Wash-and-wear hair set to make a comeback

"I was with Vidal Sassoon last week and we were saying, 'Thank God Sienna Miller's had her hair cut in a bob.' And thank God Linda Evangelista, the chameleon, is back,"' exclaims John Vial, celebrity hairdresser and creative director of chic Chelsea salon, Real Hair.

And the reason for this collective sigh of relief among top crimpers?

"How much longer could we have gone on with that long, layered hair? Let's get with the programme."

Dresses that require the wearer to cinch her waist with a corset, platform shoes elevated skywards and Elizabeth Taylor-style liquid liner cats' eyes: fashion and grooming are more high maintenance than they have been for years. Time has been called on what Vial describes as "wash-and-wear hair".

Funnily enough, it's the old-fashioned shampoo and set, beloved of Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden, that's behind many of the most glamorous looks from the catwalks, not to mention regular red-carpet botherers including Gwen Stefani and Scarlett Johansson.

Of all of the time-consuming hair trends seen lately - crimping, Marcel waves, furious backcombing and even chip-shop girl wigs - the rollers-and-hood-hairdryer method is the one that repays one's efforts most richly and with the most variety. Strong-hold setting lotion or mousse on damp hair before putting smaller-sized rollers in will produce Marilyn Monroe-style sculpted curls.

Use rollers with a wider barrel and you can brush hair into an elegant, asymmetric wave - think Rita Hayworth - of the kind that appeared recently on the Roland Mouret catwalk.

"Use a roller which is about a third of the size of the curl you want," advises Alain Pichon, the hairdresser responsible for the shiny, tumbling waves seen on Mouret's models.

The way that rollers stretch and lift hair away from the scalp adds volume.

"Set hair is much more malleable," says Vial. Both men point to the way in which large rollers have long been used on Afro-Caribbean hair as a straightening technique. Trickier, particularly for any woman who rarely spends more than five minutes on her hair, is getting the rollers into one's hair in the first place.

At his salon, Vial offers lessons to women who want to learn the art of a home shampoo and set. The sessions go something like this: first, apply mousse to damp hair. Then choose your rollers. Plain, Velcro-covered rollers are better than heated. Pichon recommends velvet rollers for those with fine hair.

Next, and this is important for those with naturally wavy or curly hair, brush the damp hair until it's really smooth.

"Now you can start to put the rollers in," says Vial. "Section your hair with clips, and then begin with the back section, because it's the hardest. Comb through a section of hair that's the same width as a roller, and bring the roller in underneath."

Carefully roll it up, and fix with a clip. Repeat, between 15 and 20 times until head is covered. And that's before you've sat underneath a hairdryer for half an hour.

"You do have to be time-rich to do this, really," admits Vial. "It's crucially important with a shampoo and set that your locks must be totally dry before rollers are removed, otherwise the curls will drop out."

For those unwilling to sit underneath a hood in a salon, find an inflatable hood that can be attached to a conventional dryer. Once bone-dry, remove the rollers and brush out the curls.

The era your hairstyle evokes depends on the direction you brush it, says Vial.

"If you let it stick out at the sides, it looks really 80s. If you brush it down-

wards, it's more 50s." Hilda Ogden would be proud.

- INDEPENDENT