Here we go again. Ever since Siobhan asked how everyone’s preparing for the heat, my brain’s been on a one track loop that goes: highlights highlights highlights…
It’s a serious conundrum for a clean girl this whole hair dye thing, one we’ve talked about here and here and here (and about ten other places). There are many reasons not to do it of course. Par example, much like nail polish, there’s just no such thing as a totally clean dye.
Specifically for moi, getting highlights means: 1. some toxic exposure; 2. getting my hair washed and living with the subsequent frizz for a month; 3. feeling like a bit of a hypocrite. On the plus side the place I go to is sorta-natch, the highlights I get don’t touch my scalp, and freaking-A, they’re pretty!
A bit of a late bloomer on this, highlights were something of a revelation when I finally tried them last spring, lightly painted on in places where the sun would naturally lighten (if I surfed, like everyday). For a thick mop like mine, a little caramel color can go a long way in making my head look like less of a curl-helmut, as I’m sure some of you can relate.
And while I know I’m a grown woman who can make her own decisions and all that, S and I have really taken to asking you guys for your (strong, ahem) opinions and advice! So let’s hear em.
More interesting still: What do you do with your hair? Highlights? Au naturelle 4life? And how weird is this picture choice?
OK, first thing’s first: I’ve definitely said many times on this site and elsewhere that I don’t use leave-ins. It’s not that I was lying, exactly, it’s just that I don’t rely on leave-ins to get my hair looking and feeling the way I want. I’m not attached to them. I can take them or leave them, pretty much. That was my refrain, until I realized that I actually do use leave-ins. Like, every day.
It all started when the seasons changed and I started using a hairdryer more often. Always one to cut corners when it comes to hair drying, I thought using a product might shorten the time it takes to get my hair looking just so. Which is why, one day a couple of months ago, I was rifling through the cabinet where I store my extra products, and found a bottle of gel.
Gel, eh? I thought. Who uses gel? The answer, it turns out, is moi.
As you can see from above, the product is Max Green Alchemy Styling Gel. I. Love. This. Product. I’ve actually mentioned it in the past; the bottle has been lying around for a while, and I’ve used it on occasion to airdry my waves during summer months, or smooth my ends. It works great for that, but I like it even better on straight styling, with a dryer.
A word about the gel thing. I’m not picking bones here, but I wouldn’t really call it that. Yes, it has a gel-like consistency but it doesn’t dry crunchy, or wet-looking, and it doesn’t provide much hold, at least on my head of heavy hair. What it does is smooth the shaft so that drying is at least a third quicker than it normally is, making sleek straight styles really pretty effortless. My hair looks shiny, has nice volume at the roots, and movement, but isn’t weighed down at all. No residue. No stickiness. And the stuff washes out with one shampoo, so no build-up, either.
Finally, it also doesn’t smell much like anything, which is good because I’m still obsessed with the smell of my shampoo and conditioner, and might have an issue with a product that competes with that.
Ingredients: Herbal Infusion [Purified Water (Aqua), (Glycyrrhiza Glabra* (licorice) Root, Tussilago Farfara+ (coltsfoot) Leaf, Achillea Millefolium* (yarrow), Salix Alba+ (willow), Tabebuia Impetiginosa+ (pau díarco), Arctium Lappa* (burdock) Root, Berberis Aquifolium (mahonia), Calendula Officinalis* (calendula), Equisetum Arvense* (horsetail), Urtica Dioica* (nettle)], dehydroxanthan gum (plant derived styling agent), Hydrolysed Soy Protein, Aloe Barbadensis* (aloe vera) Leaf, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Anisate, Panthenol (pro vitamin B5), Leptospermum Petersonii (lemon tea tree), Melaleuca Alternifolia* (tea tree), Lavandula Angustifolia* (lavender), Pelargonium Graveolens* (geranium), Rosemarinus officinalis* (rosemary).*Organic +Wildcrafted
Have you ever tried it? Got another leave in you like? Stay tuned, by the way…. There are two other leave-ins I love just as much.
Let the covers of women’s magazines tell it and you’d think seasonal change only means one thing: getting your body beach-ready (do people really do this?). But for me, it’s always meant getting my hair right.
I’m a huge fan of letting my mane do its thing during warmer months (see last year’s fun summer-hair challenge, for proof), but after a long winter of daily heat styling and dry air, my hair has seen better days. I suspect I am not alone in this! And so I want to help.
The most important aspects of any hairdo are, of course, healthy hair and a good cut. I love my hairdresser, and if he weren’t gay I might want to marry him, but I’m trying to let my hair get longer, so I’m spacing out my visits. HOWEVER! The waves I so love when I air-dry are, well, limp now.
