Beauty is Easy » dry hair

Summer Hair Rescue! Davines Nourishing Vegetarian Miracle

Storey — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:29:13 +0000

Beauty has been real easy for me lately. So easy that I’ve really done nothing at all besides a very basic makeup routine in the morning and apply lots of sunscreen. Call it the lazy days of summer or just call it lazy, but I’ve been looking a little ragged around the edges. My hair has been especially lack luster. It’s limp and dull and frizzy around my face and I’ve taken to wearing it in a ponytail just about every day. I haven’t touched a heat styling appliance in months, but the pool and sun have taken their toll and my hair from my scalp to the ends have been suuuuper dry.

I got a sample of Davines Nourishing Vegetarian Miracle and was confused as to what this product is supposed to do. Davines products are awesome, but have a tendency to be very vague in their labeling. So it took a little investigating to confirm that this a deep conditioner. After my regular shampoo I applied for the suggested 10 minutes before rinsing. The formula is thick and scooped from a tub. I took the ten minutes to shave and catchup on some long overdue exfoliating. The formula didn’t feel nearly as heavy as your usual deep conditioner and after rinsing my hair didn’t feel especially different.

It wasn’t until my hair dried that I could really see the change. My hair was shining and bouncy and didn’t feel dry at all. The formula even gave my hair back it’s missing volume. So why Vegetarian Miracle? It contains rice protein and avocado and seaweed extracts. Otherwise the ingredients list reads like your typical beauty product (i.e. you won’t be finding this in a natural foods store anytime soon). Unpronounceable ingredients aside, I’ll definitely be keeping this little hair miracle in my beauty routine.

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Tress Sun Protection: Davines Sun Protective Moisturizing Cream

Storey — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:27:02 +0000

Sun protection for our skin is important to prevent aging and cancers. Sun protection for our hair is a little less drastic, but still important. Sun can make hair dry and brittle and fade that pricey color you had applied at the salon. Hair products with UV protection have been multiplying in the beauty marketplace over the last few years. Davines, an Italian hair care company with a strong focus on sustainability, has joined the movement with their SU Suncare System for Hair. SU comes from the sanskrit word that means “the one with shining hair”. The lines has shampoo, conditioner, a hair pak, moisturizing oil and cream. I’ve been testing out the Protecting Moisturizing Cream.

This moisturizing cream is more of a light lotion that you apply to dry hair. The pump bottle allows you to dispense just enough product to apply to your whole head of hair. The formula adds moisture like a leave-in conditioner, while providing protection from sun, seawater and chlorine – the perfect summer storm to ruin your do. The formula has a nice salon-y type smell that made me feel fancier than pony-tailed hair would imply. The formula also did a nice job of not making my hair look greasy like some UV leave-ins can. After a day out in the sun, but hair did still feel soft, but dirty in the way that wearing sunscreen all day makes you want to take a shower as soon as you get home.

Check out the Davines website to find a salon near you that sells their line or just to check out their beautifully done website.

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Winter Beauty Survival Guide

Storey — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:37:10 +0000

Learn how to get the cold winter weather to leave your gorgeous looks alone

Winter can be your skin and hair’s worst nightmare. It dries out your cuticles, frizzes your strands and makes skin flake — ugh! To the rescue: tips from Winter Olympics Team USA. Here they share their secrets on how to battle cold winter temps and look gorgeous all cold-weather season long.

See tips

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Storey — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:48:32 +0000

Fried Hair Rehab

Our program comes to the rescue for women at every price point

Sun damage, coloring, flat-ironing … you’ve demanded enough from your stressed hair. Find out how to bring health back to it, thanks to advice from a panel of hair pros.

See tips

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Get A Handle On Your Hair With Kerastase Nutritive Oleo-Relax Slim And Brume Nuit Apres-Soleil Treatment

Storey — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:16:46 +0000

Even if you don’t normally suffer from unruly hair, summer conditions might have you fighting the frizz. Humidity, sun and dry air can all take a toll on our tresses and leave us in need of some professional help. Kerastase is a well known salon brand that has the help you’ve been looking for with their Nutritive Oleo-Relax Slim in a leave-in creme and concentrated masque. Through in the overnight leave in Brume Nuit Apres-Soleil treatment and you’ll be back to smooth hair in no time.

The Oleo-Relax Slim products contain apricot oil, camelina oil, pracaxi oil and ceramide. I don’t know what 3 of these 4 ingredients are either, all I know is that they help smooth and straighten the hair, while protecting it from moisture (humidity) that can cause it to get poofy. After shampooing, I applied the masque and left it on for 10 minutes. The masque comes in a jar and is a thick orange cream with a musky-spicy scent. It rinsed out easily, but didn’t leave my hair feeling as slick as I thought it might. The first time I used it, I let my hair air-dry to test it’s frizz fighting capabilities. It did a pretty good job, and even though it says it is supposed to help straighten hair, it actually left my hair wavier than usual.

