Susannah Shops: At last a cure for curliness

Show me a woman with curly hair who claims not to use any product and I’ll show you a liar.

“I can’t go out in public without it,” says my good friend Janet. Like me, she hardly wears make-up. And also like me her “make-up” bag is entirely

hair-focused, as those in the industry might say. And it is big. It is very big. There are shampoos and conditioners, of course (I use ones targeted at severely damaged hair). Then there are masks (Frederic Fekkai, Aveda and Label M have all featured in my hair-care routine until now). Hair relaxants (Label M again or Phytospecifique) are great as long as you finger dry your hair naturally. Leave-in conditioners (Phyto 7 and 9) go some way towards adding shine and lustre where otherwise only light absorbing curtains of wiry tresses may be.

Janet, who’s more organically inclined than I am, also swears by coconut oil – as a finishing touch and layered over at least three different other things, naturally. It doesn’t work for my hair though, which has something of the texture of a horse’s

tail. And neither, for that matter, does best-selling Frizz-Ease that I know some women with curly hair have more luck with.

Any frizz on my head needs to be unceremoniously flattened, however. Easing simply doesn’t do it.

As this column might suggest, curly-haired women spend an awful lot of time and energy discussing product for curly hair with their curly-haired sisters. And, no, it’s not boring. If you had curly hair yourselves you would understand only too well.

And, with this in mind, I give you, drum roll please … Shu Uemura’s Liquid Fabric Mineral Texture Spray, my most recent find, and a spray-on minor miracle that has so far demonstrated the ability to transform a bad hair day (or life?) into a thing of the past. I was told about it by a curly-haired woman who I didn’t know had curly hair on account of the fact that she was so over her curls she’d straightened them temporarily. She’s also a hairdresser. “It’s all about the product,” she told me, preaching entirely to the converted. “And finding the right thing for you.”

I have so far used Mineral Texture Spray on dry hair, the effect of which is as unswervingly up as a Class A drug. Or, you can use it on wet hair “for dramatically defined curls and waves” apparently.

Tell your curly-haired friends.