Current Hair Routine/Products

Hello dear readers,

I thought I'd do an actual beauty-related post this time [shock! horror!] despite my recent lack of confidence. Please excuse yet another lousy Macbook photo below, as this was the only photo I could get tonight that actually gives you a decent idea of the shape my hair takes on naturally. This way you have an idea of how my hair ends up once I'm done with it [sounds rather scary, doesn't it?].

Insert appropriately poor quality hair shot here:

I've rather simplified my hair routine lately, not that it was ever complicated. No gels or cremes this time. So here we are:

I start out most days by soaking my hair to get out some build up, squeezing the water out and just conditioning. On the days I wash my hair, I simply shampoo first and then condition, letting the conditioner sit throughout the whole of my shower. I use Garnier Fructis, alternating among the Color Shield, Triple Nutrition, and Length and Strength lines. 

                                  

No, my hair is not colored at all and never has been. However, I quite like the conditioner for the Color Shield range. There really isn't any particular ingredient in that line that is good for colored hair, actually, so I don't think I would recommend it for colored hair based on that knowledge alone. There's also no particular reason I use these lines, because I don't actually believe that shampoos and conditioners are all that different. The ingredients are very similar, and the Length and Strength won't actually make hair grow longer. The only time I've ever used a bad shampoo was an Aussie anti-frizz shampoo that made my hair deflate completely [and that's REALLY  hard to do]. Bottom line is: I always come back to the Garnier range because I can trust any of their shampoos and conditioners to get the job done without weighing down my hair or making it blow up.

After shampooing and/or conditioning, I comb my hair and squeeze out excess water before wrapping it in a T-shirt for twenty to thirty minutes to get out some of the water and prevent a bit of frizz from cropping up. There are quite a few tutorials on how to do this, but I learned how to use the T-shirt method from the video on this website. My hair has a lot less frizz than it did with towel drying. Of course, my hair is nowhere near dry even after towel drying, but it certainly helps.

After I take it out, I comb my hair again, spray in some leave-in conditioner and scrunch. Once it's a bit dryer I use a smoothing serum. The serum I use, as you may know from my review in this post, is Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Smoothing Serum.

I love this product because it's not too slippery of a serum and it doesn't make my hair greasy. I concentrate the application on the back of my hair towards the bottom half, especially on the ends, and smooth the excess close to my roots. The only way it can make hair greasy is if you apply a huge amount  at the roots, which I never do. 

I don't have a set leave-in conditioner. The pictures you're seeing are from after using the It's a 10 Miracle Leave-in Product. Honestly, I think it's just an average leave-in conditioner/detangler. I don't understand what's so special about it, and there are no miracle ingredients, but you can read my rant about that here. 

I've also been using up my V05 Detangle and Shine Restoring leave-in conditioner, which is just as good but a little less thick as the It's a 10 Miracle Leave-in Product. I would like to find a different one when I run out of these, so if you know of any, do share, whether it's a creme or a spray.

I then, as I said, just comb through my hair and scrunch through the ends, following up with the smoothing serum. The following day I simply put some more serum in my hair and go, before conditioning again/shampooing and conditioning at night. Quite simple, really.

I'll insert some pictures of my hair today, the day after the first picture of me you see above. And, lo and behold, I've actually put on some concealer and lipstick, so you're not seeing a picture of me with faded off makeup! Exciting, I know.

Also, my hair looks a different color simply because different lighting picks up different colors in my hair, which I quite enjoy. Here they are:

My hair is actually longer than it looks, as I tried to demonstrate with the oh-so-graceful head tilt in the last photo, and is quite thick. As you can see, I like to rock the natural texture these days, and so my scrunching with gel-cremes days are over, at least temporarily. It's not to everyone's taste, but it is my hair, and I can always say I'm rocking the messy beach look. Now ain't that handy!

Hope you enjoyed the little peek into the world of my simple haircare, even if that peek was rather grainy and slightly pixelated. I hope you got the basic idea. Let me know if you know of any great leave-in conditioners.

To embracing the natural you [with a little help from some friendly neighborhood hair products]!

xEsther

P.S. In case you were wondering, I'm never affiliated with/endorsed/sponsored by any of the brands I talk about. The It's a 10 was given to me for free by my old hairstylist to try to get me to fall in love and buy some more! I hadn't even thought to mention this before, but I suppose I should.