You spent forty minutes on your hair Friday morning. Soft waves, volume at the crown, the whole thing. By the second set it was flat at the roots and stuck to your neck, and every photo from the headliner shows the knot you twisted it into with the elastic off your wrist.
ACL runs October 2 to 4 and October 9 to 11 this year, and early October in Austin is still summer: upper 90s, humidity, dust off the lawn, and ten hours on your feet. Here is how to set your hair up for the day it is actually going to have.
Why festival hair falls apart by 4pm
Sweat and oil at the scalp collapse your roots first, and the shape goes with them. Humidity swells the hair shaft, so curls from an iron relax and smooth hair frizzes. Dust from the Zilker lawn sticks to product and dulls color. Then your hands finish the job: hat on, hat off, ponytail up, ponytail down.
Hair that looks good at 10am is easy. Hair that still looks good at the headliner comes down to how it was prepped and dried.
Freshly washed hair on its own is slippery. It has nothing to grip, so braids slide out and curls drop by lunch. Skipping the wash doesn't fix that. What fixes it is the prep and the drying that come after the wash.
Start with a blow dry the morning of
A professional blow dry sets direction at the root, smooths the cuticle so humidity has less to grab, and dries your hair all the way through. We wash it here and work in the right prep for your hair type so the style has something to grip, which means there is no need to wash at home the night before. Hair that is even slightly damp at the scalp when you leave will be flat by lunch. Ours starts at $50 with a scalp massage and our stress relieving treatment. Tell your stylist it is for ACL and we will build it to hold through the headliner.
Aveda Air Control Light Hold Hair Spray
A light, flexible hold made with pine resin, so hair still moves and never goes crunchy. It goes on dry, kills static, and tames flyaways. Mist each section as you braid or curl rather than one heavy coat at the end. One catch: ACL bans aerosol cans, so Air Control does its job at home and stays there.
Styles that hold, by hair type
Fine hair
Loose curls drop within the hour in humidity. Two Dutch braids or a braided half up style hold through sweat and look better at 9pm than at noon. Once they are in, gently pull the edges of each loop outward. On fine hair it makes a braid look twice as thick.
Thick hair
Get the weight off your neck from the start: a high, smooth ponytail with a second elastic just below the first to lock the base, or a low pinned knot. Whether you blow it out with us or wash it at home, make sure it is dry all the way to the scalp before it goes up. Thick hair that goes up damp stays damp all day and frizzes the moment it comes down.
Curly hair
Set your curls with your usual curl product and let them dry completely, air dried or diffused, before you leave. Then keep your hands off them, because every touch breaks up the pattern. A silk scrunchie lets you pile them up loosely without crushing them.
Color treated hair
Ten hours of October sun fades color, especially blonde and red. A hat over your part and a braid instead of wearing it down cut the exposure, and Aveda Sun Care Protective Hair Veil adds UV protection before you leave. That night, wash out the dust with a gentle color safe shampoo and skip clarifying, which strips color along with the dirt.
The dry shampoo trick that buys two extra hours
Most people use dry shampoo to rescue roots that are already flat. By then it is too late. Put it on before you need it: that morning, on dry hair, work it into your roots and massage it in. It is already in place when the sweat starts, soaking it up as it happens. Mid afternoon, when the roots start to go, add a second light pass and lift them with your fingers. That is how you reach the headliner with volume still at the crown.
ACL bans aerosol cans. Aveda Shampowder is a powder dry shampoo, so it comes with you.
- Aveda Shampowder for the afternoon root touch up
- Clear elastics, a few bobby pins, and a claw clip or silk scrunchie
- A hat or bandana to keep sun off your part
- Non aerosol sunscreen, 3.4 ounces or less
Book your ACL morning blow dry
Blow dry and style from $50 at South Lamar and Circle C. Call to book before weekend one starts on October 2, and grab your Air Control and Shampowder while you are in.
South Lamar · (512) 472 3331 Circle C Ranch · (512) 637 08889600 Escarpment Blvd, Suite 920H, Austin TX 78749
