Hair styling eludes me as a life skill. I am boggled by social media videos of people with impossible talents involving mousse and gel as they swoop and floof for the big voila. (I also fervently resent those people who seem to be wash, shake and go kinda gals.) We are so fixated on hair, not only because it can make or break your look, but because it takes work to make it look nice. It requires finding the right stylist, the right colourist, and to our subject at hand, the right products to pull off that salon-worthy aura  at home.

So let’s get some experts to weigh in on weightless products. First, I spoke with Jason Lee of Jason Lee Salon in Toronto. Over the past few years, Lee has been refining his own formulations for Mela & Kera, his vegan salon-quality hair line. Because here’s the thing, Cheryl: fine hair care is something you have to invest in. Cheaper products are harder on fine hair, says Lee. “With fine hair, there is a chance you will need to use more than one product.” Fine hair needs heat protection, then you need to add a volumizing product. Each layer contributes weight, so therefore each layer should be light. Building the technology around weightlessness in hair products requires science and expensive ingredients.

You want products that lock down the cuticle, explains Lee, so there are less fly-aways. “Fine hair looks frizzy or dry when you add heat, highlights or environmental factors,” he says. Environmental factors include wind, rain, humidity and pollutants. Plus there’s the added challenge that, although  blow drying is often the key to shaping fine hair into the style you want, it also breaks it. So heat-protective products are essential. 

“Then you want to add texture at the roots,” says Lee. He developed his Wave Foundation for this. “You spray it at the root, as it makes the hair look wider, which is different from volume.” Mass market gels and mousses often contain alcohol, and according to Lee, “they can get sticky and break the hair by drying it out.”

I reached self-described “hair nerd” Dianna Cohen in Florida to talk about her hair care brand Crown Affair, which just launched in-store and online at Sephora. The brand has become a fixture at society hair salon, Jie in Toronto. Cohen has previously worked on the marketing side of launches for cult consumer brands Glossier and Away luggage. Her focus at Crown Affair is clean formulas and tools to restore hair’s balance. “I first became obsessed with hair care in Japan, where they have these amazing head spas that focus on the scalp and hair separately,” she says. The line has great hair brushes, which she developed in honour of her addiction to Mason Pearson. “Brushing is a ritual, and a meditation,” she says. It also stimulates the scalp, to balance oil production.

In general, we are all probably washing our hair too often. “Overclean stimulates your hair to create more oil. If your hair is fine, don’t overwash it,” she says. A good idea to extend time between washes is to add a pre-wash into your routine. Cohen says GOOPGLOW Restore + Shine Hair Treatment is a great once-a-week option to deep clean without stripping your hair of oils. Keeping oil in balance is a fine line to walk with fine hair, and a good dry shampoo will extend your styling efforts. Salon favourite Living Proof’s Full Dry Volume & Texture Spray is having a beauty-buzz moment right now – lightweight and volumizing at the same time, it creates space between hair fibres to add dimension. Just rub it in with your fingers. And a quick note back to Cheryl’s query about travel: Crown Affair has a dry shampoo that comes powdered, in a jar, with a cute kabuki brush, so it is TSA-friendly.

Cohen is a fan of air drying, adding that it is a modern vibe to embrace your natural texture. For that, she would recommend The Texturizing Air Dry Mousse, which is weightless and there is no “crunchy” or sticky feeling.

The other consideration is, of course, cut. Fine hair needs planning, says Lee, and structure. “You want to have a strong perimeter to the cut,” he says, “a look you can see because fine hair blows around like a feather. Bobs are great, as is short hair.” Layers can also add a sense of volume, if they are right for you. You can also use highlights, says Lee, to give the impression of depth and thickness. But yes, he adds, that means roughing up the cuticle, which makes good hair care even more important. “Salons have lots of new kinds of extensions, they can be very subtle if you want to look into that.” 

Hair is highly individual, so no advice is one-size-fits-all. Trial and error may be involved. It’s an expensive journey, but the better the product, the less you tend to use. Another thing to invest in is hair thickening supplements. We’ve said it here before, but Viviscal, which is often recommended by dermatologists in hair loss and thinning situations, can make a measurable difference over time. It takes six to eight weeks before you see results, but if you keep it up, the effect lasts. Eating well really does show on your hair, skin and nails. And a supplement with biotin, iron and zinc and Vitamin C, will help strengthen the hair from within.

Always asking questions,

—Leanne Delap