Where will your first appointment be when lockdown ends? For many, there’s no question – the nearest hair salon. How your hair looks can affect the way you feel. And after all these weeks of lockdown, everyone’s hair is starting to show its true colours. So what are the best products to get you through to the other side? 

Home colour Elaine Sullivan of Dublin’s Aviary Lane salon has been testing out home-colouring brands on her own hair, and some of the salon staff have experimented with different techniques (see the results on social media @aviarylanedublin). The best results are for people with an all-over brunette colour. If you have hair the same colour as Meghan Markle, use a home colour with the base colour of a five, and if you identify as a Kate Middleton use a base colour of a six; Sullivan says never go below a five as it is far too dark and will be a nightmare to fix afterwards, while shades above a nine tend to be very warm in tone so try to avoid them.

Sullivan’s top brand is Clairol, specifically the Nice & Easy Root Touch Up. “You only get enough product to cover your roots, which is a great because if you have a big bowl of colour you would be more inclined to just put it in your hair,” she explains. “It also comes with a brush and the consistency is similar to professional colour so is the easiest to apply. Although the instructions say to massage through your hair, just apply to your root and wash off – and only leave it on for ten minutes, never longer.”

Blonde ambition Most blondes have different shades throughout their colour, but getting a multi-dimensional blonde is impossible from a box colour. If you have highlights, a home colour will NOT work for you. But you can work with some sprays to disguise roots, or even try using a pigmented conditioner to tone your blonde. They won’t disguise your roots but will add some tone and perhaps some fun to your colour. Kevin Murphy have some incredible toning products that can clean your blonde but also give them a new tone. I adore Autumn Angel, a peachy/pinky conditioner that gives your hair a beautiful warm tone that works amazingly well with bleached hair. The longer you leave it in the more tone is left in the hair. They also have Sugared Angel with toffee and beige hues, Crystal Angel which is specifically designed to add shine to your hair and help neutralise warm yellow tones, Cool Angel, to bring out ash tones in your hair, and Blonde Angel which will get rid of any brassy tones. Although your roots will still be showing, if your blonde is looking good it will help.

Root camouflage To cover up your roots, there are loads of sprays that are pigmented. My favourite is from Kevin Murphy ReTouch Me, a lightweight mist that has micro-fine pigments that conceals grey hair. It is light in texture and doesn’t flake the day after spraying or leave a residue, and it comes in four shades. The black is very black, so be careful. I also rate L’Oréal’s Magic Retouch Spray; it feels almost like a dry shampoo but with a lot of pigment. It covers greys but is heavier than the Kevin Murphy spray so can look like spray on hair if you use too much; for best results, hold the can at arm’s length when spraying. L’Oréal’s Magic Retouch Precision Instant Concealer Brush is like a mascara that you paint directly onto your greys. This works brilliantly inbetween normal colouring times as you can be apply it directly where needed; at the moment you would need too much and it could look heavy and overloaded.

Step away from the bleach Finally, if you have considered using a home bleaching kit… do not! You can do serious damage to your hair and this kind of damage cannot be fixed. If you are considering home colour, Elaine and the team at Aviary Lane offer an online consultation and can tell you if your hair would be suitable and what products would suit you.

The long game Extensions specialist Sarah Ethel has advice on looking after your extensions during lockdown. “Brush your hair twice a day starting from the bottom and working your way up,” she advises. “Always use sulphate-free shampoo – I favour Kevin Murphy, Bumble & Bumble and L’Oréal Pureology. If you have tape extensions the timeline guide for having them in is six to 12 weeks –?after this they can cause damage to your hair.” Contact the person who applied them for you for advice on how to remove them safely yourself; there are kits available. When it comes to bond hair extensions, just brush it as often as possible and avoid tangling. Do not try and remove them yourself, as the tools used are specialist. Make sure your brush works well with extensions; Tangle Teezer and The Bell Brush are the best and they are affordable too. For a virtual consultation with Sarah, send her a direct message via Instagram @sarahethelhair.

www.aviarylane.com