Blow Me

Ha. There is someone with the a Ferrari with the number plate 'Blow Me' around where I live. Makes me chuckle - what a douche!

Anyway, this is not a crude post. Just wanted to show the results of my Hershesons visit

I guess you may or may not have heard of Hershesons - depending where you live. It's basically a blow dry bar, but it's based in London. They have a menu of hairstyles that take around 1/2 an hour to do, all costing £24. Generally you don't need to book - but if it was a Friday or Saturday night then I probably would! It's a totally fabby idea, and worth doing if your around London for a night out.

I've had my hair done once before in Hershesons and been please with the results both times, last time I had a B52 - bouffant style with a bit up/bit down and this time I went for the Carlam.

Here are the results

Sorry for the quality of pictures, I got my friend to take some and she is even worse at taking pictures than me, I had to totally overexpose them to be able to see the style!

Anyhoo, some ladies complimented me on my hair and it lasted the whole next day after me sleeping on it too! Win win situation!

Ummm...Umberto...?

About a month ago I was wandering around Boot's looking to buy some more conditioner.

I'm a life long fan of Aussie 3 Minute Miracle but like everything I'm begrudged to buy it unless it's on offer, and it wasn't. However, at the time they were doing 3 for £10 offers on professional hair care.

Umberto Ginannini caught my eye mainly because I'd read a few reviews on Backcomb in a Bottle (BIAB) and was intrigued to try it. This way I could buy it, plus 2 conditions. Win win situation?

So along with Backcomb in a bottle I picked up.

Plump&Sexy Volume Conditioner from the Glam hair range (same range as BIAB)

Moisture Replenishing Hair Mask from the Spa Rituals range.  All RRP £5.61 - so I got a fair bit off.

Firstly I'll start by reviewing the Backcomb in a Bottle. You may have read reviews on this before so I'll keep it short and sweet. It is basically spray gel in a bottle. Sure it keeps the hair that I backcombed in place, but in doing so it knots my hair up so badly and is very sticky.

Personally if you are going to backcomb your hair I'd suggest using hairspray to set it, or the fabulous Dust It from Schwarzkopf. I'll use it up but I wouldn't bother re-purchasing. Although it actually does do a good job of setting curls without the crispy look.

Next up is the Plump&Sexy volume conditioner.

 
Firstly, I love the bottle, but screw tops aren't very practical in the shower, tsk tsk, but it's not the be all and end all of a conditioner, so I'll let it slide.

The actual product itself has a very strong smell, the kind of smell that stays on your hair after the conditioner has been washed off. It's a funny smell, very hard to describe, personally I like it but it might be too 'chemaclly' for some peoples liking. I rarely use shampoo/conditioner that makes my hair smell lovely after I've wash it off so I did have some appreciation for it.

Unfortunately that's as far as it goes. For me, a test of a good conditioner is how slippery it makes my feel whilst in using it, plus as I rarely brush my hair before washing it (I know, I know..slaps wrist) it needs to be able to get my knots out in the shower! I could tell from the first wash that this just wasn't the case with Plump&Sexy. Worst still it left a horrible residue on my hair once I'd blow dried. I've tried to persevere. making sure I rinsed really well, but every time I use it I get the same greasy/dirty feeling on my ends and at the same time it made my hair look really dry. I guess I did see some volume in my hair, but it's almost like the thickness in my hair was down to the product leaving it's residue! 

I won't re-purchase this, nor will I even use it up. Maybe those with thicker locks might find that the residue it leaves useful in giving volume, but sadly it's not a product for me.

Last up is the Moisture Replenishing Hair Mask from the Spa Rituals range. You get a good 200ml for your dollar, which isn't bad. And it smells absolutely lush! It really does remind me of a lovely spa smell. Again, like the conditioner it leaves its whiff on your hair after it's been washed off.

Now as for the product, it goes on like a dream, and makes my hair feel so silky, just like amazing. Seriously, it really feels like it's doing it's job. Sadly though, it has the same residue leaving problem as the Plump&Sexy conditioner, but probably 10 times worse. I guess the hair mask does kind of warn you of potential problems though....

