Packing hair care: the 100 ml rule and what survives a suitcase

Two things go wrong with hair on holiday. The first is the sun, salt and chlorine. The second is that the routine which keeps your hair civil at home does not fit in a washbag, so it gets abandoned for a week.

The rule you are actually working with

For hand luggage in the EU and UK, liquids go in containers of no more than 100 ml, all inside one transparent resealable bag of about one litre. That is the constraint. A 200 ml conditioner is not coming with you, however carefully you pack it.

Two ways round it. Decant into small bottles, accept that they leak, and rebuy the contents. Or take a format that is not a bottle. A sealed single-dose capsule holds 1 ml, so the limit is not in play, and there is nothing to leak because nothing is open until you open it.

What actually leaks

Pressure changes in the hold push air out of part-full bottles, which is why the cap you tightened at home arrives wet. If you are decanting: fill to the top, not halfway, tape the cap, and bag it separately from anything fabric.

The five-item version

• Sun. UV degrades pigment and roughens the cuticle. A hat beats any product.
• Salt and chlorine. Both are drying and both are cumulative. Rinse with fresh water as soon as you are out, every time.
• A leave-in, applied before the water. A film on the fibre means less of the pool gets in.
• A wide-tooth comb. Wet hair stretches; a fine brush tears it.
• A soft tie. Fabric, loose, low. Not an elastic band on wet hair in the sun.

Thirty seconds, once a day

Rinse, squeeze to damp, one capsule through mid-lengths and ends, go. It is the same routine at home and away, which is the only reason it survives a holiday. Ellips Hair Vitamin comes in sealed 1 ml capsules, fifty to a jar, and a handful in a tin covers a fortnight.

Ellips Hair Vitamin is a cosmetic leave-in treatment: it conditions, smooths and helps protect the fibre against heat and mechanical damage.