New Short Haircut

Yesterday, I decided to book a last minute and very overdue haircut. Once I'd booked the appointment, I decided on impulse that I was going to go for a crop. The reasons for this impulsive decision will probably sound pretty strange but I will share them anyway. I recently finished my Rahua shampoo and this caused more problems than I had anticipated. Although I swapped the Rahua conditioner for something else without issue, the moment I ran out of the shampoo, my old balling up at the back problem returned with a vengeance. I'm certain the hair was quite badly damaged and rather than try to remedy it with expensive products, I wanted a more long term solution.

This brings me on to my other reason for cutting it off. I stopped colouring my hair several months ago now. My hair has quite a peppering of grey (or nordic blonde as the hairdresser referred to it) and the difference between my natural colour and the brassy remains of colour on the length had been getting on my nerves for a while. The thought of cutting out all the old colour has been niggling at me for a while, but I've talked myself out of it previously.

PRE-CUT

Both Xiao of Messy Wands and Kate from Drivel About Frivol must be credited with inspiring this radical change. I used this Pinterest board that Kate linked to, to create a montage of pictures to take to the hairdressers. The hairdresser was fantastic too, she gave me lots of styling/drying tips and planted the seed of an idea to try out some wild colours that will only show up on my grey hair. Anyway, I'll stop blithering now and show you what it looks like.

Post blow dry

Messily unstyled by me

Thankfully, none of the children cried when I came home or said they hated it. Although, Mr. MB did make fun of me this morning when I had a rather spectacular case of spiky bed head. I'm looking forward to getting to grips with styling it over the Christmas holiday.

I shall leave you with a quick look at my current festive manicure. I'm wearing China Glaze Ruby Pumps and thanks to some diligent(ish) use of Dr. Lewinn's Renunail, my nails are in much better shape at the moment.

Christmas Ideas: ghd Metallic Collection Gift Sets

I bought my first set of ghd hair straighteners a little over five years ago now and they've always served me well. So, I was intrigued to see what if anything had changed, when I received the Rich Ruby Gift Set from the metallic collection for review. For reference, the model I'm comparing to is the ghd version IV. The limited edition metallic collection straighteners have the same features as the ghd gold V classic styler.

I have to admit that my favourite thing about this set, is not so much the pretty colour as the handy storage bag. The bag is functional (but still attractive) as the material is heat resistant. I've never owned a heat mat for my ghds, so I've had to put up with placing them on a magazine after use. I much prefer to have the bag to put them into so that I can immediately put them out of reach of the children without having to wait for them to cool down.

The other aspect that I like is the more rounded shape of the barrel compared to my ghd IV model. I found this made it much easier to curl the ends of my hair in as I was styling. I should think this would also help to create a curl using the straighteners, if you're able to use them that way. I've struggled to master this technique in the past and still found it quite tricky with these straighteners, there's definitely a knack to it as it always looks so easy on videos.

The metallic collection straighteners do seem to be a little lighter than my older ghds. I also find the clamping mechanism offers less resistance and the plates are extremely smooth. This translates to less arm ache during use, particularly when straightening the back section of my hair.

Features which remain the same are the long, free rotating cable and travel friendly universal voltage. One change that initially threw me was the on-off switch being replaced with a slider and the lack of light to tell me it was ready for use. However, I noticed the lettering on the slider itself lights up and a tone sounds once the straighteners reach temperature.

The metallic collection gift sets come in three version and cost £135 each. I know it is an expensive outlay all in one go but I've always considered my ghds a worthwhile investment. If you can ask Father Christmas for them, that's all the better in my opinion!

Disclosure: The straighteners were sent to me without cost for review purposes.

A Solution for the Frizzies: Cutler Fly Away Control Stick

I was in a frantic rush to get everyone out of the house this morning and as a result, I went out without a scrap of makeup on and a cursory brush through my hair. I'm not generally that bothered about being seen without makeup but I regretted it on this occasion when I caught my reflection in a mirror at school. No makeup is one thing but no makeup and frizzy hair is quite another!

I don't know about you but all this rain is reeking havoc with my hair. I considered using my straighteners when I returned home, instead I put my hair in a pony tail and used my secret weapon on all the frizzy hair sticking up on top.

I received the Cutler Fly Away Control Stick in a goody bag a very long time ago. I was probably too busy swooning over Edward Bess to realise what a little gem this was. The stick looks similar to one of those solid roll-on deodorants. The product is solid and quite thick so you only need a tiny bit to work. You can either apply directly to the hair or rub some on to your hands and smooth through that way. As I only use a small amount each time, this huge stick is likely to last me forever.

