MOROCCANOIL

Beach Hair in a Can: Wella Professionals Create Character

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WELLA curls 0I went through a phase many years ago, in which I was pushing the natural waves of my hair into curls.

When I say ‘natural waves’, I mean ‘neither here nor there hair’. It wasn’t going to go all springy all on its own. If left to its own devices, it would sort of half-heartedly swoop itself in the mid-lengths, and then go straight at the ends. The roots? Don’t even talk to me about the roots. They did nothing.

I would routinely haunt the aisles in chemist’s shops, looking for the magical substance that was going to give me:
A} If not curls curls, then at least loads of waves.
B} Plenty of body.
C} Softness.

That last was huge in my book of wavy, because just about every product I tried resulted in a very cripsy, crunchy texture. Did not like. They looked good, but felt awful.

I had a serious flirtation with Moroccanoil Intense Curl Cream: I got softness, and oh! the gorgeous scent, but I found that it dulled down my blondeness. Uh, thanks, but: no. Every now and again I give it go, but am always very distressed by the colour-stress to the tresses.

Yesterday, giddy with vitamin D, I thought I’d give this a try. Wella Professional’s create character | dry seems to be sending mixed messages: it says it’s dry on the tin, but the directions recommend that you spray it on damp hair. Maybe it goes both ways. Which can only be a good thing, really.

I admit to having unrealistic expectations when it comes to haircare. When my hair didn’t immediately spring into waves and curls straight out of a Burne-Jones painting, I was disappointed. Hmmph. I sprayed on some more, and was at least gratified to see some shine. That made a nice change already.

I twisted The Hair up into its usual knot, pre-bedtime, and wondered what the morning would bring.

Waviness!

WELLA curls 1

Pure surfer-gurrrrl, been-at-the-beach-all-day-and-all-night waves!WELLA CURLS 4

Verdict: loads of body, if a bit dull as regards shine. It doesn’t feel as soft as I’d prefer, but hmmm, oh look, I’ve got this to hand, too. I’ve been using Wella Professionals SP Luxe Light Oil Spray to fairly good effect in conjunction with the BaByLiss Big Hair {see here}. I had also taken delivery of the Luxe Oil version of this new formulation — no sticky, slippery residence on the hands, or the hair — but I feckin’ lost it. In my tiny flat. Lost it. I even asked St Anthony — no joy.

Anyway, gave The Wavy Hair a spritz, and it helped the very slight crispiness loads. I was tempted to twist it back up into that knot, the knot from which extra-super-waviness emerges, but I resisted. Sure, I’m only going horseriding tonight, the beasties don’t care about The Hair.

Since we have summer this week, though, I think this will be my project. How many days can I get out of one round of this process? Will the use of these products be enough to get a girl through a weekend music festival down the country? Will it?!?!

WELLA curls 2

Waves!

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Wella Professionals create character|dry is €10.50; SP Luxe Light Oil spray is €23.

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‘Phase’, not ‘faze’. Pet peeve!

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Top Twelve of 2012: Lucky Number Thirteen

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I was just this second reviewing my list, and I gasped aloud: there is nothing on it to do with The Hair.

Scandalous!

HYDRATING STYLINGAnd then I remembered that I was in fact going to laud the seemingly implausible qualities of Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream. So let’s just call this Lucky Number Thirteen, and then we’ll get on to the business of the rest of the list.

‘Seemingly implausible’ because, as the owner/operator of fine hair, the notion of putting anything as heavy as a styling cream on post-blow dried locks is like, why not just stick your head in a vat of goo?

As I reported here, I took the risk, and I have to say, the risk has paid off in spades since April. No matter that I use styling oil, and have gotten one of those Keratin hair dryers*, I still get flyaway strands that want to do what they do best, and flyaway. This tames them, and also imparts that signature Moroccanoil fragrance, which is powdery and clean, and one other thing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Possibly the thing itself from which Moroccanoil is made, like a nut or something?

Hang on.

Okay. I have plenty of stuff that has argan oil in it, and they don’t all smell like this. The Internet was sharing all kinds of links with itself when I Googled, but most of the links had to do with other products {reading is fundamental, mentallers} including the nut one, so clearly I was confused, too. We all get confused sometimes. Glass Petal Smoke — a site I will certainly be bookmarking — breaks it down to white amber and musk. I am huge fan of both, so there ya go.

