They don’t make ’em like this anymore. Grainy, fractured with light, frayed at the edges; it’s the return of film, but not as we know it. This is film for the instant-gratication era; images for the digital age. Our obsession with reels of the past has seen cinematic apps launch in their droves, as smartphones make images snap, crackle and Polaroid once more. Here, beauty queens turn screen queens: this month’s beauty stars are tempered with light and a love of the good ol’ days. Lipstick cherry all over the lens as she’s falling…meet the new Girls on Film.

When legendary hairstylist Sam McKnight launched an eponymous haircare brand last year, we, of course, were waitlisted. Decades-long experience – notably Princess Diana’s iconic chop and Karl Lagerfeld’s right hand hair man – were condensed, brilliantly so, into four convenient cans. But, all could do was admire from afar, lament with hair envy, Chanel show after Chanel show. Now, the four jellybean-coloured cans are available in Australia, with thanks to Mecca Cosmetica. A streamlined range at four – “because that’s what we have in our hands every day” – each has a dedicated function, which work together for the greater good; alleviating the effort of hair. For McKnight, it is in fact the ease of hair which appeals to him most, not the fuss and finicky particulars that come with catwalk hair couture. “Everything we’ve done is an instant result, an instant transformation, a quick fix,” declares McKnight proudly. “For us, it’s changed the whole way we approach doing hair. To get the textures that we need, we’d have had to start with a wet product, like a gel or a mousse and dry it in, which would take 20 minutes on a girl backstage. Nowadays, we don’t have that 20 minutes, we might have five, we might have two. So it needs to be instant.”

Basically, he knows what a girl wants. Born out of necessity, this rather chic “quick fix” is what modern haircare was missing: agility. “It comes from what we do and our needs. Our contemporary modern needs built into my experience over the last 40 years, and my team’s experience over that.” Knowing the changing narrative of hair better than anyone else, he says lived-in, cool-girl hair “is a way of life now.” And the range seems to agree. Cool Girl Barely There Texture Mist is, as you’d imagine, for those seeking cultish strands, a texturiser for that synonymous McKnight “done, undone look” (yes, it was he who started it). Spritz for measured mess and plenty of attitude. Or, if you’re a self-proclaimed sleeper and prefer to idle instead of action, Lazy Girl is your gal. A multi-purpose, powder-mist hybrid that acts as a dry shampoo and styling product in one, it’s the ultimate refresher for those with slightly sluggish sensibilities. Whilst an undeniable thirst for nostalgia has cast a new light on an archaic product – hairspray. A modern take on an old classic, McKnight’s Modern Hairspray takes on a revisited form that is fine in texture and magically malleable for hair multi-tasking at its best. But the most revolutionary of them all? Easy Up Do, a miracle product contrived in the maelstrom of backstage. A texturising hairspray that takes the pin out of hairpin, it is designed as a grip without slip for any kind of up ‘do. Plus, at the stroke of a brush, disappears. McKnight magic at its best. Hair scaffolding less the equipment, and heavy-lifting. You had us at ‘easy’.