When you get paid to test beauty products for a living, what do you actually pay to use? ELLE's Beauty Director Katy Young comes clean.
When I was 12 my thatch of hair would ping under the weight of my ponytail, my fat plait slowed me down when swimming and, worn loose, my hair hung heavy like a giant triangle. I longed for thinner hair. Woefully, my teenage wish began to come true.
Around my mid thirties my hair started to thin out. Yes, I'd bleached, blow-dried and beaten it into submission since I was in my twenties, but this volume reduction is actually part of a natural phase of hair loss that one in three Brits will experience as we get older.
All of us lose up to 100 hairs a day, whatever our age, but as our hormones start to shift in our thirties, that daily loss increases, which is when we actually notice it. On top of that, we might also see signs of follicle shrinkage. Translation: our hair starts to look finer, wispier.
Inevitable then, that as soon as I began to notice any thinning, I longed for the thick, lustrous hair I had resented for so long. Of course I did; hair is linked to our sense of self, and so the prospect of losing it can be incredibly distressing - both aesthetically and psychologically. Thankfully, there are several approaches to tackling the problem that I swear by.
How To Get Thicker Hair
What the trichologist says...
‘Just like your skin, you can take simple steps to slow the ageing process of your hair,’ trichologist Anabel Kingsley once told me. Her advice: keeping a healthy scalp through regular cleansing and exfoliating. Sounds odd, I know. But while I'm not one for faffy masks, I've been using Philip Kingsley’s Tricho 7, £50 – a leave-in blend of antioxidants and green tea that treats the scalp - since it first came out and my hair certainly appears thicker as a result.
‘The hair follicle is one of the last tissues in your body to receive nutrition as hair is a non-essential tissue, so the body never prioritises its growth,’ Kingsley told me when we spoke recently. ‘Anything that negatively impacts the body’s internal environment - stress, diet, hormonal changes and illness - will often cause hair fall.
What the nutritionist says...
Friend and nutritionist Eve Kalinik says that upping your ‘A, C and E vitamins, omega 3s and iron' should help. Most importantly, she advises plenty of protein – about the same in grams as what you weigh in kg per day.
What the stylist says...
Until the hair vitamins, minerals and masks take effect, don't worry - there is always the transformative power of styling. One of the all-time hair greats Larry King told me that it's all about building volume at the mid-point, not the root. ‘You need to build volume at the mid-lengths, not the roots,’ he tells me. ‘You can do that first by going for a good cut with heavier layers at the front and side to create body and width, with longer, choppier layers at the back. Anyone with fine hair should also be wary of loading up with heavy products like mousse and sticky hairspray, so look for light waters and mists that add volume without leaving lengths limp.’
And however bad your hair day feels, don’t take it out on yourself with a brush. ‘Over brushing can damage your hair if you’re not careful - while also kicking out the volume you’ve just worked into it,’ King warns.
Luckily SS20’s finger-combed hair and relaxed styling, as seen at Emporio Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo and Boss, means we can ignore the brush all together (remember: less stress means less hair loss), making this the ultimate hair-friendly season - a philosophy I can get behind!
Katy's Edit: Hair Thickeners
To try this is to believe. Replacing lost keratin (the strengthening protein found in hair), this cleansing ritual is transformative for frail hair that needs re-building.
Work this air-light spray into mid-lengths and ends when they are 90 per cent dry, finally blow-drying hair in all directions to pump up the volume.
Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Intensive Treatment
A super-powered conditioner, this cult classic is excellent for putting the spring back into brittle hair.
A nifty spray for the one in three of us concerned with breakage, this spray uses plant-derived proteins to mimic keratin, while Quinine stimulates scalp regeneration.
Think of this as a multi-vitamin for your hair. Each gummy comes with the RDA of strand building biotin, selenium and zinc.
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