hair

When I gave up using silicone, I resigned myself to not using serum again, as most formulations are very silicone heavy. However, I discovered that Naked Bodycare make two serums, both silicone free - Frizz Fighter, and Extra Shiny. I picked up both, and today I'm reviewing the Frizz Fighter variety.

The most stand out feature of this product is the consistency. Silicone based serums are smooth, silky, and fluid. This one, however, is sort of like a soft, non-sticky gel. It comes out of the bottle in blobs, not in a little puddle of serum like I'm used to, but once it's been spread out it feels much like a silicone serum, albeit one with less slip.

I apply this to my wet hair, along the mid-lengths and ends. A small amount goes a long way - although I don't think it would be particularly easy to overdose on this, as it is quite light textured and absorbable - if you spread a bit on the back of your hand, it's absorbed into the skin quite quickly.

I don't think that this has a huge effect on frizz when applied to wet hair - while it certainly lubricates the hair and adds some moisture, the effect on frizz is fairly minimal. Applying a small amount to dry hair smoothes down any flyaways and imparts a bit more moisture, with pretty much the same effect as with the Extra Shiny serum.

For me, this isn't a HG product - it's nice, and if you're looking for a very light, non-oily serum, or looking for a bit more moisture post-wash, then it might be a good buy. Don't go expecting a major decrease in frizz though.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can get it for £4.99 for 50ml from Boots or from Naked's website.

Please ignore the fact that my second photo is so badly focused. I'm not great with a camera, particularly after an evening at the pub!

The left photo shows my hair before I started a shampoo and silicone free regime. The right photo is after about 5 weeks of using nothing but silicone free conditioner and styling products on my hair.

Aside from the main lighting, colour and focus differences, I think that the main difference is that my hair is more curly than it was previously. Before, my curls were concentrated mostly around the back of my head, with the front parts containing a mix of loose curls and waves. After skipping the shampoo and silicone, even the front parts of my hair are curly, particularly in the mid-lengths.

Frizz wise, there doesn't look to be much of a difference. However, the right hand photo was taken after coming home from a night out in London - a very windy night at that. So the fact that the level of frizz there is comparable to the left hand photo, which was taken after a wash and airdry entirely indoors, is a good thing in my book.

I'm pleased enough with the differences in both the feel and look of my hair that I'm going to continue this regime indefinitely.

I love the smell of coconut in the morning. Or in the evening, which is generally when I wash my hair. Such is my love of coconut-scented things that I'm 87% more likely to purchase a hair product if it smells of coconut (that's a scientific fact). And this was the case for this Superdrug Naturals intensive conditioner, which I picked up at the weekend.

Firstly, this product is cheap. Priced at just £1.85 for 400ml, this is definitely a bit of a bargain. Don't think that you're getting an inferior quality product though, oh no. This is one of the nicest intensive conditioners I've tried in a while. Gently scented with a sweet but not excessively sweet, very mildly coconutty scent, this is a very thick and rich product. Think butter at room temperature thick.

A good scoop distributed through the ends of the hair, and left on for a few minutes, left my hair feeling very soft, shiny, and well moisturised. Despite being silicone free, this product has that extra bit of 'slip' that I've been missing, and really feels like it's making a difference to my hair.

The only downside is that because of it's thickness, it can take a little longer than usual to rinse out of the hair. But that's a fairly minor point, and something I'm more than willing to do for such a lovely - and budget friendly - product.

If you'd like to try it yourself, you can get it at Superdrug.com for £1.85.

This was a product that was sent to us free of charge to review.

On the deck today is the Amazonia Preciosa Cupuacu Revitalizing Hair Mask by Surya. (What is it with me and really long product names lately?)

This is a seriously eco-focused product. It's ECOCERT accredited. It's made of sustainably sourced Brazilian rainforest native plants and housed in recyclable PET packaging. The company are heavily invested in sustainable production policies and employ local people to harvest their ingredients. I'm not kidding. This mask? It positively gleams with virtue.

The question is - did my hair gleam, virtuously or otherwise, after using it?

Well, it's definitely a luxurious experience using this cream conditioner, which applies to the hair and is worn for 20 minutes under a hot towel before rinsing. With my hair wrapped up and a facemask on at the same time I felt quite decadent.

However, and this is a wholly personal thing, this product smells quite powerfully of almonds. I guess that the Cupuacu nut is a relative of the almond, going by the marizipan-like smell. The trouble is that I don't like almonds, and this marred the experience for me.

