Vanessa Hudgens’s Shiny Hair: Hairstylist, Chad Wood’s Tips

With the winter in full swing, the weather can be tough on your hair, leaving it dry and brittle. One celeb who always manages to have luscious, silky hair is definitely Vanessa Hudgens, 31, and luckily, her hairstylist and Fekkai Brand Stylist Partner, Chad Wood, shared with HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY, how she gets her jet black hair shiny and silky smooth. Sharing how Vanessa gets her shiny hair, Chad shared, “That’s my thing with her, she is just my fave.” As for how he helps her achieve the shine, Chad revealed, “I’ve worked with her for such a long time. I brought her from short hair, it was short and fine then and she always had extensions – permanent ones. I was like, ‘I won’t work with you if you have these extensions. I can’t do anything with you. It will constantly keep breaking them.’ She’s like, ‘I don’t know, I want hair.’ When you’re in the public eye, you need to look good kind of all the time. so I said to her, ‘because I can promise you anytime you’re doing something, I’m going to be styling you, I will put pieces in, we will make it,’ and now her hair is grown.”

Chad continued that the duo rarely adds extension pieces in anymore, admitting, “Most of the time we don’t even put pieces in because we finally got it. She’s like, ‘My hair has never been healthier, shinier, glossier’ and it’s because we use the right products. I always use the thermal protect, I always make sure her hair is my priority and not just good for that event or that night because I want longevity. She’s an actress, she needs to have great hair and we’ve been able to do that because she listened to me and we kind of work together on that.”

Chad, who is currently promoting the new Fekkai haircare line shared his tips for keeping your hair healthy and hydrated in the winter, saying, “That’s always a tough one because you’ve got to layer, and it depends if you’re traveling, but sometimes I like to layer when I’m doing a product. I’ll do a leave-in mask on dry hair, stick it up in a bun or a braid or whatever, just to kind of get that product in. When there are no water molecules in the hair, you can put that conditioner on and it actually absorbs more, and then rinse it out. After that, use shampoo and then another conditioner and you’ll just have that really glossy, nice wave. Keep getting little micro-cuts to get those ends fresh and to keep everything kind of looking appropriate.”

As for how often you should get your hair cut in the winter, Chad suggests once every few months. Your hair grows slower in the wintertime because your sebaceous glands aren’t as oily and when you have oil, the nutrients kind of grow your hair faster in the summer. That’s why everyone always says, ‘You kind of make a big cut from winter, spring, summer.’ So, I would say once every three months, depending on how your hair grows, but everyone’s different so if your hair grows super fast then you can do that. It depends if you have a shorter length, which probably needs to be cut every three to four weeks because then it starts to get to that weird length.”

And it’s no wonder Chad loves to use Fekkai products when styling his clients’ gorgeous locks. The namesake brand is founded by Frédéric Fekkai who is known as a pioneer in hair care innovation and a fierce advocate of environmentally-conscious practices. The brand launched FEKKAI earlier this month – their first hair care collection that delivers salon-level results with environmentally friendly packaging and plant-derived ingredients. The collection is packaged in 100% recyclable plastic and the formula itself is free of silicones, parabens, phthalates, sulfates, is gluten-free, and uses vegan and cruelty-free practices.