There's nothing more enviable than high-gloss, silky, smooth hair. In fact, as far as healthy hair is concerned, it's the ultimate marker of success. Although the trend is certainly not new, beauty trailblazer's have returned to the chic style of late – retiring their curlers in favour of the sleek and reflective hairstyle. Does this trend have a name? Like everything in the realm of viral beauty, of course, it does. Introducing, glass hair.
Similarly to its K-beauty skincare counterpart, glass skin, it is defined by its high-shine, reflective and glossy finish – as the name implies, it gives the illusion that your hair is made of glass. Unlike hairstyles which compromise the health of our strands, glass hair does quite the opposite and can only be successfully achieved when your hair is in the best of shape. While the finished product is certainly impressive, achieving this finish relies on only three key elements – moisture, shine and movement.
Below, we take you through all the details you need to know to recreate the glass hair trend.
Don't compromise on moisture
It might seem like a given, but it's impossible to create the high-gloss finish synonymous with this beauty hair trend if your hair is damaged and not sufficiently hydrated. Before attempting this blow-out style, it's imperative to keep your hair in a consistently healthy condition; applying a weekly hair mask or treatment to maintain hydration. For those with thicker hair, it is worth also adding a few drops of hair oil to your mask.
It's all in the shine
Nailing high-shine hair begins with how you're washing your hair. As we know, shampooing removes a lot of natural moisture from our hair, which is why its best to go for a silicone and sulphate-free shampoo. Even with a quality shampoo, applying conditioner to your ends pre-shower when they're still dry is a great remedy.
Leave in your conditioner for at least five minutes before rinsing, applying your shampoo to the scalp of your head rather than the ends where moisture will be compromised. Following your shampoo, apply your conditioner again as usual, combing the product through your hair to ensure every strand is coated.
A tip we discovered courtesy of hairstylist Mark Townsend is to avoid drying your hair with a cotton towel and opting for microfibre instead. Cotton fibres are notorious for disrupting the cuticle layer of your hair, while microfibre dries the hair without the extra friction.
The final touches
Although it might seem that the key to glass hair is styling with a straightener or flat iron, the trick is all in your blow-dry. The benefit to using the blow-drying technique over a straightener is that it elongates your hair follicles and brings the strands back to life. While straighteners will certainly give you a dead-straight finish, they also leave the hair very dry and flat.
Before styling, add a few drops of hair oil to the palms of your hands, working the product through the ends of your hair and avoiding your roots. This small coating of oil preps and hydrates the hair while also adding a pre-mature shine.
As experts have revealed, the blowdry technique is crucial to recreating glass hair, smoothing down the cuticle until it is super flat. The trick to this is using a nozzle attachment on your hairdryer, pointing it downwards to seal the hair cuticles as tight and flat as possible, which creates the frizz-free shine. To keep the cuticle sealed, spritz a shine spray or flexible-hold hairspray lightly over the top for the finishing touches.
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