Editor’s Note: We winterize our cars, but not the driver. Time to take care of mami, and winter is the perfect time to detox and refresh. This Detoxing From Head to Toe series will help you do just that.
The first thing you need to know about Bumble & bumble is that there is no Bumble or bumble. British hairdresser Michael Gordon just liked the unpretentious but veddy English sound of it. He was all of 31 in 1981 when he crossed the pond to open his first American salon on East 56th Street in New York City. The following year, American Vogue called it one of the 10 best salons in the country. And by the mid-’90s, the Gordon’s then-new hair care line emerged as a cult favorite among groovy hairinistas and the rest of us.
Me, I stumbled upon B & b products years ago at a local salon whose manager sold nothing but. Honestly, I went for it because I loved the fun packaging. But once I tried it I realized this was Seriously Good Hair Stuff.
Come the brutal, ultra-drying winter months, I rely on several key products—all but one from B & b; more on that shortly—to maintain nourished, balanced, happy hair. My self-concocted hair cocktail will work for any hair type; I swear by it and you will, too. Call it Hair Detox.
Choose a day—I like lazy Sundays—when you can chill out, stay in, avoid the blow-dryer, and take proper care of your crowning glory in four simple steps.
Step 1: Bumble & bumble Sunday Shampoo ($21).
This transparent ocean-blue shampoo smells fresh and a bit minty; its texture’s almost like a gel. As its name would imply, you use this once a week to deep-clean excess oil, product residue, hard water minerals, environmental pollutants, and every other other yucky build-up. Lather, rinse, do not repeat. Lightly towel-dry your hair.
Step 2: Bumble & bumble Deeep ($12-$26).
Apply Deeep, a lovely scented protein masque—all the B&b products smell lovely—that restores moisture and revives hair with sunflower seed oil, hydrolyzed silk, and passion flower fruit juice. Put on an unlined shower cap and relax for 20 minutes to allow Deeep to penetrate thoroughly. Then rinse out with lukewarm water.
If your hair needs extra-extra moisture, use Bumble & bumble’s Quenching Masque ($37) instead. Pro-Vitamin B5, barley and wheat germ extracts, and aloe leaf juice, among other hydrating and strengthening ingredients, instantly soften and detangle hair.
If your hair is a stressed-out basket-case from excessive coloring, blow-drying, straightening, or perming, go with Bumble & bumble Mending Masque ($37). Creatin conditions and promotes energy, phytantriol repairs heat damage and provides flyaway protection, and panthenyl ethyl ether hydrates and helps with manageability.
Step 3: After towel drying, spritz on Bumble & bumble’s Prep ($19).
Actually, I use Prep every day, before any styling products. It’s like taking your vitamins: Prep’s Vitamin E is an antioxidant that conditions and protects; Vitamin F strengthens the hair; and Vitamin H reinforces Vitamin F. You could stop here, but don’t.
Step 4: These are the last two words—well, almost—I will share to change your hair’s life: Moroccan Oil ($17.50-$40). This hard-to-classify wonder product is a honey-colored oil derived from the kernels of Moroccan Argan trees. Its texture, however, isn’t oily; it’s more like a serum. A heavenly-scented serum that delivers heavenly-gorgeous results. Run a little bit through your Prepped hair with your fingers or a wide-toothed comb, and walk away. (Sunday means no blow-drying, remember, although you can use Moroccan Oil every day.) Whether your hair is flat, fat, thin, straight, curly, colored, never colored, kinky, wavy, dry, normal, or oily, it will instantly absorb the conditioning Moroccan Oil and turn into silk. Really, really shiny, strong, supple silk. Just like that. Every time. It’s positively magical. There’s nothing like it.
