A lot of hard work goes into generally living with my hair. To style it, I have to dedicate hours of my life to special shampoos, conditioners, masks, oils, serums, blow-dry creams, hairdryers and straighteners; accompanied with a great series on Netflix and enough water for my personal hydration as I strain and struggle to tame the (hair) beast.
I am always on the hunt for something – anything really – that will fix my wayward hair. It’s thick and curly; traits many people say – and often say to me- they would die for. But it’s also big and unmanageable, dry, disobedient and frizz-prone.
And so I optimistically turn up for every new haircare range that promises me a fix; try every new cream, spray and oil that tells me it will ease my barnet woes and open up my follicly-challenged schedule.
It’s how I ended up meeting The Hair Boss, aka industry specialist Lisa Shepherd. With a name like that, I figured, I must be on to a winner. But I’d been burnt before – and I don’t just mean the two years in the late nineties when I literally ironed my hair.
And my consultation started well enough…
“Right, so you’ve got virgin hair,” she said, without even touching it- just a cursory glance at my innocent, never hair-dye-cherry-popped tresses, “I always know.”
I was impressed, but Lisa just shrugged. She is The Hair Boss after all. The award-winning colourist is one of the most acclaimed hairdressers in the UK, and has made an impressive career as ambassador for Balmain UK Hair and a consultant for Redken UK. After years passing on her wisdom to other brands, she’s finally launched her own.
The Hair Boss, launched exclusively with Superdrug this month, prides itself on being affordable, 100% British, vegan and cruelty-free HLC (that’s Hair Loving Care) – bringing the same attention to your scalp and follicles as you would your skin. The key component of the brand, is finding your own 4-step regime – individual to each of us- that combines the four best products for your hair type and condition.
Lisa’s expertise as a colourist gives her a specialised insight into the bonds of our hair, and how easily they can be frazzled and broken by dyeing or even excessive styling and heat. Her formula is designed to, as she tells me “rebuild the ladder of your hair, and in particular focus on the outer layer of that ladder.” Namely, her products combat the internal damage to the structure of your hair, but, crucially, you’ll be able to see the results externally- as it makes sure to restore shine.
Lisa asks me a few questions about my hair = how long I spend styling it, what I usually use – but, as evidenced by her immediate outing of my hair’s naivety; she’s already pretty clued up about what it needs. This is her remit – a resident hair ‘doctor’ if you will; keen to fix all your mane dilemmas. She even runs her own ‘Rescue Clinics’ and can submit your queries via her website.
After deciding that my dry, heat-attacked hair needs nourishment internally, and shine externally, she writes me my own hair prescription. My 4 step regime starts with a scalp scrub that she warns me is “pretty dramatic.” She’s right. This tea-tree scrub smells amazing but is incredibly granular. It feels as though someone is massaging gravel into your hair. But that, to me, is part of the appeal. It feels as though it’s really working at what it promises to do; which is to remove dirt and oil from the hair follicle, leaving my scalp free from the build up of the million-and – one styling products I typically throw at it.
The first step clears away the debris of my hair regime, restoring its natural ecosystem in preparation for my Virgin Hair Shampoo (see, told you it was specific) which acts like a featherweight cleanser with micellar technology. It also, just FYI, smells delicious. So far, my hair feels – odd to say while having my hair washed – incredibly clean.
The next step is actually, sneakily, two steps; a double hair mask. Phase one is bond restorer, which contains hydrolyzed keratin and repairs the hair structure, whilst the second phase is a hyaluronic acid moisture mask which rehydrates the hair and locks in that keratin without drying it out. This is all finished off with The Anti-Static Mist; which Lisa adds to complete my regime thanks to my hair’s predisposition towards manic frizz.
What followed was the quickest blow dry of my entire life. It was so speedy I was suspicious. Either the stylist was an Olympian weight-lifter, or this was a rushed job. The results were great; my hair looked shiny and sleek and brilliantly styled, but my cynicism remained. No way could my behemoth of a barnet have been tamed so swiftly. I nodded politely and left the salon, waiting for the frizz to arrive, the face-eating volume to return and the blow-dry to implode.
None of that happened. The next morning I was still salon-sleek and my ends were bouncy. I started to examine my hair closely and realised the thing I felt was light. My hair felt soft, shiny but- crucially for someone so reliant on an army of products to keep my hair down – it didn’t feel sticky or heavy, two things I regularly feel once I leave any salon.
Slipping this 4-step regime into my haircare has dramatically reduced my hairstyling time and, as a result, the hours my hair is exposed to both heat and excessive Netflix bingeing.
Looks like the hype was right, and my hair just really needed to be bossed around.
