fabulous fragrance is a natural winner for hair

I first clapped eyes on aveda in the beauty hall of iconic london department store liberty in the the mid-Nineties. at the time, I’d never seen anything like it. It was quite revolutionary.

Commercially available shampoo and haircare products had always been divided into the cheap (Silvikrin and people like me) and the posh (Kerastase and rich ladies in Mayfair) — but this was something else.

Unlike the highly chemical hair products I was used to, aveda adopted the same principles as my favourite skincare, using plant and flower oils and essences to treat, nourish and even tint the hair.

The brand’s products were the brainchild of Horst rechelbacher, an austrian hairdresser who cut his teeth styling Sophia loren in rome before setting up a beauty school in the U.S.

He combined knowledge of natural products (his mother was a herbalist) with a passion for ayurveda, the eastern medicinal system — and the result sold like hot cakes. The aveda product I wanted most was Shampure, a daily shampoo for all hair types and even sensitive scalps, launched in 1989. Its smell was absolutely glorious — fresh, herbal and yet wholly unfamiliar — and was so unique that I began to identify it over the fug of fine, powdery perfumes that filled the air of most chemists. I could never leave the shop without first unscrewing the Shampure cap and inhaling it neat.

When I finally started earning some decent money, it was the first treat I bought for myself. Some two decades later, Shampure is an entire category in itself. It has a conditioner, (an excellent) dry shampoo, lotion, handwash, even a perfume oil, all capitalising on the addictive aroma of the original.