So, two more things I couldn’t put my finger on. Also! Totally forgot to try it on damp hair, pre-blow, as I had vowed to do in the previous post. That will be top of my New Year’s Resolution List, right below ‘world peace.’

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*OMG Keratin blow dryer thing. Have you heard? I’ll be back with that anon.

How To Make the Perfect Katie PonyTaylor

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I hated having short hair, the three times in my life that I made that mistake — a mistake for me, it simply doesn’t suit. I hated it because I had to tend it allll the time; it seemed like way much more work that long, especially when all I wanted to do was pull it back into a ponytail.

Except, I have always been a bit crap at making ponytails? Unlike our Gold Medal Boxer Katie Taylor!

I don’t know how she does it, but me, I need product. What a surprise.

I googled around a bit, but wowee, some of the ponytail-making suggestions are way too much like work. All I want is sleek, and I don’t want flyaway ends.

So:
> Brush the stuffing out of your hair. Make it as flat as possible.

> Spray a little something on the top of your head, at the crown. I used Batiste Dry Shampoo. This is mainly to flatten it and make it stay.

> Brush it some more.

> Okay, gross: hold the elastic between your teeth. Come on! This is real life! You do it too! Yeah, yeah, yeah, unsanitary, but me, that third arm I usually use for hair styling is in the shop.

> Now, this next step depends on how well you gather up the hair. This is where I always go wrong. Either  the hair on the top of your head is going to stay perfectly flat, or you’re going to have to brush it down again. When I have to re-brush it, I start all over, because there will always be that rogue lock sticking up. Elastic goes back in the mouth, I let the hair go loose, and do over.

> Then, gently, gently, put some sort of styling aid on the tail itself. Any one of the oil-y yokes on the market will work, mousse is good — I used what has clearly become my Olympic hair product, Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream.

And the brother of yer dad is Bob.

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Still buzzing from that victory!

When All Else Fails, Talk About The Hair

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…which should have its own Twitter persona at this stage.

This past bank holiday was a blissful, glorious indulgence of Olympics, and olympian Game of Thrones S2 watching {entire season in one day}.

I also cleaned the bath, which doesn’t get any messier than a normal bath, but down to the excessive amount of product, well, it’s a pain in the arse to do. It was worth it, though, because I realised I hadn’t used up all my H’Suan Wen Hua from Lush, which you can go back and read about here. There is also a picture, and the results were exactly the same this time: shockin’ shine, pumped up highlights, but a terrible pong.

It still looks good, these several days later. I’ve also womanned up and have started using the Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream like I mean it, meaning I put it on hair that I’ve dried and ironed. It absolutely does not weigh it down — it makes it look shiny and smooth. Sweartagod. I knew that already? But when you use as much stuff as I do, you tend to forget. Here’s the original post to remind us all.

Along those lines, that five sense thing is a good idea, must remember to to do that again. And a haiku never goes amiss.

Sorry, have to go back to being a top Tweeter in the #equestrian thread.

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H’Suan Wen Hua from Lush: €11.50/£8.50/$19.95

Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream: €28.45/£22.85/$31

Could I Be Happier? Horses and Haircare

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So, here’s me as of 11ish this morning:

Typos ahoy! I wish I could touch type. Ah, well. This post is only going to take forever.

I knew I had a back up laptop for a reason.

Yay! — Oh, no. Saw the green jacket and though it was Ireland. It’s Brazil.

I generally grab the Moroccanoil Curl Defining Cream when I can’t be bothered blowing The Hair dry. This time round, I forget to add the Treatment oil, so when my hair dried, it was crrrrrispy. I then doused it with —

Okay! Ireland! Mark Kyle! Ah, bollix. Knocked one. What’s that extra 2 pens?

I then doused The Hair with the Hydrating Styling Cream. Oh, how I love the scent of this stuff! It helped soften it a bit, but the overall feeling was very crunchy and tangly.

Yay, Tiana Coudray USA! I am cheering for everyone! No idea who she’s on, because the eejits — ah, knocked one, dammit. Another! Crap. So they don’t put the name of the horse up on the screen. Stupid. Lovely dapple grey — g’wan! Ah, well.

