I must admit I am not one to follow trends, but I do love a look through a fashion rag to get ideas on hair styles and make up looks, and find out about new products and music, etc. Flicking through Aug / Sep editions of the usual Glamour, Company, etc I noticed a lot of hype and press about a product called Backcomb in a Bottle by Umberto Giannini. It claimed to be the answer to all my styling prayers and the miracle product which would guarantee results and remove all need for hair-ruining backcombing.

I put it on my shopping list and the next time I was in Boots, I went to buy some. It was sold out! I tried for weeks and it was always out of stock, eventually I got my hands on some, it cost about £5.50 for a 200ml canister. It was in a 3 for 2 offer at the time, but I didn't need any of the other products, so I just bought the Backcomb in a Bottle. Now, I believe it's in a 2 for £7 offer, making it around £3.50.

When I got home I was very excited, there's something very magical about trying new products / shades / styles for me. I opened the sleek silver and black canister to reveal a squat spray nozzle (rather than the small removable hairspray ones). I read the instructions, spray about 6 inches away where you want the backcomb effect and 'jujj' hair in to shape. I'm not entirely sure what jujjing is, but I did what I deem jujjing to be as I sprayed a small-ish amount on to my hair.

I really don't know how to describe my hair. It looking like I'd just sprayed cheap hairspray all over my hair, my roots had separated and it looked pretty greasy and rank. I have usually thick and normal hair (neither greasy nor dry) and it looked terrible. I washed my hair and started again, as I thought I must have used too much. The second time around I sprayed a much smaller, lighter coating in to my roots (I usually fashion a bee-hive style quiff for work everyday), I did my normal hairstyle and it just wouldn't stay up it fell completely flat, but I'd ridded myself of the grease and that was all I was bothered about. I then took my hair out of the style and let it dry a bit as it had become quite damp from the spray. I tried again, it was better, but still would have needed backcombing.

The next time I played with it, I tried my hair down, just to give it a bit of volume from the spray, so I tipped my head over and sprayed a fine amount in to my roots, jujjing away (which I guess is a mixture of fluffing and pushing your hair up to create volume). When I turned my head back up after a bit of messing around, it looked alright, not particularly voluminous or anything spectacularly different to usual. It doesn't come out of the hair easily either. It needs washing out after wear, and I found it very sticky to touch.

I can only compare the product to a light hold cheap hairspray. I think that you can pick these up for around 50p a tin from Home Bargains, or even Boots own brands at 99p. Therefore, I would conclude that it is very much over priced and you probably pay more for the brand / packaging / concept than you do for the actual product inside. It would be interesting to do a comparison of ingredients.

Completely over-rated, but then again, all the reviews and hype make me think is it simply a case of personal preference - or even it 'works' on different hair types to mine, or is it simply an example of the Emperor's New Clothes kind of principle (i.e. because a hair Guru said it was great, perhaps Mr Giannini, everyone else daren't say different)... I wonder, but I wouldn't recommend it.