Archive for the ‘Hair Care’ Category:
I had purchased the Victoria’s Secret wave maker spray a year ago, and used it when I got married in Vegas. I loved the way it made my hair look wavy, yet defined and not frizzy. It was a very “sexy” look with lots of body and shine.
I figured I’d try a few other hair care products out of their So Sexy hair care line since I had a great experience with the curl enhancing spray, so I bought two others and another one of the curl enhancing spray I loved so much since it was a special to buy 3 products for $21, a pretty great deal – not much more than average drugstore brand prices!
The other two products I bought in the So Sexy line were a Straight and Silky Styling mist product, which was a conditioner for heat styling and protection and for frizz reduction for a smooth style. Then I also bought a shampoo. The shampoo was So Sexy Nourish. It was to hydrate and nourish dry and damaged hair. So far, I really like both of these products, and think they are a great value for the price.
The only drawback is that, like most Victoria’s Secret Body products, they are heavily scented, and that may really get to some people, especially if they find the scent not to their liking. I however actually like it, I just wish it were a little lighter since it can be overpowering, even the day after you use it, you keep smelling that smell waft up to your nose.
The Nourish Shampoo is great. It feels like you’re washing your hair with pure silk protein. I don’t even know if there actually is silk protein in it, but it has a very rich, but very non-drying lather that feels luxurious and almost “slippery”, like it’s conditioning and cleaning the hair at the same time instead of just cleansing it.
I did notice that my hair was more manageable after I used the Nourish shampoo, so the next item on my list to buy will be the Nourish conditioner, to see how well that works.
The next product I bought in the So Sexy line was the Straight and Silky Styling Mist. This is a milky looking spray that you spray generously in your hair before you blow it dry. I used it as a leave in conditioner sort of, and I still put some of my other normal defrizzing styling products on. I love it! It really made my hair shine, and it noticeably reduced the frizz and dry look after I blew my hair dry.
Looks like I may be a devoted fan of the Victoria’s Secret So Sexy hair care product line!
Brazilian Keratin treatments have been taking the hair straightening and smoothing treatment market by storm in the past few years. Before that, all the rage to straighten and smooth hair permanently were the Japanese straightening treatments, otherwise known as thermal reconditioning. Now, people are looking for a way to smooth and straighten, but they also still want their hair to have volume, and they may not want it pin straight all the time, which is pretty much the only way you can wear it with thermal reconditioning since it completely flattens your hair for six months or more.
So, enter the brazilian keratin treatments, and then the Brazilian Keratin blowouts. They are very similar, but the Brazilian keratin blowout has widely been advertised as being completely formaldehyde free, which is a big draw for some women who want smoother, straighter hair, but do not want to put formaldehyde, which can be highly toxic, and is a dangerous chemical, on their hair or their heads.
Everything that goes on your head or anywhere else on your body eventually goes into the blood stream, and it wasn’t setting well (as it should not) with clients who were knowingly putting fomaldehyde into their body by getting these treatments. Also, some clients were noticing that their hair was falling out at faster rates, and that was a concern as well.
The Brazilian blowout was supposed to help end a lot of the concerns over the harsh chemicals, however, new tests on these supposedly formaldehyde free hair treatment products has cast doubt on whether they are truly formulated without formaldehyde as claimed.
The company that makes the Brazilian Blowout chemical treatment has denied findings that their product contains from 10-12% of formaldehyde, which is several times more than the allowed “safe” amount in any cosmetic or beauty product. However, tests have shown that the concentrations are fairly high, even though they are labeled as formaldehyde free.
Formaldehyde is categorized as a carcinogenic compound, which means it’s known to cause cancer, so my advice would be to probably stay away or to find a product that really does not have any in it – and the chances of that are looking slim now.
It used to be that coloring my hair was something that was optional for me. It was really for pure recreation – for fun, to see what a certain color of a certain highlight would look like in my hair. Now, coloring my hair is necessary. Yep, gray hair has set in full force, and I’m seeing them pop up allover my head, even right after a fresh root touch up. You can only pluck so many! Well, I don’t like having to color my hair all the time, it’s extremely damaging.
Even if you use a gentler, less permanent colorant in your hair, it still dries it out and douses it in chemicals, and the older I get the more I realize that I want to try to be as chemical free in all of the products I use on my hair and skin as I possibly can be. So, I started looking for a natural colorant that I could use that would help me cover grays and also keep my hair “young” looking with rich color instead of washed out and tired, which is a hallmark of aged hair.