When I combed it out, it was masssssive, but it felt really dry. I ought to have put the oil on, but there was already so much stuff on — and anyway, I forgot all about the oil, to be honest.

I tried to resist posting this pic, because the Narcissism Police Department* are going to be knocking on my door, but here’s an impression of the hair, plus the lip gloss I want to talk about.

I am quite happy using any auld gloss as long as it looks nice. By this I mean, I am not a dope about brands. I don’t care if it’s fancy, as long as it does the job.

But when it is fancy and it does the job? Wowee.

Has Zara Phillips gone? Holy wow, the crowd is going to go batty.

OMG I AM TOTALLY PSYCHIC HERE SHE IS. I SWEAR IT’S TRUE, IT IS 11.38 RIGHT NOW. OKAY

AH NO. I think this horse is very young, she had to retire Toytown, I think, who was a star — ah, well done her. The extra pens are for time.

What? Oh. Giorgio Armani Gloss D’Armani Lip Gloss in 512, above. I was dubious because of the darkness of the pigment, but it is —

Oh, no! Where’s everybody going? Okay, third team rider, fourth coming up. This is like the seventh inning stretch, yeah?

The pigment is dark, but it goes on like a gloss, easily and cleanly, and it feels light, too. I did reapply often, but I think it was because I wanted to, more than that I needed to.

Also: The Hair is wavy but also a bit straggly. Which may just mean I need a cut.

Also also: those sunnies are the best thing that’s happened to me all year.

Oh, crap, they are going away? No, just hanging around with no commentary. This feed is totally weird. Okay, maybe I’ll go do a real post now.

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Gloss D’Armani €25/£23.50/$28

*NPD, ha ha ha ha — that’s for you, cookie.

Scenes from a Library

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I don’t know why I keep taking pictures of myself in Deansgrange Public Library.

I think I am still a little squicked by my revolting cuticles, so here’s a picture of The Hair, which received a dollop of Morocanoil’s Curl Defining Cream and an air dry.

I’ve just approved a comment from a reader about how much she loves this stuff too, and since I actually had some in The Hair, and here I am working away with full access to photographic capabilities, it just seemed like kismet.

 

Pictures, ‘Cos It Did Happen: Moroccanoil Curl Defining Cream

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I went through this phase a couple of years ago, when I was putting product into The Hair in order to turn its waves into curls.

Eh. The Hair is in no way curly a’tall, and the waves, they are mainly half-hearted, they don’t know whether to go for it or just give up. Also, the texture of whatever curliness I did manage to conjure, well, it was pretty cripsy. Looked nice, but ooh, do not touch because: ouch. When I got my first flat iron I was like, Okay! Flat is where it is at! and I have been very satisfied.

Then I got given Morocanoil’s Curl Defining Cream. I got a lot of Moroccanoil stuff and you may have noticed that I have been using it over the past few weeks. I had forgotten about this, because I have pretty much given up on the notion that The Hair would benefit from curl-inducing product. I decided to try it though, because how do you know anything until you try something? And, look:

I think that is pretty good! You can’t reach through the screen, but believe me when I say that if you could, you would touch soft hair. I know it looks a little crunchy, at left, but that’s only because it is still damp, and the sun, it is blinding on the highlights.

I didn’t do anything but squinch The Hair up, from time to time.

This is perfect for the times when you go away for a long weekend and simply cannot be bothered to do the whole routine. Like, you’re down the country, and there’s going to be an open fire, and you can dry your hair in front of it. Two pumps of this stuff, depending on the length of your hair, of course, and you’ll squinch the night away, and! And you will have lovely hair in the morning, if you wind it up in an elastic.

This is next-day, post-rosette, been-under-a-riding-hat hair, at right. I think that is pretty good, too! I used a wide-toothed comb to fluff it up, and that is all. I would go out into the world with that hair.

As do all Moroccanoil products, it smells delish, and The Hair felt extremely silky. The flyaways were minimal, too.

I you are one of those betches lucky, lucky ladiez who have naturally curly hair, but hate the frizzing and the tangling, oh, how highly I recommend this. Me, I’m just happy to have the wavy option back in play, but with a degree of softness I hadn’t dared allow myself to imagine. {<The Hair, it makes me come over all melodramatic, like.}

€30 (via http://www.beautyfeatures.ie)