Expert advice for optimal heat styling at home.
If you're after a salon finish for home-styled hair, adopt the professional approach with some top tips from the trade and our rundown of leading stylists' favourite products.
Viva has recently featured the growing trend for women to get professional blowdries and the arrival of the country's first specialist blowdry bar, Pony Xpress. Today it's about DIY dos. Forget just flipping your head upside down and blasting away or frying your unprotected ends with a straightener, then wondering why everything is frizzy and frazzled.
D&M's Danny Pato recommends these steps to get you started: Rinse your hair in cool water after you shampoo and condition to close the hair shaft, use the right styling products and tools, and make sure you have a nozzle attached to your blowdryer, or a diffuser, to avoid frizziness.
When it comes to tools, hairdressers have their favourite brands and commercial tie-ups, but all recommend a blowdryer with guts. With straighteners look for reputable brands with ceramic plates and, ideally, temperature control, as poor quality irons can do a lot of damage to hair.
"Make sure you have a fast, hot, powerful dryer (2500 watts upwards)," says Grant Bettjeman of Bettjemans. He favours the top-of-the-line Parlux 3500 watt dryer and uses steel-centred round brushes for blowdrying.
At Stephen Marr salons they use and recommend the economical Via brand of hairdryer. This brand also makes professional standard hair tools for retail sale, including specialist brushes and sectioning clips.
Pato says blowdrying is an essential tool to creating any look - wavy to straight, straight to wavy, flat to volume or volume to flat.
"Using the right tools, including ghd [straighteners], curling tongs and a blowdryer, along with the right styling products, can transform any hair type."
Mana Dave of Blaze and Pony Xpress in Newmarket says tonging is good on long hair because it's quicker and allows for great movement and wave.
"Most people will probably find this easier to do themselves at home also."
A blowdry on shorter to mid-length hair will achieve smooth or textured looks that will last well, but a lot of people will find this harder to do themselves.
Hair's how
Louise Pilkington of Servilles, Ponsonby, says at home you can speed the drying process by tipping the head upside down, but when it's 90 per cent dry it needs to be smoothed down. Then ghds or Cloud 9 irons can come into play.
"Make sure you always direct the air away from the scalp and down the hairshaft to decrease frizz and increase shine," advises Steve Morgan of Morgan & Morgan in Takapuna.
If you need volume, start by tipping your head upside down (to lift the roots) and get to about 70 per cent dry, by using your dryer pointed in a downwards direction. For thicker hair, Morgan also advises starting this way, but once it's partially dry, use your brush and if you can, section hair into more manageable amounts. "Once the hair is dry, set the style with hair spray (to lock out humidity) or finishing product,"
Bettjeman says: "If you like casual 'non-hairdresser hair' then a good blowdry could be a simple blast dry. However, if you want a blowdry to last, the secret is the roots. If the hair is dried with tension from roots to ends, then a blowdry will last from three days to a week."
He advises the use of a few sectioning clips to allow you to get to the underneath layers. Tip the head upside down when completely dry and blast with cold air to "ribbon" the hair for a more modern look.
Lauren Gunn, creative director at Stephen Marr salons, emphasises the need to properly dry hair. She advises against overuse of product, but also recommends that what is used is distributed evenly throughout the hair.
Dave is big on preparing the hair with the right shampoo and conditioner for its type and then applying heat protection agents. "This will make the styling part much easier."
When it comes to brushes, he says the choice is wide and depends on the desired result, but a brush with a mixture of nylon and boar bristles will give smooth the hair and last well. Morgan rates a round brush with a ceramic barrel as the most versatile and says advice should be sought on the right styling products for the hair's texture and condition. Apply styling products to towel-dried hair to protect the hair from heat and increase shine. They can also be selected to add/decrease volume or control fluff.
Gunn says styling products are now more about dry shine than oily or waxy finishes. They give texture, volume and shine in various combinations and weights.
Proven pliability Check out these stylist recommended products for at-home use:
Grant Bettjeman recommends heat-protecting Kerastase Thermique products including Chroma Thermique for coloured healthy hair, Ciment Thermique for weakened hair, and Nectar Thermique to moisture dry hair. He also likes Kerastase Volumactive Mousse for volume without glug.
Kevin Murphy's thermal Heated defence gets the nod from Bettjeman and Gunn, with both also liking Kevin Murphy Gritty Business to add volume to dry hair by rubbing into the roots. Kevin Murphy Fresh Hair dry shampoo refreshes styles and can lend life to your blowwave.
Gunn also recommends Sebastian Trilliant as a good option for adding shine and she likes mousse for light-weight volumising. To finish, she rates Sebastian Reshaping hair spray or Kevin Murphy Session Spray. After blowdrying she says a brush-out with a good boar bristle with bring smooth texture to hair.
Moroccan Oil is recommended by Pilkington and Morgan, the latter saying it is a great cosmetic shine enhancer. Pilkington also likes to use L'Oreal Texture Expert Mousse Volupte.
Pato says Schwarzkopf's OSiS Dust It is a magical product, giving body without the need for backcombing, plus it's ideal for those who have don't have time to wash their hair daily, acting as a dry shampoo to soak up any grease and give body.
Morgan also rates OSiS Dust It, saying it even gives lift to fine hair. He's also been testing out the new OSiS Hold Miracle mousse which he says delivers shiny, full hair that's left feeling like it doesn't contain any product.
Greg Murrell of Ryder salon is a fan of KMS Hairstay Style Boost, a heat protectant foam-to-liquid formula, that can be used to add natural-looking lift. KMS also makes shine-enhancing finishing products, including the anti-humidity Flat Out and Color Vitality with UV filter.
Dave likes Redken's Velvet Gelatine from the new Styling Connection range. The gelatine helps the brush glide through hair when blowdrying and leaves it feeling velvet soft, with a cushion of volume and a nice fragrance.
Stockists: Affiliated salons and selected shampoo shops. Via also from selected pharmacies, ph 0800-VIA-SALON. Redken, Kerastase, ph 0800 657 666.
