No heat tools, no problem: The hair gloss treatment that lasts over a month

My honest review of the new Wella Shinefinity Zero Lift Glaze treatment.

My hair muse has always been ’90s Liv Tyler – an effortless brunette beauty. Ironically, I’ve put in countless hours of effort trying to make my naturally frizzy hair look as smooth and shiny as hers.

I’ve tried rinsing my hair with beer, spritzing it with diluted apple cider vinegar, and washing it with freezing cold water in the middle of winter. I once mixed henna dye and cocoa butter into a paste and rubbed the pungent mud all over my hair, only to end up with a patchy auburn colour I couldn’t get rid of for two years.

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After lots of trial and error, I learnt the obvious lesson that shiny hair = healthy hair. For me, this means a lot of Olaplex No.3, regular trims and stepping away from the straighteners. My hair has never felt healthier, but it just doesn’t shine the way I want it to. The only time I notice a real difference is after I have it dyed a shade darker at the salon – something I’m doing more frequently lately, thanks to the silver strands that appeared on my parting line as soon as I turned 30.

I’d heard people rave about hair glosses before but I always thought, ‘All that effort for your hair colour to look the same?’ I couldn’t justify spending the same amount of time (and money) at the salon for a clear gloss.

But when I was invited to try the new Wella Shinefinity Zero Lift Glaze, an in-salon treatment that promises long-lasting shine with no damage, I decided to park my scepticism and try it out. I’d been having a bad hair week and I was keen to do something to make it look better, without booking in for my usual dye-job.

The hair gloss process

I arrived at Biba salon in Fitzroy where I had a brief consult with my stylist. While there are some semi-permanent tinted glosses in the Wella Shinefinity range (I was tempted), we decided to see how the crystal clear glaze would look. My stylist reassured me it would still make a noticeable difference.

The actual treatment was very similar to getting a normal semi-perm hair colour, but it felt very gentle on my scalp and had no chemically smell as it went on. After about 20 minutes, it was time for a rinse at the basin, followed by a deep conditioning treatment and scalp massage (the best).

As the stylist started to blowdry my hair (I brought up the Liv Tyler reference, he understood the brief), I immediately noticed it looking shinier than usual and a lot less frizzy. When he was done, I almost couldn’t believe it hadn’t changed the colour of my hair – it looked more natural, more healthy, and my greys were somehow less noticeable.

The results

For the next few days, I noticed my hair felt smoother and weightier, similar to the feeling after a keratin smoothing treatment. I didn’t need to touch my Airwrap for the next week, it looked so good. When I did wash my hair, I let it air-dry to see the difference and I was pleased to notice my natural curl pattern looking more defined.

The shine boost is meant to last up to six weeks, and I’d say I got the full mileage before I felt it faded back to normal. I only wash my hair once a week though, so if you wash your hair more regularly, your results might not last as long as mine.

All in all, it’s a great low-maintenance treatment and I’m definitely going to space out my usual 10-week hair dyes with a Shinefinity glaze instead. Anything that deters me from strong chemicals and heat tools is surely a good thing.

You can book your own Shinefinity treatment at any Wella salon across the country here.