Colour
Forget natural and embrace fabulous! Your hair colour has the power to subtract ten years off your appearance. And it can add ten years.
Most of us don’t want to do ‘natural’ in our summer years. We want hair that looks alluring, youthful, bright and expensive! Not that hair colouring has to be expensive, far from it; do-it-yourself colour has never been more affordable or easier to do at home.
What colour?
The general rule is: the older we get, the lighter we should go. This applies to all women regardless of skin colour. As we mature our skin becomes paler and cooler-looking than it was in our youth and our eye colour loses intensity too. Take these issues into account when you colour-assist your hair.
A solid panel or swathe of hair colour does not look youthful.
A highlighted, sophisticated multi-toned range of colours within the ideal shade for your skin tone does look youthful.

Here’s the thing: If you go two shades up or down from the natural colour your hair was when you were a toddler you really cannot go wrong.
Dig out some old baby photos and analyse your hair colour, at the age of two years everyone’s hair is at the peak of its natural brightness. This is a safe starting place to ensure your new elegant colour will complement your individual skin tone and eye colour.
Hair that’s coloured too dark will enhance facial lines and in fact make the entire face look severe. No matter whether you are brunette, red-headed or raven haired, lightness around your face will always look younger.
Black hair is hard and unnatural on the mature woman (even when it really is natural and without a hint of silver) because the wearer’s skin tone will have definitely paled.
Hair is always most flattering when the colour is lightened up a couple of notches.

Are you a ‘Silver Fox’?
The grey hair perceived to be most attractive is hair with gloss; its shiny metallic – silver, platinum, pewter and steel. The most attractive white hair is icy-clear and frosty-white. Alas, few of us are naturally blessed with this purity of hair colour; so when we choose this look we’re going to need professional assistance to maintain it.
If you’re curious how you’d look with a head of grey hair, jump online and go virtually grey. Upload your photograph onto Clairol’s website – www.clairol.com and follow the links to test-drive grey shades on your own photo. This is a great way to establish if grey is the way you really want to go.

The transition to grey needs planning. Collaborate with your hairdresser and work out a strategy to maintain a polished look while your grey grows in. Hair grows at a rate of about 5cm every 3 months, sometimes it grows a little more quickly in the spring so in a 3 month time span you may find you have closer to 6cms growth. Keep your hair short while you are growing in the grey, it will be less conspicuous. To help lessen the contrast between the growing roots and the established colour already on the ends add a few highlights around your face.
Once your grey hair has grown out conditioning and colour clarifying products will help to keep it soft, shiny, silky, and smooth. Silver hair attracts and retains yellow from the sun, hard water and other sources such as nicotine (you’re not really still smoking are you?).
Purple tinted shampoo formulated for blonde hair eradicates yellow tones, streaks or odd colours - the deeper the purple the more effective it is.

• Some Silver Hair Facts:
  When the hair is cut in an up-to-the-minute style the silver colour can look fantastically glamorous particularly if you have a killer body, an ‘out there’ personality, effortlessly chic style, if your clothes are in complementary colours for your skin tone and if you always wear updated make-up.
• Short silver hair needs a structured, edgy well defined style to look chic.
• Silver hair can look fantastically frumpy if you let any of the above go. Silver hair requires unwavering attention to personal grooming. If you are out there tooling around in daggy trakkie daks or haven’t bothered to put on your make-up you are seriously undermining your look.
• Unfortunately grey hair works against women in the business world. Grey haired men are perceived as distinguished while grey headed women are often seen as ‘old lady-ish’ and are sidelined. Unfair, but it is a fact of life.
• Going grey is not a quick pathway to easy hair maintenance for the rest of your life. To look elegant and groomed you’re still going to be up for a haircut every 4/5 weeks; and expect to use products specifically formulated to maintain the texture and colour. If grey hair is a drastic colour change from your previously colour-enhanced hair you may find changes to your make-up and wardrobe colours are required for you to look your best.

