Bumble and bumble. Classic + Spray de Mode

Hair spray isn't a beauty item that I've tried every brand of and really know my stuff about. What's my hair spray authority resumé? Well, I used to spray my ponytails into shiny, hard helmets on my head every day in middle school, so there's that. For those of you who are actually knowledgeable about hair, feel free to take all of this with a grain of sea salt spray. See what I did there? Hair humor.

[ bumble and bumble. classic + spray de mode ]

I've been using both the Bumble and bumble. Classic and the Spray de Mode for years. I am a huge fan of the Spray de Mode -- it's got memory, give, can be brushed out, and NEVER leaves you with flaky spray bits. I find it's perfect for hair styles worn down and I love the effect in next day hair (ends up being a great texturizing spray!). On the other hand, the Classic is my go to high-hold spray, for all the times I wear my hair pulled back hard and tight. Once again, no flaky bits here and both smell good as far as hair sprays go (a little alcohol-y, but nice).

I'm curious to hear what sprays you love/swear by -- and how they rate next to these? Let me know!

L'Oreal EverCrème Sulfate-Free Moisture System - Shampoo + Conditioner

Heads Up: L'Oreal EverCréme is a cheaper alternative to my beloved (and pricey!) Ojon Damage Reverse.
$7 vs. $24. You do the math.

[ l'oreal evercréme intense nourishing shampoo and conditioner ]

This L'Oreal EverCréme shampoo and conditioner duo performs amazingly well for its price point. $6.99 each?! Yes gawd, girl. My bank account is finally happy with me.

Pros? Sulfate-free, smells nice, and makes my hair feel crazy soft... rivaling the much pricier Ojon set I typically buy.

Cons? They sometimes give my hair too much nourishment. It will feel a bit weighted down and even slightly greasy/sticky from leftover product after showering. Make sure you spend a little more time than usual washing out the conditioner and you'll be fine. Or maybe I'm a just fully grown baby who can't even shower properly. Also, most days it's hit or miss whether this will make my naturally wavy hair texture look nice (AKA non-frizzy -- the holy grail for wavy/curly hair).

Verdict. Despite the great value and performance of this duo, the Ojon Damage Reverse line remains the all around favorite because I pretty much never have to worry about frizzing issues with those. Not everyone can pull off the Grace Coddington look on the daily (especially me, in the SF fog!).

Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray

It's a shit dry shampoo (they boast it's a great alternative to one -- lies!) but a fab 2nd day spray in the lengths.

(After I've used blow pro Faux Dry and Jonathan Green Rootine around my roots, of course.)

[ oribe dry texturizing spray ]

Jonathan Green Rootine Dry Shampoo

Dry shampoo can be a total savior, or it can leave a dusty, unattractive white cast in your hair that can best be described as the hair of a low budget community theater's elderly character portrayed by someone in their 20s. Lord help us all. Not to mention, which I can regretfully tell you from experience, white powder dry shampoos (like my beloved blow "faux dry") totally give off flashback during flash photography. So excuse me while I run and untag a few pictures on Facebook. Ugh.

And now I bet you're sitting there thinking, "Well, then why don't you use a spray dry shampoo?" To be blunt, I think they suck. I have yet to find one that really works at absorbing oils and find powders to be FAR more effective and long-lasting. Which brings us to the product at hand, Jonathan's Green Rootine, a brush-on colored dry shampoo I have been using for years.

It's easy. Good -- I'm lazy! It's colored. Yes -- no gray hair! It's effective. Yes -- no greasy hair! It's long lasting. Yes -- still no greasy hair!

The only downsides with this product are that the brown color is quite warm (which may not work for all brunettes), it's not readily available in many locations (I always buy online from random places now, but it used to be in ULTA), and the texture it leaves in your hair (slightly gritty). I quite like the warmth it adds to my hair, so I'm fine in that regard. In response to the texture issue -- yeah, it makes your hair a little gritty, but you're more fickle than the Princess and the Pea if you want a weightless, color-free dry shampoo that eats up all grease and leaves hair shiny and silky on the 3rd or 4th day after showering. I don't think those exist. If you found one. Tell me, tell everyone, tell the world.. lord knows we are all looking.

I find this incredibly easy to use and typically brush it through the stupid baby hairs that surround my face at my hairline and tend to get greasy within 0.5 seconds of showering. What? I'm not bitter! I brush a little down my part (watch out and don't make your part turn orange where your skin is!), a little around the crown, and day 3 hair feels like day 1.5.

If you've experienced some of the same problems as I have with dry shampoo, why not test and see if any of the Green Rootine color options work for you? All natural ingredients, too! Can't argue with that!

Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream

Moroccanoil's Hydrating Styling Cream was a huge favorite of mine a few years back, but curiosity got the best of me and I strayed.

Moroccanoil... I'm here to say, with blog as my witness, I cheated on you. I had a wandering eye. And I am sorry.

