Finally, a dedicated hair post.
I never get people who say but it’s just hair. Everything on your head makes a difference to your entire look – the intensity, tone, depth of color, movement, styling and volume, framing, even smell… in any case, i’ve found it immensely hard to divorce my identity from that of my hair. For the longest time people identified me by my signature long ombre tresses which were recently chopped to give way to these shorter locks. In any case, I’ve consistently been receiving tons of questions regarding my hair styling process – to which my answer is simple: I don’t. I don’t style my hair habitually, although i do curl or straighten it depending on whether I have an event to attend, and sometimes not even then. I do, however, place a crazy emphasis on hair prep, so that it’s always ready to go even when I wake up.
Because lets face it – when you’re as lazy as I am, or when you overestimate your ability to wake up for morning classes, sometimes the option of styling your hair for twenty minutes before leaving the house is just a no go. It’s just not possible. And anyway, I’m terrible at styling it – I’ve had my curler for years and still my hair goes in all directions when i apply any sort of heat to it. But with bleached hair you need to invest a lot in haircare to make it work/ look good, so I’ve adopted a method that emphasizes healthy hair via conditioning and so on (therefore, prepping it beforehand) with minimal out-the-door effort each morning.
Bleaching, perms, or any sort of thing you do to your hair generally involves the breaking of bonds in your hair to set it in a different way or forcing it to adopt a different color. The result is often gorgeous color/curls that are completely pointless if your hair isnt silky because damaged hair looks good on approximately zero people. I’m fortunate enough to have a hair product sponsor, Australian based brand Original Mineral (as seen in New York Fashion Week 2013), keeping my hair presentable – they’re also stocked at Urbanhair which is a huge stamp of approval in my books. In any case, this is what goes into my hair on a regular basis:
– O&M Original Detox Shampoo x 1 a week: to remove impurities that might have accumulated from stuff like hair spray, general air pollution, stuff that weighs your hair down and makes it duller.
– Maintain the Mane Shampoo x 6 a week: Basic stuff, primrose and macadamia oils to give your hair it’s shine
– Hydrate and Conquer Conditioner x 7 a week: exactly what it says- hydrate your hair, because chemically treated hair tends to be very dry, especially at the ends. With bleached hair I tend to recommend conditioning everyday because you just need that much more moisture. It’s got tasmanian kelp in it, which sounds like something straight out of a spongebob episode, and we all know that Patrick is beautiful so I’m going with that.
– The power base hair masque : which i recommend for permed hair. I’ve permed my hair before, but it’s too fine to hold any sort of perm for long (oh well). While perming my hair though, my stylist told me how it’s done, with the breaking of hair bonds and all that, which is basically pretty damn scary, so you’re going to need lots of protein building shampoo/conditioner/masques to keep it healthy. Permed unhealthy hair tends to err on the side of frizzy, which is a little too Cruella De Vil for my comfort.
OR
– The seven day Miracle hair masque : I use this once a week since I’ve chopped my locks because the permed bits are gone and my main issue now is the damage rendered by bleaching. It’s an intensely hydrating moisture masque, which is perfect to combat aforementioned dryness. It’s got macadamia oil in it again, but the jewel here is the Argan Oil ingredient – which seems to be the new black of hair products. Whenever picking out hair products, I always keep a look out for argan oil – i’ve used products with and without it before and I swear it makes a huge difference to hair quality.
So there we have the prep for a basic healthy, silky hair base. Now to daily fuss free styling.
Because I’m lazy, I can’t be arsed to do more than just spray, muss, and go. Basic looks for hair divide into three categories, the updo, straight hair, and wavy/curly locks. They each suit different looks, so pick whichever you think complements your dressing and personality and you’re good to go. Short hair tends to be a bit choppy, which is cute, but like I said, mine is bleached so I run it through with a conditioning detangler that was originally introduced to me by my Urbanhair stylists over a year ago. (I tend to trust whatever salons are using because they’d use the best for their own reps sake) The one im using here is the Know Knott spray. Takes about five minutes to spray and run my fingers through so it’s nice and smooth and detangled and stuff.
If I want it sleek:
After detangling it, it’d be slightly damp so I’d comb it through with a straight toothed comb inwards to get it in one sleek piece, then apply this Frizzy Logic Shine Serum to prevent flyaway hairs/ keep it that sleek throughout the day so humidity doesnt get me down. Damn you Singapore weather. Sometimes if I have a bit more time I cheat and use a straightener to pull it straight, but I rarely bother to wait around for it to heat up and slowly straighten my hair, so usually its just application and smoothening it down as I hunt for my shoes and socks or something.
If I want it wavy: (Which i ususlly do)
I muss up my hair with a thickening spray. For some reason my hair has always been a little flat, and although it got better after cutting my hair, it never really went away. I’m using the Atonic thickening spray here, and how thickening spray works is it adds body and volume to your hair by thickening your hair shafts. This particular one works very well as a protector as well to complement any hairdrying techniques or heat styling products you might use. I used a hair curler here to shape the ends of my hair – not curling them conventionally (takes too much time) – I just twist a couple of locks and hold it in place with the curler for a little while before letting go and moving on to other locks. You don’t get defined curls, but it only takes five to ten minutes for your whole head and it adds a lot of movement to your hair.
Or, if i really completely dont have time to style my hair at all, I just texturize it with a sea salt spray. Sea Salt is such an essential for the bedhead look. I first read about it on Fashiontoast and I’ve been trying different sea salt sprays ever since. You can actually make it yourself, but I always use a ready made bottle because it seems like less trouble. This one is the SURF BOMB, which already sounds sexy enough to warrant a thumbs up. It is really as easy as it sounds – spray, then muss up your hair by placing two hands at your nape and pushing upwards to incorporate more air into your hair, and you’re ready to go. You don’t even need to comb your hair for this, though you didn’t hear that from me.
this is how you muss your hair
or like this, if you’re trying to pretend to be sexy or something
O-kay, that’s basically it for my hair styling routine. As you can tell.. it’s not very complicated, all very idiot proof stuff, but still I’m so very glad for the care that goes into my hair. If you can’t tell already, my hair is one of the few things im very proud of (blonde hair is so photogenic), but unfortunately it is consistently warring with my sloth-iness and inability to wake up and actually do some proper styling, so HURRAY for 3 in 1 sprays that do everything for you! Thank you so much O&M for the truckload of products, my hair is all liquid sunshine now.
You can get all the featured O&M products in this post and more at the following places:
Department Stores
TANGS Orchard Lv 2
Robinsons Orchard
Online retailers
http://www.luxola.com/
http://www.lebonocollection.com/
http://www.zalora.sg/
http://www.survivesg.com/
Salons
Urbanhair
Fox
Focus Hairdressing
Passion Hair Salon
Trimmings Hair Salon
BLOC+
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♥jem