Finally, while a mane of silver hair can look fantastic, it will never look young. Silver hair communicates your age as being old enough to carry a senior’s card. It adds ten years.

Are you a ‘Super Fox’?
Lightness and illumination help the face to look fresh and glowing. Blonde hair is generally perceived as the most youthful of all the hair colours.

• Subtract years by adding warmth to blonde hair with hints of gold, honey or caramel.
• Add flashes of paprika or copper to your dark hair if the blonde tones are not for you.
• The incorrect tone of blonde can result in an overblown one-piece panel of solid colour and make the skin, eyes and hair appear lifeless. Reinvigorate blonde hair by breaking up the colour with lowlights from another palette such as copper or add slices of a different blonde for contrast.
• Unless you’re in a hurry to look your age avoid any colour that says ‘Ash’ on the packet. Ash blonde or ash brown hair worn by women in their summer years is interpreted as drab, grey and matronly. And we don’t want that!
• Generally, the colours of your clothes are an indication of the right shade of blonde for you. If you have mainly cool, blue-based garments in your wardrobe then beige-blonde streaks are likely to be the highlights for you. If your clothes are mostly in the warm, yellow based colours you’ll find golden-blonde or sandy colours will probably suit you.
• Highlights have the ability to create a beautiful halo affect around your face. Your skin will look brighter when highlights are two or three shades lighter than your base hair colour, luminosity will be brought to your face and you’ll look ten years younger.
• If all this is too much for you and you’ve chosen to be gracefully grey, how about rejuvenating your look by adding a few fine highlights and lowlights in several colours either around your face or throughout your hair? Discuss colour choices with your hair colourist. You might be after a look that requires foil highlights and lowlights in up to four colours to cover the spectrum from medium/dark to light. Multi-coloured highlights and lowlights do not mean multi-visits to the hairdresser. A skilled hairdresser can apply them all at once.

The hairdresser– god of crowning glories!
You owe it to yourself to have the most amazing haircut and colour you possibly can.
If everything about your hair has been same/same for years – the same stylist, salon, cut and the same colour, you and your hairdresser have become stale. It’s time to switch things up, probably to change stylists and perhaps even try another salon.
Younger stylists, just out of apprenticeships and hairdressers’ college are technically up to date and itching to test their skills! Consider consulting a younger hairdresser to design a new and edgy haircut or colour (or both!) for you. Younger salon staff often need to build up their own clientele, and they usually cut, colour and style under the supervision and watchful eye of a senior stylist. Be wary of the stylist sporting his or her own weird hair – style, colour or cut. You need to be on the same wave-length as your stylist!
There is nothing unusual about having one person to cut your hair and a different person to colour it. Most hairdressers acknowledge they prefer one technique over another, and their preference is usually the one they’re best at.
If you find that everyone looks similar (including you) when they leave your hairdresser’s salon, the hairdresser has become lazy and you need to end your relationship. You don’t have to explain, send an email or write a note.
You might find it hard to break up with a hairstylist, but you owe it to yourself to have a hairdresser who approaches your hair in a fresh and modern way. Remember that hair is the first thing people notice about you!
We’re often reluctant to change our hairdresser because of a misguided sense of loyalty. Most of us don’t wish to hurt the hairdresser’s feeling but why should you accept mediocre attention to your hair? You’re not exactly committing adultery by going to another hairdresser!
Stylists and colourists worth their salt regularly attend seminars, workshops and demonstrations to keep abreast of evolving techniques and new products.
Tell your stylist you want a new, more youthful look and take along pictures from magazines or from the internet of celebrities and models wearing hairstyles you like. Hairdressers love pictures! You may well discover your stylist or colourist has wanted to suggest an update for ages and hasn’t known how to broach the subject with you!
Anyone can have anything. You might find you need to compromise with regard to colour and length because your own face shape and hair texture is likely to be different from the model or celebrity in the picture. The bottom line is: if you don’t get what you asked for, move on.

