Product Watch: hair strengthening treatments and other products to get excited about
Half-up, half styles are entirely on-trend this season. Image from Chanel
Hair requires more of my time than makeup and skincare. 'Twas ever thus, surely, as I can no longer remember when I wasn’t trying to minimise every other part of getting ready so I’d have more time for nourishing treatments, hot rollers, straight blow-dries or a mercy dash to the salon. This season’s raft of fast-working, trend-friendly products are as welcome as an extra 20 minutes with whatever book I’m reading.
Whip-straight, very low ponytails are ‘in'. At shows by Carolina Herrera, Elie Saab and Brock Collection, they were secured with plain black elastics or strips of sheer fabric that complimented the clothes. This look’s glass-like shine is less easy to achieve than the pony at the base of your hairline, especially if your hair is naturally curly or has lots of surface breakage from styling. The solution is typically silicone-rich serum.
Living Proof Frizz Vanishing Oil, €33 at spacenk.com, is both ‘clean beauty’-friendly and shine-inducing. The formula is silicone-free yet as light and smoothing as a serum. This is partly the result of its coconut alkane-base. Coconut alkanes are common silicone substitutes created by the reduction and hydrogenation of coconut oil’s essential fatty acids. An ethylene-propylene-styrene copolymer gives it a jelly texture while helping to distribute more nourishing ingredients. The truly oily part of this oil comes from the (less prevalent) antioxidant extracts, including moringa, jojoba and babassu-nut oils. The blend is meant to mimic the protective effect your scalp’s natural oils have on hair and while those with oily scalps may not need it, it does suit hair of any volume.
Low side-partings (think Fred Astaire, then go lower) on super-straight hair were the thing at Valentino, Emilia Wickstead and Loewe. Gelling hair this flat is not the way to go — roots were clean and lengths were ironed straight and shiny. Christophe Robin was developing clean haircare while 'Goop' was still making Shakespeare fall in love (literally, his first collection came out the year Gwyneth cried at the Oscars). His new
Half-up, half-down hair is a pretty style to copy from autumn shows such as Chanel, Tory Burch and Rodarte. Keep it modern by loosely curling the sections you leave loose with a wide-barrel tong like the ghd Curve Soft Curl Tong, €146 at ghdhair.com. With so much hair on show, maintaining your lengths is key. Sisley has come up with a conditioning treatment for women who hate waiting around with wet hair.
Silk scarves were wrapped bandana-like around heads on the Dior and Gucci catwalks. While these are a pretty way to conceal greasy roots, Klorane’s new , €11.50, at pharmacies nationwide, makes it feel and look cleaner in just two minutes. It removes dirt, refreshes the scalp and absorbs excess oils with a blend of plant extracts and powders.
From baby highlights and 'brondes': to coral-copper and caramel, autumn’s colour trends are a broad spectrum. We could all do without the damage. Hair’s disulphide (structural) bonds are frequently broken by bleaching and colouring agents.
Olaplex works to restore them using the brand’s patented bis-amino diglycol dimaleate. , €29, is the brand’s newest at-home formula, it has the highest concentration of the patented “bond builder” ingredient yet and is meant for use on dry hair of any type. The brand suggests applying it before their , €29, both at cultbeauty.com — a favourite with several stars who’ve done every colour under the sun — saying their trials found that this resulted in three times stronger hair after just one use.
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