It took quite a lot of product for my hair to feel "covered" - there's not much "slip" to it, probably due to its being silicone free - it's almost like moisturiser or body lotion in texture. I guess I used up about 1/4 of the 120g tube.

After 20 minutes I had no trouble rinsing it out and my hair felt quite nice, tangle-free and generally happy. After drying though, I didn't feel that there was much difference to my hair. Usually when I use a leave-in conditioner I notice a marked improvement in the look and feel of my hair afterwards.

It's a shame, because the way the company seem to approach their business really does appeal to me (although I'm a little confused as to how shipping or air-freighting products all the way from Brazil can be carbon-friendly - nitpicking maybe). It's often (though not always!) sadly true that products with low impact on the environment also have low impact in terms of what they were designed to do.

I will say that I maybe should have used the mask designed for curly hair, since although I often wear my hair straight it is naturally curly and therefore probably more dry by nature. I could have chosen, in fact, from 5 masks in the range - Buriti, for dyed and damaged hair, Murumuru for oily hair, Brazil Nut for dry and fragile hair, or Ucuuba for curly hair. The one I had is for normal hair. Each mask also has a shampoo and conditioner in the same "flavour".

Amazonia Preciosa products are available at Liberty. The mask I tried retails at £10. Learn more at the Surya website.

Naked produce a range of "97% natural" products which are free from petrochemicals, harsh surfectants, and parabens. As a result, their range of conditioners are suitable for my silicone free, shampoo free hair routine, so I picked up a tube of their Rescue intensive conditioner from Boots.

This fresh-scented intensive conditioner contains shea nut butter and olive oil extracts, and is targeted at damaged, frizzy hair. While it is quite rich, the texture of the conditioner is actually quite light; it distributes through the hair evenly, and produces an odd light frothing effect as it mingles with the water in the hair.

The effects are somewhat different from what you usually get from a silicone-heavy intensive conditioner - that feeling of slip and extreme smoothness when you rinse the conditioner out is not there. That's not to say that the hair doesn't feel more moisturised and much smoother - it definitely does. It also doesn't weigh the hair down, leaving it soft and light.

If you're interested, you can try it for the very wallet-friendly price of £3.91 for 250ml at Boots.com.

As part of my new shampoo-free routine, I had heard a lot of very good things being said about Boots Essential Curl Creme, which is a silicone free styling product which apparently can be used on wet or dry hair. Last time I was in Boots, I took the opportunity to pick one of these up.

The curl cream is a fairly thick product with more of a gel texture than a cream one. It claims to "smooth away frizziness and hold your curls". And it really does deliver - a small dab distributed through wet hair gives light hold while the hair dries - resulting in significantly less frizz. I also felt that the cream was slightly moisturising - my curls were not only less frizzy, but also very smooth and shiny.

The one downside is that as with many curl products with build-in hold, you can end up with a slightly crunchy feeling 'do after air drying - but this is easily scrunched out, and well worth it for the definition the product provides.

Best thing about this product? The price. For just £1.29, you get a whopping 250ml of product, and given that you need so little, the tub should last for ages. I'm bowled over by this product - really wasn't expecting this kind of performance for this price.

Boots Essentials Curl Creme, £1.29 for 250ml at Boots.com.

See that red hair over to the left? That's mine. I've had red hair since I was 16 and since the first time I dyed it (and a tiny bit of my mother's carpet), I've been battling the fade. Coloured red hair is notoriously difficult to keep fresh, fading to an orange or pinkish hue. Over the years I've gathered a number of tips on how to keep my hair bright, and while these are specifically tailored to red hair, could be equally applied to other colours to keep that just-coloured look for longer.

Minimise contact with water

I used to lie in the bath with my wet hair swirling around my shoulders under the water. One day I realised that it was contributing to the dreaded fade. Try to keep exposure to water to a minimum. If you swim, buy a swimming cap, and use it.

Use a colour conditioner

But not one of the ones you buy on the high street - apart from Aveda Madder Root, I've found none of them actually impart much colour into the hair. Make your own. All you need is a tube of semi-permanent vegetable colour (like Fudge paintbox) in your preferred shade, and a tub of conditioner. Mix a bit of the vegetable colour with a lot of the conditioner, slap it on your hair, wipe it off your skin (or it'll stain), and leave it on, under a plastic shower cap or some clingfilm, for as long as you can be bothered. Rinse thoroughly. I do this once a week.

