HAIR FEATURE - THE summer is drawing to a close, the children are back at school after a chaotic, child-friendly summer and no doubt you will be looking forward to a bit of pampering yourself.

Imagine a whole day spent shopping without little ones screaming for an ice lolly or chicken nuggets, or balloons or similar (actually it's funny really, because these three probably taste the same anyway!).

At last, time to think about the most important thing in your life yes, a ice, stylish new hairstyle and probably a new colour and don't try to tell me there is anything more important because, trust me, I won't listen to you.

So what direction is hair fashion taking this season? Well, after the washout summer we have suffered we are saved the traditional hairdresser's job in autumn of repairing sun-damaged hair.

Of course, all of you will usually have had your hair lightened a fair amount by the sun, and this year we in the salon are already seeing a massive increase in the number of clients returning to the good old blonde sun-lightened effect.

Now, after three hot summers in a row we had become accustomed to spending September toning down everyone's hair, so this has become a rather pleasant change from routine and maybe a very rare point in time with nature dictating fashion as opposed to vice-versa.

So how blonde are we talking? Well, the watchword is subtle very pale golden blonde, very fine highlights of maybe two shades at maximum, one being as light an effect as needed without any undue damage to condition.

Of course, to achieve this the stylist or colourist has to use all his or her knowledge and skill to ensure that the weakest mixture possible to achieve the required lift is mixed.

Remember that the stronger a bleach is the quicker it takes, not the lighter it makes your hair and the quicker something strips your hair the more damage it does.

So with any bleach the golden rule is: 'Slowest and weakest make the shiniest blonde'.

Remember, the finer and more subtle your colour is, the less regrowth problems you will incur and let's face it, when it comes to hair colour you want to control when you have it done, as opposed to glowing dark roots forcing the game.

By This is Wiltshire beauty reporter