If you know anything about royal beauty history, you’ll know that Sam McKnight is the man who transformed Princess Diana’s hair – and her confidence, too. Diana was famously styled by Sam with sleek, slicked-back hair for Vogue’s iconic 1991 cover, and she later credited his makeover as the catalyst for the self-assured woman she became in the 90s.
Today, Sam continues in his quest to lift women up, and he’s starting at the root of the issue: fine, thinning, menopausal hair. His latest launch is Cool Girl Body Plumping & Volumising Cream, and it’s tackling something his devoted midlife fanbase has long been crying out for.
‘I think the question we are asked most is, “How do I get lasting volume in my hair?”’ he tells me at a product debriefing. ‘Cool Girl Body really works for that. It's a fantastic volumising cream. I’ve got a lot of friends and actresses I work with who are in their 50s and 60s, and have fine, thinning hair – possibly menopausal or possibly just ageing hair. This is an easy way to thicken it up, instantly.’
Sam McKnight Cool Girl Body Plumping & Volumising Cream
The result was shown off to impressive effect on Nicole Kidman, who Sam styled for the Practical Magic 2 London premiere using his latest product. 'I started with my new Cool Girl Body Plumping and Volumising Cream to build the foundation. It gives hair that lovely, airy fullness without making it feel stiff or overworked,' he shared on his Instagram.
How does Cool Girl Body work?
The plumping effect is partly down to an ingredient called Voluminis, which has been clinically shown to fatten up each strand by 12%, and alone has a real impact on overall fullness.
But interestingly, the cream doesn’t just fatten up strands, it makes them ‘repel’ each other with an ionic charge. This means ‘each strand pushes apart from each other, and then holds there’, Sam explains. In the brand’s trials, 100% of testers saw instantly more body and fuller hair.
The cream also gives heat protection up to 230°C (’a massive thing for us because most people use heat on their hair,’ says Sam) and a built-in humidity shield that lifts from the roots and stops hair flopping once it’s plumped up. ‘It’s for bigger, healthier, stronger hair,’ Sam says. And while it’s been formulated for all hair types, ‘it’s the hero for fine, thinning, menopausal-affected hair’. Which, hi, is me.
Putting Cool Girl Body to the test
My hair was recently described as ‘fine but a lot of it’ – which I’m taking as a huge compliment, considering I had a nasty spell of stress-induced hair loss a couple of years back. However, I do think I’m in that push-pull stage, where I put in growth serums to fight against whatever menopause wants to take away. This, I guess, is the reality of 50-plus hair.
I’ve also chopped off six inches of thin, broken ends, left over from Shedding Armageddon. Overall my hair is much in better shape to plump up, but ultimately, it’s naturally fine, so I’m interested to see how this cream might compensate for my basic biology.
What’s Cool Girl Body like to use?
First impressions are are good: the cream is nicely non-sticky, and has a light, clean botanical smell. The instructions say to apply a small amount ‘evenly through lengths’ but since the cream contains an ingredient purporting to lift from the roots, I take a chance and assume it’s fine to start from the scalp down.
My results would suggest I guessed correctly, because honestly, my hair looked huge compared to its usual skinny state. I blowdried it upside down initially which gave a good head start (no pun intended) but I found it was far more inclined to remain pouffed up than usual.
The ingredient that makes strands push apart from itself obviously works – I never thought that having 'repulsive' hair could be a good thing.
Fuller hair often comes with a trade-off – less polish, a rougher finish – but I honestly found my hair blowdried easily and smoothly.
In my photos, I’ve just used a round hot air brush, and not reached for the irons for extra smoothness (no cheating here), and I’m pleased with the finished look and feel. It’s not stiff or sticky, not a hint of ‘helmet’ hair, and the volume boost is both excellent and long-lasting.
Definitely a product I'm happy to big up!