Wash your hair in cold water

Hot water, apparently, opens the hair cuticle, allowing water to permeate. Cold water, apparently, closes the cuticle. I'm not 100% sure on the science but this definitely does work for me, with the added bonus that cold water = shine. Lots of shine.

Only wash your hair once

Washing makes your colour fade. Very few people need to wash their hair twice in one go; if you can avoid it, your colour will last longer. And you'll save money on shampoo!

Use appropriate products

Clarifying shampoo will strip your hair of colour faster than a moisturising one. Go for something fomulated for coloured hair. Never, ever use washing up liquid if you run out of shampoo - it's sometimes recommended as a way of washing unwanted colour out more quickly.

If you have curly hair, consider trying going shampoo-free entirely - my recent trials of the CG method show that using only conditioner is much kinder to my colour.

I seem to be a on a bit of an Original Source kick at the moment! This is probably because their conditioners are silicone free, and I'm currently giving up silicone. This light, fresh conditioner totally blew me away with it's strong, minty scent and the amazing tingly sensation upon my scalp (which I'm not yet sure whether I actually like - VERY tingly). Seriously, if you wash your hair in the morning (and if you do, I envy you - 4 hours airdry time means I wash always in the evening) and need something that'll wake you up a little bit, go for this. It'll wake you up a LOT. Also, if you have a cold, I suspect this will get you breathing through your nose again pronto.

Performance wise, this is a lighter conditioner than the White Pear and Avocado conditioner I tried last week, which makes it ideal for conditioner washing (if you're giving up shampoo) or for imparting light conditioning to normal/greasy hair. Nothing special, but does precisely what it says it will.

The reason I tried this, incidentally, was down to my husband. Thank you, husband, for telling me my hair looked skanky just before we went out, when the Batiste was upstairs. Thank you, for otherwise I would be using a more heavy conditioner for co-washing, and would still look skanky now.

I'm not bitter, honest.

Anyway, if you'd like to try out this very minty, refreshing, tingly conditioner, you can get it for £1.99 for 250ml at Boots.com.

I admit it, I'm a bit of a haircare snob. Kerastase, Redken, Alterna - all these used to be firm favourites in my household; in fact, it had been years since anything high street had touched my tresses, dahling.

In a bid to go silicone free (more on that later), I picked up a bottle of Original Source White Pear & Avocado conditioner for the wallet-friendly price of £1.99 for 250ml. I used it for the first time yesterday, and I'm finding myself very pleasantly surprised by the results - my hair is soft and shiny; just as soft and shiny as with one of my higher-end conditioners with silicone in them. Plus, the Original Source conditioner smells absolutely gorgeous - fruity, but not overly so, and slightly fresh with it. Yummy.

Original Source make a range of conditioners, all of which are silicone free, including a Mint and Tea Tree variety (sounds refreshing) and an Almond and Coconut variation, which is ultra-hydrating. The White Pear & Avocado supposedly protects hair against damage, and was plenty hydrating enough for my excessively coloured, dry hair.

I'd highly recommend these. I'll definitely be picking some more up in the future! Selected conditioners are available at Boots, and Superdrug stocks the whole range (although it doesn't seem to show up on their website).

Naked is a relatively new company producing what they claim to be "97% natural" products. "Natural" is a word slapped upon many beauty products nowadays, often completely meaninglessly, so what exactly do Naked claim is different about their products?

According to their website, the products are entirely paraben, petrochemical, SLS and phthalate free. All of these ingredients are widely used in cosmetics and toiletries, but there are arguments for ditching some of them - for example, SLS is considered by some as too harsh for curly hair. As Naked's products are SLS free, they could be a more gentle cleansing option.

Whether you're a believer in the more "natural" approach or not, Naked have a wide range of products to try including shampoos, conditioners, facial skincare, body care, and bath and shower products. They're also all reasonably priced; most of the range costs £3.91, with none of the products costing more than £7.82. I've just bought a tube of their conditioner, so reviews will be forthcoming!

If you'd like to try out the range for yourself, you can find them at Boots, or buy online through the Naked website.

A recent trip to Lush led me to pick up their Coolaulin conditioner, a coconut conditioner for dry, processed or curly hair - and coincidentally, my hair is all three!

