Advertisement

Kirstie Clements: Four tips to help you on the way to thick and glossy hair

Have major (royal) hair envy? Here are four tips to thicker hair.

Have major (royal) hair envy? Here are four tips to thicker hair. Photo: Getty

Photos emerged this week of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Crown Princess Mary in Denmark looking almost like twins, Kate in a double-breasted grey tailored coat, Mary in a neat white coat over a black dress.

What unified them, apart from the not insignificant fact that they will both be a queen one day, was their hair.

Thick, gleaming, brunette princess hair.

I suffer from hair envy.

I dream of thick, shiny, luxurious hair that you can toss over your shoulder.

My hair has always been very fine, frizzy – worse as I get older.

It dries by the time I walk from the washbasin to the cutting chair at the salon, where I inevitably am seated next to someone with twice as much hair as Kate who will state brightly, “Oh, my hair is so thick it takes hours to blow dry”, while the hairdresser stares disappointedly at my measly strands.

I study every single actress to see if her hair is real, and I could write a thesis on Nicole Kidman’s hairpieces (her weird wigs in The Undoing should have received their own award).

I once read an article by a leading film hairdresser, who pointed out that what we see on most screen actresses is rarely natural hair, but intricate wigs and pieces. That revelation has cheered me up for years.

We tend to think that only men worry about thinning hair, and hair loss, but women suffer from the same problems, and it’s not often discussed.

What I do know is that expensive topical regrowth treatments are not the answer.

There is a new beauty trend I’ve noticed for ‘scalp exfoliators’ and I’m not sure about the necessity for those either.

I’m not a trichologist, but I don’t think clogged hair follicles are the thing standing between me and cascading Kate hair.

Some people have been experiencing mild hair loss as a post-COVID symptom, so here are a few tips to cope with the problem, without expensive snake-oil promises.

  1. There is no magic pill for hair loss. However, supplements may help, if they include ingredients your diet may be lacking, such as zinc, biotin and iodine
  2. Liquid silica taken orally as a gel or capsule can strengthen hair and help regrowth, but it can take months to see any results
  3. The old-fashioned notion of brushing hair, 100 strokes before bed, has some merit, as it will stimulate the scalp and improve blood flow and circulation (it will even exfoliate the scalp if we think that’s a thing. For free!)
  4. Thickening powders work well, especially for hair that is shedding or thinning at the part. BioTHIK is a powder made from tiny fibres that are shaken over the hair and will give an instant, and quite natural, thickening effect and comes in all shades, from grey to black.

Meanwhile, I wish Kate and Mary and their beautiful, royal hair all the best and would like to offer some solace for the rest of us – the best blow-dry in the world will not last 10 minutes in a steamy February in Australia.

Embrace the frizz.

Topics: Hair
Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter
Copyright © 2024 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.