“If you want to get your hair looking salon quality there should be three stages,” says Mayes. “The first is cleanse and condition, the second is style and the third is finish.
“For the first stage, use both shampoo and conditioner to clean your hair and get rid of old product. Styling means prepping the hair for when you come to dry it and on most hair types, styling is crucial. If someone has short to mid-length hair, I’ll work a gel or a serum in to help control it, or if it’s longer I might use something like a leave-in conditioner. When you dry a gel into wet hair you don’t get that sticky, cracked look that a gel normally gives you because you’re working it into the layers of the hair. That will give you 80% of your style before you move on to the finish.
“When you use a wax you’re not using it to style or lift up the front of your hair – you’re using it to finish the look. People often use the finish product to compensate for not doing the correct styling. If you wash your hair quickly, don’t condition it, pre-style it or blow-dry it but then use a load of wax to get a David Beckham-type look, it’s not going to work.”
See related
Use Mayes’s three-step approach, and the extra tips below, to ensure that your hair turns heads.
1. Use a hairdryer
“It doesn’t have to be expensive but it does need a nozzle on it so you can use it as a styling tool. Using the flow of the air, with the nozzle to direct it in the way that you want it to go, that will set it in place. I’d recommend using a bit of cold air, once you’ve got the desired look, just to loosen the hair up a bit.”
2. Don’t keep using more product
“If your barber has recommended a product after haircut and it’s working well, when your hair gets longer you should still use the same amount of product. Less product will give your hair a softer finish, which is how hair should look when it is longer.”
3. Reach for the hairspray
“It helps you to lock in your style. Some guys still have this alpha male attitude that they won’t use hairspray, but all the people they aspire to look like probably do use spray! Don’t go mad. Less is more.”
Anthony Mayes is barbering director at the Refinery Mayfair and an ambassador for Hanz de Fuko. Visit anthonymayeslondon.com
Watch How To Style Your Hair
We visited Ruffians Barbers in Covent Garden to find out how to do three quick and simple styles that can easily be recreated at home. Watch and learn.
