Humidity Killer

Years ago, one of my ex-hairdressers/stylists finished off my hair with Aveda Light Elements Smoothing Fluid.  And it was a great product, it kept frizz out and I had this all-day style.  I hesitated to buy the $20+ product at the time because well - it was basically oil and I couldn't get the thought of hairline breakouts out of my mind.  Flash forward to now, and who doesn't want that all-day style that doesn't expand at the hint of rain. I do! So I just went for it and bought the $24 bottle of oil.  At the rate of one to two pumps per use, this bottle is going to last me until I'm going through menopause.  

My hair has gotten progressively wavier/curlier as I’ve aged and it's been a struggle for me to try to fix it in such a way that i don't feel like I’m trying to audition for a Whitesnake video (don't all those previous hair product posts make so much more sense now?). So far, with the help of a great haircut from my current hairstylist and some products like "Boing", all I needed was something to finish my hair off. Does it work you might ask? Well, actually it does.  It's been raining here in sunny southern California the last week and I’ve been able to leave my hair down, with volume I’m comfortable with and hair falling with perfect waves crashing into the middle of my back (was that cheesy or what?).  It's just a really good product. TOTALLY WORTH IT. So far so good on the non-breakout front too.  Lessons learned from my face wash and the finishing product is that not all oils are bad news, only for some people. 

Boing! Gimme Curls!

Another curl cream? What?? I know. It's an ongoing battle with my hair and various states of the weather. Disclaimer - my hair is naturally wavy, but not super curly.

So far, I'm sticking with four products that I alternate to depending on a lot of things to keep my hair frizz free with nice waves.

1. Sebastian Potion 9
2. Pantene Nature Fusion Smoothing Creme
3. Aveda Be Curly Curl Enhancing Lotion
4. Unite Boing Curling Cream

The awesome chick who helps maintain some semblance of style with my hair pointed me to the latest (literally just a month or so ago) curl cream by UNITE. It's got the cutest name "BOING" and smells vaguely like the aussie brands, just not as strong. I've put it on damp hair and it dries with a lot more defined waves and a bit of hold, but not the crispy hold you used to see in the 80's and early 90's. When I used this with a blow dryer I got some really soft nice big waves, but again with a little bit of that hold so it kept the style nearly all day.

So far I'm a fan since it does what it promises, but haven't figured out how to do get "FAB" hair consistently enough.

Tea Tree Haircare

I switch shampoos and conditioners so often, you'd think they were going out of style. I usually start off loving most of them, but after awhile, it loses the initially wow and I'm left underwhelmed. There have been favorites that I keep going back to - Paul Mitchell's "Shampoo One" and "The Detangler" conditioner (~$12 each) and Matrix Biolage hydrating shampoo and conditioner (~$17 each) are two brands that usually find their way back to my tub (and subsequently my hair).

The man in my life usually sticks to two brands - Aveda Men Pure-Formance (~$19 each) and Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Special shampoos and conditioners (~$12 each). Both of these give a clean feeling for the husband, and a nice smelling head of hair for me.

Wanted a new shampoo to try and decided to try Paul Mitchell's Tea Tree Lavender Mint shampoo and conditioner. The beauty store was having a package deal on the shampoo and conditioner - both for about $19. These products have tea tree with the lavender and mint smell and promises hydration. With my waves, I have frizz to tame and need something to clean the product out of my hair at the end of the day.

So far... it's been about a month since I've been using this... I still heart this product. My hair hasn't felt any build-up, the frizz is under control, my hair feels soft, and the lavender mint smell gives me a calming, fresh feeling.