"finer hair should use sparingly and hair prone to excess oil should apply only to damaged ends"

Oh I see, I probably come into both categories there. My hair is prone to oil and although it's not that fine, it's still not that thick either. But to you know what Umberto? I have tried using sparingly, and I have tried using only on my ends, and I've tried using sparingly on my ends, yet I still get the same result. I really, really want to like this hair mask, and I'll probably put up with greasy feeling locks for once in a while, just to get that silky feeling that really makes me think that it's repairing all my split ends magically. Plus what I have found is that if you use it and then wash your hair again a couple of days later you get that same silky feeling when wet.

I'm going to continue to use the hair mask but probably only when I know the next day I'm just going to stuff my hair up on head for work or the gym. Repurchase wise? The jury's still out on that, like I said, I want to love this product so much....

All in all though, Umberto? Sort out your hair care product formulas!

Anyone else used Umberto Giannini's products?

Hypest Hype? Moroccan Oil

As I mentioned before I became the owner of some Moroccan Oil over Christmas.

Since I heard about Moroccan Oil (which shall be known as MO now, for typing reasons!) I've been wanting to try it. But I am a pikey and refused to buy it. As much as I love my hair, I've never been keen on putting many products on it. It just adds to the greasy-ness. But as I've heard so much hype about it I was actually considering purchasing it, but instead I decided to get my mum a bottle for Christmas (she has a much different hair type to me - coarse...if you will - sorry mum) thinking I could nick a bit. Before I got a chance to steal a drop or two. I was presented with this lovely set from my boyfriends mum - who had obviously been listening when I rambled on about it. (I'm so good at rambling)




Cute, huh?!

It's actually the travel set and contains:

Intense Hydrating Mask
Moisture Repair Shampoo
Moisture Repair Conditioner
2 x Oil treatments

So I get a little taster of everything. Although the actual oil is the only thing I'm reviewing here.

I decided the best way to review it properly was to take a photo of my hair using the MO and a photo without using it. In these pictures I used the same shampoo and conditioner and then blow dried and straightened my hair with the same products. The only difference was the application of MO on the ends of my hair in the second picture (oh and it was obviously done on different days)

Here we go - for your viewing pleasure



I was all ready to diss MO in this post, because I couldn't tell much difference, until I saw the pictures side-by-side. I think if you click on them to enlarge you can see better, but there is defiantly an improvement on the smoothness of my ends! I would say it looks healthier. My ends aren't that split, because I'm a good girl and get my hair trimmed regular, but the cuticles look smoother. Maybe not a huge difference, but you have to remember my hair is already quite straight and rarely goes frizzy.

Personally without the photo I wouldn't have noticed much, the product didn't make my hair 'feel' any different, nor did I think it looked much different in the mirror.

So would I recommend it?

I reckon it could be a godsend to girls with curly, frizzy or unruly hair. For those with similar hair to myself it's not going to be life changing but the photo's do tell the story! One positive for me is that as it just goes on the very ends of your hair it doesn't make it any greasier, something that I was worried about. Plus its not at all time consuming to apply. In regards to repurchasing? I'm still a haircare pikey! I'll certainly use these bottles up and see how I feel after, I really only used a small amount so it probably works out as good value for money in the long run. However when purchasing you can just buy the small 25ml bottles for around £12 rather than forking out £30 straight off to get a feel for the product. I guess if it weren't for the price I'd just say use it!

Is this review just silly though? Have you all made up your mind on MO already? I do hope it helps someone! Feel free to post any questions in the comment box if you want more info!

The great hair timeline!

So....I was about to do a post on my hair care products and the Moroccan Oil I got for Christmas. But then I realised I'd hardly mentioned anything about my hair on this blog at all!

I seriously have a love/hate relationship with my hair. My hair is a light mousy brown and naturally straight with a slight kink. It lacks any body whatsoever, it relatively thin and gets greasy so quickly I literally have to wash it daily! But on the positive side it does have a good shine to it, grows quite fast and can be easily styled.

I really do think hair says so much about you.

So let me introduce you to my hair through the years......

