LOCK IT IN
Coloured hair and healthy hair were once mutually exclusive, until the savviest brands began taking cues from the innovative world of skincare. By Remy Rippon.
Coloured hair and healthy hair were once mutually exclusive, until the savviest brands began taking cues from the world of skincare.
Iwas stuck between a rock and a hard place. For some time now, I’d been considering giving up colouring my naturally mousy brown hair. From the minute my mother allowed me to highlight it – around the age of 16, which, not by coincidence, is also the time that blondes usually start farewelling their naturally sun-kissed strands for something that’s neither textbook blonde nor brunette – I had been showing up to my appointment every six weeks to walk out a few shades lighter. It would be liberating, I thought. And, not least, I would get my Saturday mornings back.
It would also be a whole lot healthier. Decades of bleaching, I reasoned, were beginning to come to light: brassy mid-lengths and ends that, even after a decent chop, seemed to separate as if they were permanently charged with static. But as if by virtue of the hair gods, at the same time as I was deciding between hair health and hair appearance, which I surmised were mutually exclusive, a change was afoot in the hair-care industry.
“I think what is interesting is I’m beginning to see skincare and hair care come together,” says Moroccanoil CEO JuE Wong, who is well versed on both camps: before joining the pioneering hair company in 2017 she served as president of skincare giant Elizabeth Arden.
From salon to beauty cabinet, root to tip, the brand’s latest launch, Color Complete, takes a 360-degree approach to conditioning colour-treated hair, something many other brands had begrudgingly relegated to the too-hard basket. “Seventy to 80 per cent of women globally colour their hair,” explains Wong of the need for such a product. “The majority of women are never happy come say week six or week seven after their colour appointment. Some people feel like: ‘I don’t really want to go through a two- or three-hour process’, so we really wanted to take away that pain point and allow people to enjoy their hair colour right up until they have to go back and colour their hair,” she explains.
The approach is multi-step. Uniquely, it starts in the salon, with a scalp-soothing priming spray, dubbed ChromaTech Prime, which equalises the porosity of each individual strand of hair, ensuring colour goes on evenly. ChromaTech Post is then applied during the wash-out phase and aims to seal in colour while forming a protective coat of armour to thwart colour fading between salon visits. And, remarkably, it doesn’t add any additional time to the often-lengthy process of in-salon colouring.
The brand’s hero ingredient argan oil, the stalwart for each of its formulations, has been super-charged, too. Dubbed Argan ID, the new technology is intended to infuse the potent effects of argan deeper into the hair while sealing it for protection against external aggressors (hello, sun and pollution) that, as they do on skin, wreak havoc on healthy hair.
“It really is skincare,” says Lorri Goddard from her apartment-style salon on the second-floor of an achingly cool private members’ club in Los Angeles. Goddard has been tending to the perennially golden tresses of Hollywood’s favourite starlets, including Reese Witherspoon, Elizabeth Olsen (who hot-footed it out of the salon just as I arrived) and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Long frustrated with other add-in formulas that tampered with the results of her colour, Goddard says the in-salon aspect of Color Complete works similarly to a primer. “It’s unique because it provides a gorgeous palette with very even porosity for us to work on. It also dries super-quickly and permeates through the hair, right to the scalp, without messing with my formulations,” she says.
Just like a well-rounded skincare regimen, even the best in-salon treatments call for at-home maintenance, and the simplest protocols often prove the most effective. With each wash, Color Continue Shampoo and Conditioner deposits a trio of actives that help to rebuild keratin structures and promote colour retention within each individual strand. “Part of my job and what I aim to do is to help people feel their best, so by prolonging the colour, these products help to do that,” says Goddard. In clinical testing the results stack up: after 10 washes, the range is scientifically proven to extend colour life and vibrancy by 100 per cent.
Daily upkeep is also just as simple. A spritz of Protect & Prevent Spray works much like a leave-in conditioner. On the surface, it deposits shine while it gets down to business neutralising free radicals from environmental stressors and shielding against UV damage (a major culprit when it comes to fading colour). “I have been noticing a huge difference to the level of fading,” says Goddard.
“What is the first thing you see when you wake up? It’s your skin and your hair,” says Wong matter-of-factly. And with that sage advice and the fact that I’ve just witnessed Elizabeth Olsen sashay out of Goddard’s salon with the most buttery shade of blonde, I’ve decided I’m not ready to give up colouring just yet. I ask for whatever she’s having, and two hours later my tresses resemble the champagne-hued mop I sported as a five-year-old. And I know it’s almost as healthy.
“IT PROVIDES A GORGEOUS PALETTE WITH VERY EVEN POROSITY TO WORK ON”