Daily, Hair, Health, Photos, Reviews

Kerastase Cristalliste

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Let’s give you all a little brief run down on my hair history.

This was the longest my hair was, I was going through old photographs the other evening and found this photo of my friend and I taken in 2003.

And another, just for good measure. Too bad my friend is blinking. Whoops!

I remember chopping it off a few months after, simply because I wanted a change. I also would like to know why it looked so thick in those photos. Of course my hair looked bomb-diggity when I didn’t care about it.

After that I discovered hair straighteners, and curling irons and just abusing my hair ever since. Last August I decided that I didn’t want to damage my hair any further and stopped using my flat iron on a daily basis. Slowly I kept getting my hair cut off shorter and shorter, mainly because of the dead ends after straightening my hair every 24 hours.

Sure my hair isn’t at my ideal length yet, but it’s the healthiest state it’s been in years. All because of a good relationship with my hair stylist, knowing what to tell him, knowing how often to go in and get a trim, and of course – taking care of my hair at home.

I wash my hair 2-3 times per week. I even found out from my latest trip into the salon that it was okay to wash your hair multiple days in a row, and you’re not “starting from scratch” when you do that again.

I always like to have multiple shampoos in the shower with me at all times, but ever since I started this whole regimen of healthy hair, I’ve only used my LUSH shampoo bar.

A few months ago, the folks at L’Oreal / Kerastase sent me a few things to try out from the new Cristalliste line. The shampoo, conditioner and hair serum.

Love that when I see my hair stylist he tells me to “keep doing what you’re doing” and nothing more than that. I’m finally taking care of my hair with good quality hair products from Lush and Kerastase.

But getting more into the Kérastase Cristalliste end of things, these products are all free from silicone, parabens and colorants! This line is lightweight and moisturizes my hair, while locking in moisture without stripping the hair of it’s essential oils. I can use Cristalliste and still just shampoo a few times per week and my hair is smooth sailing the whole time.

The set, has a nice scent to it. Don’t ask me to describe how it smells – I’m terrible at descriptions. But it’s pleasant. Nothing earthy like Aveda’s line. This one just has a fresh sort of scent to it. Not overpowering either. I’m prone to dry hair due to the fact that every strand of my hair is fine, so it’s very delicate and can break fairly easily. The Cristalliste line doesn’t make anything difficult about washing my hair like some shampoo’s can. It’s not drying at all on  my hair. I think my favorite part of the set is the conditioner. It leaves my hair with that slippery feeling when rinsing it out.

As mentioned above, the shampoo, conditioner and hair serum is silicone, paraben and colorant free which means that it is perfectly safe for you to use if you color your hair.

The Kérastase line of professional products are available in salons. I also still use my Kérastase Elixir Ultime in conjunction with the shampoo and conditioner shown above. I don’t like to mix up a good thing so I haven’t used the hair serum shown above on a regular basis. Though from what I can tell it’s similar to the Kérastase Elixir.

Have you found any new shampoos worth talking about lately? What one’s do you use?

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Daily, Hair, Photos, Reviews

Kérastase Elixir Ultime

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I gave you a brief overview of my hair care routine last week and today I’m elaborating on the hair serum I love to use.

Ever since I decided to stop damaging my hair with the hair straightener every morning I’ve gone to other options to make my hair sleek and shiny on a daily basis.

I’ve written about my hair care routine but wanted to single out one product in particular that I can’t seem to live without. Now I know that’s going to sound absurd but I’ve been telling all my friends and co-worker’s how I’ve been getting nicely tamed hair without the use of a flat iron.

It’s two products put together basically. A boar bristle hair brush, and a hair serum.

I’ve been using hair serums for a number of years but until recently I don’t think I was using them to their full potential. I’ve tried plenty in the past such as Aveda’s smoothing serum (not shown), Aveda’s balm,  Joico Kpak, Macadamia Nut, and two Kérastase products that I received in my monthly subscription boxes.

Now? I’m all about the Kérastase.  I first heard about Kérastase Elixir Ultime from Fleur, a very well known makeup guru on YouTube a few years ago. I trust everything she raves about regarding products. I naively thought it was only available in the UK. That is, until I received a sample of it in my beauty subscription boxes. Kérastase is said to give nourishment, shine, softness and condition the hair.

The packaging is great but not as eye catching as I think it could be. The serum is housed in a 125ml plastic bottle with a pump at the top.

On the backside of the box it gives the ingredients and instructions. I didn’t realize you could use this elixir on your hair before you shampoo as a pre cleanse treatment. I’m almost afraid to use it before hand since I was my hair 2-3 times per week and I don’t want to “waste” my hair cleansing routine and have oily hair. Has anyone tried this?