Try celebrity hair and make-up looks on INSTYLE.COM. Go to ‘makeovers’ and upload your photograph to the website. Then use the Hollywood Hair and Makeup tool to pull hundreds of different celebrities’ hairstyles and makeup onto your own photo. It’s free. And it’s addictive!

Walk the walk
Ok, now you’ve taken the plunge and have a gorgeous head of coloured, fabulously cut, youthful hair. How are you going to maintain your new look?
If you’ve spent a small fortune in a ‘you-beaut’ swept up salon and love what they have done but know you really can’t spend that sort of money every five or six weeks maintaining your hair there are solutions.
Be honest and tell the ‘you-beaut’ stylist/colourist you love your new look, but can only come to them a couple of times a year (you don’t have to say why).
Then, and here’s the thing, ask for suggestions on how you can maintain the style and colour between times. Most professionals want you to look and feel good, plus they’d like your repeat business. They know word-of-mouth references are the best advertising, if you’re happy then they are happy.
The most likely suggestion will be to return to the ‘you-beaut’ salon every few months for the full treatment you’ve just undergone, and in between times have your local salon boost your colour with a few highlights around your face.
You could ask to see someone less expensive at the city salon if you came more regularly, or you could go to a less expensive salon and get a load of fine highlights all over the hair in between full treatments that would blend into the re-growth.
It’s all about looking gorgeous
The majority of women with colour-enhanced hair colour it themselves. Many women alternate between having a professional colour at a salon and doing a simple colour enhancement or re-growth touch up at home between salon visits. Do it yourself kits have the same chemical formulas as professional salon formulas and come with application tools, gloves and simple to follow instructions.

1. Five D.I.Y tips for professional-looking colour
   Don’t shampoo or condition your hair immediately before colouring it. Most conditioners make the hair slippery and this makes it difficult for the dye to stick to the hair.
2. Follow the instructions on the packet to the letter. All brands and products have slightly different application methods - from whether the hair should be wet or dry to the amount of time the solution should be in contact with the hair.
3. Apply the colour to the roots first. The ends of the hair are usually dry and porous, and so the colour grabs more easily.
4. A thin coating of Vaseline applied to the skin around your hairline will stop dye stains. Use a creamy facial cleanser to remove any colour drips from your face afterwards.
5. Avoid colour extremes when you choose a new shade. The most flattering results are achieved when the colour is kept to within three shades lighter than your natural colour.
   

Terminology
With so many different hair techniques available, if you know exactly what to ask for from your stylist, colourist or from a packet you are more likely to get what you want.

Base colour
This is the overall hair colour, whether it’s natural or dyed.

Rinse
Non-permanent enriching colour that lasts until it’s washed out.

Semi permanent colour
A formula that doesn’t contain bleaches so it does not lighten the hair. Semi permanent colour darkens each strand by coating it with colour that lasts for around 10 to 12 washes.

Permanent colour
Permanent colours are dyes containing bleaches – peroxide and ammonia that take the hair a few shades lighter or a few shades darker. The colour lasts until it grows out or is cut off and it is the most efficient and effective way to cover grey hair. Expect to dye the roots (re-growth) about every 4 weeks, less if your hair is permanently coloured several shades lighter than your natural colour.

Highlights
A permanent lightening formula is applied to the hair in fine slices to give a ‘sun kissed’ look. Highlights are created by applying the formula to individual strands of hair to create contrast with the existing base colour and bring luminosity to the face. Most hair colourists will charge you the same amount whether they use one, two or three different lightening colours– for example honey, caramel and flaxen blonde.
Highlights can be applied by the cap method when a tight fitting latex cap (like a swimming cap) with hundreds of little holes punched into it is pulled over the hair. Small tresses of hair are drawn through the holes to the outside of the cap with a crochet hook. The colour solution is applied to the drawn-through tresses, leaving the base colour beneath the cap untouched.
Cap highlights are the most natural looking highlights and ideal for short hair. Cap highlighting is not recommended for longer hair because the tresses are difficult to hook through the holes in the cap, and it’s painful!
Foil highlights are common, quick and painless. Small fine blocks of hair are separated from the rest of the hair, brushed with permanent lightening formula and wrapped in tin foil to ‘set’. The downside to foil-wrapped highlights is that if they are not expertly and carefully manipulated you can end up with stripes or tufts of colour instead of multiple dimensions of blondeness.
Highlights used to be called “streaks”.