I recently busted this out again (had about 1/2 the bottle left when I stopped using it the first time) and have been LOVING the results it's had on my hair. Maybe it's the shorter hair, maybe the dead ends having been chopped off... but I doubt it. I had been using strictly oils on my hair since my big chop off a while back and the results were nothing like the extreme softness and lack of frizz I was see with this product left in my wet hair to air dry.

Thankfully, beauty products aren't like boyfriends -- so you won't catch me sobbing the lyrics to Katy Perry's "One That Got Away" into a carton of Ben and Jerry's anytime soon (Americone Dream or Late Night Snack, duh!).. just needed a little dust off from the back of the cabinet and we're good to go.

Snip, Snip: New Hair

Believe it or not, I had been DYING for short hair. I was sick of the 4-6 hour air dry time. I was sick of the weight of it. And I was sick of being the girl with hair that could easily be used to impersonate Alanis Morissette's "Thank You" music video.

In all sincerity, my long hair felt like a crutch. I was too comfortable doing the same ole same ole to it day in and day out and was really starving for change. Never one to make life easy, I decided to force myself to get a little more creative and inspired in the hair department.

I wanted something I could style a bit more edgy for, what I like to think is, my increasily "edgy" wardrobe as I'm very much on a modern, mostly black, and Helmut Lang-esque kick. Just a few days in and I'm already loving the myraid of ways to style it -- cutesy, grungy, textured, polished... the options feel endless. Welllll, minus a bangs down look because I got bored and hacked at em a little last week... my mistake. Leave "bangs" to the professionals. Always. 

Exhibit A: The victim, pre-chop.

Exhibit B: The Crime Scene.

(I got it cut by Katie at Mirror & Mantel -- my go-to hair stylist/salon in Philly)

Exhibit C: THE CHOP!

It's been a good 5 years since I've had short hair and contrary to what everyone in my life anticipated, I'm really happy about the length and being able to let it grow out again, enjoying each length along the way.

If you're thinking about taking the plunge, do it! Now! Chop chop! (and that, my friend, is what we call "hair humor")

HAIR: How I Use My Cortex 4-in-1 Curling Wand

Ahh, the eternal quest for loose, beachy waves. 

I'm almost there... but not quite. 

For a full product list and to see how I accomplished this wavey look, watch the video.

New Year, New Hair -- My Experience with eSalon

I have been toying with dying my hair an assortment of different colors lately -- everyday gravitating between TTH red, ice white blonde with grungy roots (lest anyone thing I was going for a playboy bunny look!), or my ole faithful "dark." As you can tell, I went with the easiest (and hopefully most job interview friendly, HELLO HIRE ME!) option. Having been deathly afraid of box dyes and all the friends I've seen end up with dark red hair that's impossible to de-red and recently hearing about eSalon, I opted for the most profesh and cheapest option. [ In case this matters to you -- this is NOT a sponsored post, I found and bought the dye kit with my own simoleons. ]

Let's rewind.

Scene: Alone, in my dark bedroom (curtains drawn mid-day) with 10 cats purring around me and a few half drunk milk bowls (some curdling) scattered around the floor.

I happen upon a tweet that catches my eye and reminded me that I was interesting in trying out this eSalon service, having read some write up or review of it a few months prior. To break down their service as simple as possible, they are professional colorists that will mix professional dye for you and send it with simple instructions for DIY application. No box dye and you get to tell them what you want. Sold.

I hop on the site and upload some images featuring my hair's natural state and my current color situation. Fill out the questionaire about my hair type, what I'm looking for, what I don't want, coloring history, etc.... Use their color matrix to select color and tone (darkest possible brown with zero red undertones). Search online for a coupon code (duh, and found one!) and check out. Easy enough.

The box arrives and while I would like to show you guys a picture of the beaut, it has my full name on every bottle (a la "Mixed Especially for Chelsea BlahBlah") and don't feel like putting that shit out thurr in the interwebs. You get a few YT comments that say, in no simpler terms, "I want to anal rape you, violently" and you try to keep your true identity on the DL. Ya know? But it's essentially like any perfume gift set comes, with each developer and dye bottle fitting into a perfect shaped developer and dye bottle sized dent in the plastic. It's all white. Super sleek.

My kit cost me just over $19 (shipping included) and contained a coloring brush, 2 bottles of developer, 2 bottles of dye, 2 sets of gloves, stain remover, stain guard, color safe conditioner, instructions, safety warnings,... and I think that's about it? I open the safety instructions and read about the possibility of an allergic reaction and the need to do a patch test for 48 hours prior to usage. I disregard those because I'm a rebel/idiot. I impulsively decide to do it at night, in poor lighting. Because I wouldn't be me unless I was constantly making impulsive decisions.

