Your hair, and make up, is the finishing touch to looking well groomed, stylish and is the icing on the cake to complete your “look”. When we watch programmes like Gok Wan and Trinny and Susannah they always pick people with hair they can really get to work on and their transformation never looks amazing until they have had a trip to the hairdresser and make up artist! You can be wearing the most gorgeous clothes but bad hair will just let you down. Following are my top tips to ensure you have great hair!

1) Which colour to go for?

The trick to choosing which highlights or colour to go for is to look at your natural colouring characteristics and pick colours that will just enhance them perhaps by lightening them up a bit, deepening them or adding some contrast to highlight the layers. If your colouring is warm and golden then go for warm colours, if it is cool then stay away from any golden tones it just won’t look right on you. Hairdressers often like to “warm” people up but if your colouring is lacking in warmth then you are better off with the cool based colours like ash instead of strawberry blonde. Hairdressers will have a board to show you full of warm and cool colours to choose from so just ask to see that.
Remember if your hair is naturally very dark going blonde could look great or be a total disaster, it often turns dark hair an orangey colour. Get advice from a good colourist before proceeding.


2) Long or short/ layer or no layers?

If you have quite a rounded or square face then long hair will help to elongate it a bit, as it creates vertical lines which visually lengthen and slim. If you have a very long face then avoid very long hair as it will just make it look even longer. You can always break it up with some layers though. Where ever you put a horizontal line you will shorten and widen that area, so bear that in mind in choose which length to go to and where the layers end. If you have a wide or short face hair cuts that end above the jaw line will emphasise that.

Short hair suits people with defined facial features like cheekbones, large eyes and full lips. If you have a wide face shape then avoid short styles that add extra width at the side, go for more height on top and shorter sides. Similarly if you have a small narrow face then hair flicking out that the side will visually widen it a bit.

3) Straight or curly?

Take a look at your face shape and features in the mirror and assess if they look more angular or more rounded. The more angular the features the more they are suited to straight hair styles. Curly or wavy styles are flattering when your face is more rounded. It’s just because it goes with the flow of your natural appearance so looks natural on you, often people’s hair is naturally one way or the other in alignment to their facial features anyway.

4) Fringe or no fringe?

As mentioned above where ever you put a horizontal line across your face it will widen and shorten it. So fringes will not work if you face is short and round or square, it will just make your face look even smaller or wider. Fringes work well if you have some depth to your forehead; large foreheads are great for fringes as it helps balance your face. If you like the idea of a fringe but have a small forehead or face then try a side choppy fringe that doesn’t add a horizontal block across your face.


5) Finishing products

The key to a finished look is to add some product on at the end of styling your hair, even if you have just let it dry naturally. If your hair is likely to frizz then serum is the answer. For curly/wavy hair and bed head styles there are all sorts of products on the market. Check out Bumble and Bumble, Khiels hair serum and Tigi Bed head ranges.

6) Maintain it

Hairdressers recommend having your hair done every 6 weeks, sometimes you can get away with it for a bit longer with long styles that don’t need reshaping so often. Just be aware of obvious roots and keeping it in great condition. Kerastase and Aveda both do brilliant hair ranges with deep conditioners that work wonders to maintain healthy shiny happy hair!