Age 15

Aaah the height of my 'chav' faze. I had started to have blonde highlights put in at the salon, much to my mothers dismay! I could never afford a whole head of highlights so was getting a half head which was giving me the blonde on top and dark underneath look. I used to straighten my hair within a inch of it's life and kept it long and feather slightly at the front









Age 17

I'd had a side fringe cut in here and gone a bit shorter. I'd stopped the highlighting (probably as my student wage didn't go that far!) and I believe this is actually my natural hair colour, as by this time all the old blonde streaks had grown out! Looks much healthier!

Age 18


A year on and I was growing my hair at 18. I'd stopped having my hair cut (really bad idea folks) and was letting it grow out here, which you can probably tell by the side clipped fringe! It looks messy thick here!

Age 19


Blurgh. For my 19th I wanted a 'funky' hair style and had my hair chopped off. I remember hating it so much that I cried walking home from the hairdressers, it seemed a lot shorter at the time! The base colour is my natural colour but I'd had 'slices' of black dyed in under my fringe and the back of my hair. I didn't really know how to style my hair properly so it always looked a mess!




19 (and a bit!)


Still 19 here, even though I hated my previous cut, for some reason I decided to go shorter and for a full fringe, I'd obviously decided I like my hair short! I was going up to a pricey salon in London with my mum now and I trusted the guy to do what he liked. Plus my mum was paying so probably had to have something she liked! The black dye had been mostly cut out now and I was back to my normal colour.



Still aged 19!


Wow 19 was a busy year for my hair! This has got to be the shortest it has ever been. I'm can't really think why I was getting it cut so short now as I'd started to dabble in hair extension! As you can see I'd also begun to dye my hair. I was buying home hair dye and every time I dyed it I went up a darker shade as I was terrified of it fading and me having dodgy ginger hair (I'm not by any means against redheads!). It was probably too dark for my skin tone! Also it's a bit like a mullet, don't you think?

Age 20


Aaah my 20th birthday. As you could see my extensions are in full swing now. I rarely went out without them and had started to grow my hair. My hair was almost black here and I don't think it suited me. I remember it taking me ages to get ready because my hair was so short and my extensions were so long I had to make sure it all blended it perfectly! Not perfect, but I don't think I did a too bad job, ay!?

Age 20


2 days after my 20th birthday I went back to blonde. This time I went to the hairdressers! Where my hair was so dark I had to go lighter in stages, so this is the first stage. I thought I was really blonde at the time but I'm more of a mouse brown! I specifically chose this picture so you can see how bad my extensions were! I'd had to buy a new set of clip in hair and had attempted to dye it to match, I was so desperate for long hair that I hadn't cut any length off the extensions so it didn't blend in at all. What a mess my hair is, and so am I!!!

Age 20


Apparently my hair took to dye quite well, the next time I had it dyed it actually went pretty blonde! I have a centre parting here and was still growing it but had a fringe cut in. The extensions were cut in slightly better, but they still were being worn pretty permanently! I actually like the colour here.


Age 20


Dye job complete! I was happy with my colour a cut here. Still the same style though!









Age 21

My 21st birthday! Full barbie mode here! My philosophy was the bigger and longer the hair the better. Extensions were still a permanent fixture so not much to say about the cut of my hair other than that I was still growing it! I've obviously got another set of longer extensions here too.


21 and a half


I started to have my hair tinted rather that highlighted as I was afraid my hair was starting to get yellow/orange tones and look brassy! Although I loved the clean look of my hair I actually realised I was going blue! As so wonderfully highlighted in this picture. Wow! Can you tell I've got extensions in here?! Haahaha. I'm embarassed to say this is less that a year ago!










22 my hair now!


Growing my hair has been a long slog! But I'm finally at that stage where I wash, blow and straighten my hair and think wow, I actually like it. No need for any extensions! I'm really happy with the colour and although I sometimes ponder going back to black I'm not sure I'd actually go through with it. It's too much effort to get it back to blonde! I still wish my hair was a bit thicker and have to use a few extensions when I curl it. I am still growing my hair though! I have my roots tinted/dyed every 4-5weeks (roots make me very sad) with L'orel mojiblonde and I like the way my hair is very clean looking but without the blue tinge this time!


Phew what a long post that was. I hope you found it as funny as me. What did I look like back then?! Seriously guys, I'd recommend you do this, it's a laugh to look through pictures and see how you hair has changed! I guess mines not very exciting, I've never actually been that wild with me hair!

So I tag you!