Showing posts with label HAIR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HAIR. Show all posts

November 18, 2014

KÉRASTASE NECTAR THERMIQUE

I bought my first hair straightener over 10 years ago. I have very curly hair which I am ultimately thankful for, but straight hair is so much more manageable and especially bearable during the summer months. Since I have been straightening my hair for 10 years, I have had terrible cases of fried hair and was never really able to grow my hair out. I was always stuck with shoulder length hair until I ordered this product back at the end of 2010. Since then, it has become my all time favorite hair product. You might have guessed it, it's a heat protectant.

I haven't tried many Kérastase products so I cannot say much about the brand's entire product range, but their Nectar Thermique is my holy grail when it comes to protecting my hair from heat damage.


I am currently on my fifth or sixth bottle. It might seem like a small number considering I've been using it for 4 whole years, but I only go through about one and a half to a maximum of two bottles of this per year, which means I cannot complain about its price which is in the higher range.

In regular stores, the Nectar Thermique costs € 29,95. I usually hunt for 20% discount vouchers that I can apply on websites like feelunique.com, hqhair.com or lookfantastic.com, so I have never paid over € 16 for it. That's an awesome deal.

The reason why I am featuring it is not just because I love the product itself, it's also because Kérastase decided to repackage and reformulate it. The very familiar scent, which I find absolutely divine but I know some detest, is still the same. I haven't used it all too many times to be able to tell a significant difference, but I am sure that the quality of the effect it has on hair in the long run is the same, if not better than before.

Which hair protectants do you use? Have you ever tried Nectar Thermique?

October 30, 2014

BATISTE DRY SHAMPOO + MESSY BUN TUTORIAL

The lovely Batiste dry shampoo, one of my all time favorite beauty inventions - ever. Before they started getting popular and widely known, I would use baby powder which wasn't half as effective as this baby.

Because I have oily hair that never outlasts 2 days of freshness, I use this spray to lengthen the period between two hair washes, to try and save my hair from as much heat damage as possible. I combined my rave for this product with a simple tutorial for a relaxed bun tutorial which I wear at home 24/7, and on that 4th day before the hair wash. The instructions follow:


After having shaken the bottle well, spray some dry shampoo onto your roots, and - don't be scared if your hair turns grey or white, that's supposed to happen - massage the product into the roots. Cover all visibly greasy areas.



Gather all hair into a high ponytail and hold at the roots with one hand while using the other to twist the hair.

Start rolling the hair around to try and form something similar to a snail's shell. Keep your hair twisted and end with the ends circling around the bun.


Use as many bobby pins as you need to keep your hair secure, but don't worry about being too neat with that, you want it to look loose and "messy". If your bun feels too tight, pull out from around the bun and enjoy your easy bun.

October 15, 2011

MY HAIR HORROR STORY AND HOW IT ENDED

So, to make a long story “short”, my hair was greasy from the day I hit puberty, and 2 days after I wash it, it’s greasy. From 2005-2009 I would wash my hair every other day and straighten it practically every day. (My natural hair is very curly, I might post a photo of that one day.) I tried so many shampoos, I cannot even name them all. From drugstore brands like Pantene Pro V, Herbal Essences, Schauma, Gliss, Head & Shoulders to high end stuff like Redken, TiGi, even their Catwalk line, yet none of them amazed me so much that I could instantly say it was the best thing for my hair. It has always been my dream to have long hair, since my mother always cut it short back when I was a kid. But then I realized that no matter how much it grows out in a month or two, I would have to cut off even more because of all the damage I made with a straightening iron and because my hair has a slower growth. And I wasn’t straightening my hair with a cheap straightening iron, I actually cashed out 100 euros for it. But high temperatures are always deadly for hair. I was literally depressed because I believed I would never have long hair.

Then, around fall 2009 I decided not to straighten my hair AT ALL for as long as I can and wear it up practically all the time. Now, 2 years later, I occasionally straighten my hair - once or twice a month - and my hair has reached a length that I thought it never would. But, since nothing can ever be perfect, I noticed that I had dandruff, but not the regular kind, I would actually be able to pull out pretty big pieces of scalp and that sort of freaked me out. I instantly thought I had seborrheic dermatitis. The symptoms were all there: greasy hair, dandruff, itchy red scalp, increased hair fall out. I tried using a mild baby shampoo like Johnson’s baby shampoo and PENATEN but they made the thing even worse. I switched to a beer shampoo which everyone raved about on several forums, and I wanted to make myself like it, I really did. I actually used up 3 bottles. But the dandruff was still there.

I was desperate. I was planning on visiting a dermatologist but never got around to doing it. So then a few days ago I was reading about all the different shampoos that people had recommended and I was sure that I had tested them all. I stumbled upon a Balea product thread and read that their Aprikose & Milch Feuchtigkeitschampoo (transl. Apricot & Milk Moistureshampoo) was raved about. I visited german forums and read about more people swearing by this shampoo. So I bought it along with the matching conditioner. I washed, blow dried and straightened my hair and I got silky smooth, moisturised, amazingly smelling hair with NO DANDRUFF. Yes, I finally got rid of the devil. And now I can finally say that this is the best thing I have ever used on my hair.


Another product from Balea that lured me in was the Bodymousse. It is a limited edition product, or at least that’s what it says on the packaging and it’s raspberry scented. If you ever enjoyed Mamba candy as a kid, and liked the raspberry one, that is what you are going to smell like after you put this on. So far, I really like it, but then again, I don’t. I love how it moisturizes my skin and really makes it soft, but the amazing raspberry scent turns into a rancid sour smell 2-3 hours after application. Now, I don’t know if that’s because it reacts with my skin in some weird way or if it’s because of the product itself. I can only remember this happening with one more product, and that was Fruttini’s body butter in Cherry Vanilla. Anyone knows what that sourness is all about? I hope you enjoyed this ridiculously long post, feel free to share your hair story, I’d love to read it!