My Current Haircare Routine: Beachy, Wavy, Kinda Fuzzy

Legend has it that our neighbours could always hear me scream when I had my hair washed as a kid because I hated it so much. I feel like karma is really going to bite me in the ass whenever we have kids and so I am fully prepared for what my Dad used to call ‘yodelling‘; which was code for tantrums so intense that I would heave. I was such a charming child.

I have carried this distaste for anything to do with hair or haircare into my adult years and still complain every time I have to dry my hair because it makes me feel like I am a metre away from the sun, or go to the hairdressers because I don’t want to admit when the last time I made a visit was. It’s just not something that I enjoy putting energy into. Give me a magnifying mirror and I will sit there attempting to pluck out every single eyebrow or facial hair that is over 1mm long (that would take approximately 15 hours), but give me a pair of straighteners and I will move them through my hair in a way that makes my locks look like Mary Kate and Ashley’s from the early 2000’s (think a bad crimping job), but takes all of two minutes. Quite frankly, I can’t be arsed. So instead I’ve employed a small group of products and tools that make my routine speedy and efficient for my desired kinda wavy, kinda beachy, a little bit fuzzy end result.

First up the boring bit – shampoo and conditioner. I have used the same shampoo for the past five years (seriously, I just checked for an upcoming video I have planned). Bumble and Bumble Sunday Shampoo is just so awesome and to ease the cost a little, I pick one up each time I go into Boots and so I always have a stack of ’em in my bathroom cabinet. Because my hair isn’t coloured, I enjoy the clarifying aspect which leaves my locks squeaky clean and free from any product build-up, which can be quite a problem with all the sprays and spritzes that I use. Instead my hair feels properly cleansed and it even cuts through the grease, because you could possibly fry an egg on my scalp if I don’t wash my hair every other day.

For conditioner, I must admit that I don’t have as much of a love affair going on. I do enjoy the Kiehl’s Amino Acid Conditioner, but sometimes I feel like my hair can get too soft and that’s not something I particularly desire when I want things to get a bit rough and textured. So I use it sparely and infrequently – perhaps during a wash every one or two weeks – just to keep things looking hydrated, without giving too much lustre to things. I know, I’m weird.

I’m not crazy about applying product in my hair when it’s still wet, although I have recently started playing around with Philip Kingsley’s Instant Beach and it’s revived my feelings for them. Who remembers the days of Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray? I need to get back on that bandwagon. Although this stuff feels like you’re putting slippery seaweed juice all over your hair, it does add some grip which really comes in handy during styling. Seeing as my hair has absolutely zero desire to curl naturally, I never find I get any kind of wave or shape from them, but they do inject some extra texture.

Spray-wise you know I’m always going to have a can of the Oribe Dry Texturising Spray at my side, although I have recently discovered the IGK Beach Club Texture Spray which gives the same kind of look, but doesn’t feel as drying in the hair (additional points for packaging too). I’m also in love with their Down & Out Dirty Spray which a more extreme version of the latter, that really feels like gunk in your hair but makes it look perfectly dishevelled in the best kind of way, and the Jet Lag Invisible Dry Shampoo, which does exactly what it says on the tin. As a brand I haven’t been disappointed with anything that I’ve tried so far from IGK and I’m crossing my fingers that it heads to U.K shores soon because I’m already running low. Or maybe I’ll just have to go to New York again?

I’d never been one to dish out serious dollar for a hairdryer until I tried the BaByliss Boutique Salon Power Blow-Dry which is so powerful it turns my necklace into a burning line of molten metal. I have quite thin hair, but a lot of it and this makes my drying time less than 10 minutes, always. My sweat glands  and my triceps are extremely grateful for this. Of course when it comes to actual styling I don’t have anything else in my drawer except for a pair of GHD Straighteners. Simples. Unfortunately they’re no longer available in this limited edition green, but they are about in snazzy purple these days. I do everything with them – straighten my flicky out ends, put in waves, curls – it does it all. Ain’t nobody got time to put on a Michael Jackson glove and hold their hair round a tong for 30 seconds a time. Oh wait, I feel a yodelling session coming on…

Photos by Lauren Shipley

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