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Category Archives: Hair
Dollface Reviews: Goody Volume Boost Hair Comb
A few weeks ago, like the absolute sucker I am, I raced out and bought one of Goody’s Volume Boost Combs, which is designed to, er, boost the volume of your hair. That’s it in the image above, looking a bit like some kind of weird insect. Don’t be fooled by the fact that it looks huge here, either: it’s small enough to fit in my palm, which may make you wonder just how something so small is going to make your hair look so big? You’d be right to wonder that. I kind of wish I’d stopped to wonder about it when I was shelling out £4.99 for it, to be honest, but you know… I love my Bumpit, but it’s not without its issues, and I figured this might be a good option for those days when I was looking to create a smaller, more natural “bump”, without any of that pesky backcombing.
Dollface Reviews: Wella Lifetex Color Reflex Mask in Red
When I wrote about my search for a replacement for John Frieda’s discontinued ‘Radiant Red’ colour mask last month, a couple of you suggested Wella’s Lifetex range, and last week I finally got around to ordering myself a tube of the Color Reflex Mask in red.
This is basically an intensive conditioner which is also designed to have an “illuminating” effect on red hair, giving you an intenser, shinier colour. In other words, it’s a lot like the John Frieda product I loved so much, and as it comes in at roughly the same price point (I paid £7.65 at Feelunique.com) I was really keen to try it.
Dollface Reviews: Liz Earle Naturally Active Haircare
I’ve been using Liz Earle’s skincare products for a few months now, so when they contacted me to ask if I’d like to try out their new haircare range, I obviously wasn’t going to say no!
Using the same principles they apply to their skin range (natural ingredients, no fuss approach, etc), the Naturally Active Haircare range keeps things simple: there’s a “one tube suits all” shampoo, which can be used regardless of your hair type, plus three conditioners – one for normal hair, one for dry or damaged hair and one for oily hair.
My hair very definitely falls into the “oily” category, so I had no problem working out which conditioner to request. Mine is the kind of hair that has to be washed every day without fail: I do occasionally skip a day if I’m planning to wear it up, but even those times where I think I’ll be able to get away without shampooing, I’ll generally find myself back in the bathroom after a few hours, with my head hanging over the bath, desperately trying to wash my hair without also washing off my makeup. Oh, and those greasy roots generally mean that I can wash my hair first thing in the morning and it’ll still be looking limp and greasy by evening: fun times!
Needless to say, then, I requested the conditioner created for oily hair, and received it and the shampoo just over a week ago. My first impressions were that this is definitely a “no nonsense” brand of product: while the squeezable tubes these come in are of a high quality, the design is simple, and there’s none of the fruity scents or bubblegum colours I’ve come to associate with so many hair products these days. Instead, you just have simple, natural ingredients: the shampoo is formulated with West African shea butter, natural source vitamin E, plus apple and orange extracts, while the conditioner contains black cohosh and yangu oil, to make the hair shiny and manageable without weighing it down.
I’ve been using these products since they arrived (in fact, I just used the last of the conditioner today) and the most obvious difference is how much bigger my hair seems when I use these. Generally flat and limp, I noticed that I have much more volume at the roots, which makes my hair look thicker and bouncier than it usually does: something of a novelty for someone with such poker-straight, flat hair! It also seems to stay clean for longer: I’ve still been shampooing every day, but there have been a few days where I felt like my hair didn’t really need to be washed, and just did it anyway out of sheer force of habit.
Overall, I’ve been impressed with this line, and have enjoyed having bigger hair than usual for the past week! This is slightly more expensive than my usual budget buy shampoo and conditioner: both shampoo and conditioner cost £7.50 for the full, 200ml bottle, but if you’d just like to try them out, you can buy the 50ml versions for £4 each.
Click here to buy direct from Liz Earle.
Batiste Shimmer Dry Shampoo: add a touch of gold or silver to your hair
I’ve mentioned Batiste Dry Shampoo a few times now, and swear by it for those days when I just don’t have time (or can’t be bothered) to dry my hair: I also find that if I’m going to attempt an updo or curls, unwashed hair sprayed with this stuff is much better at holding a style than squeaky clean, freshly washed locks.
Batiste have released quite a few variations on their classic spray over the years, and now here’s the latest version: Batiste Shimmer, which comes in your choice of gold or silver, and has exactly the same “dry shampoo” effect as all of the other releases, the main difference being that it’ll add a metallic shimmer anywhere you spray it.
I’m really curious to see what this’ll be like in real life: my one issue with Batiste is that the regular formula can make my roots look grey if I don’t spend lots of time rubbing it in – there are black and brunette versions to help avoid this, but, alas, none for redheads or blondes, and I’m thinking a hint of gold could make an interesting look for a party.
If you want to give either of these a go, they cost £2.99 per can, and are available from Boots and ASOS amongst others.
