Tag: hair bleaching

Thursday Favourites: January 30th

16 Comments

Hey y’all!

So first off, my apologies for having this post ready for you all a day late — I’m still recovering a little from my bout of the flu, and I’ve had a lot of schoolwork assigned this week so unfortunately that took priority. But it’s all good now — and better late than never, right?

Today, I wanted to share with you all another product I was introduced to through FabFitFun and absolutely fell in love with — the Aveda Damage Remedy Daily Hair Repair. As many of you know, caring for my hair has been a huge struggle for me over the last few years. Back in 2015, I decided to go blonde, and while I don’t regret it one bit it definitely made looking after my hair and avoiding damage a huge challenge. Even now, while I’ve returned to my natural brunette colour, I still have residual damage from my dyed-over bleached ends.

Over the years, I tested out so many products to prevent damage to my hair I almost feel like I’m a bit of an expert now. I tried more masks, sprays, creams and conditioners than I can even count. There was definitely a bit of a learning curve involved — discovering there was more products out there than 10-minute hair masks, noticing how some products worked much better than more for others — and most importantly, realizing that leave-in products should NOT be leaving my hair feeling sticky, heavy, and gross.

For a while, I avoided leave-in products for this very reason. It honestly seemed like most of them were more likely to leave residue behind in my hair than actually fix any problems. To be completely honest — I’m not even sure I would have ever tried a product like this one if FabFitFun hadn’t introduced me to it (but I’m so, so glad they did!).

What really makes this product work is how light it is. It’s not really a cream, or even a gel — its a consistency I’ve never come across before. It’s uber-lightweight and almost seems as though the base is made of water — so as soon as you smooth it over your damp strands, it blends right in.

Honestly, I was blown away by the results the first time I ever used this product — it left my hair so unbelievably smooth and soft. I hadn’t had my hair look so shiny and healthy in YEARS. With time, I’ve only grown more sold on it, too. While I received this product in a Fall 2019 FabFitFun box, to this day I had yet to have this product leave my hair feeling greasy, sticky, or negatively effected in any way. There’s been a couple of occasions where I’ve poured some out before blow drying and thought to myself “whoa, that is DEFINITELY too much product”, and yet I still haven’t had any classic leave-in products results. While so many other leave-in products in the past may have helped with the downside of leaving my hair covered in residue or just otherwise feeling a little nasty — this product has all of the benefits, and so far no downsides.

Does this sound like the hair product you’ve been dying to try? Check it out on Aveda’s website here!

Happy last day of January, everyone! I hope you all had a great month and managed to achieve your goals. I’m personally beyond excited for February — I have a lot of big plans that I can’t wait to put into action! What are your February goals? Drop a comment below and let me know!

Xo,

Meredith

Thursday Favourites: January 9th

11 Comments
Ouai’s Treatment Masque

Hey y’all! Happy Thursday!

Growing up, I honestly never paid much attention to my own hair. I never straightened or curled it, I didn’t choose shampoos based on my hairs needs, and with exception of a brief period in time where I regularly used moroccan oil, I really didn’t add any other products to my hair.

However, as time went on, I began to experiment one product in my hair regularly: hair dye. During high school and my early years in university, all I wanted to do was dye my hair all kinds of colours. My mom wasn’t much of a fan, so I wasn’t allowed to go to crazy — I was mostly limited to colourful streaks (I usually went for purple or red). However, university rolled around and with my newfound freedom came that classic eighteen year old need to do something a little crazy. However, I still to this day haven’t been able to commit to a single tattoo idea (even though I really do want one) and the concept of box dye scared me, so, I went to Lush and bought some henna. (As I’ve discussed before, DO NOT BUY THIS WITHOUT DOING RESEARCH FIRST. You can’t dye your hair again until all the henna dyed hair has grown out and has been cut off. If you have no intention of dyeing your hair otherwise for the next year or so, by all means go for it! Just make sure you consider what you may want in the future and do a little research first.)

However, it wasn’t until I started dyeing my hair blonde that I really realized the importance of caring for my hair. While I loved being blonde, bleaching your hair can be a super damaging process (especially when your hair is as dark as mine is). For the first few months, my hair was always frizzy and dry — and suddenly I was thrown into the world of hair care and hair masks.

Over the years, I’ve used many masks and treatments — some I loved, others I didn’t. While I’ve eventually had to give up on certain brands simply because their products were too hard to find or repurchase, I’ve finally found what actually might be the PERFECT mask — and, I can just get it at Sephora!

As many of you guys already know, Ouai has quickly been becoming one of my favourite brands for hair and body products since I first received their Leave-In Conditioner in a FabFitFun box. In fact, this has already been the fourth time I’ve featured Ouai in a Favourites Post — isn’t that crazy? (If you want to hear which of their other products I’m obsessed with, be sure to check them out here!).