The most striking thing about this conditioner is the scent. I absolutely love the smell of coconut, and I was expecting this to smell very strongly of it. I was surprised, and also pleased, to discover that the coconut scent is rather subtle, and has slightly woody undertones - smelling to me like a more natural scent than that in products I've used before.

While the instructions don't call for it to be left in the hair, as with most conditioners, I left it in my hair for 15 minutes to get maximum effect. I wasn't disappointed! My hair was left soft and much shinier than usual, with a slight scent that didn't linger for long. While not an intensive conditioner, it'll make a good regular use conditioner for dry hair.

The only reservation I have about this is the inclusion of SLS, or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, which is a surfactant used to lift oil from the hair, or to thicken or add lather to a product. Lush say they use it as a thickener. This seems odd to me, given that this product is marketed for curls, despite SLS often being thought of as damaging to curly hair.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can get it from Lush, £6.30 for 240ml (and available in other sizes too).

Lookfantastic.com, one of my favourite online beauty boutiques, is having a rather large sale on hair products at the moment. They stock a full range of high end products from the likes of Kerastase, Redken, Paul Mitchell, etc, and have taken 20% off the price of a variety of products until 9AM Thursday.

We're not affiliated with LookFantastic, we just love their wide range of products and discounted prices.

After my recent experience with home hair colourants, my hair was in desperate need of a deep conditioning treat. My recent foray into high street products hasn't yet found me anything that truly stands out as an intensive conditioner, so I rummaged in one of my dressing table drawers and came up with a sample pot of Kerastase Masquintense Fins (for fine hair).

Despite having used half of the 20ml sample pot already, the remaining orangey mask was plenty to give my hair a well earned treat. Thick and silky feeling, this mask is a fantastic way of injecting moisture and shine into dry and damaged hair. My hair was left feeling much smoother and in better condition. The lovely high end scent - which lingered on for about a day after washing - didn't go amiss either.

Kerastase products are lovely, and in more cash-rich times, Masquintense was a go-to product for me. I've rediscovered why! Once I can justify the high end price tag, I'll be buying some more - a little goes a long way.

Kerastase Masquintense Fins is £19.76 for 200ml at Lookfantastic.com, or if you're looking to stock up, you should be able to find a 500ml salon size tub on eBay for around £35.

In a bid to save a bit of money this month, I decided to give up my monthly visit to the hairdresser, and try out a home hair colourant instead. I've been colouring my hair various shades of red for about 10 years - the last time I coloured it myself, I used L'Oreal Feria. So I decided to stick with what I know and use Feria again, in the Pure Scarlet Power shade; an intense red that looked most similar to the hairdresser-given colour I usually have.

The application process is much the same as any at home colourant I've used; a colour gel is added to a developer and then given a good shake. Feria adds an additional "colour booster", which in this case was an intense red liquid. Once the colour was mixed, it was fairly easy to apply to the roots of my hair, as the bottle nozzle is rather fine, allowing you to get right into the roots.

I used two boxes of colour on my thick, bra strap length hair, and found that the two boxes worth of dye fully saturated my hair. The dye has the usual chemical smell, which I did my best to ignore for the 30 minute development time. It took a long time to rinse the colour out; I spent a good 20 minutes bent over the bath rinsing and washing my hair out with the shampoo provided. My hair was left feeling fairly dry and coarse, and a big dollop of intensive conditioner was needed to smooth it out again.

The colour I ended up with it not the colour on the box. It's much darker, verging on a dark plum shade which glows red in bright light. I'm expecting it to fade down to a more box-like colour in a week or so, but overall I'm disappointed at the darkness of the initial colour, given that my hair was light red when I started out.

Pros: easy to apply, plenty of shampoo provided in the box, great quality gloves, gives great shine
Cons: much darker colour than expected, drying

All in all, worth trying if you're looking for shiny colour with a bit of an edge - but don't expect it to be as bright as the box shade.

L'Oreal Feria home hair colour, £5.67 at Superdrug.

Disclosure - PR sample. We also received goody bags and jewellery as a gift from Pantene.

Pantene have stormed the blogosphere with their latest release - Aqua Light. You'll have seen it on pretty much every UK blog, thanks to a wide-reaching social and online media campaign. Pantene are talking to bloggers, and bloggers are talking about Pantene.

Last week Gemma went to meet the new Pantene ambassador, Cat Deeley, who embodies the "hair you can swish!" concept of the campaign with her shiny honey locks. Apparently she was extremely lovely and likeable, and excited about her new mission of getting women to "Swish!" their hair.

