The snooze Olympics: if you’re a teenager, you automatically qualify.
How many times have you croaked “just nine more minutes…” and summoned just enough energy to thwack that well-worn alarm clock button?
I hear ya.
Forget what your P.E. teacher says about getting up at the crack of dawn to do some healthy yoga stretches. Forget having a leisurely, wholesome brekkie.
A teenager’s mission is to spend as little time as humanly possible between getting up and dashing for the bus.
Naturally, constructing a Marie-Antoinette style coif is out. So here are some tips on quickie A.M. hairstyles.
DIRTY IS FLIRTY
“People that wash their hair in the morning are insane,” says Sherry Alderson, a stylist at Harlots Salon on Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West.
Furthermore, save time by only cleaning it every two days.
And there are other benefits to giving your tresses a break from soap.
“It styles better, there’s less product and you won’t need to cut it as often because it won’t be too dry and damaged,” she says.
AND…CUT!
Stay away from short layers if you want to be efficient in the morning, cautions Alderson.
“They stick up and you have to style it every morning,” she says.
Also, if a hairdresser approaches long hair with thinning shears, use self-defense or suffer the consequences.
“Then you have to flat iron it or little pokeys stick out.”
I FEEL FINE
Wash fine, limp hair at night.
“It adds body if you go to bed with it damp,” says Alderson.
In the morning, spritz your locks with a sea salt spray or water and briefly diffuse with your head upside-down.
“Done,” says Alderson. “The messier the better – think beach hair.”
THE PLOT THICKENS…
Thick hair is a handful, but not unmanageable.
Alderson also recommends washing it at night, towel drying and applying a smoothing serum.
“Something that’s going to put a protective coating over it,” she says.
Let it dry naturally as you sleep, and in the morning give it a quick once-over with a straightening iron.
“The product will keep it from going frizzy,” she says.
CURL POWER
“Wash twice a week, tops,” says Alderson. “It styles better when there’s natural oil in it and it clumps the curls.”
When you do wash it, use a curl slicker like Paul Mitchell’s Round Trip. If you have “lazy curls,” Alderson recommends opting for a curl-up spray. And frizzy hair may benefit from a curl control cream.
In the morning, spritz – don’t wet – your mane and quickly diffuse for a lively bounce.
THE SHORT REPORT
Should you awake to (gasp!) bed head that makes you look like the male singer in a bad ‘80s music video, either make the most of it and start crooning “Take On Me,” or spritz with water and attack that mess with a be-nozzled blow dryer. No brush required.
“Blow dry forward and style with paste – not gel, that looks stupid,” says Alderson.
