Colouring hair (particularly bleaching) and using heat stylers and loads of product can easily leave a girl’s tresses looking dry at the ends, greasy at the roots and lifeless overall.
It’s a hard issue to combat, you think, I need volume, I need moisture – I must need more product!
Image: Toca Boca
But, in fact – loading your hair up with styling products in an attempt to give it a *drink* of sorts only leads to it looking worse. You need a strategic plan of attack to get your hair back into ideal condition. I’ve had this problem so many times after years of being a redhead, a blonde and whatever other colour of the rainbow I was interested in at the time. (FYI flouro pink ends might like awesome on someone like Pixie Geldoff, but its difficult to pull off for too long!). What has worked for me to combat this hair drama is a simple combination of two products. A clarifying shampoo and a leave-in moisturiser/heat protectant. I can recommend two products wholeheartedly here, and anyone invading my bathroom would find them even now with pride of place on my shelf.
First, my pick for a clarifying shampoo, based purely on the fact that its affordable, decent quality, and easy to get at the drop of a hat is the TRESemme’ Cleanse and Replenish Deep Cleansing Shampoo.
For the 900ml bottle it will set you back around $11.49, but I always pick mine up when Priceline are having a sale (which they are right now, this week actually). On sale you can get almost a litre of this stuff for $5 and it will last you for ages. Total bargain!
The Tresemme shampoo does the job of clearing out all that built up oil and product from all the volumizing and moisturising products that have come before it. It also strips away any mousses, hair sprays and gels/oils you’ve been piling on in an attempt to get your hair looking lush again.
Will a squeaky clean scalp and locks you can get a fresh start and work on hydrating your hair, not overloading it.
For some who have super dry hair this shampoo may be too much to use all the time, so just alternate it with whatever other shampoo and conditioner you’ve been using. It won’t really matter as long as you give your hair a good clean with this once a week at least. I use it more frequently than that but it depends on your hair type. For conditioner, I chop and change and found it hasn’t really mattered what you’re using because the important second step happens when you’re out of the shower. You may want to use a conditioner to maintain your colour here, I like the John Frieda Colour Enhancing Conditioner for blondes, and the Tigi Bed Head Colour Combat for reds, but its up to you.
After you’ve washed and towel dried your hair, then comes time for the moisture infusion. I only use one product for this, it doubles as my heat protectant and I use it to tame fly aways too. It’s a beautiful product with a multitude of uses and plenty of people I know have been total addicts with this stuff. Nothing else compares.
It’s the Kerastase Nectar Thermique. This product is marketed as a heat protectant for very dry course hair, but I have fine hair, dry nonetheless, and its remarkable for it.
It comes in a box with 150mls inside and is a melt between your fingers cream, light and easily absorbed. The trick is to work about ten cent piece amount between your hands and work throughout that still slightly damp hair from about an inch or two below your roots to the ends.
Blow dry as normal and then if you use straighteners work a teeny amount more through each strand before you press it through the hot tool and this will ensure sleek shiny hair no matter what. Trust me, you won’t believe the difference.
It must be said though this is a routine. You will need to use the Nectar Thermique and clarifying shampoo regularly for a couple of weeks to see the full effects but you should be on your way to beautiful soft light hair in no time.
The Nectar Thermique is on the expensive side, but worth every penny. It retails for $39.50 in Kerastase salons, which are the only places that stock it in store. Check the Kerastase website to find your local retailer.
I bought my first batch that way because I couldn’t wait. But if you are like me and this becomes a staple in your hair care regime, you can pick it up from the UK retailer Look Fantastic who have free shipping to Australia. It costs £15 pounds from them, around $22.95 Aussie, but subscribe to their newsletter for useful promo codes and sales are you can get it for even less. They have codes all the time. Look Fantastic are legitimate and very good to deal with, however it does come from the UK so allow around 3 weeks shipping time.
Tresemme is available at Woolworths, Coles, Bi-Lo, Kmart, Target, Big W, Priceline, Franklins, and selected pharmacies and independent supermarkets
Check out their website here for a full list of stockists.
Here’s to happy hair days!
Xxx
BeautyScholar
I’m not sure if you can even notice the difference, but the tint just added a little bit of warmth and sheen to my lips, perfect for every day wear, and the product is also 95% organic, which is always nice when it’s something you’re likely to ingest at some stage (in tiny amounts of course!). It was also really conditioning and soothed my lips which have a tendency to be quite dry.