POWDER review

There’s a quote doing the rounds on Instagram at the moment: “Invest in your hair – it’s the crown you never take off.” It’s cheesy, yes, but think about it and it’s undoubtedly true. Get your hair right and you’ll always feel that little bit better than if you’d left it to fend for itself. Well, today we talk a treatment that will mean you can leave it to fend for itself and it’ll still look the silkiest, smoothest and glossiest it’s ever been.

What is it?

‘I call it a straightment,’ says Zoltan – the go-to guy for shiny hair – who has adapted a traditional ‘keratin’ treatment to suit his clients’ hair needs. It’s a semi-permanent smoothing formula that relaxes the hair and leaves it as soft, sleek and manageable as possible which means that when you’ve had it done, you can pretty much leave it post-wash and it still looks good.

My hair is long and relatively straight anyway but I struggle with short baby-haired frizz that sits on top of my head, making it look unkempt and a bit messy. I was after easy breezy hair so, after hearing Zoltan was the guy who made hair dreams come true, I gave it a go.

What’s the process?

He starts by discussing any concerns you have (for me, it was the frizz) and looks at the texture, thickness and, of course, length of your hair. While the straightment works on a lot of hair types, he avoids using it on afro hair as it’s not effective enough. If you’ve got afro hair, he can treat it with another formula.

The process is really simple. On wet hair, the solution is painted from roots down to ends, and then blow-dried into hair. Then straighteners, which are heated to between 150 and 230 degrees depending on the hair type, are used to seal the treatment into each strand. It takes around an hour – though my hair is thick and quite long – but can take as little as half an hour on those with shorter locks. You will probably look a bit like Sporty Spice with flat, poker straight hair afterwards. But short term pain for 4-6 months of gain.

Another noteworthy point is that you should try and fit a smoothing treatment in at least a week prior to having any colour because this can cause breakage. In fact, a week’s leeway on either side of the treatment for any other hair treatents is a good rule of thumb.

The results

As mentioned, I left the salon looking like Mel C. But the magic happens once you’ve marinated in the treatment for 24 – 48 hours. Yep, no washing for that long, so I recommend getting it done when you haven’t got a big date that night.

When I did wash my hair, it was unequivocally the easiest blow dry I’ve ever carried out. A rough dry took no time at all and made my hair look like it had been professionally done. It was sleek but still had some of the texture I liked just without the frizzy unpredictability. In fact, I would go as far to say that it’s the best hair treatment I’ve had.

The details

Find Zoltan at www.zoltan-hair.com. Prices start at £10 for a consultation and from £140 for a hair treatment, with £40 off your first visit.