It’s a good hairdryer, y’all. Gotta have a decent hairdryer. It will save you time getting ready, money on products, and so many sad mornings. My last one lasted me eight good years before it began overheating and melting my hair (which would not have happened had I been paying attention, trust—this was a human error problem).
I replaced it with something someone gave me for free, and when it conked out after just a couple (very frizzy) months, I decided to repurchase the one I had before. It’s what I see at all the salons, and there’s a really simple good reason for that: It WORKS.
Well.
OK so I use the Twin Turbo, which is pictured above. There are lots of different kinds. The reason they work is that the air comes out super fast, not super hot, so it can dry your hair without much of a fuss, and no burns if you’re paying attention. You can get some versions for about $70-80 on Amazon, or for twice that at a retail location. It isn’t especially pretty, and it isn’t ceramic-fancy-Sephora-y, but it is the BOSS of my hair, and I love it.
Do you have a good hair dryer?
We are so happy to have Virginia back as a guest blogger. This week she’s taking us inside her beauty school experience, talking about her hair today, her face tomorrow and her body on Friday. Enjoy…
Hello again! It’s Virginia from Beauty Schooled. Last time I visited y’all, we talked about how toxic cosmetics and body image woes sometimes feel like different issues, but actually add up to One Big Beauty Problem. I can personally attest to this because I spent 10 months in beauty school, slathering myself with all manner of toxic goo, and watching my body image get kinda warped in the process. So I thought I’d give you a rundown of just what kind of chemical-laden beauty stuff I dealt with every day at Beauty U—and how they wreaked havoc on my hair and skin.
HAIR:
Full disclosure: My hair has always been my chemical-laden pride and joy. So before beauty school, I was regularly slathering it in all manner of silicone-based anti-frizz creams and shine serums. l also heat styled it straight almost daily for a good 10 years—but about a year before I went to Beauty U, I suddenly decided to embrace less frequent washing, air drying, and my natural waves. My hair was happy and healthy, and a little argan oil was pretty much all it took to keep frizz at bay.
Then I got to beauty school and the esthetics teachers told me over and over again that infrequent hair washing would lead to breakouts. “All that grease is just sitting on your scalp!” they’d exclaim. “It’s just seeping into your pores!” Every time I’d get a facial, they’d extract multiple comedones (that’s school-speak for pimples) around my forehead and hairline and tell me to wash my hair more often. So, I went back to washing it daily. Which meant my hair was dry and frizzy, which meant using gobs of conditioner and styling products to combat that. And even though the bottom half of my hair looked like straw, my scalp went into grease overdrive because I was stripping away all my natural oils with harsh shampoos. Which meant my hair looked dirty the day after I washed it. And so, I wanted to wash it even more.
To be continued tomorrow!
Okydoke, it’s time for the “what our hair was like before we switched to naturals” post. It explains why we launched the Summer Hair Challenge, it’s related to why we wrote the book, and it speaks to one of our core messages, which is: Less is freaking more. Translation: So many of our products bite us in the ass.
I used to be a four-or-five-hair-products-a-day person and I didn’t think that was particularly high-maintenance. It was just that I had poodle hair sometimes, especially in the summer. I live in New York and grew up in Montreal, islands both, frizzy-hair-makers both. And frizz, every girl knows, sucks eggs. And so I used products.
I used to wake up, hop in the shower, use Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine shampoo and conditioner, or if I was feeling rich I’d use Rene Furterer’s stuff. Then I’d load Phytodefrisant onto my wet hair, and once blow-dried (and sometimes also ironed), I would use one or two finishing serums that probably had silicone or some other garbage in it.
My hair looked how I wanted it to look, but do the math: that’s expensive, and a pain. I was also unwittingly exposing myself to 11 of the 20 ingredients on our Black List—daily. (For more on what’s in shampoo, check this out.)
Anyway, eventually I realized the unmanageableness (?) of my hair was squarely the fault of the products I was using, and when I made the switch, my hair chilled out. Ever seen a baby with decimated ends? Do we think Pocanhontas had flyaways?
But as we have said in the past: if you’ve made the switch to clean products and are still beefing with some frizz, here are my two favorite tricks: spritz with pure aloe juice in a spray bottle before drying, and for a finisher, argan oil—just a dab, smoothed over the top layer of dry hair.
You got any tricks you like?
Oh hey folks. How’s it going? Good summer so far? How’s your hair been treating you? Misbehaving as usual, hey? We feel ya. And actually, we have a theory about that, and we’d like you to help us prove it. So we are going to propose a challenge:
Some time in the next week, when you get up in the morning, shower, shampoo and condition your hair using nontoxic natural products, comb it when you get out of the shower, and that’s it. Once it’s dry, send us a pic.
Some rules: No sneaking in a little blast from the dryer on your roots, no irons, no natural leave-ins, and certainly no toxic ones. Naked hair, air-dried.
Instructions: As we said above, you have to get it wet, whether you use shampoo and conditioner or both or neither is up to you. You can use a brush or a pick, and that’s it. Once your hair is dry, take a pic with your phone or computer or whathaveyou and send it to us at nomoredirtylooks (at) gmail (dot) com with HAIR CHALLENGE in the subject line.
Please include your first name and where you live, and if you feel like it, tell us what you normally use, how long it takes you to get ready in the morning—and be sure to include what you used the day of the pic, too! Email us by the end of the day Friday, August 13th. Once we’ve compiled them all, we’ll publish them on our site.
Special favor: Help us make sure this is not one of those embarrassing challenges no one actually does. Tell your friends on Twitter, Facebook, at the gym or at the bar. Friend us, follow us, and then RT us, or whatever. Spread the word!
The reason for the challenge: We all wage war with our hair on a semiregular basis, and we want to see what happens when we switch to nontoxic, nonstripping products, and then leave our manes alone. We already did the challenge—those are our pics up top—and we want you all with us. One day! Please?
It’s about to be on, girls.
If you’re a girl who’s spent any amount of time in New York or Montreal in the summertime then you’ve probably wanted to kill yourself over frizzy hair at some point. For years my morning routine went something like this: sleepwalk to shower, wash hair with some frizz-busting shampoo and conditioner (Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine was a favorite), towel dry, slather on a handful of Phytodefrisant and then do something utterly optimistic: I’d blowdry my hair. I’d finish with some leave-in like Frizz-Ease and, confident I’d tamed my hair into submission, book it to work.
Of course, the minute I stepped outside? Bam! Poodle hair.
Those of you who’ve read our sample chapter know that this whole shebang started because of our vain search for perfect summer hair. Well, this is my first summer as a truly clean girl—it’s been over a year since I’ve used chem-y shampoos and conditioners on purpose (and even longer since curly Alexandra has washed her hair at all)—and guess what? Zero frizz.
Now, I only use two hair products: shampoo and conditioner. Half the week I don’t blowdry at all and my hair looks beachy (not poodly), and on the days I bother with the dryer, my mane stays reasonably sleek all day. No leave-ins, no frizz-busters: Just a high-quality shampoo and conditioner, every single day. (Yeah, yeah I’m a daily hair washer.)
My favorite haircare line is John Masters Organics. I live and die by his Lavender Rosemary Shampoo and Lavender and Avocado Intensive Conditioner, but I also love all of Alaffia’s shampoos, and Alba’s Volumizing Conditioner is nice as well.
If you’ve made the switch to clean products and are still beefing with some frizz, here are my two favorite tricks: A spritz of pure aloe juice (like, really, no gunk added please), stored in the fridge in a spray bottle before drying, and for a finisher, pure argan oil—just a dab, smoothed over the top layer of dry hair.
Do you have any natural tricks?
Image via