 How I use the product. After I shampoo and condition my hair I immediately put my damp uncombed hair up in a towel and let it dry that way. If you rush this process you’ll get noticeably frizzy staticy hair. Trust me on this, you need to let the towel soak up all the damp wet hair. Your hair is at a brittle stage when its wet as it breaks easier. I leave my hair in the towel til I get dressed and off it comes when I’m about to do my makeup. I comb through my hair using a wooden wide tooth comb (spoken about here) and then put in a quarter of a pump of the Kérastase Elixir. The texture of the elixir is quite runny in consistency, so a little will go a long way and this 125ml bottle will last me a good year or more. I clip my hair up and continue onto my makeup routine. After that’s done I blow dry my hair and when it’s fully dry, I add one more pump of the elixir to my hair and I’m finished.

As for recommending it to you guys? If you’re willing to shell out the $42 Canadian for this product, I would say go for it. I mean, it does give  you shiny, sleek hair. Plus the elixir is silicone free so it feels weightless on the hair, which is one of the top contenders in a product that I look for, as I do have pretty fine limp hair. I can say for certain that the Kérastase Elixir feels much better on my hair than the Macadamia Nut serum, which weighed my hair down.

Where to buy?  It’s sold only at salons, and you can find one near you at www.kerastase.ca. I also found it on Amazon but it seems to be much pricier on there than in salon’s. The only con to this serum is the price. If I had to choose what product would be the most similar that I tried, it would be the Aveda smoothing fluid in the blue bottle. It has 25ml less than the Kérastase but it’s $26 compared to roughly $42.

Overall I give this product two thumbs up. A weightless product that works well in my fine, limp hair and whenever I use it at the roots very sparingly (not even a pump, just the leftovers from the ends) it keeps my hair looking volumized from the blow drying and styling I did.

You know those radio shows that tell answers and they want you to call in with the questions? A few days ago the radio show host said a woman thinks about this, an average of 43 times during the run of a day. I completely agree (though 43 is a little excessive) about the answer. It’s her hair! I swear, whenever I wash my hair and use the serum, I can’t stop feeling it.

How often do you use your hair styling products such as your straightener, or blow dryer? Do you use a hair serum?

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Hair, NaBloPoMo, Photos

I’m doing something right!

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I used to get my hair cut every 8-10 weeks, as I thought that’s what you were supposed to do, when you’re growing your hair out. Late September was my last scheduled hair appointment, and the day before I ended up canceling and re-scheduling because I thought my hair looked rather good and didn’t need the scissors put to it. I hadn’t straightened it since August, I didn’t have any split ends, so I said frig it and I ended up booking for the next appointment within two weeks. Except, I didn’t realize my hair stylist was so popular and couldn’t get in until October 22. No big deal. So 12 weeks passed since I received my last hair cut and when I went in, I told the stylist my hair grew a tremendous amount. I mean check it out.

Here’s a photo of me a few days after I got it cut, and then here’s a photo 12 weeks later. Look at the growth! I should’ve washed my hair in the yellow-cardigan photo, but I was getting it washed and styled that very same day at the salon. So I didn’t. But you can totally tell that its grew an inch or more in 12 weeks, right?

When I went in to get my hair trimmed, my hair stylist told me to keep doing what I’m doing. I told him I’ve been using hair serums while my hair is damp, and after I blow dried it. I also use my boar bristle brush to blow dry it straight instead of using the hair straightener. That’s all I’ve been doing! I even break a lot of “rules” and shampoo, condition and blow dry every day. I can’t stand not washing my hair. I’ve tried it a handful of times to train my hair to not separate in the back when I sleep. Because when I wake up I look like I’m balding. Nothing fixes it. My issue isn’t grease, it’s separation! Try and fix that, dry shampoos. Nuh uh, not happening.

Frontal: Hair before // Hair after

Backside: Hair before // Hair after

He put velcro rollers on my crown to give it volume. I say it was a waste of time, since my hair kinda looks fuller in the before photo. He also straightened my ends, which was nice for a change, to have it all sleek looking.

Alright, so the before and after photos of my hair cut aren’t that drastic, but I like making a blog post about hair cuts, because — getting a hair cut can be traumatic to me. I’ve had many many issues with bad hair cuts, dyes and whatever else comes with it. So far so good with this stylist. I’ve been to him 3 times now. No screw ups yet! He’s just incredibly expensive.

I also wanted to tell you that all of my layers are gone. My hair is fine, but I have a lot of it. I want it to look as thick as possible at the ends, rather than have them all straggly looking. Until my hair is longer, I won’t have layers. But when it grows to about my mid-upper arm, I’ll think of putting back long hardly noticeable layers lol..

Yay for good hair cuts!

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