A Lesson in Red Carpet Hair with Lino Carbosiero and Anthea Turner

This week, we welcomed guests to the Daniel Galvin Flagship Salon in Marylebone for a masterclass in ‘how to get red carpet hair’. When we say, ‘red carpet’, we should really say ‘red carpet-worthy’ as this was no French twist or chignon, but a bouncy blow dry. Simple, yes, but a blow dry from Lino Carbosiero MBE is certainly red-carpet worthy, nonetheless.

Read more of Lino's haircare and styling tips in our masterclass interview with him here and read as he reveals the secret to the late Queen's hair here (spoiler alert, she never had a blow dry!)

Lino’s expert tips and tricks for a great blow dry were given alongside a live demonstration with broadcaster Anthea Turner, famed for her fabulously layered locks and her ability to style them. With Champagne Bollinger as our Champagne Partner, it was a fantastic night of flowing fizz and valuable lessons in haircare and styling.

“I first came to Daniel Galvin in the 1980s - it was that long ago” Anthea says as she takes a seat with hair damp ready to be styled, “I hadn't met Lino at that point, we have been together sorting my hair out since 1997! So, it's been a long time. But what happened with my hair, colour-wise, is that you start by covering mousy brown with highlights, and then a little grey arrives - so you just keep adding more blonde to try and disguise everything. I got to the point where the condition of my hair was limited, and I looked like candy floss. So I finally said, ‘Okay, I’ll have some colour in it.’ That was it. Now I have about three colours in it. There are the highlights, and I have another couple of colours knitted in somewhere. I don’t know how grey it is; not sure, never seen it, don’t want to - but there’s a lot going on in here to make it look natural.”

A Red Carpet-Worthy Blow Dry

“I don’t remember the last time I blow-dried your hair,” says Lino, reminiscing that it was most likely on a photo shoot some time ago. He adds with a smile, “Anthea probably blow dries her hair better than most hairdressers, and a lot of people go wrong by cutting Anthea’s style of hair whilst wet - that’s when you make mistakes, because all of it is hand cut; there are no straight lines.” Lino only uses a couple of products for his blow dries, “I use the Kérastase, I call it the green stuff” he says as he presents a green bottle to the crowd, what we know as the Resistance Ciment Thermique Heat Protector. “Make sure you cover the hair well with this,” Lino advises. “It’s important with hair preparation that you don’t do it on wet or saturated hair – different hair types need different amounts of drying, so with someone who has curly or frizzy hair you need to be careful not to over dry and always dry downwards, if you dry upwards you’re opening up the cuticle.”

“Because of my job and what I do, I can’t be running to the hairdressers all the time” says Anthea, “so I have become self-sufficient over the years. Many hairdressers would do this but what people probably don't ask is: can you just give me a lesson on blow drying?” If this is your sign to ask your hairdresser that question, take it! Because nine times out of ten, you will get a great lesson out of it that you can use in your day-to-day life.

“I think you can always tell when somebody blow dries your hair, if someone is good at it. I can tell straight away as they pick up their hair dryer, and they pick up their barrel brush whether this is going to be a good blow dry or not. At the moment I’m being pulled around so I know it's going to turn out well” Anthea says from the salon chair as Lino pulls with his barrel brushes. “If you notice I’m not burning the hair,” Lino explains. “I’m really quick so that the hairdryer just skims the hair, but what that also does is keep that cuticle closed. By using a nozzle on the hairdryer, the heat is also going exactly where I want it.”

All About Condition

There are three Cs to live by when it comes to hair: cut, colour, and condition. But before you even think about the first two, there’s one that truly matters most - condition. You can’t move on to the others without it.

Trichologist, David Felstead, sat down with us to talk about the hidden nasties in haircare ingredients and why condition should always come first. “Something that I find a real pain is the surveillance of silicone in so many products. We've had reps up here trying to sell us product and I’ve asked: is there any silicone in your product? And they said no, but I knew there was," David explains. "In itself it’s an inert product that doesn’t do much to you, but you do get a buildup. So if it's in your shampoo, your conditioner and your styling product – you are going to get buildup and when I do trichology I can see that on people’s scalp as a silvery layer, but what does that do? For someone with finer hair, it’s going to attract skin particles and hold dirt and it’s going to be quite difficult to get out. Your hair becomes more lank and becomes more of a problem."

"Look in your product, look at the ingredients," David stresses. "If the ingredient has ‘cone’ on the end, it will be a silicone, most commonly dimethicone. But there are lots of them in there, they slip them in – some products have three or four. I must stress that it’s not going to hurt you but you’ll struggle against it, it’s like putting a tent up in the wind.” Once you are aware of the silicones in your products, you can strike a balance. David adds that "you can have a shampoo that doesn't have it, a conditioner that doesn't have it, and then use it in your heat protectant because it's quite good at heat protecting.”

Balayage vs Highlights

Daniel Galvin Operations Director Stephen Nurse noted that the salon has seen a growing number of clients requesting balayage. Colourists Elliz and Rosalina shared the benefits of the technique and how it differs from traditional highlights.

“It lasts a long time, about six months, and is not on the very root so you don’t get a root from it as the hair grows out,” explains Elliz. “It’s mainly for people whose hair is a bit darker and are looking to enhance their ends and brighten up their hair for a sunkissed look. If you don’t like your natural colour or you’ve got greys that you want to cover, it won’t do that.”

“When it comes to highlights, we’ve got the famous brickwork technique at Daniel Galvin,” says Rosalina. “It’s a technique that Daniel has always done, and we do it in a way where it’s so seamless that it can look very natural.”

As a side note for brunettes thinking about going lighter, the pair added: “Daniel always says, if you’re brunette, the lightest brown should be brown in your eyes – your hair shouldn’t be any lighter than that. This way you are enhancing your natural colour, not going against it, and that’s what normally suits you the most.”

Book in for an appointment at Daniel Galvin via danielgalvin.com and find the flagship Marylebone salon at: 58-60 George St, London W1U 7ET