ROAD TO HAIR RECOVERY - Amazing products that saved my hair.

It's currently 1am on a Thursday evening and I've decided to write a blog post..my hair is finally getting in much better condition! *PARTAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY* and it's all because I've finally found products that work!

The first product that has done wonders for my hair is Redken Extreme Anti-Snap. Oh my asghasljglaksjg this stuff is amazing! I seriously swear by it.You basically use it after you've washed and towel dried your hair. It's a leave in protein treatment and it makes my hair so soft and has defiantly saved my hair. I use two pumps in my hair. I've had it for around two months, and theres loads left! I would 100% repurchase

 Now, to moisturise my hair I use the L'Oreal Professionel Intense Repair treatment. A little bit goes a long way with this. Your hair feels super soft afterwards. I would defiantly repurchase, before this I had the one in the pink tub, that was equally as good, I suppose the "intense repair" just drew me in!This one is a rinse out treatment and is to be used as you would use a conditioner.I find it works better when I towel dry my hair a little before applying it. I whack it all on, leave it on for about 5-10 minutes and voila!

Okay, these two, I leave in all day and overnight if I can, castor oil and olive oil. The castor oil is meant to help your hair to grow and thicken. I massage the castor oil into my scalp and my eyebrows and the olive oil I put into a spray bottle and spray it all in the mid-lengths and the ends. My hair does feel "repaired" after this, not silky soft, but alot more healthier. The castor oil is pretty thick, make sure you get 100% castor oil, and make sure it's cold pressed. I've just ran out of Olive oil so I couldn't take a picture, it's just any old one from my chemist. I got this castor oil from Amazon.

So there you have it, these are the products that I feel have really saved my hair. Of course theres other products that I use that are very good also, but these are the ones that I feel have made a HUGE difference and really have saved my hair.

ROAD TO HAIR RECOVERY - ESSENSITY BY SCHWARZKOPF REPAIR CONDITIONER FOR DAMAGED HAIR

SCHWARZKOPF REPAIR CONDITIONER FOR DAMAGED HAIR 1000ml. Woaaaaaaaaah okay guys so this bottle of conditioner is seriously mahoooooooosive! Schwarzkopf claims that the Essensity range " offers tailor made products to cater to the needs of coloured hair which is damaged or dry. It repairs, moisturizes and seals the cuticle for superb color retention, reflection and pure softness". The Essensity range by Schwarzkopf is an organic range which are free from 

• Silicones 
• Mineral oil
• Parabens
• Synthetic fragrances
• Sulfate-free

Anyway, i use this as my "daily" conditioner, it's good but not AMAZING. I do really like this conditioner and my hair has improoved since using it. Downside being that the bottle doesn't come with a pump like other salon sized shampoos and conditioners do. I leave it on for at least 3 minutes, it does make my hair feel softer and conditioned and but not AMAZINGLY soft. It has a odd smell, a natural kind of smell which funnily I really like, I suppose that ties in with the "organic" side of the range. The consistency is runny which is one of the downsides to this product, I feel like I really have to lather it on my hair (About 3 handfuls, bare in mind my hair is just at my collar bones, not long at all) to get enough on my hair to make some difference. 

The 1000ml tub of Conditioner retails for around £40, I got mine from TK MAXX for around £20 (TK MAXX is seriously bargain central!)  If you'd like a smaller bottle their around £10 for 200ml. Overall I do like this product but I wouldn't buy again unless it was on some crazy kind of good deal and certainly wouldn't pay £40.

PROs-

• The fact that it is organic and free from a load of rubbish.

CONs-

• Consistency
• Price

ROAD TO HAIR RECOVERY - AUSSIE MIRACLE HAIR INSURANCE LIGHTWEIGHT CONDITIONING SPRAY

It goes without saying Aussie products are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, my favourite being the 3 minute miracle hair conditioner re constructors, I swear by them. They're affordable, work wonders and smell amazing.

The Aussie Miracle Hair Insurance lightweight conditioning spray for weak, distressed hair promises to protect and detangle "our special formula with a drop of Australian Jojoba seed oil detangles and helps you to protect your hair from everyday wear and tear" is basically a leave-in conditioner. This stuff smells gorgeous, it DOES help to detangle my hair and makes it easier to brush through and does give a little softness but whether it protects my hair, I'm not sure. I also have the Take the heat version of this which protects against heat damage which doesn't smell nowhere near as nice but I feel like it does the job in protecting against heat (Though in my eyes nothing can beat the Tresemme heat protectant spray). I was a little, (only a little!) disappointed in this just because I had such high expectations as all of the other Aussie products are brilliant!

                                   (Sorry for the really dodgy awful quality photos, lol!)

