Brace yourselves, because I’m about to claim that you need a scrunchie. One that costs more than a tenner, too. But please stay with me. I’ve long since advocated the use of scrunchies – awful, Sloaney, fabric-covered hair accessories now worn ironically by hipsters – to preserve volume without washing and blowdrying from scratch. The pretty failsafe technique is to spray dry shampoo into your roots at bedtime, leave well alone (that is, without massaging in or brushing through), then pile your hair into a ludicrous-looking pineapple formation and secure with a scrunchie overnight. In the morning, simply work through with your fingers or a brush, and boom: bulk and volume.
Except there’s one flaw for the fine- or straight-haired: a visible crease where the scrunchie’s elastic indents the hair – one that cannot be ironed out without undoing the good work. No more. When I first saw Slip’s Pure Silk Scrunchie, at a whopping £39 for three, my eyes rolled into the back of my puny-haired head. A saggy, prissy-looking ring of fabric-covered elastic is a tough enough sell, never mind when it’s marketed as a covetable, luxury lifestyle item. But my word, these are life-changing. So much so that when I lost mine on a trip to Ireland, I went looking for an immediate replacement. These babies (available in several colours and two widths) leave no marks, give superior volume and, being silk, cause zero static. I expected the slippery fabric to affect its stability and security in the hair but, inexplicably, the opposite is true. The Slip scrunchie stays in all day, even wound round only a couple of times, and its thinness makes it easily concealable under cuffs for periods in between.
If those life-changing Slips are too dear for you, there’s the Invisibobble ‘Sprunchie’ (£5.99), which has the considerable bonus of being available in leopardprint. It would work as well on curly or wavy hair, but I’d discount it for very fine strands, because the velvety fabric caused static in my flyaways.
In either case, my dry shampoo recommendation is not to bother with any product over a tenner, and stick with brands such as Batiste (£2.99, 200ml), Klorane (£9, 150ml) and Colab (£3.49, 200ml). In my experience, dry shampoo is much like crisps and chocolate: posh is never as good.
