Andrew Fitzsimons may seem like your friendly Irish hairstylist-next-door, but his cropped dark strands are full of secrets. As glam squad to the rich and famous – his clients include JLo, Megan Fox, Madonna, Mariah and the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan – he's had to impress with some seriously off-the scale skills, creating looks that stand up to red carpet scrutiny.
He's been privy to some pretty unbelievable #bts moments, too. From duetting with Mariah ("we were getting ready for a Christmas show in New York and All I Want For Christmas came on") to bonding with Adele over their love for Cheryl Cole ("we kept singing Alouette to each other. We were trying to do the dance move too"), his career sounds like absolute goals. “It's 95% normal stuff" like scheduling flights and packing products he confides modestly, “but a couple of times a year something really crazy happens that you'd tell your mom about.”
But the biggest piece of intel I wanted to scoop from Andrew when we sat down for a transatlantic Zoom chat, was his secret to properly incredible-looking hair. Browse through the looks he's created on his Instagram and one thing is clear, the man does not miss. Every style is perfect, from deliciously teased curls, to glossy buns and mirror shine. So, what gives? “I'm very detail-oriented,” he admits. “And I take a haircare-first approach. When I'm doing hair long-term with a client, if their hair condition diminishes, that makes me look bad,” he says.
I asked him to spill all the hair tea below…
What’s your best tip for incredible hair?
The biggest thing is “figuring out the steps between your hair type and the style that you want to achieve. What are the products that will help, help get you there?” Andrew says. “A lot of people, when they're styling their hair, they don't use any styling products until the end,” he says, but you need to be choosing the right products when you're in the shower, when you're prepping the hair, when you're styling it and when you're finishing it. “You need to build a scaffolding in order for the structure to work and to have longevity.” The products you use of course, will differ depending on the style that you're trying to create, but there is one product Andrew swears by for every style, hair type and client…
What one product or ingredient do you swear by?
“I created a leave-in conditioner called AF1 [£11, from his Andrew Fitzsimons hair line] which I recommend for all hair types. I use it with a hundred percent of my clients, every single time because it's basically everything that I need for a hairstyle: de-frizzing, detangling, shine, heat protection, humidity protection – a million different things. Also, it has bonding technology so it restructures your hair from the inside out. It's basically like taking your vitamins in the morning.
People are really experimenting with hair, but hair is so fragile. Just like protecting skin with SPF, I would recommend incorporating a restructuring leave-in-conditioner if you don't want split ends or damage. Not only are you preparing your hair for whichever style you're about to create, and making sure that you're not doing any further long term damage, but also, you're restructuring your hair from the inside out with bonding technology." It's the ultimate lazy girl hack since it can make your hair look pretty in the short term, and healthier in the long-term. “I have bonding technology in every single non aerosol product that I have. So whether you're using a curl cream, the leave-in-conditioner, or a blow dry cream for shine, they all have bond technology. Even if you don't know it, I'm trying to repair your hair while you're styling, because you should be able to work smarter not harder.”
Andrew Fitzsimons AF1 Restructuring 10-in-1 Leave-In-ConditionerDo you always use your own products?
“A hundred percent. I don't use any products other than my own, which is a flex. To sit down in front of the most famous people in the world – who are used to the best of the best – and put out all of my products and them go: ‘these are beautiful.’ I'm like, well they're £9 in Boots. So tell your friends! The biggest compliment for me has been clients asking for more products.”
What sets your products apart?
“It's like here is all the things I've learnt about hair over the past 22 years I've been working. All of the comments, questions, concerns that I've heard from women all around the world with every hair type, as well as from the most famous people in the world who are worried about having a hair out of place. I was like, how do I translate that into hair care that everybody can afford, everybody can use and everybody can love that works with their natural texture as well as a fantasy hair look that they want to create. And I think I did it.”
What were your non-negotiables when creating your hair line?
“One was price inclusivity. I grew up pretty poor on a council estate and I knew that whatever little money my mom had, she was spending it on my sister and me. She was last in line for everything. She'd use grocery store shampoo which wasn’t great for her hair. So pricing inclusivity was really important for me. The second non-negotiable was creating a brand for all hair types. Too many brands are targeted towards caucasian hair with a couple of curly products as an afterthought. Curly textures were not taken into consideration from inception, whereas for me, my largest collection of products is my curly line from, from 3a to 4c. Those two concepts have to work together for me because I don't think that you can really say that you're an inclusive brand if no-one can afford your products. Something doesn't necessarily have to be super expensive in order to be luxury. So I created a luxury hair care that I wanted my mom, my sister and the girls on my estate to be able to afford and know that they're using the same products that I'm using on JLo or Kim or Madonna, for a Vogue cover, or the Met Gala. I wanted this to be a contribution to women of every income.”
What is your best advice for keeping hair healthy?
“A combination of heat free styling, using restructuring products and being intentional. Very few people need the highest heat on their hair for anything. People think that the hotter something is the longer it lasts, or the more effective it'll look and that’s not the case.”
For more from GLAMOUR's Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
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