Similarly to their Scalp and Body Scrub, I was introduced to the Ouai Treatment Masque in one of Sephora’s sample boxes — but I just recently purchased this full-sized and I couldn’t be happier with it. First of all, this product is INCREDIBLY thick and luxurious without being heavy or greasy. Honestly, I don’t know how they’ve done it, but not once have I ever used this and felt like my hair felt weighed down after drying it out. While it is super creamy in texture and hydrating in nature, it doesn’t add excess weight your hair doesn’t need — which keeps it looking voluminous and healthy.

Second of all, I have noticed a HUGE difference in the shine and health of my hair since I started using this product. My hair, no joke, is probably the softest it’s ever felt in it’s life. Since my hair still has bleach damage near the ends, I used to struggle a lot with my ends drying out if I went too long without washing my hair. This mask has completely changed that — my dry, frizzy ends are nothing more than a memory now. (Which makes my life a lot easier, honestly, since if I have to swing a dry shampoo day it makes my hair look and feel a lot less gross overall.)

If this sounds like the hair mask you’ve been desperately needing in your life, be sure to check it out at Sephora here!

I hope you’re all having a lovely week and are still soaking up all that post-new years motivation! I, for one, have been having one of the most productive weeks I’ve had in a while — fingers crossed I can keep up this energy for all of 2020!

Don’t forget to stay tuned for my first holiday vacation post this weekend — I can’t wait to share my trip with you all! Over the next two Sunday’s I’ll be sharing both my trip to West Palm Beach and Disney World, Florida with you guys, so get excited to read all about it!

Xo,

Meredith

Tuesday Favourites: October 15th

5 Comments
La Biosthétique Expert Treatment Protection Cheveux Complexe Express Care Volume and Ouai Leave-In Conditioner

Hey y’all!

Quick update — when I started this weekly segment, I simple chose Tuesday because that was the day I wrote my first review on. At the time, I scheduled my other blog posts around this — Sunday’s made the most sense for a weekly post, with a post on Thursday as well to even out the week’s schedule. Since then, however, I took a step back and limited myself to two posts a week — something that has really been working for me and I’m likely going to stick with.

So, now, I’m looking for some feedback. While it feels strange to change the day of a weekly segment I’ve had since the start of my blog, I also feel it would make a lot more sense to move this segment to Thursday and have my posts be spread more evenly throughout the week. What do you guys think? Have my reviews impacted you at all? Do you have a preferred topic — makeup, skincare or haircare? Are you still enjoying this segment, or would you like to see something new? Or, alternatively, would you rather I put all my effort towards one great post a week and abandon this segment entirely? I’d really love to hear from you guys about what’s working for you and what isn’t, and I’ll be sure to update depending on the feedback you guys give me! If you’re really loving the posts and still want one every Tuesday, let me know! Otherwise, I’ll continue the segment on Thursdays from now on (or whatever else your feedback and advice suggests is best!).

Anyways, let’s get into this weeks review. This Tuesday, I decided to discuss some of my hair favourites — the La Biosthetique Expert Treatment Protection Cheveux Complexe Express Care Volume spray and the Ouai Leave-In Conditioner!

As I’ve discussed before, I used to bleach my hair and still have problems to this day with the bleached portion being uber dry and damaged. It takes a lot of effort to care for bleached hair, and for years the products I used just weren’t cutting it. My hair was so dry and frizzy, nothing seemed to help.

With enough time (and a lot of trial and error) however, I found a combination of products that helped my hair grow in healthy and stay healthy, even with all the processing my hair had been through. Since i’ve returned to being brunette, luckily, my hair has already started to grow in more healthy naturally, but these products still do an amazing job of taking care of my bleached-out ends.

The first product, from La Biosthetique, is a leave-in treatment meant to help restructure, strengthen, and moisturize hair. I love this treatment because its so easy — you just spray it into your roots before drying your hair and massage it down to your ends and voila! Since i’ve began using this product, not only has my grown-out, bleached hair become stronger and more resilient, but my hair growing in is so much stronger and healthier than my hair has ever been before, even before I started bleaching it.

The second product, Ouai’s Leave-In Conditioner, is pretty self-explanitory from the name. However, what I love about this specific product is how light-weight it is — it doesn’t leave any residue at all, and doesn’t weigh down the ends of your hair one bit. I was nervous to try this product initially for these exact reasons; I had received this product in a FabFitFun box and had never heard of the brand before. I should have known better, because FabFitFun has honestly never let me down, and neither does this product. I spray a little in my ends before blow-drying, and it helps keep them shiny and moisturized despite how damaged they are.

That’s it for this weeks review! If either of these products sound like just what you’ve been looking for, be sure to check out La Biosthetique’s Leave-In Treatment here and Ouai’s Leave-In Conditioner here!

Thanks for reading y’all! I hope you’re enjoying these segments, and I really would appreciate any feedback you could give, big or small, in the comments below so I can tailor these posts to your best interests!

Stay tuned for this Sunday’s post, and to keep updated on what I choose for the future of this segment!

Lots of Love,

Meredith