Pantene: Make a Swisssh, win a holiday
If you live in the UK, you may well have seen the TV adverts for Pantene’s ‘Make a Swisssh’ competition, which asks people to either take a photo or record a video of themselves “swishing” their hair, and post it to the Pantene website.
I saw this advert for the first time a few days after Terry had taken the above photo of me, which was actually taken for Shoeperwoman’s Shoe Challenge, on a very windy day last month. “You should enter!” said my parents, who were with me at the time. “No way!” said I “I never win things like that, and also: it would be embarrassing.” Then, this week? This week I found out that the prize was a holiday. I really like holidays: enough said.
If you’d like to enter the competition yourself, you can click here to upload your photo or video. And if you don’t want to enter, but feel like helping a complete stranger have a chance of winning a holiday, well, you’ll find my entry here (or just type “Amber” into the search box): just click “like” to make my day…
Hair Products: Why are redheads always overlooked?
Well, Dollfaces, I’m pleased to report that last week’s haircut was far less traumatic than I’d anticipated and so, to celebrate, I headed to Boots to buy myself some new hair products. (Is it just me who always wants to buy new hair products after a cut? I always feel like the new hair deserves it somehow. Or that I deserve it, for having survived the trauma of a haircut…)
Specifically, I wanted to stock up on some of John Frieda’s Luminous Color Glaze in ‘Radiant Red’, which, as longtime readers will know, is a product I absolutely love. As well as leaving my hair very shiny and silky, it also makes my natural red that bit more vibrant, so it’s a product I’ve been repurchasing ever since my first review of it, in 2008. Lately, though, it’s been getting harder and harder to find, and I soon found out why: it’s been discontinued, along with the ‘Sheer Blonde’ version of the glaze, although the clear and brunette versions still seem to be being sold. (I emailed John Frieda last week to ask if there are any plans to replace the red and blonde versions, but haven’t had a response from them, so I’ll update this if and when I hear back from them).
Well, I was crushed. It’s always a blow when a favourite product is discontinued, but presumably these hadn’t been selling well enough to justify keeping them in production (it’s entirely possible that I was buying ALL the red glazes, actually…) so I took it on the chin, and begun a search for something to replace it. Here’s the thing though: I didn’t find much. Our local branch of Boots is a big ‘un, and has a huge section dedicated to hair products, but while I found lots of shampoos and conditioners (and even mousses and other styling products) dedicated to making blonde hair blonder and brunette hair browner, other than the John Frieda range, I found very little for us redheads. In fact, a quick glance at that aisle would have easily convinced visitors from another planet that those were the only two hair colours found on planet earth. (I suspect people with jet black hair possibly have the same issues)
When I got home, I got online, and had a quick look for products designed for redheads. That search did turn up a few options, but most seemed to be from higher-end brands (Aveda’s Madder Root Shampoo and Conditioner, for instance, sounds great, but at £22 per bottle, it’s out of my price range.). Of course, I understand that this lack of choice is probably financially motivated. There just aren’t as many redheads as there are blondes and brunettes, so obviously there won’t be as much of a demand for products to suit our colouring, but at the same time, we’re not SO rare that there wouldn’t be any demand at all, and my online searches revealed lots of other redheads, both natural and otherwise, in search of products to enhance our colour, so there could be a great opportunity for some brand to capitalise on that.
In the meantime, I fell back on one of my own favourites – Boots’ Botanics ‘Radiant Red’ which is good, affordable and therefore probably doomed to be discontinued any day now.
Any other redheads out there? What products are you using on your hair?
How often do you get your hair cut?
Beauty confession: it’s been over three months since my last haircut.
Don’t worry, I’ve booked one for tomorrow, but only because I felt I should. Sure, my hair’s looking a little unkempt, but I don’t have any split ends, and I can live with looking like Rapunzel. Well, I can if it means I don’t have to go to the hairdresser’s, anyway…
Here’s the thing, you see: I hate visiting the hairdresser. No offence to any hairdressers who are reading this, by the way: it’s nothing to do with the actual people, who are generally lovely. (Fun fact: when I was in high school, I did work experience at a hairdressers, purely because I thought hairdressers were, like, really cool. They always seemed to be wearing these super-trendy clothes that I, of course, couldn’t afford because, er, my mum and dad wouldn’t buy them for me. And, of course, they always had fabulous hair, and often great nails, courtesy of the beautician who worked there too. It seemed like the best! job! ever!) No, it’s all because of ME, and my issues. Over the past few years, I’ve come to dread visits to the salon. It’s not just because of the famous Mullet Cut of ’08, either. I actually hate everything about the experience:
1. The hair washing, which always involves my neck being bent back over the sink in such a manner that I feel like my head is being severed. Then they’ll start the Indian Head Massage. “Please, no!” I always want to beg. “Let’s just get this over with as quickly as possible. I want to go hoooooommmeeee!”
