I’ve been clocking up too much time with my straightener lately. Way too much. I share brekkie with it more often than I do with my guy, I’ve developed a pang in my wrist that I think might be flat-ironer’s RSI and my bathroom’s become my personal black hole – it sucks me in straight from the pillow and spits me out just in time for work.
And I’m over it. It’s time to take my mornings back!
My first move: get an unfussy wash ‘n’ wear cut. I can’t count how many times I’ve bounced out of a salon with a fabulous ‘do that I’ve then spent hours trying (and failing) to recreate after the first shampoo. So, this time, I’m asking my hairdresser to simply blast (not blow-style) me dry without products so I can see what my mop will look like at home. Then I can ask for tweaks and ten-minute styling techniques on the spot.
But I’m not up for lopping too much length. Having had long locks all my life, I’d always thought the grass was greener on the shorter side – until I started talking chop with Amy Starr, the formerly long-tressed beauty ed of Shop ‘Til You Drop, at a launch the other day. “Cutting it all off was incredibly liberating, but it does mean more maintenance in the mornings,” she told me. “You can’t have days off [and] do nothing. Mine starts to look a little too soccer-mum-bob if I do.”
The moral of her story? Short cuts aren’t always quicker; they often need extra products to inject the body and movement that comes naturally to swinging locks. And that means logging more time mastering them.
Though sometimes you just have to spend time to make time, I guess. If I’d only invested five minutes in a mask once a week, I wouldn’t be spending so long trying to hide stringy ends and fake good hair every day. I’m kicking myself! And vowing that, post-cut, I’m all about treatments.
Even if I have to wear them overnight. It’s not necessarily glamorous, but slathering conditioning cream under a shower cap (soft, plastic ones souvenired from hotel rooms are perfect) gives you a maximum moisture soak – and super shiny softness in the morning. Which is about as much excuse as I’m going to need to spend those saved minutes in bed. A girl needs her beauty sleep, right?