The instructions were incredibly easy to follow and the whole process took about 30 minutes from opening the box to getting yelled at by my mom for getting dye all over the shower. [ Disclaimer: Do not get dye everywhere. Your mom will be SO mad! It all washed off very easily so seesh, lady.. calm down! Except that small bit on grout. But I'll get a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! (Internet research leads me to believe that this wonder product will get my mom off my ass and my dye off the grout, fingers crossed.) ] Section your hair in 4, pour dye into developer bottle, shake, and squirt it out along your roots. Set timer for 15 minutes. Set up new bottle of dye/developer. Start working dye down all the rest of the hair and once the 15 minute timer you set after the roots were completed goes off, it's time to wash it all out. Side note: It baffled me that the last bit of hair that I completed just minutes before the timer went off could have been dyed enough compared to the hair that had been soaking for twice the time but alas, it was.

Washed it all out (queue the getting it all over the shower) and I was a new woman! Yup, totally true. Brand spankin' new.

Final Verdict? Try this if you want to dye your hair yourself, but are scared of box dyes/want to have more input on the process. It's more affordable than going to a salon and much quicker. Hopefully you aren't allergic and dye (get it, get it! Okay, that joke was a little off color. HA! Did it again. Hair stylist humor, typical in the industry.) Honestly, I'd really recommend it -- it was easy and the color turned out EXACTLY like I wanted. What else is there to say?!

[ this is not a sponsored review/post, there is nothing in it for me if you do or don't click on the link or try this service. ]

HAIR:: How I Use My Hot Tools Conical Wand

I know I've linked to this video in a previous post how I achieved this makeup look, but it deserves a post of its own! When I first bought my conical wand I was AWFUL at using it. I couldn't get the hair to stay on the wand or figure out how to hold it at a downward angle properly, I didn't remember to always curl away from my face, and I was afraid that brushing out my curls would make them look frizzy. Essentially, each time I used it... I looked dumb. Straight dumb.

Now that I have "mastered" my usual look with the wand, I decided to show you how I do it. I can't recommend conical wands enough, they are so easy (once you get past the learning curve) and quick to use. You can easy manipulate the hair (depending on how tight you wrap it around the wand) for loose waves or defined curls. Plus, the curls are shiny as f*#@ and last for DAYS.

If you have one but haven't fully figured it out yet or are just curious, click play!

Products Mentioned:

• Hot Tools Nano Ceramic Conical Wand 1 - 1 1/4 inch
• Bumble & Bumble Spray de Mode
• John Freida Secret Weapon Flawless Finishing Cream (not really endorsed, just trying to use it up)

Hair Envy: Taylor Tomasi Hill

Red hair is bold. It's out there. It's intense. And... it's scary. I have always had an interest in going red, but have feared it. I shouldn't dread the red, it's in my genes -- my mom and countless family members are red heads! Surprisingly, my boyfriend has even requested I go red at some point in my hairventure. After discovering the hair, the myth, the legend... that is Taylor Tomasi Hill's locks, I can honestly say I WANT TO GO RED ASAP. I want this EXACT shade. And I want it now. My "Hairspiration" board on Pinterest is overflowing with pictures of TTH (and also pictures of amazing afros which I can never have because I am god. damned. white!). Let's just take a moment, relax, and fawn over the beauty that is TTH's hair color (the location of which she gets this color from remains her best kept secret):

[ images via: here / here / here / here ]

DIY: Gorgeous Curls... While Sleeping

Everyone and their mother has been swearing by this video's method for curling hair, so I thought I'd share it with you guys since I finally tested it out and loved it! I didn't have to put any product in my hair prior to wrapping it up, just dry hair and a headband, and I had great results! Check out this easy, quick way to ensure you wake up with fun, bouncy curls (and listen to her awesome accent which makes me wish I was in Europe!):

Let me know if it works for you!

DIY: Fishtail Braid

Emily, of Cupcakes and Cashmere, made a tutorial video on how to do a fishtail braid. Thanks to her I finally know how and plan on trying one soon. I can finally cross of "google how to do a fishtail braid" off my never ending to-do list (which includes such trivial stuff as "find bright neon orange nail polish" and "make a friendship bracelet"... I know, dire stuff.).

[ for more fishtail braid tutorials see here, here, here, here, and here ]

I've Been Ombré-ed!

Yesterday I went to see Meghan at the AMS Salon in Philadelphia for my ombré hair. The staff was very friendly and Meghan great. I am very pleased with the outcome from the balayage highlights, etc... plus, it should only look better as it grows out! Since I want a grown out look, I get a lot of time out of this coloring and won't have to get it done again for a while (save me some $$$). I was pretty nervous I was going to look like a trashy two-tone hair color freak for Ryan's big family party this weekend, so thank the lawwwd... but most importantly, thank you Meghan!

 

Trend Watch: Ombré Hair

[WhoWhatWear.com]

I've been all over the place with what I want to do to my hair lately. One day I want to chop it to my shoulders, one day I want to dye it red. But that's it, I've decided! I'm going to dye my hair ombré (using balayage highlights)! While I don't want to be as extreme (aka as blonde) as this photo below, this is my inspiration (it doesn't help that I got one of these photos off a site that was calling it "bad ombre hair," haha! Whatever, I like it!). I'll probably make an appointment in the next few weeks, I just have to find the perfect place to do it!

[source 1, source 2]

What do you think, good idea or bad?!