Hence, my purchase of the Caviar conditioner and anti aging line by Alterna, which I love by the way if you have not seen my review of that yet. So, I happened on a really cheap product by Sunsilk that is a conditioner and color toucher upper all in one, called Sunsilk Color Boost.
It’s a creamy conditioner that you put in your hair after shampooing, which contains deep pigments that deposit themselves in to the hair on a temporary basis, temporarily making the hair richer looking by giving it a boost to it’s color. You can use it up to three times per week for extra color and richness, but I think it would be fine to use it once or twice a week, especially if you’re like me and only wash your hair every other day or every three days to avoid over drying.
I do like the outcome after using it as far as the color enrichment goes. However, I still had to use a conditioner on my hair after I let it set in my hair for the required 3-5 minutes, because I didn’t feel as if it had softened my hair up enough like a real conditioner would.
My hair did indeed look richer and more colored after I used the Sunsilk Color Boost, so it did it’s job. It’s a very deep color out of the bottle, so be careful to wash it off of your hands so you don’t end up with stains if you’re buying a darker color especially. I bought the brunette color because I have brunette hair, but there is also a formula for brunette hair with lighter highlights as well.
So, I splurged – a LOT for me, and bought an extremely pricey conditioner for my hair, with an “anti aging” spray that went with it by the same brand name. The Alterna hair care products are supposedly a huge hit in Hollywood and are demanded by a lot of the top Hollywood actors and actresses, so I figured, it must be good stuff, right? Alterna carries a few lines that are immensely popular and ranging in price.
One is their Hemp line of products, another is their Caviar line, which uses real caviar as part of the ingredients (I really don’t know if that makes a difference, I think it’s just a marketing ploy, but it may not be the “secret ingredient” that makes it work so well, just my opinion), and then they also have a really pricey one that is “private label” or something to that affect called the truffle line.
Of course, anything with “truffle” in the label is mucho expensivo, so you can imagine the price tag is hefty. Interestingly, the truffle line is probably the least favorably reviewed as far as I saw.
For the two products I bought, which were the Alterna Caviar anti aging conditioner and the Alterna Anti Aging Caviar refreshing spray, it ran me about sixty bucks. Yeah, pretty pricey, but the stuff is pretty good too. The bottle alone makes it look expensive, so they’ve packaged these very slickly. The smell of the conditioner and the spray are both immensely fresh without being too overly flowery. I’d say the conditioner has a slightly lemon scent to it.
The conditioner made my hair super silky and a lot straighter than what it usually is, so I can see why it’s so popular. I didn’t really need to use much of it either, it made my hair very slick with a smaller amount than what I usually use in conditioner. My hair seemed to dry a lot quicker too, although I’m not sure why that would be. My hair seemed almost somewhat flat at first because I’m not used to blowing it dry with such straight results.
It usually looks like a giant fro when I’m done blowing it dry, then it calms down in a few hours, but with the Alterna conditioner, it really went straight pretty quickly. I wish I would have seen a little more sheen though from the conditioner alone, but the anti aging spray quickly added more luster to my hair.
My hair was silky to the touch, which is unusual for my hair, as it is usually of a more coarse texture. I’d buy it again. It seems to go a long way, but it is pricey. If you have unruly or dry hair, it really does help to make it silky and more pliable, and it doesn’t sacrifice movement either, it still bounces and moves a lot.
As I sit here at my computer typing this, a massive typhoon-like storm has descended on my little piece of tranquility here in the Northeastern part of Ohio. It’s been raining on and off all day today, and right now it’s a torrential downpour for sure. I woke up this morning, after having washed my hair last night, since that’s always when I wash my hair, and my hair literally looked like it had grown to colossal heights.
It was HUGE. It was big, curly, frizzy, you name it. I forgot to put all the traditional products in my hair last night since I just got back from a trip and was exhausted and just wanted to wind down and go to bed, but I put enough in that it shouldn’t have been the size of a beehive on top of my head in the morning.
Ah, I looked out the window and saw the culprit. Rainy, dark skies and a humidity hung in the air that was unmistakable. Yes ladies, this is what you call a bad hair day, and for most of us, the extreme humidity and rain will do it. Some of us are lucky enough to have smooth, glossy and tame hair no matter what the weather, and for those of you like that, well you probably don’t even need to keep reading.
But for those of us who battle the humidity and it’s hair-wrecking abilities, there are a few products that help, but unfortunately none of the many I’ve tried over the years are the magic anti frizz bullet. The only thing I tried that worked to lock out humidity completely was the japanese straightening process (aka thermal reconditioning), and it’s great if you always like flat as a board, shiny stick straight hair, but I wasn’t digging that all the time and I didn’t like putting all those chemicals on my head twice a year.
