"I am a master at hiding hair disaster," Paula Conway told me. She is the author of the best-selling beauty book in 2007 called The Beauty Buyble. You just never know who you're going to meet on a cruise!
"I also love the subject," she said. "How about some tips on how to hide hair disasters?" Sure, why not.
Another fellow cruiser, Tracy Brown, an editor at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, whom I also met on the cruise, told a cringe-worthy tale about rushing to get ready for a meeting and putting a little pink curler in the top of her head to wrest some stubbornly straight strands into submission.
In her haste to get there on time, she forgot to remove the curler, and spent the entire meeting with the curler bobbing away on the top of her head to every serious nod of assent. When she looked in the rearview mirror of the car as she was pulling away, she screamed!
This "hair disaster" qualifies as a subset of Most Embarrassing Moments – and who hasn't had them?! – so any quick fixes to avoid hair-related humiliations are most welcome.
When you're hair is frizzy and fried: Change the texture of frizzy hair by bundling it, Paula says. "Blow-dry hair, run a dime-sized amount of Oscar Blandi Jasmine [or any hair serum of your choice] from the crown — not root — to the ends, combing gently with fingers. Then, take a hair band and bundle your tresses in a fun, loose bun, even casually to the side. Later in the day, the product and the bundle will pay off — hair will be smooth."
Fix flyaways without product! "Your hands have natural oils and heat activates them. Rub hands together vigorously to create heat, then rub hands gently over the flyaways, and/or through hair as needed to distribute your natural oils." Now that's a fast, and cheap fix, and it works!
No time to wash your hair? Options: Use a dry shampoo, but you don't have one handy, wet bangs and redry them so they are fresh and perky. Pull the rest of the hair back in to a chignon, then add a headband. With fresh bangs and a headband, you'll look clean and polished."
Keep these in mind — and always remember to pull out any random curlers! — and you'll be on your way to banning bad hair days for good.
