My Journey to Va-Va-Voom Hair

Unless you hadn’t noticed yet, I don’t have what you’d typically call “bombshell hair”. It’s not cascading down my back with big fluffy waves. Actually, the last time it barely came close to that was seven years ago, before I shaved it into a mohawk. Since then, I’ve been on a short-hair regimen. From pixie to bob, my hair hasn’t touched my shoulders in a loooong time.

Truth is, I’ve never missed my long hair… Until a couple of days ago. I don’t know why exactly, I’ve always considered the bob to be incredibly sensuous, stylish, and bombshell-like-in-my-own-terms kinda way. But sometimes, a girl just needs a bit of change. So take my word for it: I, Joëlle Paquette, am officially embarking on a growing-out hair quest.

I know, I know. Growing it out will take a fair share of patience (read many years). Until then, however, there are a few ways to amp up my hair game so it doesn’t feel like forever until I reach my goal.

Let’s start with colour. I’m naturally light blonde, but for about two years, my hairdresser has been bleaching tiny streaks to give my mane a lil’ edge. She does it with an ombre technique, so I don’t have to go every four weeks to retouch it, but more like every four months (which makes my wallet incredibly happy). Still, the in-betweens feel like eternity sometimes, because my hair eventually loses its initial luminosity and feels brittled from the chemical process.

It comes as no surprise, but a long-lasting colour and healthy hair are greatly dependent of what you use in the shower. I’ve recently rediscovered John Frieda^®’s Sheer Blonde^® collection — I was a big time fan in high school! — and it really does wonders. If you feel like your hair is slowly slipping into the “dull category”, make room in your bathroom for the Hi-Impact shampoo and conditioner. Both are designed to revive your colour while also moisturizing and repairing your poor overly treated locks.

So since the boring-blond fear is a now a thing of the past, the next big challenge (literally) is to make my hair look fuller. I’ve mentioned it many times before; my hair looks like spaghettini glued onto my scalp. Question is: how do you create so much body with so little? #LongTimeBeautyStruggle

The first step to create out-of-this-world voluminous hair is to use the right combination of products. For this look, I went all out by using the 7-Day Volume In-Shower Treatment, which is part of John Frieda’s Luxurious Volume^® collection. You use it in the shower, after shampoo and conditioner, and leave it on for 3 to 5 minutes before rinsing it. It’s infused with keratin and cationic gel which have the power to create bouncy and full-bodied hair for… this is the best part… wait for it… three washes!!

Blowdrying is then crucial. No femme-fatale-worthy hairstyle can be achieved without a bit of heat and round brush magic. My trick is to freely blow dry my hair until it’s about 80% dry and then I use my brush and work in layers, really making sure I lift up the roots while doing so.

In order to look more like a cool Parisian girl rather than a soccer mom, I wave a couple of strands with a curling iron. For the finishing touch (and because I want all this hard work to survive throughout the day), I vaporize a mist of John Frieda’s Luxurious Volume Forever Full^TM hairspray, which is infused with a Caffeine Vitality Complex.

When I think of voluminous hair, first image that comes to mind is the one of actresses from the ‘60s, when hairdos went against the laws of gravity. That’s why I decided to go for a diffused cat-eye makeup — a harsh black one would have looked to costume-like — and nude lips. In terms of clothes, I pushed the note of femininity a little further. Cream lace, a fitted red jersey crewneck, a peasant dress, hair bows: who knows, maybe I don’t even need to grow out my hair anymore :)

This post was produced in collaboration with John Frieda Canada.  All of the opinions are of my own.

johnfrieda.ca

Photos by Justine Paquette

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