Sitting on a wooden bench at a rustic, farm-style table at The Eveleigh restaurant in Los Angeles, Hilary Duff pulls her small clear PVC purse close to her hip to make room for me to squeeze in beside her. "Hi, I'm Hilary," she said in a familiar voice while extending a hand and smile that made her green-bronze eyes squint as if to tell me she didn't expect me to know who she was.
Of course, I did, and so did everyone else at the open-air restaurant where we were celebrating the Younger star's hair team-turned-friends — Riawna Capri and Nikki Lee — and their new hair-care line, In Common. As you might expect, the topic of Duff's own hair came up, for which she told the group about the products that have given her "the healthiest blonde she's ever had."
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We all remember Lizzie McGuire's hair — the Disney character that brought Duff into the zeitgeist during the show's four year run. That is, bright babylights, choppy side bangs, and butterfly clips. A lot has changed for Duff since then: Younger's in its sixth season, she has two kids, just got engaged to musician Matt Koma, and, naturally, her signature hairstyle has changed, too. It's still colored blonde, but a shiny, honey-golden balayage hue, courtesy of Lee. Meanwhile, her fresh cut — styled by Capri in a half-up style with loose, beach-y waves — has a Lizzie 2.0 curtain bang: long, feather-layered, parted in the middle and sweeping softly across her forehead.
Above all else, the actress's hair looks healthy, which is where she gives credit to the just-launched hair-care line. Before In Common, Duff admits to haphazardly mixing and matching shampoo and conditioner, but not getting results she wanted. So it was easy to make the switch to Capri and Lee's curated In Common system, designed to transform hair to its healthiest.
To start, Duff tells us she's obsessed with the brand's Clear Haze Universal Shampoo, a innovative foam formula that lifts dirt and oil from the scalp without stripping the hair of healthy oils. After that's rinsed out, she'll spray on a treatment mist, called The Enhancer, which comes in three different formulas: strengthening, moisturizing, and smoothing.
“Because Hilary has to stay blonde for her character on Younger, the Mended Sea Strengthening Enhancer is best for her because it keeps her blonde strands strong and healthy," says Capri. She recommends the Strengthening variation of the in-shower treatment mist for all types of color-treated hair to prevent against breakage and dullness.
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The third step is slathering the brand's Velvet Cloud Universal Mask from root to tip, right over the Enhancer. It's called a mask, but is really more of a lightweight conditioner replacement that can be used on its own, like a conditioner, or cocktailed with the Enhancer to help it work what Lee calls, "hair-healing magic." After a few minutes, she'll rinse out the mask plus Enhancer treatment, and comb through her soft, silky, still very blonde hair.
While I'm neither blonde nor a recognizable teen idol, I have next to nothing in common with Hilary Duff. But if we're drawing comparisons, I too dig a PVC purse, and our lather, rinse repeat routine is now exactly the same.
Travel and accommodations were provided by In Common for the purposes of writing this story.
