My, how I love this cream!
I was once advised by a well-groomed man that nothing betrays a woman’s age as much as her hands and elbows. As I grew up I remember my grandmother and mother constantly applying two things: lipstick and  hand cream.
Happy as I am to be known as a hairdresser, the one thing that I do not wish for is “hairdresser’s hands”.
I have used Sisleya hand cream for years. It’s won countless beauty awards and I can understand why – it’s the equivalent of using an amazing anti-ageing facial cream on your hands.
Using Sisleya means your skin changes texture and your hands stay supple and moisturised all day. I always pop it on my elbows too.

This winter Sisley brought out a second cream. This new version includes extract of Harpagophytum, which is known to help flexibility, and also lavender. I carry it with me and it has soothed my hands and protected them from winter chapping.
It lasts a long time as it’s highly concentrated. So although it cost more than the products I used before, on a cost per wear basis, it’s pennies!

Last night at the P&G awards, a beauty editor mentioned that I was the “queen of the tousled hair look”. I hadn’t really thought about it before too much, although many a client has booked me for that kinda-surfy-mussed-up-undone glamour thing that I have always loved. And when I talk to my agent, she seems to call anything textured in this way “Zoe hair”.
Well, maybe because I was at an award ceremony,  where the handsome Rick Edwards was giving out the prestigious beauty awards, I let my mind wander and imagined my acceptance speech for The Beachy Look of the Year Award.
It would have to start like this:
“I would like to thank my BaByliss PRO wand. Without it, none of this would be possible…”
The wand was launched several years ago and I now have 12 of them in three different sizes (it’s because I am a Virgo and tend to fret about losing things).  But I’m always so enraptured about how easy it is to style your hair well with them, I tend to give them away to my clients so that they can enjoy happy-hair days in the future!
I use a styling product first that is designed for use with heat tools, as this makes the wand work extra-fast and the hair holds the wave better. I wind the hair usually from the ear down around the wand and I always do one forward and one back.
Recently I am brushing a Mason Pearson through the ends for a “groomed tong” look (very this season).
I use two different sizes of wand if I want more curl but I mainly use the largest one.
You can buy them now from Amazon but I have always insisted that every salon I worked at sold them too, as I am a huge believer in salon styling lessons.
I cannot imagine my hair life without my BaByliss wand. Sad but true x

So I am halfway through my “practise what you preach” month. I am applying to myself every piece of advice I give unto others. This includes – in a big way – hair condition.
Superbly conditioned hair is the holy grail. If your hair is dry and damaged, your colour will fade, and you will suffer from frizz and flyaway and many an early-morning style dilemma.
I am a hair product whore. I walk around with half my head covered in one product, and the other half in a different product – testing, testing.
This month I have applied no less than 15 conditioning products – so far. I quiz my clients on what they’re using and watch how their hair changes texture as they go along.
I am having a very happy love affair with Wella Professionals’ SP Repair and Hydrate Mask, which I mix with their Infusions range. It was easy to use and I could play with the Infusions to customise them to my hair type. I have been carrying them around in my kit, mixing them up like some hair witch doctor for each client.
I think the Infusions are fabulous and have had some amazing results. I send them for the models to use a few days before a hair shoot – the result is hair with an incredible natural shine.
And on a personal level, my beachy/messy/over-lightened locks are looking positively groomed!
Infusions have moved on from mere hair lust to major “It’s a keeper” thing .

I have been a collector of hair accessories for a long, long time, my first being a cherry hairclip at the age of 5 . For the last few years I have collected Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton hair clips and slides and also a few by Luella. They are fantastic for keeping in your handbag to add to an outfit or to update a simple ponytail or bun.

I then started to collect brooches that I also put in hair – my favourites were by Sonia Rykiel. I would only use them on my own head, as the pin makes them slightly dangerous, but in fact it’s easy to pin a brooch through a ponytail, at the base.

Whenever I go abroad I also look for things to adorn the head. Here are items that I found in Mexico, and  some headbands from Cuba . In Paris I always buy beautiful ornate slides.
Hair accessories are HUGE right now and the trend seems to go on from season to season in some form or another. Today I found these in Liberty – they have a department with accessories by designers that made me coo!

I found these amazing headpieces by Zoe Sherwood. They would be beautiful yet quirky to wear to an event, but I would also wear them to the pub – just randomly with a pared-down look.
I collect them for my clients; I have in mind certain people as I buy. But when I was a creative director I always brought accessories to use in the salon – a box of mixed-up ones, from vintage to modern. We would just put the price on and charge them on top of a blow-out. Or lend them to a client for a special occasion.

I also left Liberty with some beautiful velvet slides, and of course the new Marc Jacobs collection.
Marc Jacobs do the strongest hair clips that I have ever used and they are worth every penny. Mind you, Topshop had a great selection too.

So, this is the Tangle Teezer of Dragons Den TV fame… If I hadn’t spent all my money on Marc Jacobs and holidays, I wish I had invested in this little wonder!
The Tangle Teezer has become an essential part of my kit as I tend to shampoo and pop a treatment on models and celebs before I start working, and this slips through all the tangles and really spreads the conditioner through. Then, after applying mousse or thickener, it distributes the product evenly.

On my own hair, which is fine and super-tangly, the Tangle Teezer has made such a difference to the condition. Even when I’m in a rush it really pushes product into the sad ends!
I have also given them to friends with young daughters to stop piercing screams at bathtime.

Okay, so lets get to the obvious bit – it’s neon pink. Adore!! (Mind you, I also have it in purple…) It is my desert island product, along with a vat of hair treatment.
We got them into Hari’s and they sold out in a day, so I took one to Mexico and had my own little still-life shoot with it!

Hair can fry in the sun. As a blonde (tint-assisted), my hair goes a tacky yellow after a few days, so I end up looking more Blackpool Hen Night than the Harpers Bazaar Travel Section blonde I desire to be.

I take four or five holiday hair products with me and always recommend my clients do too. I even sacrificed precious shoe space in my rucksack for these!
Wella SP Shampoo for Sun is my shampoo of choice. If clients take their normal shampoo away with them, it won’t take out the chlorine or the sea salt, which personally I find more dangerous.

I also took the SP Aftersun treatment and a light Aftersun cream that I used on my skin and left in the ends of my hair. There’s also a product that you add to your normal conditioner to give it a sun protection factor, which I am loving!
It was all very good, and I also sat in the sun with treatments on, trying to work that gelled-back look!