The next time I washed my hair, I followed the recommended regimen of using the Creme after towel-drying my hair. This leave-in treatment is meant to help further fight frizz and calm ends. The Creme is white and has a sweet vanilla-y floral scent. I tired the air-dry again and got even nicer results – very little frizz and still had nice waves. The directions say to style as usual, so the next round was tested using both the masque, creme, my usual styling product and a blow-dry. My hair was very un-frizzy and looked really great. The product felt a bit heavy in my hair, but the product is for those with thick hair and mine isn’t really thick or thin.

Next up I tried the Brume Nuit Apres-Soleil overnight treatment. I’ve never seen a product like this and was really excited to try it. Why not treat your hair while you sleep? Lot’s of time for the product to do its work! This treatment is sprayed on the hair before going to bed. You can spray it on dry or wet hair – just be sure you don’t have product on your hair, otherwise this stuff can’t actually get to your hair. I sprayed it on and then combed it through, as well as massaged it into my scalp. That because this not only treats hair, but your scalps as well. It aims to undue damage done by the sun, as well as provide future protection. For the hair, it helps fight color-fade and UV damage while strengthening hair and providing moisture. For the scalp it helps with sunburned or irritated scalp. I was worried about what it would do to my sheets, because it did make my hair look greasy, but it didn’t hurt my precious 600-thread count. It’s light floral scent was pleasant and faded after about an hour. In the morning I washed and styled my hair as usual and it did feel softer and my scalp was definitely less itchy than it had been for the last few weeks. Since this product is later washed out, I think it would work well on all hair types.

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Just In Time For Winter: Aveda Dry Remedy Moisturizing Shampoo and Conditioner

Storey — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:20:33 +0000

Aveda is a great company. They were one of the leaders in the beauty industry, using botanical ingredients in products that are used in salons around the world. I think they have great products, but I usually don’t buy them – they can be a bit pricey! But when I tried their Dry Remedy Moisturizing Shampoo and Conditioner, I found a product worth the extra pennies.

The shampoo is thick and creamy and looks like a conditioner. I has an awesome lather and left my hair soft enough to not really need a conditioner. But with the colder, drier air of winter approaching, I took the preemptive action of applying the conditioner too. It is also super rich and rinsed clean, leaving behind very silky strands.

Both the shampoo and conditioner look and smell a bit unusual. They both look like puried bananas, which the label says is due to the Buriti Oil that it contains (Aveda’s website says Buriti Oil is derived “from the buriti palm in Brazil—called the “tree of life” by Amazon cultures, because everything necessary for survival can be sourced from the tree. The oil enriches our cupuaçu conditioning complex.”) The website also says the formulas have a “relaxing floral aroma blend with certified organic palmarosa, ylang ylang and rose geranium, plus a hint of vanilla.” I didn’t catch the floral aroma at all, rather I thought they smelt like a health food store – in a not unpleasant way. But the unusual color and scent are very minor issues for such great products.

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Who Wants Soft, Shiny Hair? L’Oreal Vive Pro Nutri Gloss Conditioner and Conditioning Treatment

Storey — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:11:12 +0000

I’m constantly battling dry and frizzy hair. I try to take it easy on the heat stylers and haven’t dyed my hair in a while, but living in a dry climate is hard on my locks. I know that split ends can’t be cured or sealed back together by a conditioner or cream, but I’m always on the look out for great products that can smooth my frizzies and help prevent further breakage and split ends.

L’Oreal’s Vive Pro line of shampoos and conditioners are pretty specific when it comes to targeting your hairs particular needs. The Nutri Gloss line says that it contains a pearl protien that smooths hair and adds shine. I tried the Conditioner for Medium to Long Hair that is Damaged (they also have formulas for Medium to Long Hair that is Normal to Fine and Medium to Long Hair that is Curly/Wavy) and the more concentrated Conditioning Treatment (on different days).

The Conditioner was a pretty thick formula that was light pink and smelled slightly of berries. A small amount coated my hair well and didn’t need long to absorb. The Conditioning Treatment was a thicker formula, light purple and seemed similar to the Conditioner in how it worked. With each type, I let my hair air dry one day and blow dried on another. Both resulted in very shiny and very soft hair. So soft that an updo the next day was frustratingly impossible, as my hair was just too slick to stay put. I still had some frizzies with both formulas, but they don’t target that symptom (alas I will have to try the Vive Pro Smooth Intense line in order to address them).

These conditioners are definitely going to be too heavy for fine hair, but they do have the formula for fine hair, as well as the formula for curly/wavy hair so your curls aren’t weighed down. Have you tried either of these on your hair? Let us know what you thought?

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