In order to get things looking better as it grows out, I’ve tried LOTS of products and even—gasp—one dirty one. I won’t tell you about that one because it gave me a rash and I only used it once, but I will share five clean products I tried and loved. And if you don’t like these, or want to save your cash, there’s always coconut oil. And avocados.
1. Argan Oil (prices vary)
Arganoilarganoilarganoil. I’m a broken record, I know (there’s nothing like the zeal of a convert, right?). I’ve slept with Kahina Giving Beauty and Amal argan oils in my hair many times, and the next day, after a light shampoo, my hair always looks and feels and smells amazing, with no greasy buildup. I do it extremely rarely for a simple reason: It’s just too “rich” for my stupid hair. Not rich like heavy, rich like expensive. For the price I pay—and I believe it’s worth every cent—it means my face gets to use it, not my split ends.
2. Max Green Alchemy Scalp Rescue Styling Gel ($12.99)
I’m wild about this gel. I put it on my ends wet or dry and it holds nicely. I also sometimes use a pea-sized amount on the hairs around my face, when the hair is still wet. It’s not a typical gel—the texture reminds me a little of aloe—there’s no crunchiness or wet look, obviously, and the ingredients are squeaky clean. It’s nongreasy and smells light and fresh in a unisex kind of way, which gives you full license to throw out your boyfriend’s Dippity Do when he’s not looking.
3. Rare E’lements EL Treatment ($44)
This serum-like treatment is delightful. We both love it and use it with some frequency as an overnight treatment or a leave-in for day on our ends. It smells incredible. Like, “Ooooo! What perfume are you wearing?” incredible, thanks to the ylang ylang and other scented oils. I might go so far as to say that, with frequent use, my ends actually look markedly better than they did. I try to avoid overpromising, but this product really is a winner, and it seems to be more of a winner the more I use it. A dab will do ya, and even with several-times-a-week use, I have a long way to go before I’ll have to repurchase.
4. Whatever is left on my hands after I apply body oil ($0)
Oil-rich body lotions or body oils contain a lot of the same ingredients as natural hair treatments, so if your lotion pour was on the generous side, use the leftovers on your wet hair before drying. I do this probably two or three times a week instead of using a hair product, and it works well. Plus, it saves money and encourages the kind of ingredient savvy and multitasking we’re fond on.
5. Intelligent Nutrients Certified Organic Volumizing Spray ($29)
To prove how clean this product is, Horst made me drink it when I met him. Little did I know it would become the only go-to hair product I would use and reuse for almost two years straight. A word about the name: Maybe it’s because my hair is heavy to begin with, but I’ve never understood why this product is called a volumizer. That said, we both absolutely love it as a leave-in, and have been using it and repurchasing it religiously since we discovered it while writing the book. (Other ladies: Please weigh in if you have tried it and found it gave you a boost at the roots! Is this a volumizer for you?) One bottle lasts several months to half a year, it smells incredible, and it helps smooth wild ends and flyaways. It also makes heat styling much easier.
OK your turn. What have you tried as a hair treatment? And do you do the beach-body thing? (Just kidding!)
Vintage hairdryers via
If this news is any indication, salons may soon require hazmat suits for its workers… That’s hyperbole, of course, but:
The Department of Labor has issued an official immediate safety warning about formaldehyde-containing hair-smoothing products like the Brazilian Blowout. This is big news—HUGE*—and speaks to how much things really are (slowly) changing when it comes to the wild west of chemicals used in cosmetics and cosmetic procedures.
Federal OSHA is recommending that salons that carry out the procedure follow the following guidelines:
- Give workers respirators
- Give employees appropriate gloves and other personal protective equipment (e.g., face shield, chemical splash goggles, chemical-resistant aprons)
- Post signs at entryways to any area where formaldehyde is above OSHA’s limit**
- Tell workers about the health effects of formaldehyde
Writing:
Recent reports from Oregon OSHA, California OSHA, and now Federal OSHA should alert salon owners and stylists to look closely at the hair smoothing products they are using to see if they contain methylene glycol, formalin, methylene oxide, paraform, formic aldehyde, methanal, oxomethane, oxymethylene, or CAS Number 50-00-0. All of these are names for or treated as formaldehyde under OSHA’s Formaldehyde standard. Products containing them can expose workers to formaldehyde; employers who manufacture, import, distribute, or use the products must follow OSHA’s formaldehyde standard.
The Environmental Working Group also has a new report out called Flat Out Risky that is loaded with information we haven’t had a chance to sift through yet (we just wanted to get this information out to you!).
Also, note that the hazard warning cites new lab reports in which “formaldehyde-free” products proved to contain formaldehyde after all. So in case you were still wondering about whether or not you should do it, and whether or not that “greener” Brazilian blowout really is, consider this your answer!
*Big kisses to anyone who gets that reference.
