The Samuel Pepys of hair diarists. Really

A friend’s ‘hair journal’ inspires post-summer treatments

I HAVE A FRIEND who keeps a hair journal. And I realise that sentence should therefore read ‘I know someone who ke eps a hair journal’, but I ’ve caught a glimpse and let me tell you Samuel Pepys has nothing on this girl. He also had great hair, by the way, and may well have charted the ups and downs of that luxuriant chevelure in a long-lost leather-bound journal, but that’s beside the point.

In the precious Moleskine notebook my friend keeps in her handbag (one that I always feel should be safeguarded with a plastic heart-shaped lock and key, like the Little Twin Stars diary I kept as a child), she’ll detail the pros and cons of products used – the hair softness factor in the days following her first, second and third experience with L’oréal Professionnel’s Série Expert Inforcer range (‘outstanding’), the number of days it takes to get greasy, post-wash, the flakiness of scalp ‘if any’ and the success of various subsequent drying and styling techniques implemented ( ghd’s new Soft Curl Tongs got an unprecedented two smiley faces).

She writes with the same gourmetstyle fervour as Nigella about the relative efficiency of ingredients such as jojoba, moringa and shea butter and dreams of the day when, through a welldocumented process of trial and error, she’ll have found the solution to every hair problem, from static and brassy highlights to pre-menstrual greasiness.

We b oth agre e that the bigge st of these problems is post-summer hair. Because that whole crunchy-headed look is all very Bumble and bumble Surf Spray on the beach and pool side, but when you get home you realise it’s just a straw-thatch, tinged green with chlorine, and most of September is inevitably spent trying out inefficient and expensive de-matting products and procedures before reluctantly having several inches cut off.

Well, no one’s hacking any thing off my mane this autumn. Because although I dried and fried it, I’ve finally found the in-salon treatment to end all treatments: Daniel Galvin’s 3- stage clarifying and deep-cleansing scalp‘ protocol ’( devised by Galvin’s condition expert and style director, David Felstead, using Kérastase), which is tantamount to sending your hair to rehab and watching it emerge, shiny, happy and reborn in 30 minutes – as well as a series of post-summer hair products that will ensure you never have to resort to keeping a journal.