So, I’ve tried it all and come to the conclusion that the best way to deal on days like this are to just put your hair back in a knot, tightly wound, which helps to make your hair “smaller” because it compresses it, and to just wait it out.
Come up with creative ways to do your hair – put big ringlets in it with your big curling iron, and go for the big, bold look with tons of the body – the sex kitten look, if you will, and just rule out flat, straight hair for that day. It’s really a lot easier if you just let it go with the flow!
Stepping into an Aveda store is always an experience. Their earthy, pungent scents are reminiscent of fresh meadows, healthy walks on cool fall days, and just plain old good, pure health and wellness. If you could bottle those feelings, that is. I went and got my yearly free Purefume at the Aveda store near where I work, and every year, since you also get double Pure Privilege points with any purchase with your special coupon for the free scent I also got a new product to try.
I’ve tried many of the Aveda line of hair care products, including a few from their smoothing line, my old time favorite the universal styling creme, and another one of my favorite classics Be Curly for when I want to go with more body and wave in my hair.
This time, I explained to the woman working there that I was looking for a product that would help with humidity resistance, and would basically be a lighter, smoother version of the thicker Universal Style Creme. She directed me to one of their Smooth Infusion line products called Style Prep Smoother. She explained to me that this product was very light and smooth, so you could use it without weighing your hair down.
She squirted a bit of it into my hand, and it did feel light and smooth, almost velvety to the touch. She also said that it would provide a sort of primer for styling my hair, and it was primarily supposed to function as a cuticle smoother, so it prepared the hair for styling and sealed off the cuticle for a smoother, glossier and more relaxed look.
So, I bought the $24 bottle of the stuff, since I wouldn’t need to use more than two pumps per her advice, and brought it home and tried it. I’m happy to report that I loved it! I noticed a definite difference in the weightlessness and glossiness of my hair. It bounced a little, and definitely looked a lot shinier, but it didn’t feel heavy at all, my style could still hold body without looking too frizzy.
I have longer hair, so I used the full two pumps when I styled my hair. I still used my styling creme as well, but I always combine a few products, that’s just the way my hair is, it needs a few different things in it to behave – a leave in conditioner, a creme of some sort, and usually some sort of humidity resistance formula as well. I’m very happy with the Aveda Smooth Infusion Style Prep Smoother – I’d buy it again.
There has been a lot of renewed buzz on the so called brazilian keratin, or other keratin-based treatments lately. These treatments purport to infuse your hair with keratin, which is a vital protein that helps strengthen your hair. The keratin hair treatments are supposed to straighten, smooth and de-frizz your hair, making them totally humidity resistant.
The additional appeal of these salon hair treatments is that they are supposed to have the ability to keep your hair with some body and wave, as opposed to other straightening and smoothing treatments like the thermal reconditioning, or Japanese hair straightening, which leaves your hair poker straight, but super shiny and frizz free.
Here’s the rub though. I’ve had the Brazilian Keratin treatment at a salon, and although at first I thought it did a great job at smoothing my hair, I noticed that my hair seemed to be very fragile and dull after a few months. I think that the treatment actually did a lot of damage to my hair, and for that reason I decided not to have it done again.
Now, it’s true that I may not have gotten it done by someone who knew 100% what they were doing, or perhaps the brand they used just wasn’t as good as others, but I decided I probably would not have this treatment done again.
Instead I’ve been relying on anti frizz products that I have to put in my hair every day rather than getting my whole head treated with chemicals that will probably weaken my hair and impair it’s strength for a while. There is also a lot of controversy over the keratin chemical straightening and defrizzing treatments because a lot of the formulas are said to contain a toxic substance called formaldehyde.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled to learn this after I had my treatment done, considering I sat with this solution on my head for a half hour or more, and it probably penetrated my skin and entered my blood stream, but I couldn’t take it back at that point.
There are a lot of rave reviews about the keratin treatment, and I was one of them when I first got it done, but you have to be careful who you choose to do it, and I would never recommend you do it yourself at home – get a professional to do it so that you can minimize the risk of damaging your hair.
I love the Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner with the moisturizing formula, called Hello Hydration. My husband and I have been using this formula on and off for years, and the shampoo and conditioner really do make your hair look and feel great, and for a really reasonable price too. It’s actually probably my favorite line of hair care that is not found at a salon and doesn’t drain your wallet.
The Hello Hydration formula is infused with coconut milk and orchid. Coconut milk is a great additive to any hair care product for it’s hydrating qualities, and I’ve used several products with this additive that really help with moisturizing and preventing dryness and split ends and brittleness.
