YB Loves: Audrey Hepburn’s Favorite Hair Product
Each day the editors of Yahoo Beauty are sharing one noteworthy product we feel should be on your radar. From the latest and greatest items that land on our desks to indie products with a cool backstory to the old standbys that have earned a permanent place on our vanities, trust us: you’ll want to check them out.
I had never used an elasticizer before, and I felt like an idiot asking Anabel Kingsley, the pint-sized daughter of famed London-based trichologist Philip Kingsley, what it was. As someone with long, coarse, heat-damaged, color-treated hair, I’ve tried many deep conditioners, leave-in treatments, and hair masks. Unfortunately, most of the products leave a residue on my hair, don’t condition at all, or cost too much for a recent college graduate’s budget. The younger Kingsley, however, with her bouncy head of hair, patiently introduced me to the Philip Kingsley Geranium & Neroli Fragranced Elasticizer ($52), which is a scented remake of the cult favorite product that was originally invented for Audrey Hepburn in 1974. Hepburn was filming a movie in London, and she had booked an appointment at the clinic under the name Mrs. Dotti (she was married to Andre Dotti, a psychiatrist, at the time). Kingsley didn’t realize that his client was the movie star until she arrived at his door. Hepburn wanted a treatment that would keep her hair healthy on set in spite of all the processing and styling it went through, so Kingsley custom created the Elasticizer for her. This is a real glamorous product.
To add to the glamour, the newest version of the Elasticizer is infused with neroli, geranium, lavender, rose, and orange oils influenced by Kingsley’s annual trips to Portofino, Italy. A clinician at the New York location wet my hair with a spray bottle, and then worked the cream into my hair, section by section. My hair was then wrapped up in a towel and put under a steamer for five minutes. After letting my hair marinate for a few minutes it was rinsed and washed with shampoo and conditioner. Anabel told me that she even sleeps with the treatment in—which is kind of how I imagine Hepburn would have used the product, with the famous Breakfast at Tiffany’s blue sleep mask. After my hair dried, I had shiny, Roman Holiday-worthy hair. And while I was definitely not going on a trip to Portofino anytime soon, I sure smelled like it.
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