Hello sunshine!

Could we really be on to a winner now on the weather front? Has Summer finally arrived? Here’s hoping! To celebrate we thought we’d share our recent forays into the hair products arena where we’ve been trialling and testing various styling aids to see what we make of them. Essentially we’ll do the hard work so you don’t have to! Aren’t we good to you…

Let’s get started…

Lauren

I wash my hair everyday (I know, I know, I just can’t break the cycle) so I’m conscious of the heat damage from the constant hair drying. Air drying leaves me with a limp and flyaway mat so I was tickled pink to get my hands on Bumble & Bumble’s ‘Don’t Blow’ It which promises to give me an air-dried textured look with a product-free feel.

According to my hairdresser I have a LOT of fine, very porous hair with a very slight natural wave which usually takes around four to five hours to dry naturally. In this five hour period my hair often perform a metamorphosis from drowned rat to a peculiar flicked out do. This was cool around the time of millennium when the Dido cut was all the rage. Not so much now. So with ‘Don’t Blow’ did I get the tousled & textured look I was hoping for? No, not really, despite scrunching a pea-sized amount through my hair the tousles disappeared and the flicks returned. However my barnet was so much softer and fuller, plus there’s no oily residue from the product which I find often happens when you air dry. It’s clear I need to combine with another product or two to achieve the elusive relaxed style.

I’ve tried a few combos – with salt spray, with my usual Fudge Hair Shaper and then with Bumble and Bumble Texture Creme and found the latter gets the best results. The texture creme is a light, easy to use, non-sticky product which I work in to damp hair (halfway through the air drying process) to get a messy, natural, bed-head kind of look. If you play with it too much it easily loses its hold but if leave it its own devices then you get a matte textured do which lasts the majority of the day.

Lisa

My hair is annoyingly thick and has a tendency to look a bit frizzy if I don’t have time to straighten it. So when one of you lovely readers, Alaw, recommended Moroccanoil following my haircare post I thought I should give it a whirl. I know, I know, I am very late to the Moroccanoil party…

I was delighted to discover that there are a million Morcoccanoil products and still in my online shopping basket are the Frizz Control and Smoothing Shampoo. However I decided to go for the Glimmer Shine spray. I mean, who doesn’t want hair that glimmers and shines? Apparently Glimmer Shine also helps to protect your hair from sun and salt water; I will be in Padstow on the day of this post, hopefully swimming in the Cornish sea, so I will keep you updated about the truth behind that statement!

Now I was expecting this finishing spray to immediately transform me into some silken-tressed goddess which unfortunately it did not. In fact the first time I used it, it just made my hair a bit greasy. However after scrutinising the reviews I realised that I had gone a little overboard with the amount used – apparently you only need the teeniest spritz. So the next time I used it, I sprayed sparingly and was much happier with the results. I can leave my hair to dry naturally, give it a quick spritz, and it looks glossy and shiny and beachy. I’ve even used it on my two year old’s hair as a detangling spray and she now has silky smooth locks too. But the best thing about it? The fact that it’s a spray. It’s all the magic of the original Moroccanoil but because you don’t have to pour it onto your palm, your hands don’t get all greasy in the process. Winner.

Lolly

My hair is naturally curly and by curly I’m talking full on ringlets at the best of times and dragged through a hedge backwards frizz at the worse. Whilst it’s ok to let nature take over and let my mop do its thing on holiday I generally tame my locks into submission using hairdryers and straighteners for the other 95% of the time. It’s easier to maintain and neater too and reduces the number of bad hair days by at least half.

The only problem with all this heat styling is that sometimes my locks can look a bit flat, and a bit sticky-to-the-side-of-the-head. Does that make sense? So off I went on the hunt for something that would add some va-va-voom to my bonce without any sticky or crunchy residue. I wanted my hair to still feel clean despite a styling product being applied to it.

First up…City Swept by Bumble & Bumble. It promises to give lived in, street-styled looks with separation and sheen…I took this to mean that I would basically look French with their nonchalant windswept, great-hair-don’t-care attitude. I didn’t. The reality was that I looked like a slick rick who could have done with a damn good hair wash. Ugh! I’m not sure I’m applying it correctly (I’ve tried with various degrees of application from hardly anything to a decent coverage) without any luck. Have any of you tried the product? Do you love it?

Having disregarded Cityswept I swiftly moved onto Bumble & Bumble’s Dryspun Finish which I adore! It gives me instant lift when sprayed at the roots in-between layers of hair and smells sublime. Plus it doesn’t seem to leave any nasty sticky residue which makes this girl very happy indeed. I’ll definitely be repeat buying.

Last up is another B&B product (what can I say, I really like the brand!) but this time it’s their Prêt-à-Powder which I’m still in two minds about. Equal parts dry shampoo, style extender and volume in a pinch, the product is suitable for all types and textures. Essentially it’s supposed to extend the life of a blow dry which is true since it soaks up any oiliness in a snap but the white powder is quite obvious on my brunette locks however much I really try to rub it in. Have any of you found this?

So there you have it. Have any of you discovered any wonder-products that we simply need to know about? Any of you fans of the brands we’ve named above? Why not share your thoughts in the comments box below…

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