Fashion

I Tried Kim Kardashian's Hair Routine

by Faz Abdul Gaffa-Marsh

The things that fascinate me most about the Kardashians are their elaborate beauty routines — especially Kim Kardashian's hair routine. I mean, she's obviously doing something right with all that shine and length. Recently, Into The Gloss published an interview with the highest earning member of the Kardashian Klan, Kim, who dished about her makeup products, her beauty favorites and, of course, her hair routine. In the interview, she revealed that she washes her hair once every five days. "We start out with a blowout on day one, then we go into a messier vibe the next day, and then we flat iron it and do a really sleek look on day three since that requires a little oil in the hair. Day four could be a slicked-back ponytail, and on the fifth day is when you wash it. That’s a little excessive, maybe."

Excessive? Maybe indeed, but still I felt like I owed it to my Kardashian loving self to to give it a try. I have fine, very stubborn, and, in my hairstylist's words, "very strong" hair. It's the Indian genes, I tell ya. I'm used to washing my hair at least once every two days, especially since I work out at least three to four times a week and get soaked with sweat. During the course of this experiment, I stuck to light Pilates and yoga instead of running, high intensity or circuit training to keep myself sane.

Day 1: Getting blown by a pro

Kim K starts her five-day regimen with a blowout. Instead of doing just that, I chopped about four inches of my hair off at Méche Salon in Los Angeles.My hairstylist, Stacy Ho, gave me a textured long bob to, in her words, "Welcome [me] to LA."

After roaming Melrose for half the day, I came home and photographed my hair. Not too shabby.

Day 2: Bedhead chic

Thickening Hairspray, $30, Bumble and Bumble; Oribe Dry texturizing Spray, $46, Oribe

I always love my second-day hair, whether or not I've gotten a professional blow dry. It oozes the perfect couldn't-care-less-but-still-put-together look. I didn't work out the day before, and it was a relatively colder and dreary day in LA, so I didn't sweat much from the weather either. Before leaving home, I spritz on some Bumble & Bumble Thickening Hairspray and Oribe Dry Texturizing Hairspray, and blowdry it quickly with a diffuser.

Day 3: Dry shampoo to the rescue

Batiste Dry Shampoo, $9, Urban Outfitters

I turned to Batiste Dry Shampoo on the morning of the third day. I don't usually flat iron my hair — not only because will my natural curls come through really quickly despite the heat tools, but I actually prefer my waves too. In the name of sticking through with the experiment, however, I did. However, as you can tell from the photo, by the end of my morning routine, the ends of my hair had already started curling. All the excess oil probably didn't help.

Day 4: Ready to lose it

I spent the evening of day three resisting a full-on sweat session and turned to restorative yoga so I resist the urge to my hair. By the next day, I was not only ready to plunge hair first into any pool of water, I was also dying to actually sweat properly. Do rich people not perspire? Has anybody seen Kim Kardashian sweat?

At this point my head felt disgusting, and my roots were incredibly oily. The only way to describe day four's hair was "bacon grease chic," despite my practically emptying an entire bottle of Batiste Dry Shampoo on to my head before going to bed.

My hair is also too short to be pulled back into a sleek ponytail, so I had two choices: throw on a hat and call it a day, or pull it back into a baby ponytail. I did the latter. It involved a deep side part, bobby pins, some concise manoeuvring. I didn't need much product because the oil in my hair kept it all together anyway, so I guess that's a bonus?

Did I last till the fifth day to wash my hair? Yes, but at soon as midnight passed, I bolted to the shower. This routine may work for Kim K, but I think I'll stick to shampooing more than once a week.

Images: Faz Abdul Gaffa-Marsh