It’s often assumed that frizzy hair is thick hair, so traditional problem-solvers have proved too heavy and greasy for the 30% of us with fine hair and frizz. Here's the intel of a new range that's lightening the load
If your hair is on the fine side yet frizz halos and flyaways are a regular occurance, chances are you’ve tried to combat the unintended fuzz but ended up with a lank finish that makes you want to jump in the shower and start again. I speak from experience and I’m far from alone in this particular styling frustration - almost a third of women surveyed in a Kao Global consumer poll in 2016 described their hair as fine yet frizzy, yet historically many hair products that address frizz have been tailored to thick, coarse hair types. They may be very effective for combating humidity related hair havoc but they tend to go too far the other way if your hair is fine, creating grease rather than shine and making hair feel sticky and heavy.
The key to getting it right and keeping it light lies in using less silicone in a smarter way, targeting the ‘core’ of the hair to prevent frizz from forming in the first place and smoothing the external hair cuticle using evenly dispersed conditioning agents. This triple threat approach has been pioneered by the lab team at John Frieda HQ, which makes sense really considering that the cult classic Frizz Ease range was launched by the brand almost 30 years ago. 13 bottles of the regular stuff are sold a minute so it’s still clearly sought after, but the fine haired among us weren’t being served : enter Weightless Wonder. Not a new superhero movie franchise, rather a range that uses an innovative silicone delivery system with less than 3 per cent silicone. Given that some products designed for thick hair have a silicone content of up to 70 per cent, you can see where the thin haired issues begin were minimising frizz is concerned.
As fine hair has a larger surface cuticle than thick hair, it’s more prone to static and tangling , while the smaller inner core of the hair causes hair to ‘fall’ faster, hence the lank look if you overdo it with styling products or go unwashed for a few days. Adding frizz-fighting to the mix without making hair go slick is a tricky ask, but cosmetic scientists combined humidity repelling polyols to fortify the core of the hair fibre in the Frizz Ease Weightless Wonder Shampoo, £5.99, with positively charged cationic molecules in the Frizz Ease Weightless Wonder Conditioner, £5.90, to negate the static effect of the negatively charged hair cuticle. Finally, the Featherlight Smoothing Crème, £6.99, uses just a smidge of silicone to smooth and soften while conditioning ingredients are evenly distributed through a lightweight base to ensure that hair is left glossy, not greased down. The developers describe it as a ‘top coat’ rather than a traditional serum, which makes sense considering that it can be used wet or dry (also - seriously handly for sudden downpours).
Just because it’s a light range, however, don’t go gung-ho on application - the smoothing crème especially provides bang for your buck in that you don’t need much, and just a miniscule amount if you’re applying it to dry lengths and ends.
The shampoo is just the ticket if you wash your hair every day (as those with fine hair tend to) as it makes hair easy to style and dry but doesn’t create the impression of build-up unlike more silicone loaded formulas. As for the conditioner, it’s silky in texture and softens nicely, although if your ends are as mashed as mine you’ll need to go in with a hair mask every week for extra nourishment and detangling. Or, in my case, just start adulting and get regular haircuts, but that would be a bit safe and sensible.
John Frieda Frizz-Ease Weightless Wonder launches at Boots and other John Frieda Stockists in June