I’ve always struggled with frazzled roots. My fine, wavy hair could never be smoothed unless it was scorched with hair straighteners, but in a bid to go heat-free in pursuit of hair health, I had to come up with an alternative plan.

The situation got even harder to tackle, thanks to some new hair growth (thank you, Hair + Me). It’s now baby hairs galore around my scalp, which makes it even trickier to level out.

The only solution I came up with was using some of the leftover hair oil I apply to my ends and giving the area a quick swipe, but this is not the way to go, according to Adam Reed, hair stylist and founder of Arkive.

He explains that to optimise your hair oil’s powers, it should be applied to damp hair, rather than dry. Essentially, by applying it around my roots, I was only adding weight to the flyaways in my efforts to encourage them to stay flat. In turn, this was making my hair greasier and bringing forward my wash day – not ideal.

Instead, Reed introduces me to liquid hairspray. It’s not a format I’d tried before, having only ever used aerosols that take my breath away. This spritzes, rather than mists.

“A hair stylist taught me this trick for banishing flyaways, and it’s a game-changer”