How to Get Volume, Shine, and Curls for Your Hair

Dream of having the silky, shiny, perfect hair you see in shampoo ads? Wake up, girl! It’s all due to secret pro tricks — which we reveal right here...

By Ning Chao

In shampoo commercials, everyone has fantasy hair: a glossy, glistening waterfall that, even after being tossed and tousled for an entire 30-second spot, magically ends up with every strand in place. Welcome to the wonderful world of hair-ad trickery. “It takes four hours of prep for one hair shot,” says celebrity stylist Ken Paves, who has readied both Eva Longoria Parker for her L’Oréal haircolor ads and Jessica Simpson for the Put on Pieces line she developed with him. “Between takes, we’re constantly brushing and applying various shine products.” And that’s just to make it radiant. The fantabulous fullness, bounciness, and sleekness that constitute ad-worthy hair require a whole other arsenal. Fortunately, such dream hair is not out of reach for the rest of us. All the image-makers we spoke to also work in the real world, and they insist everyone can have camera-ready hair in under an hour. Your Facebook and driver’s-license photos may never be the same....

BIG TEASE
When someone at a hair shoot yells, “Crank up the volume,” he’s probably not talking about the iPod. “Bright set lighting always makes hair look flat,” says Nexxus Creative Director Kevin Mancuso. “Unless you add a lot of lift, hair can look wiry, not like a full, luscious mass.” For maximum height, he applies volumizer to the roots above the ears and then dries hair upside down to allow gravity to lift strands away from the scalp. Setting hair with rollers or a large-barrel curling iron can also give a boost to roots. If you love hair straight — but still full — flat-iron just the ends, advises Garnier Fructis celebrity stylist Brian Magallones. Lock in lift by flipping your head over and spraying on a veil of volumizing hairspray.

PRO TOOLS
What lies beneath a big head of hair is usually a ton of teasing, reveals Nexxus Creative Director Kevin Mancuso: “The top layer is smoothed to look touchable, but there’s no way you could run your fingers through it.”

ON-SET SECRETS: VOLUME
Nexxus 360° Volume Bodifying Finishing Mist; T3 Curling Iron; Pantene Pro-V Root Lifter Volumizing Spray Gel; John Frieda Sheer Blonde Volumizing Rinse-Out Treatment; Samy iStyle “Give Me Body” Volumizing Mousse