Hair I love: the sexy, easy Bumped Up Crown

I recently chopped a serious amount of length off my mop, and have a renewed interest in all things hair as a result. I thought I’d introduce a new category to Pretty Beautiful – in the vein of “daily delight” etc – with a regular shot of “hair I love”. The first look I'm all over is the Bumped Up Crown, which is a trick that can be applied to almost any hair length for a little bit of something new. Allure magazine said it best when they instructed us all that “a smidgen of height at your crown adds a whole lot of sex appeal”, and it’s surprisingly easy to achieve. For the classic, sex kittenish Brigitte Bardot look, blow-dry your hair using a round brush, then set it in hot rollers if you have them – loose tonging will also work - to further amp up the volume. After taking out the rollers, part your hair in the middle then lightly tease the underside of the crown with a fine-tooth comb to give it a bit of lift. You can also add a texturising and/or volumising product like Kevin Murphy’s POWDER. PUFF at this point if your hair is a little too “clean” to get any decent grip. Lastly, skim a paddle brush over the surface of your crown to smooth any fluffy bits, fire up your smoky eye and you’re good to go!