Lowlights
These are streaks or highlights in reverse. Instead of applying lightening formula to the individual hair strands, permanent dye is applied in the same way as highlights (using either the cap or foil method) to darken and add depth to the base colour.
Lowlights and highlights work well in conjunction with each other for an elegant, polished look.

Balliage
Balliage is the technique of painting highlight and/or low light formula directly onto the hair with a brush without using a cap or foils. When balliage is done well it looks fantastic. If it is not well done it can make you look like a tiger. If you find a colourist who has mastered balliage you have truly hit the jackpot!
Feathering
Thick plumes of hair are separated from the rest of the hair and coloured with a strong contrasting colour –white plumes on black hair, bright red feathers through flaxen blonde hair etc. Feathering is not a subtle or natural look and although it makes a definite statement it is not for the fainthearted. Feathering looks incredibly fashion-forward when it is done well. The downside is the risk of ending up looking like a mad Rhode Island rooster!
Relaxed hair
Thick, textured, curly or afro hair can be chemically relaxed to straighten it – a bit like the old fashioned perm in reverse. Once the hair has been relaxed you are then able to have it cut into any style you want. Relaxed hair needs daily attention with heat tools and styling products to keep it looking good. The regrowth requires a chemical relaxing touch- up every five or six weeks. Relaxing formulas can weaken the hair so a fortnightly deep conditioning treatment will help to strengthen it. Relaxed hair is high maintenance because to maintain shape it needs regular cutting. Hair relaxing should only be done by a professional.
Hair weaving
The natural hair is plaited tightly around the head then extensions are sewn or woven into the plaits. The extensions are then cut and styled to look like natural hair Weaving is a healthier option to relaxed hair as it doesn’t require daily use of heat tools or fierce straightening chemicals. It works extremely well with afro hair and well enough with Caucasian hair. It’s expensive, but once the weaving is completed the upkeep is minimal as it is usually home-treated with regular shampoo and conditioner.

Stripping

• The process to remove colour (dyed or natural) from each individual hair strand involves a strong bleaching formula, accurate timing and is best done by a professional in a salon. Stripping works most effectively when the bleaching formula is applied within 12 hours of the colour that is to be stripped away was applied as it won’t have quite set. After 24 hours stripping takes longer and isn’t always as effective.
  So if you’ve put a too-dark dye onto your hair at home and it’s a disaster, you hate it, and want to have it lightened, get to the hairdresser quick smart!
  
  
  
  The hit parade:
  Too young:
  High ponytail, plaits of any kind, plastic headbands,
  Ribbons of any kind, dreadlocks, scrunchies
  Toys of any kind, little girl clips. bulldog clips
  Middle parting, glitter of any kind, lots of little jaw clips
  
  Too old
  Transparent plastic slides, perms, blue, pink, violet or apricot rinses
  Ash blonde highlights, high hair and tight updos, grey hair, helmet hair, too dark hair
  Dandruff, long straggly hair
  
  
  Bad hair days
  Everyone has days when the hair just won’t go right! Try the following when you have a bad hair day:
  Wet your hair with a splash of water then give it a heat-blast with a blow dryer, styling and lifting with your fingers as you direct the heat just as you would when your hair is newly washed and still wet. The heat and the water work to reactivate the products already in your hair.
• Use a fabric softener sheet as a quick remedy to fix hair that has caught a lot of static and is sticking out at all angles. Just run the sheet of fabric softener over the hair to settle it down.
  
