My housemate and I implemented a new self-care routine in lockdown and our hair has never been better 

An opportunity to learn how to look after ourselves on our own terms.

Self-maintenance in lockdown is tricky business. For those not well versed in self-directed beauty regimens such as myself, chipped nails, blemished skin and frizzy, untamed hair has become the norm. With hairdressers and beauty salons across metropolitan Melbourne having to shut their doors, I’ve tried to bring their magic to my own home with little success.

“Why does it matter, the only people we’re seeing on a daily basis are the x amount of people we live with anyway?”, you might say. This is true, and I will confess here that I’m guilty-as-charged for spending some days in my pyjamas ’til 2pm without bothering to even comb my hair. But there’s nothing like feeling pampered and well-groomed, even if most of our time is now spent working from home or – more precisely – our bedroom desks.

If there’s something positive that has come out of this pandemic, it’s rediscovering and reinventing my stay-at-home hobbies. Reading, crafts, hula hooping and DIY dance parties are some activities my housemates and I have implemented to make lockdown that little bit more bearable. Without the skill or patience of beauty practitioners, however, our grooming routines have been left lacking.

After a long couple of months in lockdown together (we’ve lost count by this stage), my housemate Issy and I decided to take our beauty routines into our own hands, and make the effort to nourish our long-neglected tresses. We wanted a simple treatment made from natural products that would crown us with silky, salon-quality hair.

We did our research and went forward with Evo, an Australian brand that drew us in for its fun attitude and honest, ethical products tested on humans, rather than animals. All Evo products are sulphate- and paraben-free, and are predominantly vegan (beeswax being the only outlier). Everything down to the brand’s packaging has been thoughtfully manufactured; its bottles are made from sugarcane byproducts as opposed to plastic.

Evo is split into six colour-coded ranges: Curl, Hydrate, Repair, Volume, Smooth and Style. The Great Hydrator, Lockdown, Mane Attention and Happy Campers are the four treatment products we put to use, from the Hydrate, Smooth and Repair ranges respectively.

We soon learnt Evo treatments are ideal for those who like to keep their haircare routines quick and easy. Even the really hydrating rinse-out treatments need a mere three minutes for your hair to soak up their goodness (I’m looking at you, The Great Hydrator), and the leave-in products are a simple matter of hopping out the shower and spreading a small amount through your hair, instead of conditioner.

As a little background, my hair has never been well-behaved. My daily haircare routine involves clamping down my strands with a straightener, followed by the liberal use of argan oil in a vain attempt to smooth it down. On good days, this works. But on bad (and let’s be honest, most) days, my hair swiftly reverts back to its usual dry, damaged and unruly form. After a week of experimenting with Evo treatments, however, my misbehaved tresses have been given a good talking to.

Each of the products locks in moisture from the inside out and seems tame my hair, so it sits smoothly. Thankfully, I’m no longer sporting the undesirable wet look that comes with drenching my hair in a tonne of oil-based products. As an added bonus, the treatments all smell great too. (I’m not the only one who thinks that either, further proof is here).

My personal favourite is Lockdown (the product I mean, not our current milieu), which is good for controlling and taming unruly hair such as my own, as it helps condense hair that tends to puff. Blow-drying after using the treatment leaves my hair straight and silky, without the need for my usual hair straightening procedure.

Issy, meanwhile, has colour-treated hair that’s often dry at the ends, so Mane Attention and Happy Campers have become her go-to products. Both combine moisture with a healthy dose of protein. Too much protein can leave hair sappy and dry, but both Evo products seem to strike the right balance. Happy Campers also offers UV protection and a little bit of styling hold, which we’ve both accepted as an extra little win.

Lockdown has left us trying to figure out how to make work, play and self-care coexist in our home. It’s certainly a strange time, but it’s also an opportunity to learn how to look after ourselves on our own terms. This was one easy routine switch that’s left us glowing inside and out.

evohair.com