About 2 weeks ago, Martin from Best British Bloggers asked me if I’d be willing to take on a challenge from GHD, to see if I could utilise their great new style blog, filled with style inspiration, and then recreate the style of my choice.

To help me complete my challenge, they sent me over the GHD Air Hairdryer, GHD’s amazing, professional hairdryer that is honestly unlike anything I’ve used at home before. I’ll get onto the hairdryer a little further down.

Liam Hemsworth, the star of The Hunger Games was my inspiration, and although there are a few differences between us (he’s American Australian, that’s the only difference I’m prepared to accept) I thought his style was something I could recreate.

Picture in hand and down to Huddersfield’s Mark Riley Salon, one of the best known salons in the west Yorkshire, I demanded a ‘Liam Hemsworth’. After a truly amazing cut and with some great tips, I came home and studied what she’d done, ready to try and recreate the look the following day.

I’ve done the tutorial photos a week after having it cut so my hair has lengthened ever so slightly, but, I took the finished photo the day after I had it cut, I’ve just been perfecting the process since then. So here is a step by step of some of the basic practices and principles of creating the look.

1. Fresh out the shower, towel dry your hair until it’s just damp, but not dry.

2. To make sure the hair stays smooth and frizz free throughout the whole process, I love Aveda Confixor, it’s a liquid gel that gives great shine and leaves the hair smooth and ready for styling.

3. Using a small amount of the product, roughly work it through your damp hair, making sure you get it in absolutely everywhere, it’s so light it well seem to just disappear.

I love the smell, it’s the same fragrance as in the Aveda Shampure line, filled with plant, fruit and seed extracts. With the amount you use, a bottle this size should last for an eternity.

4. So the GHD Air Hairdryer, what a piece of kit. When it says it’s a professional hairdryer, it means it, this is a heavy duty machine and is darn powerful, I love it. It has two power settings and two four heat settings – off, medium, hot & a cold shot button.

It has a beautiful feel and weight, heavy enough to feel like an expensive piece of hardware, but not so much so that it feels flimsy.

5. There are two concentrators in the box, a wide one and a not so wide one. I’ve personally been using the wider of the two as it’s great for creating more smoothed down styles. If you twist the concentrator to a 45 degree angle, you’ll find the whole device a lot easier to manage and manoeuvre.

6. From the back, dry your hair flat, this leaves your hair smooth, sleek and shiny but perfect to create shaped and defined texture. Using a brush helps if you run it through whilst simultaneously following it with the Air Dryer.

The amazing stylist who cut my hair gave me a great tip, if your fringe falls one way, then blow dry it the other, this will help it to lay flat, which for this, is exactly what we want.

Ta-Dah! So there we have it, nice and easy drying and the use of a good, professional hairdryer made all the difference in both result and speed.

7. I’ve always been a big fan of GHD, from the very beginning. I got my original pair when I was in high school and it was still the hair stylist’s little secret. Unfortunately, after 9 years they finally broke, so I bought the Gold IV Mini.

I love them, they heat quickly, turn themselves off if unused for 30 minutes, and beep to let you know when they’re ready.

8. After about a minute of waiting for them to heat up, I realised I hadn’t plugged them in, it usually helps. The GHD symbol that lights on the button is usually a dead giveaway. *smacks forehead*.

9. Use the stylers all over, making sure you curl downwards as you pull them through. Again, this is all about ensuring a smooth and flat finish and it stops your hair looking ridiculous and perfectly straight.

10. You know I love it, everyone does, Hairbond is my favourite range of styling products and has been for over a year now. The whole range is amazingly well priced and comes in a variety of different options and sizes.

I always opt for the Distorter, an amazingly texturizing clay with great reworkable hold. You only need the amount I’ve shown in the picture. A tub this size has already lasted me 3 months and you can’t even tell it’s used!

11. Rub it in your hands to warm the product up and then just get stuck in, running it through all layers, from front to back.

12. Sweep the fringe up and over to secure the lift, and then really rub your hair all over, angling your fingers into the scalp, this will create that great defined texture. You can already see on the photo on the left, that the process so far has left my hair with great shine!

13. Now you want to set the style, notice that it looks quite neat whereas Liam Hemsworth’s is quite messy, you’ll see what I do next. Apply from arm’s length in short bursts, covering the entire head from front to back (trying as best you can to avoid the face).

14. When you’ve finished coughing, your hair will be a little crispier, as, well, that’s what hairspray does.

Now here’s the trick, just mess your hair up, completely, and then roughly style it back to the previous shape, this will emphasise the layers, create amazing texture and give great lift. All that’s needed now is another blast of spray to set the whole thing in place.

15. All done! (You may recognise this image already, I’ve been using it for various profile images)

To find your own inspiration, check out the GHD inspiration blog here. It’s constantly updated and much better than buying hair magazines, that are filled with women’s styles with only two pages of male cuts from the 90s.