I picked up this product because its name, My Nanna’s
Mousse, made me smile. The smile turned into an appalled
rictus when it dawned on me that since I am of the mousse
generation, the Nanna in question could perfectly well be
me. In a way it’s quite nice to have a product named for the
mousse OGs. In another, it is unsettling to be reminded of
one’s vintage via a hair product, as though you compli-
mented a young person on their Levi’s 501s and they looked
blank and then said, “Oh! Do you mean my nanna jeans?”
Still, I heartily welcome the mousse revival for the excellent reason that mousse really
works (Hershesons also does a good one, called Zhoosh Foam). The only issues with it in
the past were that it could feel sticky and also that it made your hair crunchy — two quite
big issues, now that I think about it. But we, the nans, all happily wandered about with
crispy hair. It was worth it because of the a) taming and b) volumising properties of mousse.
This also made it attractive to boys because the 1980s were far less gendered and more
fluid than the 2020s, which is a bizarre thought but true, although all this reminiscing has
reminded me that most of my male friends actually smelt of Black & White Genuine
Pluko, a really good hair pomade that you got from a barber/salon called Cuts in Kens-
ington Market and then Frith Street. (It’s still there, as is Black & White, which you can
now get everywhere, including Boots — it’s brilliant on short hair.)
Larry King My Nanna’s Mousse (£19) is basically volume in a can. Pump it out, feel the
nostalgia, marvel at how satisfyingly it expands, apply it to your roots, add heat in the form of
a dryer and whoosh! Up they go, like a soufflé. There is no easier way to add instant volume.
I feel My Nanna’s Mousse is worth it for this alone, but there’s more. Obviously if you apply
the mousse to all your hair you get volume everywhere, and this being a modern rather than a
genuinely nanna mousse, you get no crispiness whatsoever and no stiffness either: your hair
moves as though nothing happened. In fact, you get the opposite of crispiness — this mousse
is great at adding softness, which sounds like a contradiction in terms, like putting an oil on
oily skin, but there you go. It just works.
If you blow-dry your hair, this product is indispensable. If you have a mane that feels hard
to tame without using six different products or tools, My Nanna’s Mousse is your friend —
use it in conjunction with a diffuser and it will make the mane a great deal more manageable.
If you have less of a mane and you want smooth waves and volume, it will do that too when
you use a normal round brush. Also, I like the finish. When mousses first appeared, they
either left your hair looking annoyingly matt or gave it a shiny but unappealing semi-wet look
(unlike wet-look gel, which made it look freshly dunked. I wonder whether wet-look gel will
ever make a comeback. My guess is not). This mousse leaves your hair looking like hair.
PS: if your hair is looking flat midweek, give it a squirt of this at the roots, massage in and
leave it to air-dry. It will help. ■ @indiaknightIndia Knight
INDIA LOVES
BUY The Monica Vinader x Mother of Pearl collaboration. Pearls are so nice on the skin but
they can look quite nan/1980s Tory wife. Not these. From £80; monicavinader.comHair mousse is back – but without the crispiness
(and this one has a great name to boot)
Apply this
mousse to your
roots, use a
dryer and
whoosh! Up
they go, like
Victoria Adamson a soufflé
The Sunday Times Style • 41