• Dab a spot of moisturizing lotion or lip balm onto your palms, rub them together and pat it through to the ends of flyaway hair. Hair static often originates from stiff-bristled synthetic brushes. Ditch your stiff bristled brush in favour of a softer, natural-bristled brush.
• Tuck your hair behind your ears. Hair pulled away from the face is instantly youthful. Secure it with a couple of modern decorative combs or pretty clips.
• Curling tongs and straightening irons were invented for bad hair days. Whip ‘em out, switch ‘em on, heat them up and run them through your wayward hair! Voila!
  
• New tricks and old wives tales!
  Auckland hairdresser, Kelsey Smith says that purple shampoo and conditioner are the most effective products to counteract yellow staining in blonde, silver or white hair. “The formula penetrates the hair follicle and neutralizes the stains.” Kelsey says. “If you are going to buy only one purple product, buy the shampoo.”
  A tiny blob of body oil rubbed onto your palms and patted through dry hair will put a shine into it.
  To quickly eliminate stinky smells such as cigarette smoke or food odours from your hair swipe a fabric softener sheet through your tresses to absorb the smells.
  To enrich brunette hair mix one teaspoon of cocoa powder with a dab of shampoo. Wash and condition as usual. The colour will look like shining chocolate and will smell fantastic. Or use a professionally formulated chocolate coloured, aromatic shampoo and conditioner.
  Blond children are more likely to have white hair in maturity, whereas brunette children are more inclined to turn silver
  A blow dryer on low setting is much kinder to your hair than fiery blasts on the highest setting. Keep the blow dryer moving all over the head rather than concentrating it on one spot at a time.
  Continually touching your hair, vigorous brushing and rubbing your scalp stimulates the oil glands to produce more oil.
  Sun and chlorine are mortal enemies of colour enhanced hair. Chlorine can impart a green tinge to blonde hair. Dry, brittle hair grabs any liquid it comes into contact with. If your hair is in dry condition, wet it prior to diving into chlorinated water so it won’t be as susceptible to absorbing the pool chemicals.
  Rinse blonde hair with water as soon as you get out of the pool. In fact, rinse any coloured hair!
  Buy yourself a beautiful silicon bathing cap (please, not one of those seventies numbers with floppy little rubber flowers) to protect your hair while you are in the water.
  Rinse your hair under a bubbling shower as soon as you exit the pool or ocean to wash away sea salt or chemicals.
  Leave-in conditioner is the repair solution for hair that has been over-exposed to the sun.
  Of course a sunhat will protect your hair investment at all other times, but you know that!
  

Removal of Body Hair
There isn’t anything more off-putting than a pair of hairy calves and there’s no excuse for hairy underarms, or hairy anywhere that we expose to the world daily!
A razor is the fastest, cheapest and least painful route to hairlessness. A quick once over in the morning shower and you’re done for the day! Expect to shave daily to keep your legs and underarms smooth and hair-free. Buy and use your own razor - much more hygienic than shredding your shins with your partner’s disposable Schick! Try saying that out loud!

The smoothest legs are legs that have been waxed, so waxing may be the way for you to go– depending on your pain threshold! Hair takes longer to re-grow on waxed areas and it comes through feeling soft and silky whereas shaved areas produce sharp, prickly stubble the very next day. Try a do-it-yourself waxing kit at home, or treat yourself to a salon hot wax treatment where everything is done for you and the beautician will be ruthlessly quick! Waxing can whip out the hair roots and many people find that after a few years of waxing, treatments are no longer necessary because there’s no hair left to remove. Those of us with strong dark hair growth won’t be so lucky though, waxing will become less painful as the hair thins but treatment is likely to be on-going. Rub the skin with a loofah a few days after having a wax treatment to avoid ingrown hairs.

Hair removal creams have come ahead in leaps and bounds from those foul reeking white paste formulas we smeared over our legs with paddle pop sticks in our youth. Newer, pleasant smelling hair removal creams enriched with aloe vera and vitamin E are applied to the skin, left on for up to 10 minutes then rinsed off with water. What could be easier than that? Great for those who have sensitive skin or allergies, the hair removal lasts for about four days.

