Gift Guide 2015: Happy Holiday Hair

Good hair makes the season bright.

AVEDA
A Gift Of Pure Moisture For Hair €52
AVEDA A Gift of Pure Moisture for Hair
I don’t know: have you ever bought yourself a nice brush? Now that I think about it, I don’t have a notion where any of my hair brushes have come from… which is a little weird/unsanitary. So, it follows that if you haven’t ever splurged on a quality hair grooming implement, then someone you know and love may not have either. This could suit a dude, too, and the addition of a full-sized sample of Dry Remedy Daily Moisturizing Oil makes this a clever, useful gift.

It’s a special choice in another way. Aveda have teamed up with Himalayan Bio-Trade Limited and employed people of Nepal to create the hand-crafted Lotka Bark Paper in which all the brand’s Christmas gifts are wrapped. 5,500 people have been employed to make more than 2,000,000 sheets of paper, allowing families to sustain themselves and send their children to school.

There are nine more gifts in the range with prices covering the gamut from €20-60, and all benefit those Nepalese crafts people. #LoveForNepal

SCHWARZKOPF PROFESSIONAL
BC Time Restore Gift Bag €33.50
TIME RESTORE gift
I have been acquainting myself with many of the the products in Schwarzkopf’s Professional line, and I can heartily recommend not only the BC Time Restore gift bag as shown — the Q10 Plus Treatment is especially excellent, even if not paired with the shampoo, which is also fab. There’s a gift bag for those who need a BC Moisture Kick, those who are a bit hard on their locks and could use a BC Repair Rescue and another fave combo of mine, BC Colour Freeze. This last really is super for colour treated hair, giving it a blast of shine and lifting it when it feels like it’s going a bit dull.

GHD
Deluxe Dry & Style Gift Set €245
GHD DELUXE
I’ve been using hair straighteners for ages, but I have seen the ghd light: this heats up in a finger snap, straightens the bejayziz out of my fine, sometimes-flyaway hair, and I never feel like I am overdoing it or stressing my tresses. I just love it. They are not cheap, but in combination with the air® hair dryer this is one impressive deal. I gotta say, using the air® is a professional experience even for me, who blasts her hair dry every single time. How much does a loved one want a great hair year? How much do you? This is The Big Gift for sure — but I swear, you’ll never look back.

KÉRASTASE
Elixir Ultime Serum Solide €28.95
KERASTASE elixir ultimeSmall but mighty, this is 18 grammes of beautifully scented hair goodness. A tiny amount scraped off with a fingernail and rubbed between the palms creates a fluid imbued with 15 oils that add shine and a rich, woodsy scent. You won’t smell like a pine tree, no matter how seasonally appropriate! It’s more like a floriental, and it will inspire anyone you hug to come back for more. If you use too much you’ll get a predictably heavy result — experiment to determine the correct amount. I mean, you know, counsel your giftee to do so. It’s not like you’re out shopping for yourself, right?

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What is Wrong with This Picture?

SO RONREY
How crazy it this? Compared, of course, to this…
OMHaircare
… which is crazy in the other direction.

So what’s up with that?

A} The tub is smaller, in my new place — which I have lived in for a whole year, so is not really ‘my new place’, but is considered to be such, by me and many of my pals.
B} I have been trying & testing away, for The Herald, and have used up a lot of shampoo and conditioner in the last two months.
C} Er. There is actually a little bucket-y thing full of stuff tucked away here, next to the toilet.
SO RONREY, NOT
Ha, ha.

My bath looks so nice and clean and uncluttered! But also a little bit sad. Especially the super lonely little tub of John Frieda Sheer Blonde® Blonde Hair Repair Conditioning Treatment {€7.03}, which I use for pre-shampoo deep conditionin.

The thing is, every single one of these combos is a guaranteed Good Hair Day, of a Very Specific Sort.

*For a Thick, Full, Voluminous Hair Day: Well, Mane ‘n’ Tail, obvs. Couldn’t be happier to have this available in Ireland. Years ago, I ill-advisedly cut my hair short, and this grew it all back in like, no time a’tall.

*For a Super Shiny and Soft Hair Day: It’s a toss up between the Trilogy Refresh & Shine Shampoo & Conditioner {€15.95/each} and the Green Angel Seaweed Shampoo & Conditioner {€14.95/each}, because both are efficacious in the soft-and-shiny department. Neither are too fragranced, either, if that is an issue for you.

*For a Happy, Magically Clean and Healthy Scalp Hair Day: I am loving Aveda’s Invati Range. It’s a system! which includes Exfoliating Shampoo, Thickening Conditioner and Scalp Revitaliser {€27/€29/€54}; all three can be bought as a set from petals.ie for €100 with free shipping in Ireland.

And what’s in the bucket-y thing? That’s a post for another day…

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See here for the run down on the product in that second photo.

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FOTD: Channelling Stockard Channing

FOTD 28 02In the best possible sense of course. But seriously: right?

Must be the smirk. No one smirks like Ms Channing. Except me, apparently.

What we have here is:

>Dermalogica Skin Primer, which will be featured in a B&B! Q&A soon.
>Lancôme Le Touche Éclat
>Smashbox Brow Tech To Go, which I love and want to marry.
>Hourglass Ambient in Luminous Light, which is why I am glowing like I’m just back from the Caribbean. I completely overdid this, as I overdid the mascara — the new Rimmel Lash Extender Endless Mascara which I am loving.
>Smashbox Love Me Lip Enhancing Gloss in Charm Me, with which I will have a clandestine affair if that damned Brow Tech will ever stop leading me on!
>Clarins Ombre Minérale 4 Couleurs in Iris Blossom. They look dark in the palette, but go on trés lightly and sparkly.
>The Hair, not even ironed yet, is thanks to Aveda Invati Exfoliating Shampoo, Thickening Conditioner and Scalp Revitalizer, about which more will be written soon.
>Roots by my laziness. Don’t look, Andrew Dunne from Mane Salon! Avert your eyes!

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