2. The mirrors
As I’ve aged, I’ve noticed that the mirrors in hair salons have become less and less flattering. I’m going to pretend those two events are unconnected. It. Is. Mortifying. All that time in which to sit and do nothing but stare at my own face, noticing every last line and flaw that I’d never noticed before! The mirror I was seated in front of last time I visited the hairdressers had a huge amount of sunlight streaming onto it, which allowed me to view myself in a level of detail that I rarely ever see. It also made me want to tear my face off, before jumping out of the chair and yelling, ”Forget the hair! I need to get me a new face first!” I also threw the lipstick I’d been wearing into the bin as soon as I got home, because seriously, what was I thinking?
3. The forced conversation
I have the greatest admiration for hairdressers and their ability to make smalltalk with so many different people every day. Unfortunately for me, I’m really, really bad at smalltalk. I try my best, but I always imagine the poor woman shaking her head sadly as I walk out the door and muttering, “Like getting blood out of a stone…”
4. The Fear
For a while there, I had no fear at all about what my cut would turn out like. I’d finally found a stylish who totally understood what I was looking for (for my hair to look almost exactly the same as it did when I walked in, only much better), and I was gradually working up to asking for something a bit different. Then she moved away, and I’ve had to start my search all over again, which means that each time I visit the salon I sit there holding my breath wondering what I’ll actually look like when it’s over. As a veteran of several really bad cuts (there was a time about a year and a half ago when every time I went to the salon, the stylist would comb through my hair in amazement and then call all of the other stylists over to take a look. “What HAPPENED?” they’d all chorus in horror. Those were some bad days.) I have good reason for this fear, trust me.
Anyway, my first haircut in three months is scheduled for tomorrow, after which I’ll be hoping to last another three months before having to go back.
So tell me: how often do you have your hair cut? Do you stick to the “every six weeks” rule, or do you leave it a little longer?
Dollface Reviews: Pantene Volume & Body Shampoo and Conditioner
Before I get started with this review, I should probably hold my hands up and confess that I’m a bit of a Pantene fan. They’re one of my go-to brands when it comes to hair care, so when I was sent some of their Volume & Body shampoo and conditioner to try recently, I must admit I went into the review expecting to like it.
I wasn’t disappointed, either. Make no mistake: there’s nothing particularly fancy or exciting about these products, in terms of packaging, scent or branding. Pantene is one of those no-nonsense brands that’s successful mostly because the products work. I’ve been using the shampoo and conditioner from this range for about a week and half now, and, as with all of the Pantene products I’ve used, they leave my hair feeling super-soft, silky and thick – and I notice the difference when I stop using them and switch to something different.
In terms of the “volume and body” claim, my hair is a fairly good test, as it’s long and fine. Do I notice a difference after using this? I’m going to have to say “not really”. I don’t see a huge difference in volume, but my hair is a stubborn beast in that department, and not much DOES make it look more, er, voluminous. I do however, notice an improvement in the overall condition and general health of my hair, and that’s good enough for me.
You can read more about this range here, or buy it at Boots.
Frédéric Fekkai Marine Summer Hair Zero Humidity Frizz Control
I’m sure I can’t be the only one who spends most of her summer holidays with a head full of frizzy, out of control hair that’s been apparently driven wild by the heat and humidity, and which drives me wild in its turn. My hair normally manages to be both limp AND frizzy, and let me tell you, that’s not a combination your ever want to find yourself dealing with.
Although it’s on the pricey side at £19 per bottle, then, Frédéric Fekkai’s Marine Summer Hair Zero Humidity Frizz Control could end up being worth its weight in gold if it actually does what it says it will, which is to “block humidity while sealing in hydration to keep sleek for all-day frizz & flyaway protection.” (OK, maybe not gold, but you know what I mean…)
The lightweight mist is suitable for all hair types, and as the name suggests, contains various sea-sourced ingredients like sea algae, seal kelp extract, and sea water itself. Will it work? We’ll sea. I mean see…
If you want to try it out, it’s available at Harrods.
Mini hair straighteners from Topshop
The launch of their new makeup line last month made the Topshop website even more dangerous to my bank balance than it was previously, and hey, look: now they’re even selling mini hair straighteners, too!
Teeny-weeny straighteners are something I’ve had on my Wish List for a while now – my regular sized ones are a little too heavy to travel with, especially given the equally teeny-tiny luggage allowances most airlines seem to give you these days, so these would be ideal. Sure, at this size they’re probably not going to be idea for those of you with a full head of hair that needs straightened every day, but if you’re like me, and really only need to run your straighteners over your fringe, and the shorter strands at the front, they could just be a good buy for £10.
Plus, they come in a red polka dot case (and other colours/designs too), so at least you know they’ll LOOK the part!
They’re £10, and you can buy them here.
