should i cut or not?

Since you prefer to keep it long, keep it long. There are terrific deep conditioners available right now that can repair a lot of damage. I have been getting remarkable results with Monoi Oil on dry, damaged hair. I also really like L`Oreal`s Mega Moisture Creme too. Makes the hair like silk!

Get your hair in as good a condition as you can before your field exercises, and be prepared to do some serious deep conditioning when it ends. With long hair, you will have more options (cutting being the last one) but with short damaged hair, not much you can do.

Just an opinion. Good luck! ;)

You could always invest in a shampoo and conditioner in one to take with you... IF thats not doable then treat your hair really good until you leave (like weekly deep conditioners no heat styiling or stressfull stuff). Right before you go get your hair trimmed up enough so that you are sure you have no split ends and that they are healthy, but don`t do more than a trim, there are ways around cutting it... Any possibilities of bringing a leave in with you to put in at nights? Oh and for the sun thing put sunscreen in it. It`ll be greasy but I dont think it would really matter.

DDDDD

Okay, yes your hair will get some damage but it is very possible to keep it healthy. How do I know this? Well Ive been able to keep my long hair in good condition inspite of spending several summers in a row working at a state park. I know this isnt quite as bad as your situation but let me explain further.

In my job I spend each day out in the sun almost the whole time and because my park was by the ocean most of the time my hair got salt water, sand and marsh mud in it. Now the worst summer for my hair I spent over a week at an ocean labroatory (I was getting my degree in marine biology). At this lab we spend every day in the sunlight and in the ocean. There were NO showers and the only way to get clean was to take a salt water shower (the pumps filtered the seawater some but it was still very salty). My hair was eternaly salty and didnt get shampooed or conditioned at all (my hair at the time was waist lenght too). After this week and a half I spent 3 more weeks working as a camp concelor for a marine science scholarship for middle schoolers camp. So again i was in the ocean just about everyday. Several days I was in the marsh covered in muck. As a councelor we didnt have much time to shower either. After these two activities I work the rest of the summer at the park.

i kept my hair from getting ruined by washing it less often (keeps the oils in) and by braiding it to keep it out of the way. A braid and a soft band or toothed clip will keep the braid up out of the way and will hurt your hair less.

if your pressed for time in shampooing and conditioning I suggest that you either just use conditioner (unless you have super oily or dirty hair), or you put the shampoo on quickly and before its even rinsed off put the conditioner on (really it saves time).

Pretty much dont worry at all if the shapoo is still in when you put the conditioner in. Im going to get semi sceintific on you now. Shampoo is made like detergent. One end of the molecule is attracted to dirt and so the shampoo molecules surround dirt and oils. This end is concidered hydrophobic (doesnt like water) and will not bind to water. the other end of a shampoo molecule is hydrophilic (loves water) and so is attracted to water. When you rinse your hair the ends sticking up (not surrounding the dirt) will become water soluable and get washed away from your hair.

Conditioner i am going to have a bit of a harder time explaining but it basicaly shoos the shampoo away and will bind to your hair coating it. So if you put shampoo on and dont wash it all right off but then put the conditioner on you will still be able to get the shampoo out just as well and the shampoo will still have done its job.

Did I make sence? I learned this in a chemistry class but its been a while since I explained it to anyone...


Anyways the point it that I think you should keep your locks and see what happens. you can always cut it if it gets too messed up.