DEL - Helps Us Find Some Answers

DEL, a fellow subscriber, was kind enough to provide us with a link to a very informative article on Naturallycurly.com about the differences between butters and oils: http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/ingredients/curlchemist-helps-us-understand-oils-and-butters.

As some of you may know, my hair does not like oils, and honestly, I was under the impression that I would have to give up all oils and butters for good. Either that or plaster my hair with gel day after day in hopes of taming the disaster that certain oils seem to wreak on my hair.

Interestingly enough, however, DEL has also had a similar issue with oils, but she has actually been able to find some quality products that contain oil, yet still work well for her!!

Her experience gives me a great deal of hope, as does this very interesting article. I'm no chemistry major, so reading it certainly got my brain cells twitching, but I figure with a few more reads I should be able to get this oil vs butter thing down;0). The important point that I took away from the article is that just as with most products, it really is about experimentation. What works for your hair.

Here's hoping that this head of hair finds an oil or butter that she can tolerate in either large or small quantities. Particularly, before the dryness of winter is upon us:0/.

Ciao!!

Giveaway Time!!!

Ok, because I'm really diggin' on this BioInfusion Hydrating Conditioning Balm right now, I decided to do another giveaway!!

For those of you who are interested in winning a brand new 16.9 oz jar of BioInfusion Hydrating Conditioning Balm, please leave me a note expressing your interest. In order to win you must be officially subscribed to this blog, so that when I look at the subscriber list posted on the right-hand side of this page - I can see your lovely name listed:0).

Because this is based on interest, your odds of winning get a bit better because you won't necessarily be in a drawing with 44 other people - that is, unless everyone decides that they want this product:0).

All those who have indicated an interest will be placed in a drawing, and on Wednesday, Sept.16, I will announce the winner.

Good Luck!!

Ciao!!

BioInfusion Hydating Conditioning Balm - A MUST Try

This morning I tried BioInfusion Hydrating Conditioning Balm for the first time, and I have to say - I am very impressed! This stuff works great!! I think if you have thick, super curly hair - and you give this puppy a try - I'm guessing your hair will probably thank you for it.

If your hair is finer, and you don't want something to weigh it down, then you could probably use this every once in a while as a deep conditioner, but you would probably not want to use it very often.

For those of you with "monster" hair like mine - I say, put this stuff to work!!

It's about $10 at Walgreens, so it's also pretty easy on the pocket book*score*. In fact, if you consider that it is very much like Biolage's Ultra Hydrating Balm, but for roughly half the price for the same amount, it's definitely worth a go, right?

Ok, so here's my attempt at describing this product for you:

*It's consistency is thick, but a creamy thick, not a dense heavy thick -if that makes any sense:0).

*When it goes on, you can tell that you don't need heaps and heaps of it, as a matter of fact if you scoop about a half golf ball sized amount into your hand, apply to your hair, and then add a little water, you should have more that enough to smoosh through and cover all of your hair. It does tend to foam a bit too, so as you are smoothing it through your hair you will have excess that can be applied to the other parts of your hair you may have missed.

* The smell is fresh, but not overpowering. It reminds me very much of the smell of the Biolage Ultra hydrating Balm, so if you like that scent - you should like this.

*After applying and rinsing my hair felt well hydrated and well conditioned - dare I even say soft:0>. And best of all my curls were still in tact (no wild halo to speak of) - can't beat that!!

Product Description: A blend of science and nature. BioInfusion Hydrating Conditioning Balm is an intensive-conditioning system that deeply replenishes hair with the basic elements hair needs to moisturize and restructure. It contains a conditioning complex that combines pure botanical extracts of rosemary and golden seal with deep conditioners that rejuvenates dry, damaged hair. Hair recovers its natural shine, silkiness and softness. This product is not tested on animals. Made in U.S.A.

Ingredients: Water, Myristal Alcohol, Centrimonium Chloride, Cetearyl Alcohol, Iso Decyl Oleate, Propylene Glycol, Fragrance, Methyl/propylparaben, Phenoxyethanol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Coumarin, Linalool, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Hydroxycitronellal, Amyl Cinnamal, Polysorbate-20, Geraniol, Algae/Algae Extract, Rosemary Extract, Golden Seal Extract.

So, all in all on a scale of 1-10, 10 - being the best of the best - I would rate this a 9. The only reason I wouldn't give this product a 10 is because, I wish the ingredients were a bit more natural.

Here's a picture of my hair after cowashing with V05, conditioning with BioInfusion, and styling with Aussie Instant Freeze gel (which I ended up needing only half as much as what I usually use*yay*).

Ciao!!

Hair Cut Update

As many of you know, I had a bad experience in June at a hair salon where the stylist did not listen to me when I told her I only wanted a trim. She buzzed the back of my head :0?. And when I complained about it, she told me it was her "professional opinion" that I needed my hair cut that way, and she also told me that in three months, I'd be thanking her for it*puke*.

Well, three months passed at the beginning of September, and I just wanted to update ya'll on whether or not I'm thanking her for this hair cut. Sooo, am I thankful?...HELL NO!!!

I'm still very irritated that she cut off all my length in the back, and to be quite frank I'm extremely tired of having to wear my hair out everyday because my hair is too short to put in a puff - this becomes a constant reminder (and irritant) of what she did.

So, no Miss I-Don't-Know-How-To-Listen, I'm not thankful - and I wish I could sue you for pain and suffering:0p.

Anyway, my hair is growing, so that's good - but it will be a longggg while before I get it all back:0(.