Epilating is another alternative. An electrical device rips out each individual hair by the roots. The upside is that eventually there’s no hair left because its all been torn out. The downside it that it hurts like hell and leaves you prone to ingrown hairs. Wet/dry battery-powered epilators used in the shower provide a more gentle treatment. Exfoliate afterward to prevent ingrown hairs or use a loofah. Epilation lasts for up to one week before it needs to be re-done.

Intense Pulsed Light therapy (laser hair reduction) is a progressive treatment performed in a salon by a trained technician. Laser treatment is useful for smaller areas such as the face and the bikini line, the more applications you have the weaker the hair follicles become. Several appointments are required to treat a full cycle of hair.
Lasers work by distinguishing the contrast between skin colour and hair colour. If you have dark hair and light skin for example then you are a likely candidate for laser treatment.
Women who have very little contrast between their skin colour and hair colour may be wasting their money as the laser cannot ‘see’ the hair. If you have light skin and light hair or dark skin and dark hair then I.P.L. therapy is probably not for you.
The upside of laser treatment is that it is permanent. It does not stop the underlying hair from growing, but it does remove any hair visible at the time of treatment.
The downsides are that it can be expensive, you may need several treatments, it is very painful (a numbing cream can be applied about an hour beforehand to the area to be treated) and the lasered area cannot be exposed to the sun for at least two years.
Laser technology is mostly unregulated; in many countries anyone can purchase laser equipment and set up business. Lasers are powerful high-tech tools so do your research and find a medically trained technician or practitioner who has performed the procedure hundreds of times before you let her loose on your body. In untrained hands, a laser can cause very serious burns.
Do it yourself laser hair removal tools such as E-pens (to remove individual hairs on the face) and E-pads that treat up to 4 areas at once are available from retailers or on-line if you want to have a go yourself. A full salon laser that treats up to 60 hairs at once and comes with an instructional DVD is also available. To be honest, it is worth having a few treatments by a trained technician in a professional salon before you go ploughing in yourself. The outlay for do-it-yourself laser machines is not cheap and the results can be varied. If you’ve undergone some professional treatments you’ll have at least an idea of what to expect.

Women of colour need to be particularly careful when considering laser hair removal treatment. Thoroughly investigate the practitioner’s experience with dark skin colour because hypo pigmentation is a real risk. Hypo pigmentation is the dark area or patches on the skin that develop in response to skin trauma such as scarring and burns. Check the practitioner has had plenty of experience with your skin type. Ask for references.

That's it for today. Next week we'll be addressing all aspects of make-up - our favourite tool in our anti-aging arsenal! Until then - kisses from me, Dawn!

Retail details and magic products
All these costs are approximate and relate to the Australian and New Zealand retail market because Nineteen Days to Gorgeous was written there.
However, as I’ve travelled through other countries I’ve researched the markets, in the UK and US I found there is actually not much difference, given the exchange rate. As I now live in Spain I’ve also researched the EU market, most products are available in one form or another, and prices are similar to those listed – none of the products listed suddenly take a huge price hike!

Shampoos and Conditioners
Pantene PRO-V Deep Fortifying Shampoo 750mls $13 1800 028280, from supermarkets
Pantene PRO-V Deep Fortifying Conditioner 350mls $13 1800 028280 from supermarkets
Matrix Biolage Hydrating Shampoo 500mls $27 from hairdressers – a little more expensive but it lasts a long time so it’s worth it!
Matrix Biolage Conditioning Balm 25mls $27 from hairdressers
Schwarzkopf Extra Care Colour Shine & Protect Express Repair Leave-In Conditioner $8, 1800 022219
Klorane Oat Milk Dry Shampoo $17, 1800 678302, is an excellent gentle shampoo to remove dirt, product build-up and excess oil from the hair without water.
Shampoos and Conditioners for colour enhanced hair
John Frieda Collection – Brilliant Brunette, Sheer Blonde and Radiant Red, all in shampoo and Conditioners, all $16, 1800 468318, from supermarkets, Priceline and mass retailers.
L’Oreal Professionnel Expert Vitamino Color Shampoo and Color Conditioner 250ml $24 each 1300 651141
Redken Shampoos and conditioners - All Soft (in a gold container) for dry, chemically treated hair, Extreme (in a blue container) for chemically treated hair or Colour Extend (in a red container) for protection of colour treated hair. Shampoo 300mls approx. $27, conditioner 250mls approx. $27, from hairdressers.
Dandruff Shampoo
Head and Shoulders Anti-Dandruff Shampoo $6 from mass retailers and supermarkets
Shampoos and conditioners for grey hair
Edward Beale Ultra purple highlight shampoo $10 from Priceline. Covers yellow streaks in grey or white hair. Purple ultra highlight conditioner $10 from Priceline and hairdressers.

