The other day, I told my stepdaughter that something was an Old Wives Tale and she looked at me blankly. What are they teaching kids these days? Surely they should know that if you pull out a grey hair that ten will grow in its place? Or that chocolate will give you spots? Or that if you go swimming after eating ANYTHING, you will undoubtedly get stomach cramps and drown?
My late grandmother was a genuine Old Wife. She would often give my sister and I an apple each instead of getting us to brush our teeth, feed us bread crusts to make our hair curly and refuse to cut our fingernails on a Friday – much to my mother’s horror.
I love all this stuff. And I love the fact that in amongst all the superstition and nonsense, there are some genuine and occasional pearls of wisdom. But not in this one: rinse your hair until it squeaks. Oh no. Many traditional shampoos contain surfactants, which remove dirt and oil and are also found in detergents and household cleaners. So when you rinse your hair until it squeaks, you’ve gone too far – and stripped your hair of its natural oils. The result? Unless you have very short or very greasy hair, you’ll have a parched and shine-free mess.
But it’s not as simple as just chucking on a bit of conditioner. (Incidentally, my favourite at the moment is Jo Hansford’s pricey but scrumptiously tangle-melting Intensive Masque, £25). Of course, that will help to replace the natural oils you’ve stripped away, but then you go and rinse out most of it out anyway. That’s why, as the owner of a head of particularly unruly tresses, I am a big fan of leave-in conditioners. Formulated to stay on your hair, they are generally a cross between a conditioner and a styling product and ideally will give you non-sticky, grease-free shine.
My favourite budget option at the moment is Tommy Guns ‘Leave Me In’ Conditioner & Styling (£6.00 and now available on good old ASOS). The texture is great and it does detangle, but the nicest thing about it is the smell – like ginger biscuits, but not overpowering. Lasts ages too, thanks to the pump dispenser. Thoroughly recommended. As is MOP’s Leave-In Conditioner (£10.95), designed for ‘long hair, curly hair and hair that is over processed’. (That’s all three of my hairs.) Again, it feels pretty light which is preferable to a greasy serum, but holds curls in place and shrugs off frizz nicely.
Next up is something by KMS, a hair brand I don’t think I’ve mentioned before but the one that was actually my first ever ‘salon’ brand, sold by my first ever ‘real’ hairdresser, Mahogany in Oxford. The packaging isn’t as nice as it was back then, but look past it – and the addition of ‘California’ to the brand name – and the products are very good (they’re available online as well as in salons). SilkSheen Leave-In Conditioner is £12.75 and, unlike the previous suggestions, is a lightweight spray that still cuts it for my shaggy locks and smells lovely too.
Finally is the daddy of haircare ranges – and quite often ludicrously expensive it has to be said – Frederic Fekkai. However, I have discovered that as part of a rather dinky ‘Glossing Travel Set’ from Space NK (£31.81), you get (along with three other products) his Glossing Cream (£16). It ‘contains silicone, olive oil and panthenol to give your hair incredible shine, and restore brilliance and shine to dull, dry and lifeless hair’. A lot better than the final rinse with vinegar that Granny would recommend.
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