Guys are slowly learning the ropes when it comes to self-care.
Maybe you’ve started wearing a daily SPF to prevent sun damage or invested in eye serum to help with dark circles (both of which we’d recommend, by the way). One area which is seemingly always overlooked, though, is taking care of our hair.
Beyond the basics – namely using a supermarket-bought shampoo, conditioner and the occasional styling product – guys don’t tend to pay much attention to their mane, especially before thinning or encroaching greys are on the agenda. But we’re here to tell you that if you put as much effort into your hair as you do on your skin and fitness, you’re more likely to retain a thick, healthy barnet that would even give Austin Butler a run for his money.
How often should I wash my hair?
According to Jake Wanstall, a hairstylist at London-based salon Larry King, we shouldn’t be washing it every day. “It’s important that you only wash your hair with shampoo twice per week,” says Wanstall. “Although you may experience some greasiness at first if your hair is used to a daily wash, it will balance out after two weeks to a month – and it will be so much healthier.”
What ingredients are good or bad for my hair?
When you’re thinking about your haircare regime, you should take note of the ingredients – there are some to avoid as well as some which are beneficial for different types of hair. “Always look for a sulphate-free shampoo because it has stripping effects which leads to dryness and irritation,” continues Wanstall. “All of our formulas at Larry King, for example, are sulphate-free. And biotin is good for thinning hair which a lot of guys have trouble with.”
Other than thinning, there are many hair concerns which can be helped by a number of ingredients. If your hair’s dry, look out for nourishing blends – plant-based oils, hyaluronic acid or aloe vera we’re looking at you. For dandruff, sebum-regulating salicylic acid or purifying essential oils like tea tree should do the trick. Or, if you want a thicker, fuller feel, caffeine or keratin should be on your wish list.
What are the best products for styling hair?
“It really depends on the type of hair and look you’re going for,” says Krystle Gohel, celebrity groomer who regularly works with Louis Tomlinson. “For straight hair, sea salt spray can be great for adding a low-maintenance gritty feel and for curly hair, curling mousse or an oil-based product is great to define curls.”
So, those with curly hair tend to need creams which help with frizz and breakage while those with straight hair usually opt for volume-enhancing alternatives like sea salt spray or matte clay. There are also pomades and gels which deliver a slick finish or hair spray if you want extra hold.
Haircare experts Horace, Patricks and OUAI all enrich their styling formulas with worthwhile ingredients, too, rather than the nasties you might find in some of the mass-market brands. Gohel’s favourite brands? “The brands I use most are Paul Mitchell, Bumble & bumble and Balmain. And I love my Dyson hairdryer which I use with the diffuser to create soft waves.”
How to help hair growth and condition
If you want to take your barnet up a notch, there are some extra products which can give you a helping hand – namely oils, serums and masks.
The quickest way of delivering your roots with nutrients is with an easily absorbed serum. But, when you’ve got some time, you could instead use a hair mask which will impart vitamins in five to 10 minutes while also improving softness. Or, if you want to tame flyaways and boost health all at once, it’s a hair oil which should be on your wish list.
So, we’ve rounded up the best products from washing to styling to aftercare which will leave your hair looking better than ever.
Shampoo
Horace Normal to Oily Hair Shampoo
Horace’s fresh sulfate-free shampoo will purify your hair without drying it out. Since haircare is one of the French grooming expert’s specialities, it’s no wonder the 97 per cent natural formula will leave your hair feeling stronger, softer and healthier. And, unlike most natural shampoos, this one lathers up nicely.
Buy now £13.00, Horace
Harry’s Dry Scalp 2 in 1 Shampoo & Conditioner
A lot of guys like to keep their routine as simple as possible. Enter: the multi-tasking twofer, Harry’s Dry Scalp 2 in 1 Shampoo & Conditioner. Sulphate and paraben-free, it provides a good lather that helps with a dry, itchy scalp for a soothed, healthy finish. If you love it, you can buy in bulk to save on packaging and on price for a win-win situation.
Buy now £8.00, Harry’s
Malin + Goetz Peppermint Shampoo 236ml
This Malin + Goetz shampoo will leave you feeling zingy all over thanks to the natural peppermint extract. Don’t be fooled by the lack of foaminess - the natural amino acids will effectively cleanse your hair so it balances natural oils while leaving it soft and conditioned.