Trust us though, readers. We won't be swayed by charismatic Cat, brand attention, or gifts and goody bags. We'll tell you the truth about this new product from Pantene. The hard fact of the matter is...

... it's very good stuff.

Anticlimactic as that might be, this product range definitely does what it says on the tin.

Aqua Light's purpose is to address the needs of the startlingly large percentage of women who do not use conditioner when washing their hair. Apparently many people prefer to skip the conditioning step as they feel that their hair stays cleaner and less weighed down for longer.

At LBR, where some of us use nothing *BUT* conditioner, this way of thinking is totally unfamiliar. Surely conditioner is the best part of a hair wash?

Pantene's answer to this frankly disturbing behaviour is to create products so lightweight that they leave even the finest, limpest hair "virtually weightless" ("virtually weightless" is a key line for Aqua Light and appears at least 3 times on each bottle).

The "science bit" is threefold - firstly, Pantene have minimised the amount of silicone in their conditioner (ask Gemma, silicone is terrible for building up on hair, that's one of the reasons she's given it up altogether). Secondly, they've formulated the products to rinse very clean, choosing ingredients that group together in a loose, layered arrangement that is easily disrupted by water and doesn't cling to the hair. And thirdly, they've implemented "liquid conditioning" - choosing ingredients that are liquid at room temperature and won't turn into solid "gunk" on the hair once it's dried.

So you've thought it through Pantene, we'll give you that. You've also explained your technology in a way that actually makes sense and keeps the PR fluff to a (relative) minimum. But what are the products like to use?



There are four products in the line. Shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner and a leave-in spray. They come in fairly typical drugstore bottles, not a massive departure from the rest of the Pantene range. They won't wow your guests or give you that high-end smug feeling, but they're usable, robust and gender neutral (good for the fine-haired man in your life). The shampoo is clear, the conditioner translucent and typically conditioner-y (likewise the deep conditioner), while the spray is an interesting two-phase liquid in a clear bottle.

Scent-wise, the familiar parfum-de-Pantene is in evidence. It reminds me of high school. Aaahhh. Nostalgic, but not especially unusual or luxe.

The shampoo lathers readily (it contains SLS) and does rinse very clean. The conditioner spreads easily through the hair and does a fine job of detangling. I leave it on for around 10 minutes, and it also rinses very easily, leaving hair feeling soft and smooth.

A few squirts of the leave-in treatment has taken the place of my usual Bed Head serum while I've been testing this out. It doesn't leave the ends of my hair as silky as the Bed Head does, but since my hair's in such desperate need of a cut I won't judge it too harshly for that.

Once dry, hair is bouncy, shiny and has even attracted compliments at work. I was skeptical at first, expecting that I'd experience silicone build-up after a few days' repeated washing. However it seems that Pantene's formula tweaking has paid off (at least in my case), and these products are fine for repeated use. I haven't noticed any dullness, scalp irritation or loss of volume.

Verdict - a great drugstore staple and well worth trying if you don't like to splash out on haircare. If you prefer a more indulgent experience, stick to the high end brands, but for a functional and effective budget haircare range, this certainly succeeds.

Pantene is owned by Proctor & Gamble, who carry out a small percentage of their testing on animals. Read their animal welfare policy here.

James Brown.  Unless your first thought is of the iconic soul singer, you're probably thinking of him who does Kate Moss' hair.  The product line, which was "inspired by Kate", includes a variety of shampoos, conditioners and styling products in rather nice packaging.  I bought the Richly Moisturising Conditioner for Dry Hair after trying it out at my hairdressers house, when I'd forgotten to take my usual silicone free conditioner along with me.  I was surprised to find that it doesn't contain any silicones and so decided to invest in a full tube to try out.

The conditioner, despite being for dry hair, is actually of a rather thin consistency - much thinner than you'd expect.  Despite this, a palmful distributed through the ends of the hair is very moisturising and has a decent amount of slip to it - you need a lot less than you think you need.  It is in fact so rich that I don't allow it to go anywhere near my roots; it's definitely more suited to dry ends.

The scent is pleasant; light and fresh, and it doesn't linger on the hair after use at all.  The conditioner rinses cleanly from the hair, leaving it feeling moisturised, detangled, and with a little bit of that slip that I've missed from non-silicone products.  The hair also feels soft and looks shiny once dry.

