Daily, Hair, Health, Photos

How to get your hair healthy

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I’m on my last installment of my morning routine. First you saw my skincare routine, then makeup routine where you see how I achieve an airbrush makeup look (both which are permanently linked over on the right hand bar) My hair was unhealthy and dry for a number of years of shampooing, blow drying and straightening it every single day.

In August before I flew off to San Diego I went to my hair salon and told them to chop it until it was healthy. He cut off quite a bit of hair. But it’s only gotten better since he’s done so. I no longer have layers in my hair. Who ever thought that putting layers in baby fine hair was a dingbat.

Recently, I asked my hair stylist if I should go get long layers when my hair gets to my ideal length. He said no way, as it looked messy and unkept in his opinion. Alright sir, you know what you’re doing. I’m loving every cut he’s given me, so I should trust what he says. I was straightening my hair so much my hair didn’t go straight anymore since it was that damaged. I reversed the effects of the use of a hair straightener. Go figure! Look at that frizz.

What do I do to keep my hair healthy and in top notch shape now? From August — December 2011 I still shampooed, and blow dried every single day. I didn’t end up flat ironing it because I frankly didn’t need to do so. In the states I picked up this Boar Bristle hair brush from Sephora which I blogged about.

Boar bristles are natural and won’t damage your hair. But they may hurt your scalp if you press too hard on it. I’m now used to it as I’ve been using it for a number of months. Plus you can kind of mold your hair straight with the manipulation of this brush. Occasionally I’d straighten it, and come into work and flaunt my hair off to Julie (hi friend!) and she mentioned my hair did not look any different than the day before. Huh! Weird hey? Well, now my straightener can go to heck, because I clearly don’t need it to achieve the look.

I use a hair serum and use a pump or two in my damp hair, focusing on the ends, and then putting it in my hair again once its dry, to leave it silky smooth, and shiny and frizz free. So that’s all I’ve been doing and my hair has grown a tremendous amount since then. I go to get my hair trimmed every 12 weeks now and my hair stylist always compliments me and tells me to keep doing what I’m doing. When I first went to him in the early summer the front ends of my hair were very thin and sparse as I straightening that part of my hair the most. It was breaking, and so brittle and dry.

He fixed that by chopping it all off in August. After taking care of my hair, the last photo shown is what my hair looks like now. Without the use of a hair straightener, I think I used it 4 times since August. See the difference six months can make?

(click to enlarge image)

January threw everything for a loop and I decided to try out only washing my hair 2-3 times per week. While it’s a learning curve for sure. Learning how to tease my crown so I don’t look bald from rubbing the back of my head on my pillow all night long, causing my hair to separate oddly, to using hair spray to keep things in place.

In order of usage on days that I wash my hair.

  • Lush shampoo bar
  • Walmart conditioner
  • The Body Shop wooden wide tooth comb
  • Kérastase Elixir Ultime hair serum
  • Aveda ceramic round brush
  • Sephora boar bristle brush

Days that I don’t wash my hair I use:

  • Principessa dry shampoo
  • L’Oreal hair spray

Embrace your natural hair as much as possible. Sure I treat myself and straighten or curl it once in a while. But for the most part it’s all the work of patience, a boar bristle brush and hair serums. I’ll get into detail more about the hair serum I use in a few days. I LOVE IT.

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Daily

Why I love Sephora

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The reason why I keep going back to Sephora is the great customer service I’ve been experiencing there. I had an allergic reaction to something that I used and the representatives there helped me pick out a handful of samples to take home with me to try out before I spend the big bucks on something. I was in the Sephora store for about 40 minutes talking to, at one point, two Sephora makeup artists. They were trying to distinguish the problem and the reaction I had to the certain product. My under eyes were quite dry at the time and nothing was soothing the dryness. Thankfully it wasn’t painful. I was sent home with tons of high end products to try on my problem areas, which was my under eye. I also got some great tips on how to apply cream to the delicate eye area.

That kind of customer service will always be remembered, and which is why I always go back. I get incredible help, and makeup tips from the guys and girls that work there. There’s a reason it’s one of my favorite stores to shop at, and recommend to people.

My co-worker’s birthday was in January and she is the only person that I currently work with, that understands my love of Sephora. She went into Sephora to pick up her birthday gift and left me know what it was for the 2012 year. Heck yes—a Fresh (the brand name of the product) mini lip balms, and the red one has a bit of a tint to it. Last year when Sephora wasn’t around in my city I headed to Toronto in early April, a month before my birthday and asked to get the Birthday gift then. It was a bottle of Philosophy’s Birthday Cake (vanilla) scented body wash. I’m not the biggest fan of anything vanilla at all, so that was given away. But this year’s, is definitely a keeper for me.