Since I really enjoyed the way Hello Hydration worked on my hair, I decided to try their anti frizz shampoo called None of Your Frizzness, another clever play on words, since my hair has been tending toward frizz in this humid Ohio summer we’re having.
This one is in a red bottle and has the same great pricing as the Hello Hydration formula. I only tried the shampoo so far, not the conditioner, but I will probably add the conditioner to my collection soon too.
The shampoo is great for giving you soft, shiny and less frizzy hair. It has a great consistency and a great smell, and lathers nicely, without feeling like it’s dried the heck out of your hair when you rinse it out, like some other shampoos do.
Your hair feels really clean, yet slicker when you’re done if that makes any sense. I’ve read that the conditioner and the smoothing balm work great together to further help control the frizzies all day long, so I’ll probably also try the smoothing balm.
I love the shampoo though, which is going to prompt me to try the other products in this particular line. Shampoo is just as important as conditioner, because it provides the foundation for how your hair is going to interact with conditioner and the styling products you use, so it’s not just conditioner that should be chosen carefully.
If you finish off your straight, sleek look with a Sedu flat iron or other high quality salon straightener and hair dryer (also very important for shiny, smooth hair in my opinion), you’re going to have minimal problems with frizz, flyaways and dryness all summer long – and all winter.
There are lots of ways to HELP fight the frizz on those muggy summer days. Lord knows that I’ve tried a plethora of frizz fighting hair products living here in Northeast Ohio where the summer days can sometimes be muggy, and because my hair is naturally frizz prone. I’ve never had that easily-gotten smooth hair – it’s just never been a reality for me. My hair is naturally BIG, and it definitely needs help in staying skinny and smaller.
As I discussed not too long ago, I really like the benefits my hair got from using a product called No Frizz by Living Proof. However, even that can’t keep out all humidity on those overbearingly hot ones where the air literally steams. Pretty much the only way your hair might look decent outdoors on days like that is if you’ve had the expensive japanese straightening done, because that really does lock out all humidity.
There are other ways to keep your hair shaft staying smooth and behaving itself though. One really good way to wake up with smooth hair is to sleep on a satin pillow case. This way your hair doesn’t snag and rough itself up on the pillow as you toss and turn at night, which is partially to blame when you wake up with bed head.
Another way to keep your hair smooth is to blast the A/C in your house. My mom and I were just talking about how when we sleep in really cool temps in A/C all night, our hair in the morning looks ten times better. That’s because A/C basically sucks moisture out of the air. Moisture is what makes your hair frizzy. When there is moisture in the air, that’s what creates humidity, and depending on how porous your hair is, it will suck it up and expand, hence creating that word you love “frizz”.
Blast your hair with a good rinse of cold water in the shower too, this helps not only boost shine but also helps to lock the shaft and protect it against humidity. Also, try using a great frizz reducing hair dryer. My dryer of choice now is the ionic FHI hair dryer. Sedu makes some great frizz fighting hair dryers too. It’s expensive, but it leaves your hair shinier and smoother and more humidity resistant than most other drug store brands of dryers.
I reviewed the anti frizz hair product No Frizz several months ago. At the time, I think it was fall or even winter. Now I wanted to update you with how this product holds up in the humidity of the summer. And here in Northeaster Ohio, it has been a sweltering, hot and sticky summer so far, so it’s the perfect time to try a powerful anti frizz hair product now.
I liked it when I tried it the first time, but I made the mistake of using this product only, and relinquishing the rest of my hair care products in favor of this one. Now, I am combining it with my other hair care product favorites, and getting better results.
My only complaint about using No Frizz by itself is that it does work on making your hair less frizzy, but it kind of makes it look dull and dry and reduces it’s “movement”. I think that movement is half the key to having really pretty hair. When it moves freely and also looks frizzless and glossy and healthy, this is what really makes it look healthy and beautiful.
No Frizz by itself, without any added glossers. was making my hair less frizzy, but it just had no movement and no gloss. What I do now in the summer is I mix about a quarter size of No Frizz (it is true that the more generously you use it, the better it works, unfortunately because of the hefty price tag) with my Aveda Universal Styling creme, which I think helps add shine and movement.
I also spray some Bumble and Bumble hair spray on my roots to give it a bit more lift. And of course, I top it off by blowing it dry with my treasured new FHI anti frizz hair dryer. It all results in more body, more bounce, and less frizz, even in the humidity and heaviness of the air when you go outside.
I don’t wash my hair very often, so the effects last even longer. I try to go every two to three days, or until I can’t stand it any more, because my scalp tends to dry out if I wash it too often. Plus I think that it’s bad for your hair to wash it every single day.
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