Buy now £23.00, Selfridges
Larry King Hair Care City Life Shampoo, 300ml
Calling all Londoners! From pollution on our daily commute to the famously hard water, the city is not kind to our strands. With gently cleansing vitamins, antibacterial benefits and anti-pollution qualities, Larry King’s City Life Shampoo is the answer to our problems. It’s the shampoo we never knew we needed but now can’t live without.
Buy now £18.00, Cult Beauty
Neals Yard Remedies Invigorating Seaweed Shampoo, 200ml
With a low level of lather, the offering from Neal’s Yard might not be the most foamy but will still leave your hair feeling clean and fresh. With a fragrant blend of seaweed and rosemary, you’ll be transported to the Mediterranean coast on every wash.
Buy now £11.50, Neal's Yard Remedies
Conditioner
Philip Kingsley Moisture Extreme Enriching Conditioner
Curly hair types may find that their locks are drier than those with poker-straight strands and that’s due to the natural oils finding it more challenging to travel down a zig-zag pattern. For this reason, it is even more important to fill your haircare arsenal with the most intensely nourishing products on the market and that’s where this conditioner from Philip Kingsley comes in.
Moisture Extreme is the name and the M.O. where it uses naturally derived oils that are brimming with nutrients to coat tresses in deep conditioning. The ingredient line-up includes avocado oil, babassu oil, almond oil and vitamin E - a powerhouse cocktail of frizz- and thirst-fighting properties.
Best for curly, coily and afro hair types or really thirsty tresses.
Buy now £13.00, Cult Beauty
Living Proof Restore Conditioner
Science-backed label Living Proof has the Restore Conditioner on hand to ensure that each element of the strand gets the nourishment that it needs. The lightweight product coats the locks from the outer layer to the cortex to counteract stressors. This is thanks to a specialised and patented Healthy Hair Molecule, a revolutionary ingredient in the haircare space that gives improved manageability and leaves silky soft strands with each hair wash day.
But this is not where the technology ends. It actually has a repelling quality for the likes of dirt and grime which means you can minimise the amount you wash your hair - and therefore preserve your dye and give you more time between costly salon appointments.
Buy now £29.00, Cult Beauty
Patricks The Thickening Set
The Patricks’ product line may officially be designed for men but it's a hidden gem in the haircare world that women can just as easily reap the benefits from. Both the SH1 Daily Thickening Shampoo and its matching conditioner come stuffed to the brim with hair-loving ingredients, specifically designed to ease any effects of hair loss while simultaneously stimulating hair growth.
The long list of (natural) ingredients tackles hair from all angles, including Coffea Arabica Caffeine, which extends the anagen hair-growth phase, Ginkgoacea Ginko Bilboa, which protects the scalp from environmental stressors and promotes blood flow and Rosmarinus Officinalis Rosemary, which increases blood circulation.
Buy now £58.00, Patricks
Color Wow Colour Security Conditioner
Bleached and coloured hair may notice increased damage and dryness - so look to the specialists at Color Wow to restore nourishment and shine.
In order to counteract frizziness, care for chemically treated tresses and enhance the vibrancy of a dye job, the Colour Security formula stars a colour-shielding Sealicon complex that prioritises a glossy appearance without weighing down locks. It has a lovely, fresh scent too and comes in two varieties; one for fine-normal hair types, and the other for normal-thick.
Buy now £21.50, Cult Beauty
Aesop Conditioner
You can count on Aesop’s formulas every time for nourishment and beautiful botanical fragrances combined, whether it’s hair or skincare. The conditioner is one of the stand-out products in its collection. Enriched with amino acids, it will give fine, fragile or damaged hair a hydrated, refreshed finish. And it’s infused with the brand’s signature aromatic aroma.
Buy now £40.00, Aesop
Styling Products
Hair by Sam McKnight Perfect Mess Matt Sculpting Clay
If you’re in the market for the undone I’ve-just-rolled-out-of-bed tousled hair look, Sam McKnight’s sculpting clay should be going straight into your basket.
With a completely natural finish, it adds soft texture to even the straightest of barnets - and boasts a reworkable hold that means you can restyle throughout the day with no extra product needed.
