March 27, 2020 |
Are you ready for the seven-day hair challenge? Lockdown brings opportunities – not least for your hair. One of our favourite hair experts, Revlon’s Global Influencer John Vial, says enforced isolation is the ideal time to put your hair in rehab. With nowhere to go, you have no need to follow your regular routine of straightening, blow-drying, styling, tinting, curling or backcombing – all of which will dry, damage and frazzle your hair. Now is the time to let your locks lie fallow says Vial. His challenge to all you Tenners? “Don’t wash or style your hair for seven days.”
We all know people for whom this wouldn’t be a challenge at all but for most of us, a week without any hair intervention, is a big ask. But says Vial, allowing nature to reclaim your locks, is exactly what your over-processed, over-styled and stressed hair is crying out for. Vial believes Lockdown is the ideal opportunity to tackle the single biggest hair bugbear. “Most women say ‘I have greasy roots and dry ends,’” says the man who produces the elaborate hair designs for Charles’s Jeffrey’s Loverboy shows and is also the resident hair expert on the recently rebooted 10 Years Younger. A shampoo for greasy hair will sort out the roots but dry out the rest, exacerbating the problem. But if you leave it unwashed for a week, says Vial, you can break the nightmare cycle of greasy roots and dry ends and allow your hair to rebalance,
Here’s John Vial’s guide to a seven-day lockdown hair rehab:
1. Bang it back in a ponytail and leave it.
2. Brush it with 100 strokes a day. You may not be shampooing your hair but this isn’t a story of total neglect. You still need to brush it. There is truth in the old wives’ tale that 100 brush strokes is the best way to get shiny hair. Brushing stimulates sebaceous glands in your scalp. You produce oil, which you then drag through to ends with your brush. This naturally moisturises your hair from root to tip, making it look more lush.
3. To combat oily and icky roots during your seven day challenge, use dry shampoo on them. Don’t have any in your lockdown beauty larder? A light dusting of talcum powder or even plain four works just as well. Blast off the excess powder with a hairdryer.
4. While you dehydrate the root, you need to rehydrate the ends. That means you need to put a treatment through them to nourish and moisturise. If you didn’t stock up on hair treatments before lockdown (were too busy panic buying Pinot noir and giant chocolate buttons) use any natural oil you have in the cupboard – coconut oil, olive oil or you could even smash up an avocado with a bit of oil and use it as a pack. Put what’s left on face after. If you really want embrace social distancing, use fish oil. You’ll smell like a trawler but your ends will be transformed.
5. If you are suffering from product build-up or there’s a lot of residue on your ends from colouring or tinting, then mix up some sugar with some oil and use it on the hair like a scrub. This is a good thing to do on the last day of your hair-rehab.
6. After seven days, the cycle of greasy roots/dry ends should finally be broken. It’s time to wash and dry your hair as normal. Go forth (from your bathroom to your living room) and be gorgeous.
Top Image: Charles Jeffrey Loverboy AW20, photographed by Jason Lloyd-Evans.
