The Primer Cate Blanchett Uses to Give Her Hair Volume

Cate Blanchett is a timeless beauty able to camouflage herself into any character she’s assigned. She recently ruled the red carpet as herself at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, at which she revealed she and Jamie Lee Curtis were almost late to the event because Curtis came out in her “bra and knickers.” The actress was there to accept the Desert Palm Achievement Award for her performance in one of the year’s most beloved films, TÁR. Blanchett wore her hair in gorgeous waves, the key to which is a volumizing primer.

Celebrity hairstylist Adir Abergel was behind Blanchett’s effortless-looking waves, although of course plenty of effort went in to get them perfect. “I have always loved Cate’s effortless essence. I wanted to celebrate that ease with her hair and compliment the beautiful vintage Armani jumpsuit she wore,” Abergel says.

To match Blanchett’s powerful performance in TÁR, he wanted to create a style that celebrated her individuality. This resulted in a deep side-swept wavy look which helped highlight her timeless style.

How to get her hairstlye

The first step of Abergel’s process is essential to achieve voluminous waves—and no one wants waves flat against their face. He began by saturating the roots of her towel-dried hair with Virtue Volumizing Primer. If you’ve never thought to use primer on your hair, think again. This primer adds volume and gives hair a pre-styling boost while strengthening and protecting hair against heat damage.

Abergel then applied a cocktail of Split End Serum ($42) and Healing Oil ($44) to enrich her hair before running a Sheila Stotts Brush ($39) through it. He then round-brushed her hair away from her face, with the exception of the front bang piece. Following, he lightly teased the root of the hair and used Style Guard Hairspray ($38) before pinning her hair with a duckbill clip. Once her hair was pinned up and completely cooled, he released it. To finish off the look, he used large and medium T3 curling irons on low heat to add the waves, sealing it all in with a bit more hairspray.