** OSHA’s limit is 0.75 parts of formaldehyde per million parts (or ppm) of air during an 8-hour work shift or 2 ppm during any 15-minute period.
Yesterday I made the (possibly ill-advised) decision to take two yoga classes in a row, because I had some kinks I needed to work out, as it were, and because Jupiter just entered my sixth house (kidding! sort of!). It was therapeutic and surprisingly energizing, but I woke up this morning feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. Plus, my apartment was an icebox. Getting out of bed was going to be a toughie.
What saved me was the simple knowledge that, thanks to dry shampoo, I could lay there under the duvet lazily hitting snooze and still make it to work on time. After I showered with a towel on my head, I went looking for the Lulu Organics dry shampoo Spirit Demerson gave me as a book-launch present in July. Curveball? The bottle was empty.
With no time to wash my hair and a job that requires me to look presentable every day, I had to improvise. In my medicine cabinet I found a bottle of Dr. Hauschka Body Silk, a powder. I googled the ingredients and found that the first ingredient was rice starch. Perfect! I thought. I’ve sprinkled that gluten-free-girl’s staple in my hair more times than I can count, with great results. But I’m out of that too. No matter, because the Dr. H formula not only worked great, it also smells like roses (literally).
Dry shampoo is one of man’s greatest contributions to womankind. It’s a powdery solution you can spray or sprinkle onto your hair on days when you don’t feel like washing it. It can extend the life of a blowout, save you from looking like a greaseball, and add a really amazing texture to your tresses. It also gives a little volume at the roots.
The problem, as with many beauty products, is that some of the conventionals can be really toxic. It may just look like powder, and it may have names that look (or even explicitly claim to be) natural, but many of them contain BHT, aluminum starch octenylsuccinate, butane, coumarin and synthetic fragrance, to name just a few. And you’re at risk of inhaling the stuff.
So we think it’s best to simple, natural and cheap. You don’t need propellant gasses pushing it out of a spray can any more than you need aluminum. All you need is something starchy and dry that can absorb your oils and stick to the hair.
I’ve tried rice starch, Lulu Organics and Dr. H’s body powder—all of which work great for me. I’ve also tried baking soda, which worked less well.
Your turn. Do you use dry shampoo? If so what do you use? And when?
OK folks, sorry for not getting to this sooner! Without further ado, I will now review my other favorite conditioner—the one that costs 10 bucks instead of a whopping (and, in my opinion, worthwhile) $28. Drumroll please…
It’s Alaffia’s Virgin Coconut and Shea Daily Conditioner! I’ve tried most of the Alaffia conditioners except the one for curly hair (though I bet it would be great for air-drying my waves), and while I think they’re all good enough, this is the only one I will purchase over and over again when I run out. I think it’s just fantastic.
I also love the company. I met Alaffia’s wonderful founder Olowo-n’djo Tchala last year, thanks to the natural makeup artist Jessa Blades, and knowing what I do about how he runs his business, and how much he gives back to Togo, where the shea is from, I feel great every time I buy one of his products. (I’d also like to give a quick shout out to the insanely rich shea butter cream, too, which soothed my friend’s horrible sunburn this summer after a day at the beach. It even prevented his skin from peeling altogether—and it was quite the sunburn.)
Anyway, I’d put off trying the daily conditioner because I assumed something “daily” would be really light on moisture. Not the case. We can thank the certified-fair-trade shea and the hair-friendly coconut oil for the insanely moisturized, high-shine hair I get when I use this puppy. Moisturized and bouncy. The butters don’t weigh down my rather heavy hair, which is miraculous, as far as I’m concerned.
I also like the smell better than the others. The one that smells like minty coffee is refreshing but the smell kind of went sour on my hair over the course of the day, and the honey conditioner felt a little perfumey for my taste. This one, however, smells juuuuust right to me.
Best of all it seems to work on all hair types. A girlfriend with long, thin, wavy brown hair likes it a lot, and so does an African American guy I know with short extremely tight curls. Could it be that it just works for everyone? Mais oui!
Let us know your favorite natural conditioners in the comments, and if you’ve tried any of Alaffia’s.
UPDATE: We now have a LOT of responses to this and wanted to bump it up to share the comments with you guys. You can probably skip to the comments if you read this site with any frequency. It’s really all about you, the readers, with this puppy. So read! And add!
Hello! Let’s have a little fun, since we know we are not the only ones who have gone down the Brazilian blowout road. As the bad press continues, we want to hear your Brazilian blowout stories:
1. Did you do it at home or in a salon?
2. Did your eyes hurt/nose bleed/hair smell funny? Or did nothing bad happen?
3. What was it called: keratin styling, old standby “Brazilian” or something else?
4. Did you do it again? (Do you still do it?) Did your hair get dry and weird two months later, as ours did?
For those of you who have not read the book or listened to us talk about this ad nauseam, a recap: We wrote the book because we went for Brazilian blowouts, had a sort of scary experience—much coughing, protective goggles, and hair that smelled like toxic chocolate for way, way too long—and decided we should investigate what was in it. We also noticed that after a few weeks, our hair looked like garbage, and it was a long time before it went back to normal.
