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?