The Rachel Zoe (hair) Project: DIYing her model off-duty locks

Whether you love her, loathe her, or are wondering who the feck she is (think American celebridee stylist and reality TV type), there's no denying that Rachel Zoe has good hair.

When she's not rocking a headful of ratty-looking extensions, I mean.

Zoe favours the type of effortless looking, beachy waves that I covet but are, ironically, completely unachievable on my stubbornly straight locks without mounds of product followed by some serious and protracted wrangling with heated styling tools. That's ok – just about – for a night out, but far too much hassle for me for everyday.

So when I happened across a video of Zoe's stylist Joey Maalouf demonstrating how to ape her wavy hair mostly by using plaits, I was more than a little intrigued.

And then I was more than a little sceptical. I used to sleep in plaits – loads and loads of them, Medusa style – when I was in primary school and while the crimped look they delivered was desirable, never mind acceptable in the '80s, I've no desire to resurrect it at the minute. But since I love me a lazy beauty shortcut I decided to give Joey's technique a whirl.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

After a bit of trial and error I came to the conclusion that starting the plaits fairly high up and plaiting them straight down my back gave maximum body to the mid-lengths; working from behind my ears and bringing them over my shoulders left me with too much straightness on top. I decided to bend the too-straight ends of my hair with my GHD and then used it to curl literally four small sections of hair (one each side of my face, one either side of my head near the back) that looked like they needed a bit of extra oopmh. That took all of five minutes. Even without any product help, I still had a vague wave in my gruaig the next day.

Dodgy bathroom lighting and cringey photos aside, I think this might be a winner.

Rachel Zoe pic via RTR On Campus