Buy now £26.00, Cult Beauty
Bumble and bumble Surf Spray
With seaweed and kelp extracts, this salt spray is a beach in a bottle. It adds texture and waves to all hair types, even for coarse or curly hair.
Buy now £16.00, lookfantastic
Malin + Goetz Sage Styling Cream
This styling cream synthesizes sage extract and absorbent fatty acids to add shine, definition and texture to hair. It gently conditions and adds a flexible hold for easy styling without leaving residue or weighing down your locks.
Buy now £24.00, Sephora
Murdock London Vintage Pomade
Murdock’s pomade gives a classic, ultra-slick finish with a stronghold. Perfect for quiffs and pompadours, it’s water-soluble meaning it washed out easily unlike oil-based pomades. The brand recommends using a comb when styling for a defined finish.
Buy now £18.00, lookfantastic
Toni & Guy Sea Salt Texturising Spray
The best option if you’re on a budget, this spray will give you a tousled look without breaking the bank. Toni & Guy’s formula will give you a gentle lift without any stickiness, and can be topped up on dry hair throughout the day.
Buy now £8.25, Boots
Masks, serums and oils
Champo Pitta growth serum
Healthy hair need not be a pipe dream thanks to this small but mighty hair growth serum from Champo. The viral product has a volumising effect on the locks that should get to work immediately bringing an XXL effect to lifeless strands. When it comes to the increase in density though, it will take around six to 12 weeks to see the impact of the advanced naturally-derived formulation. There’s caffeine, creatine and the powers of ayurvedic haritaki extract to promote hair growth with a texture that feels non-greasy and lightweight.
Buy now £34.00, Harrods
The Ordinary Multi-Peptide Serum for Hair Density 60ml
Recommended by hairdressers to be applied in tandem with daily supplements, the modest outlay garners big results in thickness and fullness of fine hair.
The Ordinary is known for its affordable products that don’t scrimp on efficacity from its skincare to its haircare offering. This serum has been labelled a ‘game-changer’ for a reason, using a trademarked concoction of complexes to remain lightweight yet potent and give hair a healthy boost.
For best results, apply onto the scalp before hair wash day and use a massager to encourage absorption. The more consistent you are, the better the results.
Buy now £20.80, lookfantastic
Gisou Honey Infused Hair Oil
Negin Mirsalehi, the founder of Gisou, comes from six generations of beekeepers. The brand’s entire range of honey-infused products is not only born out of generational expertise, but contains honey from Mirsalehi’s family bee garden.
Officially a cult-favourite product, Gisou’s Honey Infused Hair Oil can be used pre or post-styling to help rebuild and repair hair at the cuticle level. Never greasy and a powerful hydrator which is rich in antioxidants, vitamins and amino acids, your mane will never be shinier or more sumptuous.
Buy now £35.00, Cult Beauty
Larry King Hair Spoilt For Choice Hair Oil 30ml
Though Larry King’s Spoilt For Choice is marketed as a general hair oil, it’s a versatile formula that works for beards too. A balanced blend of rosemary oil, jojoba oil and squalane, not only will it leave your whiskers in great condition but it will also smooth and tame flyaways and help you to style and shape them into position.
Once you’ve done your facial fuzz, you can use it as a hair mask or style finisher on your locks too. Tripe the uses, triple the fun.
Buy now £28.00, Cult Beauty
Davines Oi All-In-One Milk 135ml
Italian-born and a cult-favourite haircare brand among enthusiasts who are truly in the know, Davines began as a research laboratory in 1983 before the family-founded group began producing its very own line of products. One of the B-Corp-certified company’s most beloved products is the Oi All-In-One Milk, which works as a detangler, heat-protector, moisture-booster and shine-enhancer. Spritz onto dull, three-day-old hair for an immediate refresh.
Buy now £27.75, Cult Beauty
Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Deep-Conditioning Treatment
There’s a reason why Philip Kingsley Elasticizer is a cult and award-winning product that regularly features in ‘Best’ roundups - it just works. The formula dramatically improves damaged hair after just one application. It provides a wave of moisture to the hair cuticle with UV protection.
You will notice that your locks appear silkier and smoother with extra bounce. Before you jump into the shower, wet your hair and apply this treatment for 20-60 minutes then rinse off. Or better yet, leave overnight. Use once a week to maximise the results.
Buy now £75.00, lookfantastic
