hair this effect is even worse.

Dry hair can look dull and lacklustre. It can be greasy at the roots but dry at the ends, and it often doesn’t improve for washing. It also causes inelasticity which can cause a downward spiral in the condition of your hair. Because healthy hair stretches and springs back to shape, it shines in the light and holds a style. Dry hair doesn’t stretch and breaks under much lower resistance to healthy hair, meaning it not only looks limp, it will be harder to style and will be brittle.

Luckily, most of the time dry hair is self-inflicted rather than being genetic - so that means it’s something you can definitely fix with the right hair care routine. You don’t need to feel stuck with dry, brittle locks.

As with skin, dry hair just needs a bit of moisturising to get it back to its shiny, bouncy best. Depending on how dry, it might be worthwhile investing in a repairing hair balm. Like a thick body butter, this balm delivers moisture and much needed nutrients to the length of the hair from root to tip.

As chemicals can play a part in drying hair out, hydrating treatments should be kept as natural as possible. Look for herbs and ingredients from nature as these will work best to deliver moisture just where it is needed, without overpowering your hair.

For really lacklustre locks, an excellent treatment is to wet hair under the shower. Once you have shampooed and conditioned as normal, slather on the dry hair balm and then pop on a shower cap for a few minutes. This next step really works to lock in the moisture, and the longer you leave it, the stronger effect it will have up to a maximum of around ten minutes.

Take the shower cap off, brush you hair carefully with a wide bristled brush and then rinse the balm off. You can also get hair balms that you don’t have to wash out, meaning the moisturising treatment continues to work all day.

For the best results, and healthy, shiny hair that will turn the girls green with envy, use with a natural herbal shampoo and a similar conditioner that are specially formulated to work on dry hair. Once you’ve invested in some products to protect hair from further damage, you can get back out to enjoy the sunshine.