The only gripe I have with this product is with the packaging.  While the tube design ensures that you'll get every last drop out, the way in which you get the tube to dispense product is not the easiest to manage with wet hands.  To get product out, you turn the bottom part of the tube, which opens a hole in the centre.  Twisting with wet slippy hands isn't the easiest thing to do, and when I have my hands full of conditioner, I tend to put the tube back down on the side of the bath without twisting shut.  This leads to some of the conditioner to leak out, which is a tiny bit wasteful.

That small point aside, I really like this conditioner - it feels luxurious, is surprisingly moisturising, and at £5.99 for 250ml, it's reasonably priced too.  Well worth a go.  If you'd like to give it a try, you can get it from Boots.com or in store.

Have you tried any James Brown products?

I'm a big fan of Naked's range of silicone free conditioners, but I'll admit that I've found the styling products I've found to be a little bit disappointing, possibly because serum is a product that just doesn't really feel right without silicone.  Anyway, I picked up a bottle of the Curl Tamer Styling Mousse a few months ago, and am finding that it's not a disappointment at all.

I used to love mousse - dispensing a golf-ball sized ball (why was it always a golf ball?) into my palm, raking it through my hair, and then ending up with perfectly defined but utterly crispy curls.  I never really minded the crispiness really, it was pretty easy to scrunch out.  Since going silicone free though, I've found it hard to locate a silicone free mousse with hold, and I had high hopes that this one would be the answers to my crispy crunchy prayers.

This mousse isn't really in the same category - in fact, I'd probably call it more of a foam than a mousse.  You certainly can't dispense a golf-ball shaped ball into your hand, as it comes forth from the bottle in a light froth.  Two pumps is enough to adequately coat my hair, which is fairly thick and a coupla inches below my shoulders.  I've been scrunching it into my hair from the ends upwards, and have found that it definitely does help to define and hold the curl in my hair as it dries, without leaving a trace of crispiness.

It also plays very well with other products, and being Naked and silicone free, is incredibly light - you can barely feel it in the hair once it's been applied.  There's also no build up, and I've had no ill affects from reapplying a tiny amount to my dry hair in order to tame a bit of wayward frizz, or from applying a bit more halfway through the air drying process.

While it does help to define and hold the curl, there are a few conditions.  It needs to be scrunched in, and once applied, it works best if you don't touch the hair at all.  A little bit of scrunching is OK, but when I touch my hair too much after application, I find that the effects are cancelled out.  

Overall, this product, while not totally lifechanging, has become a firm part of my hair styling regime.  I love the lack of buildup, the lightness, and the way that it leaves the hair feeling soft, not crunchy.  I will be repurchasing for sure.  If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can get it from Boots.com or Boots stores, at the wallet friendly price of £3.99 for 15ml.

Brands that embrace bloggers - it's pretty mind-blowing stuff. Inviting us to events, getting to know us via phone and email, meeting up for drinks... it's truly amazing to realise how seriously the industry takes the humble blog these days. It happens to us more now than it used to, but it never quite feels "normal". There's always a sense of "really, who, me?"

So how about being invited round for the evening by a celebrity hairdresser?

I'm sure you can imagine my feeling of total overwhelmed-ness when I turned up at Andrew Collinge's house last week for a get-together with Andrew and some of my fellow bloggers. After ringing the bell, the door was answered by a tall, slim man with tousled silver hair, who introduced himself as... Andrew Collinge. The man himself. Answering the door, for me.

Taking a seat in the elegantly modern living room, I was offered a drink by a slim woman with a perfect silver bob. That would be Andrew's wife Liz Collinge, whose colour-theory based makeup range was a big seller in Boots during the early '00s. A makeup artist whose name is embossed on several of the older makeup brushes in my collection. Getting a drink, for me.

Yeah.



I was pretty much gobsmacked. Luckily the ice was soon broken when Andrew stood up in the centre of the room and gave us an introduction to the Collinge empire (3 generations and 100 years of hairdressing), regaled us with stories of celebrity clients (he once accidentally soaked Margaret Thatcher when she turned around too fast at the sink) and talked us through the range of products that bear his name.

We saw the newly repackaged shampoos and conditioners (see pic above), which are now 500ml for £4.99 (they were 300ml for £4.29). We were also introduced to the new Purity range (see right - slightly pricier at £4.99 for 250ml), which unites Collinge expertise with the current concern for natural and sustainable beauty. There was also a brief outline of the various styling products in the AC range, including the light textured mousse (which he squirted into his palm and then encouraged us all to sample - it is indeed totally weightless and non-sticky).

