SOS for split personality hair

If your hair has a split personality then SOS is on lather with Lee Stafford's new Oily Roots Dry Ends Shampoo and Conditioner at £8.99 each. Used together, this SOS duo work to detox and mop up excess sebum on the roots whilst soothing flayed out ends. Moringa Seed extract is the shampoo's secret weapon - an ingredient native to India known for its ability in haircare to mop up oils, whilst the conditioner relies on shea butter extracts to give dry ends plenty of TLC. The perfect coupling.

Hair Heroes

MY HARD EARNED HAIR!

PRODUCTS I WOULD LIKE TO THANK

I changed my profile picture on all my social media accounts last week and got quite a few nice comments on my hair. This pleased me immensely, namely because I put a lot of effort into it. It’s not hair that’s left to chance. If chance had its way, it would be a frizzy and crazy mess. I’ve totted up I use seven products on my hair in one styling session including shampoo and conditioner. But there are three products excluding my Tangle Teezer hairbrush which I absolutely would recommend. A big handclap for:

Philip Kingsley Elasticizer £27.50. This is not new, it’s been around for decades, but I haven’t found anything to match it. It’s the brand's hero product and must have won every beauty gong going. Hair boffins will know that hair stretches when wet and if in poor condition – which most hair will be if it’s subjected to heat and styling on a regular basis, will snap. Since I’ve been using this the condition of my hair has been transformed. Twice a week I damp my hair down just before bed and brush the Elasticizer through the mid-lengths of my hair with my Tangle Teezer. I then tie it back and go to bed - not forgetting to put a towel on my pillow. The next morning I just rinse off in the shower before shampooing.  The overnight rush of moisture to the hair’s cuticles leaves hair fit for anything. You can literally feel the strength of the hair as you run your fingers through it. Fabulous!

Philip Kingsley Daily Damage Defence £22. Yep, it’s PK again, and why not? Blow-drying my hair without protection would feel like going out wearing no knickers! In my mind this is a lightweight, spray-on everyday Elasticizer. Before blow-drying I spritz all over damp hair and brush through. As I pull through the styling brush on a high and fast heat I can be confident my cuticles aren’t sizzling and screaming.

Lee Stafford Argan Oil Moisture Injection Conditioner £8.99. I’ve never had so many compliments on my hair since using this. Many session stylists spray dry conditioner on dry hair before using irons, so I’ve adopted this insider trick too. Just before I run through the irons, I spray this on and it leaves the hair soft and silky looking. If this sounds like something from a hair ad, then that’s because it’s the results it gives my hair.

HER hair to go

HER is probably not a brand you’re familiar with when in comes to talking  haircare – but I’ve got a feeling word will spread. Beauty press are already making appreciative noises about it. But for those of you who watch QVC you will be in the know – although randomly the brand’s ambassador, co-creator and co-owner is John Barrowman. I don’t know what to think about this as a) he isn’t a woman and b) he’s not known for his hair, but undoubtedly he seems a very nice man and he’s charming, which always helps when you’re fronting a brand.  Moving on from the singing and acting haircare man, the two standout products for me from this Italian bred brand is their 300 Trecento Revitalising Hair Treatment and their Volumising Powder.

The Revitalising Hair Treatment is a tour de force when it comes to hair that’s lacked TLC. Stuffed with all manner of healers and smoothers including extracts of olive, ginseng and amino acid, simply apply to damp hair and after 300 seconds – that’s 5 minutes for those clock watching and hence the product name, rinse with warm water and hair will feel incredibly nurtured, nourished and soft as a duck feather pillow. Honestly, it really does calm stressed out tresses. The Volumising Powder is adorably kitsch in its packaging, and has fast become my new handbag essential. Rescuing hat hair or greasy flattened roots in a nanosecond, simple sprinkle sparingly on the crown, muss in with fingertips and watch your hair spring back to life.  It’s literally the St John’s Ambulance of hair – or should that be St John Barrowman? Whatever, it brings CPR to fatigued follicles. Fabulous!

HER 300 Trecento costs £26 and the Volumising Powder £14.
Available from www.qvc.co.uk and www.thisisherhair.co.uk

Shampoo with science

COULD WATER BE YOUR HAIR BREAKER?

It’s amazing how water can make or break you hair. I can always tell the difference when holidaying somewhere ‘soft’ in terms of water, say Cornwall where my hair acts in a completely different way to it does in London. In otherwords, before product help, the texture of my hair can swing from feeling rough and tangled in a hard water area to lank and no-can-do to a soft water area. Whether hard or soft water runs from your shower head there’s now a shampoo line that actively works with your water type to give you more manageable hair.

MY NEW WATER BABIES

Area H20 are products that attracts the metal ions that are present in every water type and allows you to wash them away easily before they react with your shampoo to form deposits. Developed by London hairdresser, Patrick Lehane along with biochemists, it’s a line that results in cleaner, better behaved hair. More than just shampoo psychobabble, it does work. My hair came away from the shower feeling cleaner, squeaky even after shampooing. Whilst blow-drying my hair literally felt lighter. The press release throws science at me in terms of insoluble salt resides for hard water and sodium content and desalinated water for soft, but essentially my hair is just telling me it likes this shampoo and conditioner. It doesn’t feel stripped, dehydrated or wrung through the wash, it just feels nice. And isn’t that what we all want from our shampoo and conditioner?

Area H20 Hard, Medium or Soft Water Shampoo for Normal to Fine Hair, £9.95

Area H2) Hard, Medium or Soft Water Shampoo for Coloured Hair, £9.95

H20 Hard, Medium or Soft Water Conditioner, £9.95

Each variant is also available in duo packs at £17.50

Available from www.AreaH20.co.uk