Why you need: magical Kevin Murphy Young.Again

One of my absolute favourite beauty names to interview over the years has been Australian hair legend – and the creator of many of my must have hair products – Kevin Murphy. The affable super stylist always has a tip or two to impart, and when I last saw him, tripled the size of my hair in less than five minutes! Love that.
When he visited Stephen Marr’s beautiful salon on the top floor of The Department Store recently I pinned him down for a chat, as well as a chance to hear first hand about some of his latest releases.
The one that really got me excited is Young.Again, which is an anti-ageing product of sorts for your locks that has arrived in my bathroom cabinet just in time for summer. The hot weather brings along with it all sorts of hair “issues” that befall many women I know, including colour changes due to the sun and sea, overprocessing and overstyling once the party season kicks in. What we all need is a product that nourishes and revives the hair while infusing it with shine that doesn’t take precious time out of our day, and it seems that Mr. Murphy really has answered our call.
He starts by explaining to me that the only way to prevent oxidisation (i.e. ageing) happening to your hair – and it happens when the sun hits it, when you colour it or when you use hot tools – is by “putting something onto it to counteract that on a constant basis, because the cells just don’t renew themselves.” This is normally done with a mask of some kind, but in all honesty, how many women have a spare half hour or so twice a week to shower, apply a treatment mask, step out and wait ten minutes to process and then jump back in an wash it out again? Not me, that’s for sure!
Cue the arrival of Young.Again, a treatment oil that offers exfoliation properties that expose fresh, clean hair every time you use it. Key to this incredible product was his discovery of the properties of the herb Immortelle, from whose flower you can extract a water dispersable essential oil that can perform some pretty clever tasks. It is rich in antioxidants to help stop the onslaught of damage to hair, “and really is the ultimate in anti-ageing for the hair.” He’s added to this the likes of Bur Oil to improve hair strength, shine and body and relieve dry, flaky skin, and Sugar Cane Extract, a gentle exfoliant that prepares the hair to receive the nutrients and gives a smooth shiny look to the hair. It’s the perfect choice for those of us who use hot tools as it’s heatproof up to 220 degrees, as well as containing a sunscreen to protect your hair during the hotter months.
Lastly, this magical formula is incredibly easy to use. Simply wash and condition hair, and then evenly disperse Young.Again from mid-length to the roots when the hair is damp as the oil is water disperable. Concentrate on the driest parts of your hair and then watch it do its stuff. And if you have particularly dehydrated, damaged or tortured hair, combine Young.Again with Murphy’s Born.Again for concentrated salon-style conditioning.
I’ve been using Young.Again for several weeks now and in all honesty it really is one of the best hair products I have ever used. My coloured-for-many-a-year locks feel like virgin hair all over again, and I haven’t needed to use any kind of serum to control flyaways and the likes at all. Magic? It just may be!

*LOVE this picture of Kevin’s work in Vogue Australia, above, which can be recreated using his new range of Color Bug Colored Hair Shadows*