To me, one of the most interesting things about the evening was seeing how familiar Andrew is with the AC product range and how it's clearly something he actually uses and lives with. I often cynically assume that celebrity products are just monetary tie-ins, but seeing Andrew interact with the products even in a living-room setting was a real eye-opener. He knows them inside out and has obvious affection for many. I can honestly say that I have always enjoyed AC products, but I feel much more confident in the range knowing that they're actually used and influenced by the work of a talented hairdresser.

Proof of said talent was also on display as Andrew executed several very glamorous hairdos on us using naught but a Denman brush and a single long hairpin. He illustrated the power of backcombing - something I'd never done to my hair before. Used wisely, it gives an amazing lift to the crown which can transform the way hair looks. He also demonstrated the very fashionable fishtail plait (see pic left), which I had never seen before.

Other pearls of wisdom included;

- don't wash your hair every day, your scalp will just overcompensate by producing more oil
- old-school tools like mousse, hairspray and velcro rollers are amazing for volume and hold
- semi-permanent colours blend grey away gently, creating a multi-tonal effect, and they're gentler on hair than permanent colours
-  a cool rinse after washing will cause the cuticles on the hair surface to lie smoothly, adding to shine
- rough-dry hair upside down to get instant volume
- Heat makes hair easy to style, cool temperatures "set" hair in place. So always let rollers cool properly before removing them otherwise the hair will just fall flat.

Plus many more that I have unfortunately forgotten.

Having used several of the new AC products (selected for my hair by the man himself, no less) I'm thoroughly impressed. Particular stand-outs are the styling mousse and the brunette shampoo and conditioner, which adds a hint of colour when you wash. I've also tried out the Purity Volumising shampoo and conditioner, which smell absolutely divine and give the same weightless shine effect I remember from the AC products I used in the early 00's.

I felt energised and inspired by meeting Andrew and hearing an introduction to his work. Regardless of fame and celebrity, there's an infectious passion to his approach that presents a new perspective on hair, and a sense of the huge creative possibilities it holds. It leaves you wanting to go home and play around with your own hairstyle. I felt something similar after meeting Katy Messer (who was also at the AC event, and introduced Andrew to the concept of co-washing. He was amazed.) Talent. I love it. And I'm so priveleged to be allowed to experience it so often.

Andrew Collinge products are available from Superdrug. (Currently 2 for £7 - bargain.)

A few weeks ago, I was at my in-laws for the weekend, and we had a family function to go to.  Me being my clumsy self, I accidentally managed to get facial oil on my fringe the night before the do - not a problem, I thought, I'll just clip my fringe back.  And then my husband gave me one of those looks that told me that not even Batiste would be good enough to solve this greasy-hair problem.  Which is a bit rich coming from a man who didn't bother having his hair cut for 18 months after our wedding.

Anyway.  I had to wash my hair, and I had to get a silicone free conditioner to wash it with, post haste.  I popped out to Boots and immediately went to the Naked section - I love knowing that all the products are silicone free and suitable for co-washing, as I can just pick one up without having to scrutinise the ingredients list.  I happened to pick up Naked Volume Weightless Conditioner, which has now become my joint favourite for co-washing.

As described, this conditioner is very light while still providing plenty of moisture, making it ideal for co-washing my oily roots.  It has a clean, fresh scent which is in no way overpowering, and doesn't linger on the hair.  The texture is pretty light too; this is much more of a liquid conditioner than a thick paste, and it's easy to distribute evenly through the hair.

Once dry, my roots felt clean, and indeed did have a touch more volume than usual - more importantly, I didn't get that over conditioned, heavy feeling which indicates that I'll be needing another wash the next day.  In fact, I got a good three days wear out of my hair before my roots became oily enough to require washing.  All this lightness is fantastic for oily roots, but not so fantastic for dry ends.  I tried to use this throughout my fairly thick hair, but it just didn't have enough moisture and slip to adequately detangle my midlengths and ends. 

In summary, this conditioner is a fantastic co-wash option if you have oily roots, and if your hair is greasy or fine, it would make an ideal light all over conditioner too.  Combined with its low price of just £3.99 for 250ml, and it's wide availability at Boots stores, this is a definite staple for me.  Highly recommended.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can buy direct from Naked Bodycare, or at Boots, at £3.99 for 250ml.