But right after we did it? Boy were we excited. The pic of me up top is from right after the treatment: I look grumpy, but not because of my hair. That’s what my hair looked like without a blowdryer for a while, in the August humidity. Swoon! Except not really. That’s Alexandra’s hair about a month or so in—and the magic of the blowout was already beginning to reverse itself (you should see the pictures she took at two months).
Anyway, we want to hear your experiences. Please answer our questions in the comments section (or tell us a different story about it) and if, like us weirdos, you saved your post-Brazilian pics send them to us at nomoredirtylooks (at) gmail (dot) com.
A few weeks ago we were discussing seasonal product changes. (We were also, I’m reminded, using old movie posters for our blog posts.) I’ve noticed that for my face, all I had to do was use a little more argan oil and eat some avocados to get it back in balance in this cold New York weather. My hair, though? Not so much. I needed a new conditioner, and I needed it bad, so I booked it to Whole Foods and decided on two new bottles—one high-end and one that cost a third its price. I’ll tell you about the cheaper on next week, but for now, let’s talk about the Cadillac conditioner: John Masters Organics Honey and Hibiscus Hair Reconstructor.
I’ll admit I have a love-hate relationship with this product. I used to use it all the time; it was my go-to. At a certain point, though, I had to try new things (occupational requirement, obvs), which I didn’t mind, because this one costs a grip ($28), the bottle is small (4 oz.) and I have a lot of hair. I go through conditioner like nobody’s business.
And yet there I was in Whole Foods, and that little brown bottle was calling to me. I reread the ingredients to make sure they hadn’t reformulated, and to reassure myself that this would be money well spent: honey, hyaluronic acid, hibiscus, oils, butters, BMS—basically a detangling, moisturizing and moisture-locking extravaganza.
And so I went for it. I’ve been using it several times a week for about a month now and the verdict? My hair feels incredible. I wish it didn’t! I wish I could say the high-end conditioner thing was hooey! But in this case, it’s just not. This conditioner is very hydrating, it doesn’t weigh me down (no small feat with my heavy hair) and it smells lovely. I’ve also found my hair to be shinier than it was, and less tangly.
So blast you—and bless you—John Masters. You make a mean conditioner.
Do you have a high-end conditioner you swear by?
(And don’t worry! Next week I’m going to tell you about my other favorite conditioner, which costs about seven bucks.)
We were curled up last night with the new issue of Glamour and a cup of tea when we came across a reader-submitted questions page. Should I, the reader asked, do an at-home Brazilian blowout? Or is this something best left to the pros?
We were so excited! Here was a great opportunity for a major women’s magazine that we read every month (though, really, we read them all) to say something meaningful and instructive about the dangers of this sometimes-formaldehyde-laced hair treatment.
Finally, we thought, the issue has gone mainstream, and now, even the majors have been compelled by the incontrovertible evidence that the Brazilian, even when it’s labeled formaldehyde-free, can contain dangerous amounts of a dangerous chemical.
Alas.
That’s not what the article said. Instead, the expert said yes, in most cases, hair straightening treatments are best left to the pros (which is true, but there was no mention of maybe not doing it at all, despite the squawking headlines all over town about how potentially dangerous it is). They went on to say that if price or convenience was a concern to try some at-home blow-dry kits instead. Specifically one by Garnier.
Clearly, Glamour really, really likes this one in particular. They wrote about it in their September print issue, too.
Now, granted, this is not the same thing as a Brazilian blowout, and from the ingredients list we just read, it is formaldehyde-free. Yes, there may be a lesson to be learned from the recent events in Oregon, and we know that labels don’t always tell the truth. But let’s assume this label is telling the truth, because we have absolutely no reason to suppose it isn’t. There are still a half-dozen or more chemicals in this at-home treatment that we would never go near, and don’t think you—or Glamour’s readers and editors—should either.
Now ethics and chemicals aside, there’s one more problem: We admit that neither of us has tried this product but we’ve read enough beauty-blog comment sections to know that a lot of women are very disappointed with the results. One of our own readers even sent us a note a while back to say it didn’t deliver—making it hard for us to believe that this is really the be-all end-all of smooth hair.
Here’s to doing a better job next time.
Note: We originally linked to some ad-editorial stuff on Glam.com accidentally mistaking it for Glamour. Stupid us, seriously. We apologize. But we stand by everything else we said.
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!