It's marvellous at taming new hair growth on the top of your head to create smooth roots or a sleek ponytail. It was particularly good at helping with that awkward post baby hair re-growth. This is one of those strange side-effects of having children that others fail to mention until you're pregnant!

I would definitely recommend this if you're struggling to tame your hair in this frizz-inducing weather. Cutler hair products are available from Zuneta and this Fly Away Control Stick costs £16.

Disclosure: I received this in an event bag without charge...nearly two years ago. It's true what they say about pregnancy rotting your brains ;)

Enrapture Extremity Heated Rollers

This post has sat in draft awaiting extra pictures* for months. Today I made the executive decision to cease waiting and post my review having spotted that the Extremity Heated Rollers are currently reduced in price from £75 to £65 in the Debenhams sale. I think all of the Enrapture products are excellent but as they're a little on the expensive side, I'm happier to be able to share them when I know I can save you a little money too!

The rollers were the surprise hit of the three Enrapture tools. They're actually much easier and faster to use than I had expected. The rollers and clamps heat up in their storage box. You just plug in and they're ready to use in a matter of minutes. The rollers have a velvet coating and grip the hair very easily and the clamps cover the whole section of hair so they're not in the least bit fiddly to use. You heat the rollers, wrap a section of hair, clamp and then leave to cool. To curl my hair using these takes approximately half and hour from start to finish. The rollers heat from the inside out so they're just warm to the touch as you apply them. I felt these were probably the most gentle on my hair in terms of heat damage.

There are a selection of large and small rollers in the box and you can either use just the large rollers on the crown for volume or do a full head. Placement also affects the style. The first time I used these I opted for large rollers on the crown and smaller ones on the rest of my head but I found small ones all over work better for me. Curls tend to drop quickly from my hair so that soft waves return to straight hair within an few hours. I admit that I am overly cautious of curling it too tightly to begin with after the time I put in bendy foam rollers overnight and woke up looking like I was auditioning for Annie! These heated rollers are great for creating soft, glamourous curls so there's really no fear of an Annie accident here.

This is my final Enrapture tool review and I talked about the Jumbo Waver and Totem Stylers earlier in the year. As I mentioned above, I think these tools are not cheap but having struggled with styling tools before, I was impressed that even I could create curls with them. I do not think it's necessary to have all three. With my mid-length hair, I found some overlap in the styles I could achieve. For ease of use, I'd probably recommend for the Jumbo Wavers but both the Totem Styler and Heated Rollers may offer slightly more flexibility.

The Enrapture styling tools are available from Debenhams, Argos and Boots. The usual RRP for the Heated Rollers is £74.99 but if you're interested in these I would definitely recommend taking advantage of the sale price of £65 whilst you can.


* The missing pictures I mentioned are ones of me modelling hair curled with the rollers. I confess that I forgot to take pictures on each occasion that I used them. Yes, I am an idiot!!


Disclosure: I won all of the Enrapture tools in a competition.

Trick or Treat? New Candy Fixations by Tigi Bed Head

I don't imagine that it has escaped anyone's notice that it's Halloween today. My cupboards are laden with sweets in preparation for this evening but I shall be exercising my willpower and ignoring them. Instead, I plan on getting my sugar fix another way!

Tigi Bed Head are releasing five new confectionery inspired hair products. The Candy Fixation collection includes Sugar Dust, a volumizing powder and Mega Whip, a marshmallow hair texturizer which I have been testing out over the last couple of weeks. Well I say I, it has been a bit of a family affair as I enlisted the help of Mr. MB too.

Can I just start by saying how much I like the Sugar Dust packaging. The pot reminds me of the old style pepper pots, complete with little holes on the top which you line up to dispense the powder. The powder is super fine; the entire contents weigh only 1g so this is a very light powder. I have tried similar volumizing powders before and whilst this does give hair a candy floss type texture, it doesn't feel as sticky or itchy as say the Tresemme powder that I wrote about earlier in the year. It doesn't give quite the same level of volume but I'm happy with that trade off for the increased comfort. I didn't combine it with backcombing but found it gave root lift by simply massaging the hair with my finger tips.

Mega Whip has a whipped, springy texture and smells good enough to eat. It is designed for use on course, thick or difficult hair. My husband's hair is short and very thick, the increasing number of grey hairs mean that it is quite course too. Mega Whip gives his hair texture and separation without the wet look and stiffness of his usual moulding products. It can be used wet or dry and he tells me it doesn't feel heavy on the hair. I also find his hair more malleable to the touch.

