The 19 Best Hair Tips Ever

1. Sleep with a braid, wake up with really sexy texture.

2. Highlights are a slippery slope: More than a few and you are fully bleaching your hair; besides the damage, you may be making yourself blonde without realizing it. Keep highlights subtle and around the face, or on ends if you love a bit of ombré.

3. Purple tempers brassiness, so purple-tinted shampoos, conditioners and even styling products are brilliant for blonde hair. (And for highlighted brown hair.)

4. When all else fails, a ponytail pulls it all together. And looks very edited and on purpose.

5. Layers are great for thin hair, because they pump up volume. Weirdly, they also help tame curly hair that tends to dry into an unhelpful triangle shape by breaking up the shape. Emphasize your layers with highlights around the face.

6. If your hair’s a dark, single-process brown, at-home haircolor is an especially alluring option: Once you find the perfect shade, your results will be similar to what you’d get at a salon.

7. Blow-dry bangs only from the sides to get them straight. If you come at them head-on, they end up super-wonky. Keep switching sides for best results.

8. Spray a toothbrush with hairspray to calm flyaways.

9. If frizz is your issue, don’t run your fingers through your hair—at all! And don’t brush it any more than you absolutely have to.

10. If you want Bardot, you need hot rollers (or regular Velcro rollers and a hot blow dryer). Either way, remember to let the rollers really cool before you take them out (a cool shot from the dryer speeds things considerably).

Clairol Professional Shimmer Lights Shampoo, $10, Sallybeauty.com

Video: Step-by-step guide to hot rollers!

11. For more volume (or to help combat hair loss) switch the placement of your part. If you always wear your hair in a particular way—especially if it involves pins or elastics always used in about the same place—switch it up.

12. Never use any sort of iron—curling or straightening—on wet hair, as it will wreak serious, serious damage. And wait for your hair to air-dry a bit before you blow-dry it.

13. Blow-dry your hair upside down to add more volume at the roots. By the same token, blow-dry it side-to-side to add volume all around.

14. Unlikely volume builder: haircolor. It roughs up the cuticle, creating body inadvertently.

15. This sounds ridiculously simple, but it is ridiculously important: When you’re showering, get your hair wet enough before shampooing so the shampoo is really able to work through your hair—and back out. Rinse until you’re sure it’s out. This seemingly obvious misstep is why a lot of hair isn’t nearly as shiny and healthy-looking as it could be.

The Twistband, $3 each, Thetwistband.com

16. Before you go swimming (especially in a chlorinated pool), get your hair wet with regular water. The water fills up the cuticle, repelling the damaging chlorinated water. For extra insurance, slick on some conditioner after wetting your hair. For extra-super insurance, wet, condition, then throw on a swim cap.

17. Cloth hair ties not only protect your hair from snagging. They also help prevent that awful dent in your hair many elastics leave.

18. Red haircolor fades the fastest. Tinted shampoos and conditioners help, as do clear gloss treatments.

19. A messy part hides visible roots. So does a good dry shampoo. Colored temporary mousses and hair mascaras do too.

Olivia Garden Jet Set EZ Grip Curlers, $4 for set of four, Sallybeauty.com