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I always feel like honking a special klaxon when I find a wonder product for fine and limp or — always fun — fine and frizzy hair. The klaxons are few and far between, but never mind because today’s is an extra loud one, easily worth two or three normal-volume klaxons. It’s Style on Steroids Performance-Enhancing Texture Spray (£26.50; uk.colorwowhair.com) by the always impressive brand Color Wow. While I’m mentioning it, see also its Dream Coat Supernatural Spray (£27), a sort of “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes” heat-activated bringer of shine that is a bit like wearing an invisible rain hat in wet or humid weather, and the literally invaluable One-Minute Transformation Styling Cream (£21.50), which smooths frizz in moments and transforms messy, nest-like hair into something manageable, defined and deliberate-looking. No heat needed, you just slap it on — with a light hand if your hair is fine and more generously if it isn’t. If you do a search online, I’ve written about both of these before.
Style on Steroids makes it a greatest hits triple. If you have the aforementioned fine, flat hair and don’t yet know this product, you are going to thank me in your head for weeks. Months, possibly. Years. The amount of volume it gives is extraordinary. More to the point, it doesn’t feel like you have a ton of product in your hair. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it felt undetectable, but it comes reasonably close. It is absolutely not sticky, it doesn’t make your hair feel stiff, unnatural or helmet-like and, best of all, it moisturises as it sits there, meaning that the horrible dry, almost dusty feeling you can get with some texturising sprays simply doesn’t feature. Your hair moves and feels natural — there just appears to be an awful lot more of it.
There are two ways of using this. One is with heated implements, so something like a curling iron or a pair of straighteners (GHD has recently released a handy pair of skinny, mini ones that allow precision on shorter hair or, frankly, less hair). If you’re doing this, you spray it on (it’s also a heat protector, so you’re good to go) and give yourself some curls, or whatever, and whoosh — giant hair. You’ll also find that the curls or straightening last for much longer than they otherwise would.
I try to let my hair dry naturally as often as I can, so that’s how I use it: on dry hair, sprayed on with gay abandon through the middle bits rather than at the roots. Run your fingers through it, working the product in slightly, and wham — tons of volume and texture. If you want comedy bigness, do the same thing with your head upside down.
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It’s also brilliant at rejuvenating a blow-dry that has gone flat and lost its oomph. There was a time when I used to have regular blow-dries, but that time has passed and now they feel more like a special treat. I like to really eke it out when I have one and this is the perfect product for that. I was going to compare it to dry shampoo, but it bears only the smallest resemblance in that it absorbs oil and adds texture, but actually it’s not the best comparison because, in this instance, dry shampoo is a scooter and Style on Steroids is a Ferrari.
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Buy If you have discolouration anywhere on your body, like your underarms, or if you have annoyingly dry or flaky elbows/knees/feet, then glycolic acid is your friend. The excellent Inkey List Glycolic Acid Exfoliating Body Stick is perfect for this (or you could use a liquid toner like The Ordinary Glycolic Acid Exfoliating Toner, theordinary.com, but the stick is solid — you slide it on like deodorant). It is also good on bumpy upper arms and ingrowing hairs. £15, boots.com
