Here’s a challenge I recently carried out for The Modern Girl’s Guide – Can we create red carpet hair at home?

The female stars will be undoubtedly looking stunning, made up to perfection by a team of stylists, make-up artists and hair magicians. But what about the rest of us who don’t have access to the skills and wizardry normally reserved for the A-list elite? Can we too get hair worthy of the Oscars?

Well ladies, the people at John Frieda believe so. They say that anyone can get hair worthy of a red carpet and that with just a little know-how and a few products, we can all re-create the styles of the stars, at home, by ourselves.

As a fabulette who is admittedly unadventurous when it comes to styling my hair (I only ever do two styles, always down but either straight or slightly wavy) I thought I’d take them up on the challenge and see if glamorous hair really is within easy reach.

I decided to have a go at the ‘French Pleat’ – something which I think always looks incredibly chic but hard to achieve. Armed with my bundle of John Frieda products and following a quick watch of the John Frieda tutorial, it was time to begin!

Step 1: As demonstrated in the video, I brushed some Luxurious Volume Thickening Mousse through my hair from roots to tip using a wide vent brush and followed with a few squirts of Luxurious Volume Thickening Blow Dry Lotion at the roots.

It felt like a lot of product to use in all honesty, however this could be because normally I’d never use so much! (Perhaps this is where I’ve being going wrong all along, hmmm.)

Products

Step 2: Next, I then dried my hair roughly with my hairdryer, giving a final dry with my head tipped upside down to give my hair some extra boost.

Step 3: No glamourpuss would be complete without her set of velcro rollers! With this style you only need to put them in at the front, top and sides of the hair, so that’s what I did.

Looking good is all about the glamour right?

Step 4: With my rollers all in, it was a perfect time to settle down with a cup of tea, as I let the ‘magic’ happen. However, I am an eager beaver and decided that instead of waiting, I would spray my hair with a little Frizz Ease Moisture Barrier Firm Hold Hairspray and blast with my hairdryer for 5 mins instead.

Step 5: After taking the rollers out and brushing my hair back gently, it was time to attempt the pleat, the bit I’d been dreading. As shown, I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, twisted it and then pinned it up and in place with some good ol’ kirby grips.

Step 6:  It was then time for the final touches! I didn’t have the product used in the video to smooth down the sides of my hair so used the Frizz Ease Moisture Barrier Firm Hold Hairspray instead. Then using just my fingers, I smoothed down the front and top of my hair, made a few tweaks, gave it a light final spray and voila!

From the front…

And the back

My verdict

I can safely say that whilst it wasn’t the neatest pleat in the world, for a first attempt I was really impressed with myself!

I literally spent no longer than 10 minutes on this style as I wanted it to be a true reflection of how easy or difficult it would be to do at home.The video tutorial was excellent and easy to follow and the products did exactly what they needed to.

All in all, I loved my new ‘do’ and I’ll definitely be having a go at this again. Thanks to the John Frieda team I now have three styles in my hair arsenal and the only dilemma I now face is… which style to attempt next! ;-)

If you too fancy having a go at the french pleat or another glamorous style, you can find all the fabulous video tutorials here.

Have fun experimenting!

Till the next time,

Katie

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