A Little Tease

A few months ago, I happened to meet a very cool woman at R/S: like me, she was born in and grew up in a foreign country, like me she was in a relationship with a ginger, and like me she is mom to two boxers. I'm a great believer in destiny, and 3 coincidences just seems liked the universe was trying to tell me something. Turns out, she is a hair stylist: clearly, the universe was telling me it was time to do something different with my hair!!!

Carolina works at Tease in Lakewood, and I decided to go in for a blowout to give her a try! The salon is  super charming with its exposed brick and vintage dressers.

Carolina ended up doing my hair in a side-do that I absolutely LUUURRVVEEED! 

Needless to say, I was back the next week for haircut.

The results from the first haircut: She talked me out of bangs since it was still the beginning of summer, but I absolutely adored the curls and volume!

Over the past month, she put in the bangs (its almost fall after all) and touched up my ombre to make it look more natural (well, as natural as ombre is going to look on someone with SUPER dark hair)

Overall, I am more than pleased with all of my experiences with Carolina. She is extremely knowledgable and can turn a vague description into a real vision. That said, I ALWAYS recommend taking in pictures. Best of all, she will spend the time to show you HOW to style your hair and give you plenty of options to change up your look. So, if you're toying with the idea of a new stylist, I absolutely recommend Carolina at Tease!!!

Product Testing: Brazilian Blowout!

A couple of months ago, I bought a Groupon for a Brazilian Blowout at Studio 247 in Chagrin Falls. I had it done about two weeks ago, and OHMYGOD, why in the world did I wait so long?!?!?

The Brazilian Blowout is different from the Brazilian Keratin treatment (which I have not had, but I've done some research) in a few ways:
1. The Blowout only takes about 90 minutes from start to finish, vs. a reported 2.5-3 hours for the Keratin
2. With the Blowout, you can wash your hair as soon as 12 hours later, although they recommend that you wait as long as possible. The Keratin treatment requires 4 days of no hair-washing, no clips, no hair ties, etc.
3. The Blowout typically starts at $200-$250, while the Keratin has a higher starting price point of $300-$350. For both treatments, most salons will require that you receive a consultation before you get the treatment, which is when they give you your estimated cost.

Now, both products are designed to smooth your hair and decrease frizz, but if you have curly hair, it has the added benefit of making it easier to straighten. Since I have wavy hair, the Brazilian blowout made mine pretty darn straight, although I've been told (by people who've tried it), that the Keratin works better as a straightener than the Blowout if you have curly hair. Both fade out in about 3-4 months, and both require that you use sulphate-free shampoo and conditioners. Both treatments will last longer the less you wash your hair; so if you're an every-day-shampooer, it will not last as long as someone who shampoos only 2-3x a week.

Overall, my hair looks much healthier (even though I'm WAAAYYY overdue for a haircut), is much straighter (and therefore looks longer), has a much shorter drying and styling time, and best of all, its unaffected by humidity!!! I will ABSOLUTELY get this treatment again, and highly recommend it for all of you who have naturally curly/wavy hair, and fight it to straight submission every day!!

Don't call it a wig

So this past weekend, N and I attended the wedding of  clefoodgoddess and richness. It was a beautiful wedding, held at Mon Ami. But that's not what I'm going to blog about since I know that clefoodgoddess will be blogging about that soon. Back to this post: for fun, I decided to try the Jessica Simpson hair extensions. I know, I know, its Jessica Simpson; but hey, she sold a billion dollars worth of merchandise last year so she must doing something right!!

Here's what they looked like:

I absolutely loved having the super long curls for the night! I had them professionally put in, and to be honest, I'm not sure how I would put them in unassisted. That said, I kinda suck at doing complicated hair do's anyway, so if you are skilled at them, you may be able to do them yourself. I also had a bunch of bobby pins holding up the 'do, and I would certainly recommend the extra assistance. I had the 'do in for over 10 hours, and it did get a little heavy towards the end of the night, but it wasn't that bad at all! So there you have it! I would definitely try these again; it was a fun little change with absolutely no commitment.

Product Review: Garnier Blow Dry Perfector

Confession: my hair is naturally wavy. You wouldn't always know it, because I straighten my hair almost every day (except for when Mother Nature refuses to cooperate, and then I just give in to the curls). Anyway, I'm always on the hunt for products that will cut my hair-drying time. And then, two weeks ago, as I watched Project Runway, I saw it. A commercial for Garnier's Blow Dry Perfector Kit!

The claim:
Tames Frizz
Keeps hair smooth and shiny
Provides easier, faster blow dries
Lasts 7 shampoos

So the big question is: does it work?? And I'm happy to say, YES!!! The impact did fade out by shampoo 7, but for the first 6, it absolutely worked (on my hair, anyway. You may not have the same results, depending on your hair texture and condition)! My color and heat treated hair was less frizzy, was definitely more shiny, and my blow-dry time was cut by a whole 5 minutes!! (5 minutes may not seem like much, but in the morning, every extra minute of sleep counts!)

Pros:
You can do this at home for around $12
There was enough product left over for one more treatment (my hair is medium length)
Your hair will feel super soft and silky when you're done

Cons:
It smells. REALLY REALLY BAD. It smells like the old school Nair, a sorta chemically burning smell.
It will take you at least an hour to go through the whole process (maybe longer depending on how long it takes you to style your hair). You have to wash your hair (but not condition), put in the smelly serum and leave it on for 20 minutes, then wash your hair again, put in the pleasant smelling liquid, and then style, including running a flat iron through your hair.  All in all, easily close to an hour, so don't do this if you're in a hurry.

So there you have it. Will I use it again? Yes! If you try it out, let me know what you think!!