As a plus, Paul Mitchell donates funds from purchases of the Tea Tree line (there are three kinds - special, lavender mint, and lemon sage) to the non-profit American Forests.

http://www.paulmitchell.com/About_Us/WeCare/Pages/TeaTreeAmericanForests.aspx

Catwalk

Ok so-o I recently permed my hair with big wave perm. It's really popular in asia since most of us have straight straight hair and while that look is awesome, sometimes it's nice to have bouncy gorgeous waves. So yeah I did it, and of course there is a bit of maintenance with that. Now with years and years of many many perms, I've always come to do these things with optimism that it won't come out bad like the last time I did it (afro puffs). I mean, mostly that's due to poor maintenance right? People have recommended, hairspray, mousse, gel, serems, diffusers all to no avail. Plus the perms themselves weren't that well done, but that's digressing here. This time I got a fab perm with big waves that I've always wanted AND the product the hair salon lady suggested actually stinking works! It didn't just look when it was wet (not poofy) but when it was dry it actually held the curls and rocked them out! So with that, I super duper suggest this product Catwalk (the salon lady sold it but I'm sure you can find it somewhere online) curls rock.

I have about the middle of my back now and I use it just on the tips of my hair scrunching it in.

Simple, no muss, no diffuser to work with, just scrunch in and looking good.

yay!

Flat Irons & Boyfriends

You know how in books and movies, there's a character who's been with the first guy who asked her out for years. And he's nice enough, but has obvious flaws that all her friends keep pointing out to her. Then she meets someone else, and thinks he might be someone that she could get on with but is unsure. She takes a chance on him anyway and dumps the old guy. The reality smacks her in the face that the new guy is 10 times better, and wonders why she stuck with that old guy for so long.

That's kinda how it was with the hair straightener I had been using forever. It was good enough, it did the trick, but wasn't always perfect. I still had to blow dry with a boars hair brush to get it a certain way, and the revlon perfect heat flat iron was a finisher. But I noticed hair getting pulled out, and yes, all the reviews on this iron said so, but still, it was enough for me at the time, and a bargain, under $25. The ceramic coating would often come off after a number of months, which meant I should throw it out so it wouldn't start burning my hair.

Well... tried the T3 (see the last post) and loved it. Could see I didn't need to blow dry my hair first, but the downside was the $200 price tag. So I tried the Remington Protect and Shine flat iron ($27) and tried the T3 pro wet/dry ($119) lent to me by the wonderful Linna...

Both were much better then the Revlon one. The Remington flat iron was not a wet/dry type, so some blow drying was necessary, but no hair coming out, and my hair was shiny and felt great. The T3 pro wet/dry was used after towel drying. It wasn't as fast as I hoped it would be - but I was able to skip the hair drying step. Still took about 20 minutes to get it straight enough at 315 or so degrees (my hair is only wavy). That said, I'll won't be going back to the Revlon flat iron and keep on using my cheap $27 flat iron for now and maybe... when it dies, I'll think about buying the high end flat iron.

Hype!?!? Super Expensive Flat Irons

I'm a little bit cheap when it comes to things that aren't shoes, but anything that'll save me time and keep my hair from frizzing will ...maybe... cause me to change my mind. I have come to terms with my very non-asian hair (waves and little curls) but every once and a while do like to straighten and look like a sucker oh, I mean soccer mom.
So... a boars hair brush and a good hair dryer does the trick but man oh man, on hot days this method just blows.
My cheap little Revlon perfect heat 1" hair straightener does the trick for the pieces I miss but humidity usually causes the super straight to turn a little less so - not back to the original state, but not as straight as when I left the house.
The post is really for those super expensive hair straighteners - a good friend recently bought the T3 Bespoke Labs wet-to-dry narrow iron and was gracious enough to let all of us use this. Rave reviews from everyone who used it and for a second I thought maybe... $200 seemed like a reasonable price to pay for beauty. Read reviews online and for the most part, they were all positive and the negative reviews were written by people who turn "spell and grammar checks " OFF. I guess this post is really a cry for any feedback - is this really worth the money???

Stinky Crude Clay

I'll bag on this because I am a fan, but it's one of those products that comes with a warning... this product just doesn't smell good. It's one of those things that smells just like it looks. It is called crude clay after all.

