The hair up there

Life in Manila can be such a breeze when it comes to beauty maintenance. For a Third World country, we have a slew of surprisingly sophisticated treatments and regimens for as long as you have the time and the means to make the most of them. Want to maintain your youthful looking skin with non-invasive lasers and injectibles? Go to Belo. Want to ensure that your skin stays soft and your muscles supple? Get a daily massage. Want to look perfectly groomed at all times? Go to the beauty salon daily. It all seems so perfect.

What happens then, when you are traveling, or worse, spend half of the time in another city? What happens to the high-maintenance regimens you call home? The answer is to find the right takeaway products that will keep you afloat till your next chance to run home.

I got used to having my tresses professionally handled when I had an important event to attend. Although I would never have the patience to go to the salon very often, I had the reassurance that, should the need arise, I could emerge from the salon coiffed to kill. Now that I spend most of my time in Hong Kong, I’m beginning to understand another side of "missing the comforts of home" as the damp air provides instant frizz and salons charge comparatively exorbitant amounts.

Lee Stafford products are created so that you have total control over your hair and how it looks. The Pink line, packaged in shiny metallic pink, is meant to give you shiny hair no matter what style (tousled or wet) you’re going for. Lee Stafford himself is quite a colorful person. A driven hairstylist from Essex with big hair dreams, he got tired of suggesting shampoos from this range to that range to his celebrity clients. He took the plunge and created a line that he and his staff truly love and highly recommend. Reading the quirky names on each of the products and his off-beat instructions on how to use them, you can’t help but instantly like him. His frank and funky approach to hair (his slogan is "Have fun, look wicked, smell beautiful") makes you feel confident that his products aren’t all just fluff.

I particularly love three of his products. The Messed Up Wax promises that the look you create in front of the mirror is what you’ll be wearing when you come home hours later. It must be heated in the palms of your hands first so that it becomes malleable and active. It’s really good for creating choppy or separated styles. People with long hair can use it as well for structured or piece-y looks. You can also create defined and separated curls and tame frizz. The advice is to always start with only a little, as you can always add more but you can’t take away. Tousled looks also belong to this great-smelling product.

The Shine Head Jelly is for people who want super shiny, beach babe hair. Lee Stafford considers this one of his star products as it can be used for so many different styles. It’s ideal for damaged or color treated hair of any length, any texture and can produce "shiny smooth" to "shiny messy" styles. This product is also for a sexy, wet look if you want to look like a Robert Palmer video girl.

If you do go to a salon and want to add lots of shine without ruining the style, then Shine Head Spray Shine is for you. The instructions say "Spray away and sparkle like a crazy diamond." This product makes hair really glossy and great-smelling for hours. It is the synthetic version of a duck’s preen gland oil (the reason why ducks have super glossy feathers). Be careful not to handle your hair after spraying to avoid making the strands clump together.

Having these three products in your arsenal will allow you to maintain your look between salon visits and hold your head up high – no pun intended!

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Lee Stafford products are available at Rustan’s Department Stores.