Both sprays by Aussie come in a standard plastic 250ml bottle with a spray pump. The product itself is long lasting, so far i've had mine 2 months or so I use them on a daily basis and it's more than 3/4 full! The sprays are around the £5 mark each, deals for 3 aussie products for £10 are on a lot in places like Asdas, Superdrug, Boots.

PROs-

• Price
• Smell
• Works to an extent

CONs-

• Doesn't live up to other Aussie product standards!

Have you used any Aussie products? What are your favs?
M
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ROAD TO HAIR RECOVERY - KERASTASE ELIXIR ULTIME REPLENISHING AND BEAUTIFYING SCENTED OIL FOR DAMAGED HAIR

As I explained in my previous blog all about my hair nightmare (http://rosaliebeautysecrets.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/my-hair-nightmare.html )  I'm going to be writing about products, tips and tricks that have worked for me, products that haven't , what I recommend, new products i'm trying out to get my hair back to healthy!

Anyways, i'm going to tell you all about my experience with KERASTASE ELIXIR ULTIME REPLENISHING AND BEAUTIFYING SCENTED OIL FOR DAMAGED HAIR (The green bottle) selling at a hefty RRP of £35.50 for 125ml I thought this was rather expensive for a hair oil but gave it a shot anyway. Described as a luxury product, "enriched with the Oleo-Complexe and Immortal Moringa extract". The bottle itself is a plastic bottle, with a standard pump, which was rather disappointing for me after paying just over £35 for the product.

                                                 (Sorry for the battered box!)


There are a few ways of using this product

• Mixing it with your conditioner
• Using before blow drying
• As a finish product
• As a touch up product
• Pre-Cleanse

I personally use it as a finish product and before blow drying. I can't lie, it does give a gorgeous shine to my hair and my hair feels and looks 100x healthier. I use 1-2 pumps of oil in my hair and concentrate on the ends and the front (If you've read my hair nightmare post you'll understand why) I wouldn't use this with my conditioner simply because I use a decent shampoo and conditioner and feel like this would just be wasting product? It doesn't make your hair look greasy and really absorbs into the hair giving the perfect shine... It is light enough to be used as a daily product, which I love about it.The smell of this product isn't gorgeous but isn't horrible... I can't describe what it smells like, sort of florally I suppose?  I do really like this product and it has helped my hair alot but I don't know whether i would re-purchase simply for the fact of the price of it and I feel like there are cheaper alternatives. 

PROS-

• quickly absorbed non greasy feel
• gives a gorgeous shine to the hair
• is perfect for daily use

CONS-

• the price
• not too keen on the smell

M

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MY HAIR NIGHTMARE!!!!

A month or two ago I was on a mission, to have red hair again but I wasn't ready to wait around and go about it the slow way, i wanted it NOW... baring in mind I had quite a lot of color build up and had previously bleached the front of my hair to have pink in it in August 2013.

I had brown hair now and I decided to set about going red by bleaching my hair and then putting the red on, BIG BIG BIG MISTAKE. I bleached my hair twice, my hair went bright ginger with the front where it was previously bleached going platinum blonde, it was patchy and I knew I couldn't put the red on this.  So i left it for a day and went out and brought a hair lightener, did an amazing job, I should have used this in the first place it would have done the job (Clairol Born Blonde hair lightener)  by now my hair had lost ALL of it's strength, moisture, everything, it was like elastic when it was wet. 

Now I put the red on, I used LIVE XXL REAL RED it was HORRIBLE it had an orange undertone, feeling how straw like my hair was I kept this for a good two weeks (it felt like a year!) I then dyed my hair with Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color in Vibrant Red 5.62 , it was a gorgeous color and this dye didn't feel harsh on my hair atall. I decided, I needed to have a trim, my hair was growing out from a style where it was shorter on one side longer on the other.. I made a hair appointment for that weekend, my hairdresser trimmed up my hair and took loads of the damage off, it felt so much healthier. She recommended me products to buy, treatments to use and now i'm on the road to recovery, (I'm going to write a blog posts on what is working for me, what hasn't worked, reviews on loads of different hair products ect) 

As you all know red is a very hard color to keep up with so i'm using CRAZY COLOR to try and keep it decent looking, my regrowth is around 1.5 inches at the moment but i'm leaving it as long as I can to dye it probably when it's around 3 inches of regrowth, i'm thinking to dye it with MAJIROUGE in 6.66. 

My hair now at the front is so damaged it cannot take any dye and fades to a baby pink, my hairdresser has cut some of this hair into a fringe in attempt to get as much of the damage off as possible. I go back every few weeks to get this trimmed just to keep cutting away this damage so eventually it will all be gone. My hair is slowly on the road to recovery, if I could tell you all one thing from my experience it would be to GO EASY ON THE BLEACH, and try and avoid it at ALL costs!

**** I will try get some decent photos of my hair now and during the process and upload them to this!

Have any of you had any nightmare experiences with your hair?

M

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