BSD has spent many years truffling out the most extreme volume sprays: from VO5 to TIGI and back again via John Frieda. But it seems that, somewhere along the way, she forgot about styling. The mission for height and hold and grit and muscle dominated. She was a fine-haired woman possessed until nothing less than hair-standing-on-end would do. Straw-like, back-combed and stiff. She forgot that hair needs some movement. That the phrase ‘flowing locks’ was coined for a reason. That an immovable helmet was never the goal. That hair needs to look healthy and as though fingers could be run through it without getting trapped and perhaps lost forever. And so, reluctantly, she recalibrated.
The reason for this reset was a random Sunday morning test of a new, reasonably priced (Aveda Volumising Tonic is the dream but it’s £23 and the bottle is small so it’s ‘I-might-run-into-my-ex-boyfriend nights’ only) haircare line called Arkive. Blow Dry Spray is what it said on the bottle. Not ‘volumising’. Not ‘thickening’. No promises of fullness. Can’t imagine why BSD picked it up. She must have been hungover
Anyway here is what it did: it made the fine, flyaway, faintly frizzy, kinky, lifeless hair…behave. Sure, it wasn’t rigid and un-yieling. But neither was it weighed-down and defeated. It was just ready….ready for a bit of backcombing and hair spray. Ready for a bit of dry shampoo to add muscle. Ready to go…
Absolutely suitable for all hair-types (a curly-haired, lustrous locked friend agrees), Arkive’s Blow Dry Spray can be wash-and-go or it can be style-for-hours. Either way it gives hair some guts. But also some manners.
