Get into condition

Scissor solution

When driedout, flyaway hair has left you with the urge to lop off all your hair with garden shears, choose a long bob (known as a “lob”) to keep you from doing something you’ll regret. A lob, a cut that hits below the jaw and above the shoulders, boasts both the neat polish of a bob and the subtle volume-boosting layers of a shag but without the shag’s potential unruliness. To L.A. stylist Kevin Hughes, it’s the perfect solution: short enough to mitigate the droop of thinning hair, yet “long enough to pull back.” He recommends “angling it slightly under the chin for more volume and movement,” then working in a bit of texturizing product for “lift and piecey-ness because women don’t want to look like they have a helmet on their head.”

If your hair colour is in need of a refresh, celebrity hair stylist Charles Baker Strahan recommends a regimen of intensive conditioning beginning two to three weeks before hitting the box colour or the salon. “A lot of women shy away from any form of hydration because they’re afraid of lifting the dye molecules from the hair,” says Baker Strahan, “but compromised hair won’t ‘accept’ colour effectively.” He’s philosophical: “Your hair is fading anyway, so you might as well start treating it for optimal results as opposed to trying to maintain your colour’s longevity, which is a losing battle.”