Should you always carry HAIR SHEETS handbag? in your
Foolproof. Space-saving. And the perfect way to beat frizz. . .
These days, there’s a sheet mask for every beauty need.
What started as a trend from Asia has crept into all aspects of grooming.
From deodorant to nail polish remover, self-tan and toners, an infused cloth can deliver it.
Now hair has its own handbagfriendly arsenal: sheets promising to tackle static, frizz and grease that take up little more room than a credit card.
With the rise in heat styling, colour treating, keratin blow dries and pollution, hair needs all the help it can get, says hairdresser John Vial, of salon sloane in London.
‘We need to care for our hair more because we do more to it,’ he says. ‘A wipe is an instant win.’ We put six to the test . . .
No-shower wash ikoo hair Fresh-ups Dry Shampoo Sheets, £14 for eight, feelunique.com
PRICE PER SHEET: £1.75
WHAT IS IT? Fingerpuppetstyle cloth pads in foil pouches, infused with ginger and grapefruit extracts plus castor oil, a gold standard natural ingredient for hair growth. You rub the ingredients onto the scalp then wipe through the hair to mop up oil and dirt.
WHAT ARE THEY LIKE? Actually, neither dry nor sheets. More like a flannel wash. The cotton pouches are infused with liquid cleanser that dries off in less than a minute. For my dry hair, the high alcohol content makes it an emergencies-only fallback.
however, it saved the day when I’d been cack-handed with root touch-up and my parting was orange. If your scalp turns oily as the day passes, or you’ve had a sweaty workout with no time for shampoo, this deserves a place in your bag.
Chic-scented gloss ouai anti-Frizz hair Sheets, £20 for 15, lookfantastic.com
PRICE PER SHEET: £1.33 WHAT IS IT? This cool upmarket brand was founded by hollywood hairstylist Jen Atkin. Whether you have messy bed hair or flyaway tresses, these tiny papers in sachets aim to calm static and smooth ends, with shea butter, coconut oil and silicone.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? These ecofriendly hemp paper sheets gave a lightweight sheen to my hair with no oil- slick effect. They worked best when I warmed them in my hands to release the oils then ran my hands through my mid-lengths and ends.
They have a subtle fragrance of violet, gardenia and white musk. The slimline packaging lets you carry a few for times you need hair to look pulled together.
Root detox iGK Swipe up Charcoal Dry Shampoo hair Blotting Tissues, £16 for 16, spacenk.com
PRICE PER SHEET: £1 WHAT DO THEY DO? each foil pouch has a square of folded hemp paper that contains oil-mopping powdered clays and starches, detoxing charcoal along with nourishing jojoba seed oil and smoothing silicone.
You press the powder-coated side of the wipe to oily areas of your scalp, then swish the wipe through your hair to increase volume.
WHAT ARE THEY LIKE? You have to tear these open with your teeth. Be careful not to breathe in — fine, grey-tinged particles disappear into the hair, so there are no snowdrift patches. having no propellants means fewer chemicals and less packaging. A great whistlestop refresh.
Frizz fighter e.l.F Frizz Taming hair Shine Sheets, 25 for £3.50, elfcosmetics.co.uk
PRICE PER SHEET: 14p WHAT ARE THEY? These come in a wipe- style packet rather than individual wraps. They are infused with oils such as avocado and argan plus silicone.
WHAT ARE THEY LIKE? subtly fresh- smelling and dry to the touch until you warm them in your fingertips to release the product, which feels more like a smoothing serum than an oil.
The small size makes them fiddly, and I had greater success applying the product with fingers, scrunching several sheets at a time.
But they took the edge off ‘second day’ dry ends, and my hair looked and felt softer.
Oil blotter nunzio Saviano Dry Shampoo Blotting Sheets, £24 for 50 sheets, amazon.co.uk
PRICE PER SHEET: 48p WHAT ARE THEY? These powdered rice paper press- ons absorb oil from your scalp just as facial blotting papers fix a shiny T-zone. The idea is that spare powder they release can
then be brushed through for extra zhuzh.
As well as blotting oil, they claim to refresh your style, add shine and control frizz.
Ingredients are rice starch and ( the packaging says) ‘calsium arbonate’, let’s assume its calcium carbonate, i.e. chalk, a moisture mopper-upper used by gymnasts.
WHAT ARE THEY LIKE? Made by a top New York hairstylist, they are coated in ‘ nude’ coloured powder and win on design, plastic- free packaging and simplicity of ingredients.
As a commuter cyclist, I’m prone to a sweaty helmet head, which can mean lank hair all day. Pressing these on my roots gave good lift.
As for shine and frizz control, here they over-promise. When I tested a sheet on my hand, it was mattifying, which you want from a blotter.
Laundry hack Tesco Tumble Dryer Sheets, £1.40 for 40, tesco.com
PRICE PER SHEET: 3.5p WHAT ARE THEY? synthetic sheets that reduce static in clothes — a popular hack for taming antenna-like hair. They neutralise static via a ‘cationic’ electrical charge. People even use them on dogs to eliminate wet dog smell. Internet threads extol their merits.
WHAT ARE THEY LIKE? I will have to take a friend’s word for it that a sheet of Bounce sorted out her unruly frizz.
Merely opening the highly scented packet of this Tesco version gave me a headache, and dire warnings about avoiding prolonged skin contact and their harm to aquatic life did not make me want to apply them to hair on woman or beast. They are not beauty products for a reason. PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY PRESSREADER