These days you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to get salon expertise! Salon products are easily available, so you too can use products developed by professional stylists at home.

There are loads of ranges out there for combination/greasy, fine/lifeless, dry/very dry or coloured hair : become your own personal stylist!

Your hair
Greasy roots, but dry hair with split ends?

If this sounds familiar, you have combination hair and unfortunately it needs extra attention. You secrete sebum from the roots so you’re greasy on top, but the rest of your hair is dry and brittle.

To put some life back into your hair, first of all you need to find out why your hair is in bad condition: is it genetic, down to stress, diet, sweat, pollution, or detergent shampoo?

Once you’ve established the cause, try and get rid of whatever is aggravating your hair if you can: look at your diet (is it balanced?), stress relief, change your shampoo…little things can make a big difference!

Greasy hair really needs attention, and if you have long mixed hair you need to treat the greasy roots separately from the rest.

What you need
Use a shampoo formulated for your hair type but make sure it’s gentle, because shampoo can often irritate your sebum glands. Massage your scalp thoroughly.

If you have mixed hair, only shampoo your roots and use a balm on the ends of your hair but without using a comb to de-tangle. This will hydrate and soften your hair. Don’t use cold water to rinse your hair with, because it can aggravate your scalp – make sure it’s lukewarm.

Try a deep nourishing mask on the length and ends of your hair, but not on your roots!
Our favourite products for combination/greasy hair
Schwarzkopf Supersoft Balancing Grape Shampoo
Alberto Balsam Pro-Vitamin Refreshing Shampoo
Avon Planet Spa Conditioning Hair Mask

Your hair
Is your hair as fine as a baby’s, difficult to style, flat, dull and lifeless? Fine hair is often genetic, but it’s also often down to fragile hair bulbs (normal bulbs are 3-4 times bigger than single hairs, but not yours is much smaller!)

What you need
You need to treat your hair right from the roots to nourish it completely.

There are hundreds of products out there (shampoo, conditioner, masks, oils and supplements) that will help to strengthen your hair.

Before you shampoo, use a specially-formulated treatment for dry hair and apply it to sections of your hair at a time over the whole of your head, massaging thoroughly and letting it take effect according to the instructions. Use a nourishing shampoo for fine hair and then use volumising conditioner or balm.

Once or twice a week, use a mask over the whole of your head, leaving on for 5-10 minutes before rinsing.

For a real volumising effect, dry your hair from underneath or back-comb with a flat brush, lifting your hair section by section.

Your hair
Dye, pollution, sun exposure and fatigue really take their toll on your hair, right?

Your hair isn’t standing up very well to everything you're throwing at it, and it’s looking more and more dry and matted. Even shampoo for damaged hair doesn’t seem to be doing much, and you’re thinking the only way to sort it out is to get a new ‘do. Right? Wrong!

Don’t be so quick to go for the chop : a bit of DIY salon care is all you need, using the right products for your hair, and regularly.

Your hair might be dry because it’s naturally wavy or curly (this stops amino acids from working on the whole length of your hair) or because you’ve used de-colourant or detergent shampoo that has destroyed your amino acids.

What you need
What dry hair needs most is an even ‘coverage’ of amino acids to give it back its softness and shine.

The most important thing is to use a specially-formulated nourishing shampoo and then a good de-tangling conditioner or hydrating balm after each wash. Rinse your hair in cold water to give your follicles a bit of a kick and make your hair shinier.

You need to keep your hair deeply nourished by using a mask or conditioning treatment twice a week. The best for your hair is a non-greasy conditioner that you apply bit by bit, massaging thoroughly over the whole of your head and then covering with a hot towel and cling film or aluminium foil. Leave for at least 40 minutes, if not all night. Rinse, shampoo and condition, and avoid blow-drying unless you have to.

Our favourite products for dry hair
Kerastase Bain Satin 3 Shampoo
Kerastase Masquintense Mask
Manipulator Daily Conditioner, Tigi
Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Special Conditioner

Your hair
After you dyed your hair it looked fab, but it soon loses shine and colour because of the oxidising effect of the dye and now the texture of your hair is not what it was before…

When you dye your hair you alter the fibres of your hair and this leaves your hair dull, brittle and coarse after a while. Permanent dye often contains ammonia, which oxidises the melanin (coloured pigments) and penetrates right through to the follicle. Your hair loses its colour and is then re-pigmented with the dye. If you don’t take care of your dyed hair it will become porous and dry, especially at the ends.