Been years since I've used this - used it back when I had a short layered cut, it's best for those kinds of cuts. It really does work well to keep a good hold and still look dry. So if you want to spike out your hair, or keep those layer ends just so, but don't want a sticky, heavy, wet-looking product, this is the one to use. You really don't need to use that much at a time, so the one jar can last you a while. Keep in mind, you need a good clarifying shampoo to get that crap out of your hair.

After all that shit-talking, I'll end this post this way if I had that short cut again and was looking for something I would absolutely use this again, to get those ends flying out the way I like. Sebastian Xtah Crude Clay. Stinky but works great.

Squeaky clean!

So a good chunk of my youthful years (I'd still like to consider myself so but you know what I mean right?) I had a awesome hair salon person. Okay, the official title of hair cutting person escapes me...beautician, salonist, not barber...but I digress. She was a korean lady about 40 something years and can always cut my hair so beautifully with tons of body, shine and texture. Whether I was able to truly maintain is another story. She has done long, layers, trims and even a super short boyish haircut with style and flare--all for the cost of--say what what? $20-$30. That's right. When you go to korean ladies for hair this is the lovely cheap price you get to pay. Anyways, as you can tell from my past tense language, she retired from cutting hair and so I had to look for somewhere else to have my hair cut. Next to my work is a ritzy hair salon, so I go and get my hair cut there. I think that was where I learned of shampoo cleanser. Ok, if you already knew about this, than for shame on me for not knowing. But different from a regular shampoo, you use this once in awhile (they say once a week but me whenever I feel icky) to get rid of all the buildup, skin stuff, hair product things, oil buildup in your hair. I had a younger friend who said that when she went to the salon and the salon, beautician, not barber person was like "do you know about shampoo cleanser?" and she was like "what's that?" and he held a handful of her hair and used a special scraper thing (or maybe just a comb) and scraped the hair, and there was all this stuff--and that is the stuff that the shampoo cleanser cleans.

So in conclusion, I am recently using BB sunday shampoo for the once in a while cleansing I need. I used it once so far, and man it really strips the hair clean! Maybe I put too much cuz my hair was really squeaky clean. You can literally hear it I think if I rubbed my hand on the hair.
Okay, so I went all over the post in this one but hope you enjoyed and learned. :)

QuickStyle - Quick Slip

Paul Mitchell Express Style: Quick Slip... If that sounds a little tawdry, you should get your mind out of the gutter. Or maybe I should.
Just ran out of this last month and wanted to try something new to tame my wavy locks. Well, I did try something new and it just isn't the same. The big sell of Quick Slip is that it cuts your drying time. Not quite sure how much, but it did the trick. Only downside is the light playdoh smell. You put it on after towel drying your hair but before you use the hair dryer. Okay, if you don't use a hair dryer to blow out your hair, I can't really say how much effect this will have if you air dry - with my waves, I use the round brush and hair dryer when I want it straight. So if you need something to tame your frizzies & cut dry time, definitely try this.

Foreign Languages - Hair Care

If you happen to live near a Japanese market that sells Shiseido haircare, you might be a little confused which one to get because the English translation sticker reads like a two year old trying to talk.

After a trip to Japan, my little brother brought back travel samples of Shiseido's Ma Che'rie shampoo and conditioner - the yellow and orange bottles which after looking it up are for dry/damaged hair. Bought the pink bottles at our local neighborhood Marukai. The pink one smells like cherries (subtle) and made my normally wavy/slightly frizzy hair smooth and still a little wavy. The bottle is just too big and for someone like me who gets bored of products fast, there was just too much of a good thing. Still, I would use it again.

Recently tried the green bottles of Shiseido's Super Mild shampoo and conditioner (they sold a travel pack at the . The smell isn't as strong and works really well. Removed all the buildup and like the last Shiseido brand, made my hair smooth without hairdrying. This one does come in smaller sizes so when I'm done with my Paul Mitchell (that'll be another post) I'll probably try this for more than one day.