Turn down the heat
The hair math is simple: blow-dryers, straighteners and curling irons all compound dryness, dullness and frizz. But we need them for a good hair day in the first place! What to do? Adapt your routine with new technology and formulas. The most obvious switch is one of the most exciting things to happen in tools: the Dyson Corrale, $699. Developed by engineers, it styles and straightens hair using 50 per cent less heat than most competitors. Another way to protect hair is to add a new-generation formula that makes it faster to style. Kevin. Murphy’s Blow.Dry Ever.Smooth,$49.95, has polymer technology that helps hair remember the smooth style you’ve just created, even after shampooing. Finally, a new heat-activated treatment, Sisley Hair Rituel The Cream 230, $125, protects your hair’s keratin and reduces breakage with a technology that infuses restorative ingredients deep into the hair fibre, repairing hair against heat of up to 230°C. It also nourishes with camellia and moringa oils.
Like the move from heavy foundations to lighter ones, most experts agree it’s best to blend emerging greys into your natural colour than hide it completely. It’s less maintenance and allows you to avoid the regrowth line. Dee says clever highlighting is the modern way to blend in. “A few blonde highlights will make your greying hair seem creamy rather than yellow,” she says. “In salon, your hairdresser will choose a complimentary toner to achieve this, as they are designed to cover greys without damaging the hair.” If you’re colouring hair at home, “apply colour with a comb to blend the greys,” suggests colourist Pete Lennon of Crown Hair in Sydney.
You never know where a compliment will lead you as a journalist. Most recently, after commenting on my colleague Olivia’s new wavy ’do, she revealed that she’d joined a cult hair community on Facebook called ‘Curly Girl Method Australia & NZ’ and was on a “hair journey”. This surprised me because I’d only seen her with smooth, poker-straight hair. “I’ve been desperately trying to flatten my curls for 13 years,” she admitted. “The problem is I’ve never learnt how to take care of them.” Having always had hair that hung like spaghetti, I was intrigued. Don’t curls just happen? No. Olivia patiently explained that there are many things that get between a woman and her best, well-defined curls, from weather (humidity, in particular) to certain ingredients in shampoos and even the way you sleep. Apparently, I know nothing. So on behalf of our curly-haired readers, Olivia has condensed the three lessons she’s found most valuable so far (and feel free to join her in the group, too).