The other products in the Candy Fixation range are: Glaze Haze, a smoothing serum, Totally Baked, a volumizing 'hair meringue' which you apply like a mousse before blow drying and Sugar Shock, a texturizing hair spray. The products range in price from £10.50 - £12.50 and will be available from salons from November. You can find a list of salons on www.bedhead.com. EDIT - EJ was kind enough to let me know that the collection is already available on Feel Unique and currently on offer. Thank you EJ!

As it is Halloween, maybe I should opt for a bit of backcombing, what do you reckon?


Disclosure: PR Sample

PS. I apologise for my use of volumizing instead of volumising and texturizer instead of texturiser.  As Bed Head use the American spelling on their products and descriptions I felt it would be overly stubborn to switch between the two. It was touch and go for a while though!

Enrapture Amplify Jumbo Waver

When I first clapped eyes on the jumbo waver, I was sure I wouldn't get on with it but honestly this turned out to be my favourite of the three Enrapture tools. It has the ease of use of a crimper (showing my age now) but the large barrels mean you that create nicely defined waves rather than sharp angles. It has temperature dial so you can set the heat as desired. I haven't really played with this and stuck to a middle of the road, medium setting.

My errors with this were to hold my hair up and out to avoid burning my ears or scalp. This produced an inadvertent route lift. Apparently the way to avoid this is to tilt your head to the side rather than lifting up the hair up. As with all of the tools, I found the back tricky. The Jumbo Waver is, as the name suggests, quite big and this weight does make it that bit harder to do the back of the head. The upside is that you can do large sections of hair quickly to produce a full head of waves in about 10 minutes. My curl resistant hair held these waves all day and I definitely found this the best tool of the three for longevity.

 This is the end result. I'm really pleased with the Jumbo Waver. It made creating a new style very easy (though I admit I might have said something about Poochie when I first used it). I would recommend using a heat spray with this as the heat is quite intense. The Enrapture Amplify Jumbo Waver costs £74.99 and is available from Boots and Argos.

Disclosure: I won the Enrapture tools in a competition.

Enrapture Encode Totem Stylers

I don't think I have ever featured hair styling products before and I have to admit there's probably a good reason for this. When it comes to hair styling, I am a total muppet. I mostly leave my hair to it's own devices with the occasional tussle with the hairdryer and GHDs. So, I was a little nervous when faced with three Enrapture stylers. I've finally tried each in turn. They each give a different look and have their own pros and cons for a styling muppet like me. Today, I want to talk about the Encode Totem Styler.

Of the three Enrapture styling tools, I think the Totem Styler is the ones that presents the biggest challenge to me. Reading the instructions, it can be used as both tongs and a wand. I confess, I don't really understand how to use it as a wand. Well, not without burning myself anyway. Then again, I can't curl my hair with GHDs. Have I already mentioned my ineptitude?

The wand is divided into three separate section which can be heated independently of each other. There are three different temperature settings for each third labelled 1 to 3, where 1 is the coolest setting and 3 is the hottest. You can set each section to the same temperature or vary the temperature along the length to alter the shape of the curl.

I used the Totem as tongs as I wanted to grip the hair. The clamp or flipper as they refer to it in the instructions is very short as you can see from the picture above. You clamp the end of the hair and then twist it along the length of the tong. It took me a while to get the hang of doing this properly. I kept wrapping it only along a single point of the wand which rather defeats the object of having the different heat settings. I suspect you need longer hair than mine to really make the most of this feature.

I set the wand to the highest setting on all three points to produce a tight curl. I also found that I produced the best results by only curling a small section of hair at a time. My major error though was in not sectioning my hair off at the start as it would have been better to do the underside first for a more uniform look. The back was a little tricky to curl but the fact that the power cable rotates freely prevented me from getting in a tangle.

Although I had it set to produce tight curls, I found that they dropped quite quickly. It did drop into a lovely soft wave though which I was very pleased with. I'm not sure if setting spray would have helped to maintain the curls. I think more practice is really required for me to make the most of the Totem!
 
I know packaging isn't important to everyone but the Enrapture packaging is worthy of a mention. The box the styler comes in is sturdy and useful for storage, although there is also a storage pouch that doubles as a heat resistant mat which is handy for those short on space. There were a couple of booklets supplied in the box which explain how to use the styler and includes the style guides that you can find on the website.

The Enrapture styling tools are on sale now from Debenhams, Argos and Boots. The Encode Totem stylers cost £74.99.


Disclosure: I won the Enrapture stylers in a competition.