How To Be Beautiful: Winter hair repair

So, one week in; how's detox-and-diet season going? Whether or not you've signed up for the annual asceticism championships, January is a mean month. In beauty terms, it's a time for retreating to the bathroom for some seasonal damage reparation – a reasonable way of killing a long, dark evening when more sociable activities are off the cards due to self-denial (whether your own or others').

Your hair is a good place to start, since it's likely to have taken a pasting from extra styling, cold weather and central heating lately. Even better, while other areas of your appearance may be calling for an end to indulgence, your locks will love you for treating them to all things unctuous and buttery.

OK, we're talking about slapping them on your head not eating them – two things which, despite irritating beauty rhetoric, bear little comparison – but it's refreshing at this time of year to do something for your physical self that feels kind. And, really, your hair deserves it. It is, after all, one part of the body that can be relied upon not to gain an ounce.