9 Tips For Glossy Hair
It’s not just the products you use on your locks but environmental factors, diet and styling techniques that can all impact the shine levels of your hair. Here are our top tips for conquering dullness.
1. Do use a detoxing, clarifying shampoo. A build-up of styling products can dull your hair – and don’t forget to rinse thoroughly to remove all product. If you can brave it, finishing with a cold blast will close the hair shaft to smooth your hair further.
2. Use moisturising conditioners and masks. A dry hair cuticle is rough and doesn’t reflect light as well as a hydrated, smooth strand.
3. Turn down the heat when styling with straighteners or curling wands to prevent breaking and weakening hair, which causes dullness and frizz. When heat styling, always remember to apply a protectant primer, spray or treatment before to form a barrier and seal hair to reduce the damage.
4. Do opt for an ionic hairdryer to reduce drying time and exposure to heat, as well as battle static.
5. Finish with a glossing oil. A nourishing, nutrient-rich oil will immediately hydrate and tame fly-aways and fuzzy, dry ends as a final step in your hair-prep routine, giving a shiny, softened feel to locks.
6. Check your water. Living in a hard water area? The mineral deposits can affect your shine. Try changing your shower head to one with water-softening properties to defy dullness.
7. Limit colouring sessions, especially bleaching. Whilst an in-salon colour will provide a temporary shine, over processing can leave the hair porous and straw-like. Try adding in a ‘glossing treatment’ to your colour appointment – a colourless toner that adds shine to your finished look.
8. Book a Keratin treatment – aka the Brazilian blow-dry. A chemical formula which is applied to the hair, when heat-activated it reacts with the amino acids in your hair to create new bonds that can keep your hair straight and sleek for eight-to-twelve weeks. Great for coiled, curly or unruly hair.
9. Up your Omega 3 intake to increase your shine from the inside, out, whether through plant or fish sources. Ensuring you are eating plenty of omega-3 rich foods will benefit the health and vitality of your hair and your nails and skin, too. Good sources include oily fish, walnuts, tofu, flaxseeds and avocados.
7 Products To Try
L’Occitane
Intensive Repairing Shampoo, £20
With Oat Amino Acids, Provitamin B5 and a patented anti-breakage complex of five essential oils - L’Occitane’s intensive repairing range deeply strengthens and restores hair’s health to its shining glory. Buy it here.
Neom
Super Shower Power Conditioner, £20
A silicone-free conditioner with vitamin-rich ingredients, including almond oil, algae extract, shea butter and apple seed oil for conditioned, silky locks. Heavenly scented with spearmint, rosemary and eucalyptus, too, it’s a joy to use. Buy it here.
Philip Kingsley
Vitamin C Jelly, £28
A clarifying and detoxing scalp treatment to use before shampooing. Tricologist-formulated to remove impurities from the scalp and hair to brighten and restore natural radiance. Buy it here.
Faith By Nature
Coconut and Shea Hair Mask, £7
A vegan hair mask rich in organic coconut oil and hydrating shea butter to intensively repair damaged, dry hair. Buy it here.
L’Oreal
Dream Lengths 8 Second Wonder Water, £9.99
A water-weight conditioner that uses ‘Lamellar Technology’ to fill in gaps in the hair’s fibre where it has been damaged to smooth its surface for a mirror-like shine. Buy it here.
ESPA
Nourish and Gloss Hair and Scalp Mask, £38
Offering ‘skincare ingredients for the scalp’, ESPA’s treatment mask includes active ingredients such as pineapple and pumpkin enzymes to gently exfoliate the scalp of build-up, whilst spirulina and quinoa work to condition and hydrate. Buy it here.
Naturelab Tokyo
Perfect Shine Oil Mist, £17
This anti-oxidant rich finishing spritz is perfect for locking in hydration and giving a glass-like gloss, thanks to its nourishing butters, hyaluronic acid and plant-derived oil formula. Buy it here.
By Lydia Mansi
April 2022
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