Here's an updated picture of the growth.

Ciao!!

My Hair Hates Oil

As embarrassing as it is to admit this, I washed my hair five - yes - five times yesterday:0(.

Why in the world would you wash your hair five times, you might ask. Well, because I was playing with my products, as I usually do when hubby give me some free time, and I found that the more products I used the more ridiculous my hair started to look.

I put in Nature's Gate Hemp conditioner and sealed with oil - pow - my hair frizzed up! I washed it out. I put in Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Condition - puff - a q-tip! And on and on...

Believe me - I think certain hair types that have that soft cottony look are absolutely gorgeous! I mean gorgeous. But this was not pretty- not at all . It was like my hair was bent in all kinds of awkward ways - with little hairs sticking out all around, making it look like I had a wild halo.

It's a really odd look, almost like I had left over relaxer on my ends:0/. And truthfully, if I didn't know any better (I did the BC around 14+months ago, and I've had 3 hair cuts since), I might have been tempted to cut those wild hairs right off, because they almost seemed to be damaged ends *yikes*.

Anyway, so I washed the AO HSR out, and I applied another product that has oil in it - same thing:0(. Then I started to think about my hair after I washed it each of these times, and realized that after I washed my hair each time - it actually started to look half way decent again. Hmmm ... so I decided to clarify. Wham! The curls started to pop again! So ok - now we're getting some where.

I then decided to truly experiment, and see if I added a product with oil in it would I get that same wild looking frizz again after clarifying. So all I did was add some v05 to my hair - ok, curls still looking nice. Then I added some extra virgin olive oil on top of the V05 - bap! - the frizz started to evolve. And the more I smoothed the EVOO into my hair the frizzier it got:0/. So, there it was - right in front of me - it was the oil!

I then started looking at all of my products for those that contained some sort of oil in it - and believe me - there are a lot - in fact, most of my products have some sort of oil in them, so I will have to find a good home for these babies:0>.

Ok, so since I knew that it was the oil that was causing the issue - I clarified again! Yes, I know - clarifying twice in one day - don't try this at home boys and girls! I put the clarifier in (Redkin Cleansing Creme) and left it on for 5 minutes - per the instructions if you have a lot of build up. I rinsed and immediately my curls came back - my hair felt like straw:0( - but my curls were back!

So, I applied some more v05 conditioner and left it in my hair overnight - I know, v05 is not very conditioning, but that's really all I had on hand that didn't have oil in it. When I rinsed my curls in the morning and again my curls were still in tact! So yeah, it was the oil. After I rinsed, I applied a fresh lite layer of v05 as a leave-in and then some Krystal Ecostyler to style - turned out great!

Now that I know all this, I have to revamp my whole routine. I'm now buying all oil-free products, which is not as easy as it sounds. I was really surprised at how many products out there have oil in them - I mean the list is endless.

Anyway after looking around a longggg time today, I picked up - BioInfusion Hydrating Conditioning Balm, which has zero oil. Giovanni 50:50 Balance, which has zero oil. And Aussie Instant Freeze Gel, again - no oil. I can also use my ecostyler, but I'm a sucker for gels, so when I saw the Aussie one, I decided to give it a try:0).

I'll report back on these as soon as I can tell if avoiding oils really, really makes a difference for me. We shall see:).

Ciao!!

A Few Inexpensive Makeup Items - Video

Items I'm speaking about:

Maybelline Lipstick in Rose Luster #c377.

Revlon Colorstay in Sunkiss#030.

Too Faced Liquid Lava Gloss Eye Liner in Super Black.

Palladio Rice Paper in Tranlucent#787102.

Product Review Video - Terax, Hempz & FantasticStyle Styling Gels

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I actually intended to post a lot sooner, but I've been having some problems with my computer's camera, so I kept making videos, but they kept turning out with no volume or some other irritating issue:p. Anyway, after several tries, I finally have something - so here it is:).

I did a review of a few gels that are easy to find at Ulta's or at other local salons. I know that there are a lot of reviews being done on mail order items, which believe me - I like too, but in this economy - if I'm going to do any experimenting, for now, it will have to be with some of the more easily accessible products.

The gels I chose were just random gels that I had seen before, and considered trying, but never did. Now, that I have had an opportunity to try them, I'm passing the information on to you.

The gels I tried were:

Terax Medium Hold Styling Gel:

Ingredients: Deionized water, PVP/VA copolymer, methoxyisopropanol, propylene glycol, glycerin, triethanolamine, polysorbate 80, tocopherol acetate, panthenol, disodium EDTA, carbomer, sodium dehydroacetate, fragrance, methyl/ethyl/propyl-paraben.

Hempz Firm Hold Gel:

Ingredients: Purified Water (Aqua), PVP, Acrylamide /AMPSA /Methacrylates , Copolymer, Carbomer, Panthenol, Wheat Amino Acid, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Methyl Gluceth-20, Glycerin, PEG-40, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Cannabis.

FantasticStyle Smoothing Gel:

For image go to - http://www.fantasticsams.com/FantasticSams/Consumer/pages/Haircare/styling.aspx

Ingredients: Purified Water (Aqua), Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Propylene Glycol, Hydroxypropyl Guar, Panthenol, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Wheat Starch, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Amodimethicone, Octoxynol-40, Isolaureth-6, Glycerin, Diazolidinyl Urea, Citric Acid, Tetrasidium EDTA, Disodium EDTA, Methyl/Propyl Paraben.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ciao!!