‘Sexture’—Or Sexy Texture—Is the Secret to Truly Phenomenal Hair

Before you blast your hair with dry shampoo, or over-scrunch, just know, there’s a better way to create oomf in your hair, and to slay some beautiful body and movement.

Sexture—that’s sexy texture—is the holy grail condition that hair pros swear by to create the most incredible styles. Ask them, and they’ll all tell you how important it is to get the texture right when finishing off any look.

“Sexy, effortless texture goes with everything,” confirms Naeemah Lafond, top hair stylist and Amika’s global artistic director. “It can be the glue that pulls an entire look together and can also be the softness that mellows out a formal ensemble and gives it a bit of a fresh take.”

Sounds good right? And we’re all invited. “Sexy undone texture works for all hair types from coils and curls to straighter, finer strands,” Lafond says. “In all textures it delivers the same message: cool and chic. The only significant point of different is the execution.”

Getting sexture, however, is often easier said than done. “Sometimes undone texture is the trickiest to get right,” celeb hairstylist, Chris Appleton admits next to a snap of one of his high-profile clients, Kim K. “My tip is to not over work the hair—sometimes less is more.”

Hair pro Emma Chen agrees. “Using too much product can sometimes be as bad as not using any product at all. Hair becomes weighed down, limp and over processed,” she reveals in her IG series on hair education.

Before you go in with a texture spray, be tactical with your styling. “The key to adding volume and texture without relying on [loads of] product is creating different shapes in the hair,” says Chen. This could mean waving your hair in alternate directions, or incorporating different types of waves, such as S waves, beach waves or crimped waves. “It stops the hair barreling into itself and creates dimension,” she explains.

However, “where you’d use heat and product to create texture in straighter hair, with curlier hair you would use just product to enhance the texture,” says Lafond. “For curls you should start with a freshly dried head of curls and can then add some Amika Undone Texture Spray [a lightweight, dry finishing spray that creates instant volume and sexy texture] and some dry texture paste [try Moroccanoil Texture Clay] to create ‘piecey-ness’ and airiness throughout.

“For straighter textures you should first prep with the Amika The Shield Anti-Humidity Spray  to help hold the style and then create waves and bend with a straightener. Finish with the Undone texture spray [which adds a tousled texture to already-styled hair] and some dry texture paste on this texture as well,” Lafond says.

You can leave your hair down for sexy, voluminous bed hair, but when it comes to updos, this prep is key too. “My biggest piece of advice when creating effortless updos is to make sure you get the right amount of texture into the hair because then the hair pretty much styles itself,” Chen says.

“Creating sexture is the perfect base for any up style, or for that perfect undone vibe,” says James Earnshaw, pro hairstylist and Amika artistic ambassador. “It’s great to have this base to work before a ponytail or knot as it will help hold your style in place and give the pins and grips somewhere to anchor into. Once finished, spritz with dry texture spray for the ultimate lived-in sexy texture.” Try Amika’s Undone Texure Spray, Ouai’s Texturizing Hairspray or Moroccanoil’s Dry Texture Spray.

And if you weren’t already convinced, sexture just keeps getting better following wash day. “I love it because it’s amazing for those second-, third-, or even fourth-day hair needs,” says Earnshaw. “Spritz some salt spray in to your already dry hair and leave it to air-dry. This will add gritty texture,” says James. Try OGX Texture + Moroccan Sea Salt Wave Spray.

This story originally appeared on Glamour U.K.