You do have to be a Beauty Insider to receive this freebie on/around your birthday. It’s free to sign up and you get a point for each dollar you spend at the store. Upon checkout you can redeem your points for something extra. The 100 point perk lets you choose one of three samples when you check out online or in store. Or, rack your points up for the 500 point perk and you can get a bigger bonus package. I’ve yet to redeem any of my Sephora Beauty Insider points and I have a ton. I just can’t justify using my 100points (= $100 worth of products to get to that 100points) to use it on a teeny tiny sample. But in general, the idea of the points promo is still a great thing. It’s better than receiving nothing.  I’ve reached the status of the VIB which is a premium level of Beauty Insiders. You can learn more about that here.

Sephora has a great return policy as well. Don’t have the receipt for something you bought and you want to return it? They’ll just give you store credit for it. That’s something a lot of people don’t know about. But what I recommend doing instead of returning full product items, is that try out a sample or two at Sephora. Go back and get more! Make sure you really love it before you pay out of pocket for it. They’re only going to throw the item you returned away.

Are you a huge fan of Sephora too?

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Hair, Reviews

Let’s talk about hair brushes

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I probably shouldn’t even be writing a hair care post. Because as soon as I started caring about my hair, that’s when it all went down hill. Funny how it worked out that way. All throughout High School I had shiny, very healthy hair and I never got hair cuts, I also wore it up in a pony tail almost every day of those 4 years. I didn’t go to hair salons. My Mom often told me when to cut my hair and she did it herself! Savin’ the dolla bills.

Now I blow dry my hair, I straighten it and use Aveda shampoo. I’ve been getting regular trims every 10 weeks (but now I’m going to push it back to every 12 weeks or so because I would like it if my hair were a bit longer). It needs a break from all the damage of the blow dryer and straightener. Every single day.

But get this. I’ve decided to give my hair a break. I haven’t used my hair straightener for the month of September, or October. After my last hair cut I decided to see what the turn-out would be if I took a break from it. So far so good! The reason why I used to straighten my hair so much is when I used my Body Shop (see below) hair brush, my hair wouldn’t go straight. I decided to pick up a boar bristle hair brush and when I blow dry it with that, it stays straight! I have flat hair, dry with a round brush occasionally and it still goes flat at the end of the day.

I’ve had that hair brush on my wishlist for a while, so when I was in San Diego I popped into Sephora to buy it since I wouldn’t have to rack up a $120 Sephora online order to get free shipping. Oh, and my local Sephora doesn’t carry hair brushes, I asked that the day the place opened. Shame. OK! So! I picked up the Boar Bristle Hair Brush. It has received 187 reviews with 4.5 stars so it must be doing something good, for people.

Of course there are cheaper alternatives found at Shoppers Drug Mart, or Walmart for that matter — but hello you earn points when you shop at Sephora!

For the past number of years, and I know it has been more than 6 years because I’ve had this brush before I met Scott (how I remember odd things like when I purchase hair brushes, and not remember movies I went ot last week, I do not know why)  — and before that I had the exact same one I left in a hotel once, so I had to re-purchase it. It’s a Body Shop cushiony pin brush that seems to work well. Or so I thought, until I bought my Boar bristle. Rawr!!

I tried to find the exact dupe of the hair brush I own, on The Body Shop’s site — but I can only find these. Lameo. Anyway, this is my very own hair brush I’ve been using for many years:

Also, I do use this $7  wooden wide tooth comb to detangle my hair when I get out of the shower. Detangle is a word Mister Firefox, stop making it a squiggly red line underneath.Getting back on topic as to why I’m not needing to straighten my hair every day. Blow drying my hair with The Body Shop cushiony one was fine if I wanted to look like a 5th grader. It left my ends wonky, au-naturale looking and just all over the place. I had to straighten my ends basically, to get a sleek look even after I’ve gotten fresh trims. When I use my Sephora boar bristle brush it basically straightens my ends for me, brushing my hair the exact same way when blow drying. I do not understand why, but I’ll take it!

I’ve been recommending this (or any boar bristle) brush to everyone lately! Have you ever used one? I think I had a travel sized one back in high school and I remember it used to give me a sleek pony tail with no bumps. Are you picky with your hair brushes? What sort of one do you use on your hair?

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