Ive Discovered The Secret To Making Your Perfume Last All Day

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For years I’ve been hoodwinked by pricey perfumes. I’d do the full routine – wrists, neck, behind the ears – and despite using approximately £10 worth of product each time, by 1pm? Nothing.

I tried changing formulas; I tried re-applying hourly; I even tried that weird hack where you apply Vaseline to your inner wrists to act as a sort of fragrance-glue. But the reality is, even expensive perfumes rarely cling to the skin the way we want it to. That’s especially true in winter, when dry skin struggles to hold scent molecules.

When moaning about this to You’s Beauty Editor, she had an immediate recommendation: hair fragrance. Sure, it sounds like a gimmicky ’90s relic. But newly developed formulas are designed to sit on the hair’s surface and last all day, because hair holds fragrance molecules far better than dehydrated winter skin.

It’s important to invest in a perfume specifically designed for hair, rather than simply spritzing your locks with your old Miss Dior. Good products will be formulated with lower alcohol content so they don’t dry out your strands, which is especially important when you have heat-damaged, coloured or weather-beaten hair.

I’ve been using Hair by Sam McKnight: The Fragrance With Benefits, which basically behaves like I’ve always wished my normal perfumes would. One mist through my lengths in the morning and I get that expensive, salon-adjacent scent until bedtime. It’s inspired by an English garden with herbal notes and frankincense, and I’ve had plenty of compliments on my lush-smelling locks since using it.

I’m not the only one who’s worked this out: searches for ‘hair perfume’ have jumped 57% in the last month alone. Beauty experts say it’s partly because people have finally realised that hair is the best fragrance diffuser we have – it moves, which helps spread fragrance molecules around, and holds perfume better given its porous texture than skin.

The best bit? Hair scents will set you back considerably less than most perfumes. Add to that the fact it actually lasts, and I think it than justifies its place on your bathroom shelf. If you want the same all-day effect without the luxury price tag, here are a few options to try out this party season…

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