IHR: straightening out bad hair days

As a self-proclaimed hair care aficionado, I have always been a sucker for styling products that boast miraculous 'super-straightening' results, such as sprays, gels and serums. Yet no amount of yanking my limp, wavy, flyaway hair with a variety of professional paddle brushes under blasts of intense heat can beat a professional salon blow-dry - a weekly short-term cure that I deem time-consuming and incredibly decadent. So, in my quest for fabulously straight Jennifer Aniston-esque locks, I was intrigued to discover a 'revolutionary grooming treatment' that claims to 'safely transform distressed tresses into straight, silky, smooth and hydrated hair - forever!'

Located in the heart of Soho, trendy salon JL Ion is a godsend for any woman who, like me, frequently faces frizzy hair days. The unique treatment - invented in Japan in the late 1990s and widely favoured by the grooming industry in Southeast Asia - is called IHR (Ion Hair Retexturising). It is currently exclusive to JL Ion, yet the company plans to make IHR the hottest buzzword for hairdressers throughout the UK.

The science bit
The science of IHR is totally mind-boggling; ask for an explanation and you'll get a chemistry lesson. My specialist explained that positive and negative ions exist in most substances and are small particles that gather around an object. Through restructuring the ion cluster of water, IHR allows water molecules to penetrate into the core of each hair. As a result, the hair is rehydrated and reconditioned in each IHR treatment. Confused? Basically, as the IHR treatment penetrates every single strand of your hair, it amazingly relaxes and straightens curly, coarse, damaged and dehydrated locks. I was assured that there would be no damage to my hair whatsoever. 'On the contrary, it will improve the condition,' my specialist enthused.

This newfound miracle is hardly speedy - I had to sweat out four tedious hours flicking through Japanese-style mags as various lotions and potions were applied. There are four steps to IHR, so for those with a low boredom threshold, take a good book. After a shampoo, my hair was sprayed with Ionic Protector, a pre-treatment spray that restores the protein and moisture content of hair.