What you need
As with dry hair, you need to keep your hair well nourished using conditioner or balm regularly.

To fix your colour and stop it from fading, use specially-formulated shampoo and conditioner for coloured hair which contain fixing and repairing agents.

Using treatments and masks once or twice a week before or after shampooing can make all the difference: they’ll repair the fibres in your hair and and put a bit of life back into your locks. Again, use products specially forumulated for coloured hair and apply in the same way as for dry hair.

Fancy a change?

Maybe you want a total hair make-over, or maybe you just fancy a different look for a night out.

Whatever you're after, it’s easy to give your hair a whole new look with extensions, hairpieces, a bit of pampering or simply a bit of spray or gloss to transform your hair and make it super-shiny.

No need to spend hours in the bathroom getting in a tangle with curlers and hairdryers!

You can get a whole new head of hair instantly with extensions and hairpieces, get a quick hair fix in 5 minutes or transform your hair for a night on the town with a these miracle products.

Extensions
They’re not just for celebs any more!

Hairdressers and beauty salons all over will now give you a whole new head of hair in just a few hours. So if you have fine hair and you want to add some volume, or if you can’t be bothered to wait months for your hair to grow, extensions are a great way of cheating.

If you go to a reputable place to get your extensions done, you’ll have no trouble getting the result you want.

How does it work ?
The most commonly-used method for extensions is using treated Indian hair that is glued to the ends of your own hair using tiny drops of keratin as glue. Keratin is a naturally-occuring element in your hair that also nourishes, so the process doesn’t ruin your hair - it protects it.

The hair is selected from 40 shades according to your natural colour to get a completely natural result – were it not for the added length, no-one would ever know!

Allow around 3-4 hours for extensions, and you keep them in for 4-6 months. They cost around £400-£600, depending on the amount of hair used.

Don’t forget it also takes around two hours for the hairdresser to remove them. You need a certain amount of time and patience, but remember good things come to those who wait…

Hairpieces
Give your natural hair a bit of a boost, or try and fool your friends into thinking your hairpiece is real!

Hairpieces are less drastic but just as effective as extensions – the only thing is you need to make sure you take the time to put them in properly.

How do they work?
They’re fixed onto clips or accessories, so they’re easy to put in and look genuine.
To get a natural effect make sure you incorporate your own hair in with the hairpiece.

With ‘half-wig’ styles, tie your hair back leaving just a few strands down, and fix the hairpiece on top (use a hair-band or scarf to hide the line).

With other hairpieces, get creative with your new volume and go for big styles!

You can also go for a classic look by using your hair to tie your hair into a knot. Why not go for an original look with braids, plaits or buns? Anything is possible when you have enough hair to do it with!

Where can I get them?
Claire's have a good range.

What are your everyday haircare essentials?
First of all, don’t neglect your hair. Brush it carefully throughout the day, section by section. Brushing aerates your hair and scalp – your scalp needs oxygen too, just like the rest of your skin !

Before you wash your hair, make sure you give it a good brush (again!) to get rid of tangles, to aerate and to make sure you get an even coverage of shampoo and conditioner all over your head. Squeeze a blob of shampoo into your palm and lather up in your hands before applying bit by bit from the nape of your neck, on the top of your head and from your temples up, then over your entire head. The lather should be spread evenly all over.

Before rinsing, break down the lather by continuing to work the shampoo through your hair but adding a small amount of water little by little. Then rinse, you don’t have to use cold water and you certainly shouldn’t if you have greasy hair because it aggravates the scalp.

When drying your hair use a gentle heat on a high power for lots of movement and switch between hot and cold to set your style. Use a brush made of boar hair(!) ; for curls use a brush with a metal handle for a heat effect which will help.

One essential thing you must do regularly is clean your brush in soapy water, rinse well and leave to dry. It’ll work better if you take care of it!

How do you go about choosing the right products?
Hair itself is either ‘neutral’ (healthy and unproblematic) or dry, and it’s the scalp that secretes excess sebum and makes your hair greasy.

You need to find the right products adapted to your hair type – ask your hairdresser or a dermatologist what sort of scalp you have.

Once you’ve found the right product, you need to use it properly and regularly. After each wash, use de-tangling conditioner or balm, and use a mask once or twice a week for 5-10 minutes. Once every two weeks or whenever you feel like it isn’t enough and won’t do you any good!

source: Jean-Pierre Fauvet