Elegant chignons to playing with your natural texture… Adhuna Bhabani, founder and creative director, BBLUNT, has a kittyful of tips and tricks for that on-trend hairstyle.

Considering smoke and fire will be a part of the celebrations, any haircare tips?

The stress and strain of modern city life, as it is, leaves your hair as stressed as you are. Festivities mean fireworks and with that comes an awful lot of dust and pollution. To add to that, the pressure of constantly having to dress our best pushes us to resort to extreme styling with heated tools and sometimes even consider chemically treating our hair. Colouring our hair, too, seems like a popular choice at this time of the year.

Dust, pollution, not protecting our hair enough from heated tools or post a chemical service, can leave our hair severely damaged. The continuous use of heated tools such as hairdryers, hot rollers, flat irons or curling tongs damage the hair if it isn’t protected. People often tend to apply heat to their hair without using any styling product before. This equals to putting your skin in the sun without sunblock. Similarly, long hours in the sun, heat and humidity as well as other environmental factors that we expose our hair to on a daily basis play a considerable role in damaging our hair.

Get a regular trim or haircut every six-eight weeks in order to rid your hair of split ends and keep it looking and feeling healthy. We suggest prevention rather than cure. So whether you’re looking to colour your hair, take to heat styling frequently or even consider putting your hair through chemical treatments, it is important to prepare your hair with a range of products developed to tackle any resulting damage.

Pick the right shampoo and conditioner combination with colour-protect and repairing properties for your hair and scalp type. We also recommend that you wash your hair less often in the winter months, as over-cleansing can scrub away the protective layer of natural oils that hold in moisture. But remember to always condition and try and limit the use of heated tools like hairdryers, hot rollers, flat irons or curling tongs to prevent split ends and hair breakage.

What are the colours for the festive month?

Hair colour is something very personal. When picking a shade, it’s important to keep in mind your skin tone, eye colour as well as the colour of your wedding ensemble. Depending on what you prefer, you can pick from a variety of natural tones such as warm browns like chocolate, honey and caramel and vibrant reds like mahogany and burgundy.

For global colour, even if you’re doing this at home, go for the shine. You can tell a quality hair colour by the shine that it delivers. Great colour and shine should go hand in hand. You can also opt to go in for a balayage or ombre, perfect to flaunt the darkness of your natural hair colour at the top.

Semi-blondes are for those who want a bolder look and who dare to go a few shades brighter than their natural hair colour. This can be done with highlights. Face contouring is another colouring technique like hair make-up; it helps highlight or camouflage certain facial features. If you’re a fan of updos or often find yourself inclined to some elaborate styling, coloured hair is the best, as it accentuates waves and curls and also gives an illusion of added volume to the hair. For that vacation long due, sun-kissed tones and tousled texture look nothing short of gorgeous.

We recommend simple tones. However, for your colour to last long and not fade, be sure to maintain the vibrancy by using a shampoo and conditioner combination with colour protect properties.

Cool accessories to sport if you have…

A bob: A hairband works great as a colour pop and complements a chic bob perfectly. Scarves are a great alternative that double up as hairbands too. You can also experiment with the popular exposed bobby pin trend and create patterns like crosses and stars.

Long hair: Go all out and accessorise with flowers which are definitely the most trending go-to accessory at the moment. They will lend a fresh look to any festive ensemble. Floral options that work best are orchids, full-bloom roses, even daisies, but the smaller, more delicate flowers like gypsophila, more commonly known as baby’s breath, are quite the rage globally.

Shoulder-length hair: You can also pick from a variety of jewelled hairpieces like diamante brooches, embellished pins and pearl drops.

A braided Mohawk is edgy, says Adhuna Sourced by The Telegraph

Style it up

Prep for styling: Ready towel-dried hair with a dollop-sized amount of leave-in cream (you can try BBLUNT’s new Repair Remedy Leave-in Cream) which tames frizz and readies the hair for all the styling that follows. It also shields against environmental pollution.

A go-to Diwali look: Braided Mohawk

An edgy style that would go well with traditional garments as well as a contemporary look.

Step 1: Make a side part, and then section out a good portion of your bangs at the front to form a Mohawk later. Now take a section on front left side of your part to your left temple. Split this into three and weave together to make the braids on the side of your head.

Step 2: Braid the right over the centre, then the left over the right and continue to braid that section. Stretch out the braid to make it look thicker. Secure the end with a pin or small elastic.

Step 3: Now gather all your hair into a ponytail and secure with an elastic. Take the pin or elastic off the first braid such that it is now included as part of the ponytail. Take a small piece of hair and wrap it around your hair elastic to camouflage it.

To add volume and texture to the bangs at the top, you could use the floral variant of our Dry Shampoo Spring Fling. And style it to create light curls and set in place to form the Mohawk.

An out-and-out ethnic ensemble: Festive chignon

When planning to go all out with your ethnic attire and festive finest, a neatly dressed updo such as this chignon is perfect. You can try this at home with the right products and tools. Keeping your face shape and structure in mind, you can play with the height of this style to see what works best for you. Spray on some Spotlight Hair polish to add shine to the finished look and dress it up with your favourite flower in colours that compliment your outfit.

Sleek up your regular high ponytail look with this chic two-sided hairstyle Sourced by The Telegraph

A fusion ensemble: Hide and Seek

Sleek up your regular high ponytail look with this chic two-sided hairstyle. A frizz-free and glossy look that’s sure to edge up your outfit.

Step 1: Choose a preferred front parting. Take small sections of your hair and start twirling to form twisties.

Step 2: Once done, use bobby pins to secure them in place.

Step 3: Comb your hair back towards the nape of the neck into a ponytail and secure with a hair tie.

Step 4: You can add in a ponytail extension for added volume, if you like. For extra security you can use U-Pins and bobby pins.

Step 5: To finish off the look, spritz on some Spotlight Hair Polish For Instant Shine.

A classic look for long hair Sourced by The Telegraph

A classic pick: Long hair in an elegant updo

Clean, freshly-washed hair is the best canvas to replicate this hairstyle. Make sure you use a shampoo-conditioner combination with repairing properties to fortify your hair.

Step 1: Use a volumizing leave-in spray on the roots to the ends of your hair. Flip your hair upside down and spray on a dry shampoo at the roots to add texture to the hair.

Step 2:Using a dryer, blast-dry the hair completely, then smoothen the ends by taking thick sections with a round brush for a smooth finish. Part the hair as desired at the front for the fringe and isolate it.

Step 3: Then take diagonal back sections and begin curling one-inch sections at a time to achieve long-lasting curls. For add texture to this hairstyle, alternate between two sizes of tongs, one medium and one small to create curls. Continue till you’re left with a whole head of curls. Now take radial parting on both sides and clip it away to dress it later.

Step 4:Tie a pony at the nape of your neck and place a volume hairpiece (stuffing) just under the ponytail and secure it tightly in place with bobby pins. Backcomb the ponytail to create a bit of texture, then place the textured pony over the volume hair piece (stuffing). Secure it with U-Pins making it look like a chignon bun.

Step 5: Now release the isolated radial sections on each side and start twisting small sections and place it over the textured bun. Repeat the same on the other side and secure it with pins. You can also use any sections left at the front by twisting them and dressing it over the bun. Neatly place the curls and secure these with invisible U-Pins. Make sure none of the pins are visible.

Step 6: Finally comb out the fringe and place it like a slight wave at the front. Secure with bobby pins. Finish the look with a spray-on shine serum.