You know how your hair can be all ratty, you make an appointment for a haircut, and then just before your appointment your hair suddenly comes good? That normally happens to me, but not this time. By the time I made it into Barney’s chair at Barney Martin Hairdressing, my hair was a shittacular mess.

I’m a low maintenance kind of girl, so the brief was ‘something I don’t have to do anything to’. I mentioned perhaps I could for a long side-swept fringe again, but Barney talked me out of it. Smart man. He took a solid 3 centimetres off the end, tidied up the front bits, and chopped in a whole lot of layers. We also made an appointment for new colour in a couple of weeks time, but I’ll tell you about that once it happens.

SO when Barney was done cutting, he grabbed a curling tong and did these crazy, wiry curls all over. It was haphazard and messy, but totally perfect for me and my style. A while back, BabylissPRO sent me a Conical Curling Iron to have a play with and, to be totally honest, I never got around to writing about it because I didn’t quite understand how to use it. But now I get it! Finally! Took me a while, but after seeing Barney do my hair I now know exactly what products I need to use and how to hold the iron to get this crazysexycool tousled mess.

FYI – if you want to create this exact look, my hair was prepped with KEVIN.MURPHY ANTI.GRAVITY.SPRAY for body building and heat protection. After it was curled it was sprayed with HAIR.RESORT.SPRAY, which is basically coconut scented sea salt spray (swoon), and it was finished off with a spritz of SESSION.SPRAY which is just a fancy Kevin Murphy name for hairspray. To get the curls, you grab a chunk of hair, wrap it around the iron, hold for a few seconds, and release! I can’t believe I didn’t get it before…what a special kid. Next time I wash my hair I’ll do a video to show you just how easy it is (and once I get my voice back – I have a seriously nasty flu right now – literally hours after the above photo was taken I was in bed with a fever). I don’t own any of the Kevin Murphy prodz, but I’m thinking I need to buy the resort spray just because of the coconut smell.

Barney Martin Hairdressing – prices vary depending on who you see, but a cut and blowdry with Barney is $180. Disclosure: I get a small discount, but I still pay over $140. Seems like you can put a price on beauty.

PS – new sunnies, you like? House of Harlow Chantal sunnies from styletread. I have just done a cool collaboration with styletread (which you may have seen me mention on twitter a couple of weeks ago) and I can’t wait to tell you guys about it.

help, my scalp gets so dry in winter! how do i fix it? you know everything about everything, and you’re wonderful, and smart, and amazing.

That was a text message from my sister (I might have taken some creative liberties with it). She’s right, of course, I do know everything about everything. But I figured for this question I would go to someone who possible knows even more than me – if that’s possible – the amazing Mr Barney Martin of Barney Martin Hairdressing in Surry Hills. Barney is my main (mane) man when it comes to hair, and he hasn’t let me down yet.

Barney says:
With a change of season you will usually notice that your scalp becomes slightly dry, tight or sensitive – the same as your skin. The skin on your face and body is the same as the skin on your scalp, which sometimes we tend to forget and focus on our hair only.

These symptoms are due to internal heating systems drying the scalp out and harsh winter weather conditions – you can always wear a beanie (which I do – good tip, Barn)

You will generally find that it will pass, but if you do get a dry sensitive scalp in winter make sure you don’t confuse it with dandruff as a lot of people do. To ease the systems, try a scalp cleansing treatment or invest in a scalp cleansing shampoo and conditioner. Make sure you don’t use it too much though as overuse can dry it out further.

–

I’m going to jump in here and throw my 2c in. I get a terrible dry scalp every winter, but this year it hasn’t been as bad as usual because I have been diligent about keeping my scalp hydrated and not blow-drying as often (hard). I’m using Royal Moroccan Hair Repair shampoo and conditioner, which is dense and creamy on the hair because it’s sulfate free (which means it doesn’t lather). It’s packed with Argan Oil and vitamin E, so it’s good for the hair AND the scalp. I can also highly recommend Australian brand Seven Wonders wonderful Moroccan Treatment Oil. You can get it either as a pump or a spray, and is packed full of fatty acids, omega 6, vitamins E, F, A & C, and squalene – basically all those things doctors say to eat for good skin, but in liquid form for your hair.

If you’re in and out of air con, take long hot showers, and stand at the bus stop in the cold, your skin is going to get irritated. That includes the skin on your scalp. The moral of the story is…winter sucks. Let’s all move to Hawaii.

The finer details:
Royal Moroccan Hair Repair Shampoo and Conditioner – $17.95 for 300mL – Priceline
Seven Wonders Moroccan Treatment Oil $34.95 for 125ml – Chemists

Disclosure: The Royal Moroccan was offered to Stuff That I Bought for editorial consideration. Love the pump top bottles. Seven Wonders originally offered Stuff That I Bought other products from the range for consideration, but I gave them to a friend who was going through a really bad hair time (poor girl) and went out and bought my own. Worth it.

When this video landed in my inbox earlier this week, I took notice. Not because it’s a clever campaign (it is) but because I recently had a home dye horror experience. I have long championed the home hair dye job – to this day the number one search term that brings people to this blog is DIY balayage. But I had a doozy of a mess up and had to go to my beloved hairdresser, cap in hand, looking very sheepish indeed.

My pattern for the last few years has been to get my balayage professionally done, and then do my roots at home every 4-6 weeks. I don’t mind spending the clams to get the whole head done, but I can’t justify the time and expense just for root touch ups. I’m sure you can relate. I have spoken to my hair guru Barney Martin about this, and the routine was working pretty well for me. We discussed which home colour I was using and worked out the best brand/number/method. All was right in the (colour) world.

Anyway, a few months back I went to the fancy launch of a new at-home hair dye. It wasn’t a brand I had used before, but it was all very impressive…lovely lunch, great demonstration, the models hair looked fab. ‘Wow’, I thought, ‘I’m definitely going to use this and look like one of those models’. It did not go so well. I can’t slag the brand because I’m sure it works well for some people, but for me it didn’t cover any greys (yes, I get greys), dried my hair out, and the medium brown was incredibly red. It took a few weeks of clarifying shampoo and some serious time in the hairdressers chair to undo the do.

I wrestled (and am still wrestling) with writing about the product. If I am given a product to try and it has disastrous results, as a blogger what is my obligation to write about it? What are the ethics around this? I kind of feel like that’s another post altogether, but the point is home hair colouring can go very wrong. As Goldwell says, don’t be a victim. Seek professional help.

Have you had any DIY disasters? Share them and make me feel better.

(PS my hair colour is amazing now)

This is really random, but a few weeks ago I was involved in a secret project with Pantene (once I get the go ahead, I’ll fill you in). Along with other shenanigans, I went to the Pantene Sceptic Panel event, where we (beauty bloggers and editors) got to grill Pantene’s Expert stylist Barney Martin, Pantene’s Senior Scientist Dr Jasmine Karsono and Pantene’s Expert Trichologist Tony Pearce on all those nasty Pantene rumours that I know you have all heard and probably believe.

I also got a special sneaky peek at the new Pantene range called Aqua Light, which hits shelves today. I have been using Aqua Light for about 2 weeks now and so far I am really impressed – it’s much lighter than any other Pantene, which is great for my fine hair. But don’t just take my word for it – I got the inside scoop from that cheeky lad Barney Martin!

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