YoKi Beauty, Corte Madera

Blowouts: Hot Air with a Purpose

Take a couple of elemental ingredients—wind and heat—combine them with a professional’s trained hand and strong wrist, and you end up with something precious: movie-star hair. The actual process is simple: the stylist washes the hair, then blow-dries it in small sections to the client’s specifications, often using a round brush to create smooth volume. The result might be straight, wavy, or purposely tousled, and it can be such a look changer that some women refrain from washing their hair for days afterward to maintain the glamour. Many people find the service so valuable they return to the salon for it between haircuts, sometimes several times a week. In some ways, this practice is a throwback to the beauty parlors of the past, where women would drop in weekly to have their hair styled and set. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis used to get her hair blown out three times a week in the 1960s and 1970s; today, reportedly, so do celebs such as Kate Middleton and Gwyneth Paltrow. To keep up with demand, blowout-only salons have popped up in the last few years, dedicating all their chairs to the service.