Styling Products
Redken rough paste12 $27 1300 650170, from hairdressers
Tres Semme mousse $4, from Coles, Woolworths, mass retailers
KMS Curlup Control Crème $42 1800 506060, controls fly-away hair and frizz, gives defined curls and a little goes a long way.

Hair Volumizing Products
Fudge Salt Spray $18 Gives a raw textured ‘just got out of bed’ look, adds extra body to dull hair – from Priceline, hairdressers and pharmacies
Samy Fat Hair $15 puts a coating on each hair shaft so it will add thickness, from Priceline
John Frieda Luxurious Volume $16 1800 468318, from mass retailers
Kerastase Resistance Volumatic Mousse $39 1300 365552, gives volume and strengthens and repairs the hair.

Restorative Products
Pantene PRO-V Restoratives – Time Renewal shampoo $9, conditioner $9 Reduces breakage by 98%, use if your hair is dry and brittle from blow-drying.
Pantene PRO-V Shine and fortifying tonic $12 1800 028280
Organix: Coconut milk nourishes: Split Ends Mender $16, Mousse $17, Self Heat Oil Treatment $16, Instant Repair $17, Styling Cream $17 Tea tree/Mint hydrating Shampoo$15, conditioner $15, Leave in Moisturizer $16 White Tea/Grapeseed Reviving shampoo $15, Conditioner $15 all from Priceline and mass retailers
VO5 Hot Oil Moisture Soak $5 from mass retailers.
VO5 Hot Oil Deep Moisturising Soak. $5, from mass retailers. Heat the product in a cup of hot water for a minute, massage it into wet hair, leave for a minute and rinse, then shampoo and condition as normal

Permanent Hair colour:
Do-it-at-home hair colouring products cost around $14 - $17 a box and are stocked by mass retailers, supermarkets, pharmacies and hairdressers.

Styling Tools
Electric styling tools such as blow dryers, curling tongs and straightening irons are available at most price points. Check out your local small appliances stockist, but also check Target, K-Mart, Big W, plus outlets and department stores.

Hair Removal
Nads Facial Wand, $14. Priceline. Hair removal gel for eyebrows, chin, upper lip, etc.
Veet Hair Removal Cream with Aloe Vera and Vitamin E 100g $8.50 from supermarkets
Gillette Venus Breeze razor $19. Spare blades impregnated with gel $16 for a pack of 4, from supermarkets
Braun Xpressive Epilator – Wet/dry use, 2 speed settings and rechargeable. Around $180 from department stores, often reduced in the sales
Panasonic Wet/dry Epilator, Double epilation heads and includes small epilation head and a shaver head for underarms and bikini line $160. www.shavershop.com.au or freecall 1300 742837
Laser Hair Removal from a clinic
Bikini around $29,underarm $30, half leg $70, Full leg, Brazilian and underarm $350 approximate costs only.
Do-it-yourself laser:
Rio Salon Laser X60 $995, Verseo E-Pen $189, Verseo E-pad $229 all from the Shaver Shop www.shavershop.com.au or freecall 1300 742837
Waxaway Wax pack includes heater, hard wax, applicators and after-waxing oil $70 from Shaver Shop.