Beautyholics Anonymous » Hair

Beautyholics Anonymous’ Pantene Aqua Light Commercial

Tine — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:00:14 +0000

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a Proctor & Gamble event in Sydney at Barney Martin Hair Studio, courtesy of Saunders & Co. One of the highlights of the event was getting my hair washed using Pantene’s Aqua Light haircare range and styled to make our very own TV “commercial”.

My partners-in-hair, Amy and Val.

Hair done!

It was hilarious filming the “commercial”. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, except to follow the director’s instructions to, literally, swish my hair. I wore my glasses for the event, and I had to take them off for the shoot. Being as blind as a bat, I couldn’t see where the camera lens was when the director said I was to look directly at it. His assistant had to snap her fingers above the lens and say “Look here!”

Ahh call it a child’s wish come true. I’m finally in a swish-swoosh hair commercial, albeit a make-believe one. I had the fan blowing my hair from the bottom, and it was exactly what you would see in a hair commercial on TV. Well, with a funny-as-hell-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-slightly-constipated face from me, of course.

Click here if you can’t view the embedded video.

Go on, have a laugh. You know you want to

Images and video courtesy of Saunders & Co.

Weightless Swishy Hair With Pantene’s Pro-V Aqua Light

Tine — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:35 +0000

Every hairstylist I go to tell me that since my hair is so thick, I need it cut, styled and have the length kept long for my hair to be weighed down. This is to prevent my hair from looking too thick and to prevent frizz as much as possible. For this, I’ve used haircare products with silicone for the longest time to keep the hair “heavy” at the ends. I didn’t have any issues with this because I use a clarifying shampoo at the end of the week to remove as much gunk from my hair as possible.

So why am I intrigued with Pantene’s Aqua Light which claims to leave the hair as weightless as possible, when I need that weight to prevent my hair from bouncing upwards and looking all kinds of frizzy and, erm, big?

Description:
Pantene Pro-V Aqua Light is a new care range with zero residue and zero weight, leaving you with beautifully nourishes hair that you can swish.

Shampoo Ingredients:
Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Chloride, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Fragrance, Cocamide MEA, Sodium Benzoate, Tetrasodium EDTA, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides, Panthenol, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Panthenyl Ethyl Ether, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone.

Conditioner Ingredients:
Water, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Fragrance, Benzyl Alcohol, Dicetyldimonium Chloride, Glutamic Acid, Bis-Aminopropyl Dimethicone, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Panthenol, Panthenyl Ethyl Ether, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone.

There’s nothing new with the packaging. It’s typical Pantene packaging. Simple, and easy to use.

The shampoo and conditioner smells typically of what Pantene shampoos and conditioners do. I can’t describe it, but there’s a particular scent Pantene haircare products have that with one whiff, you’ll KNOW it’s Pantene. However, when I compare the Aqua Light fragrance to the other Pantene ranges, the former is slightly lighter and not that Pantene-y. Yeah, I’m good at describing scents like that

Pantene is notorious for the amount of silicone used in their haircare products, so what’s so good about the Aqua Light that has a lot of people raving about? Well, for one, Pantene has cut down the amount of silicone in this range. The new formula breaks down easily upon rinsing, which is a very good thing because this means that I am now able to cut down my shampoo and conditioning time in the shower. Long hair is quite a pain in the arse to clean, and with the Aqua Light range, it takes less time to clean the hair, and this, in turn, saves water. Win.

What I’m left with is manageable and light hair. Holy schmoly it’s light. As I still need something to weigh my hair down, I’d use a teeny bit of Moroccanoil (that has a lot of silicone) to smoothen my hair out. The next day, my hair wouldn’t be as poofy as it was before I started using the Aqua Light range. My hair still needs the silicone for the weight and shine, but not as much as I was using before.

I really am in love with this haircare range. Will I repurchase it? I already did.

Pantene’s Aqua Light shampoo and conditioner retail at AU$7.99 each and is available at leading supermarkets and selected pharmacies and specialty stores.

What I like about it: Cuts down shampoo and conditioning time by almost half. Saves water, especially for clean long hair!

What I do not like about it: Nothing

Note: These products were provided for consideration, just when I was about to buy them at Woolies. Yay!

I Literally Flew To Sydney To Get My Hair Done

Tine — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Note: This is a picture-heavy post.

A few weeks ago, Stef, Val and I braved the cold, ungodly hour that is 4.30am to the airport, where we were then flown to Sydney for an event at the fantabulous Barney Martin Hair Studio at Surry Hills. It was my first out-of-state bloggers’ event and I was well, well chuffed

We were presented with the latest haircare products launched by Proctor & Gamble – Pantene’s Nature Fusion, Clairol’s Nice’ n Easy Colour Blend Foam and Wella’s Pro Series hairstyling products. I had a whiff of Pantene’s Nature Fusion, and my my, they sure smelled good!

It was a small gathering of beauty bloggers from Sydney and Melbourne, and each of us had the opportunity to try out these products on our hair (save for the Colour Blend Foam from Nice’ n Easy; I didn’t get the chance to colour my hair that day). Pantene’s Nature Fusion features Pantene’s signature Pro-V science combined with cassia-flower derived essence. It’s Pantene’s nature-inspired line, which I thought, heck it’s about time!

In between our hairwash, I had the opportunity to sneak a chat with Barney Martin himself (that’s me in the middle, picture above. He’s on the left. Or my right.), asking him questions on how to handle really thick, frizzy hair, if I should use a hair mask together with a conditioner, or without, etc. A tip: you can use a hair mask treatment after your conditioner. Just make sure to not massage the conditioner and mask to your roots, but concentrate more on the tips. Talking shop during a hairwash? Oh yeah.

For styling, my hairstylist used Wella Pro Series Volume Mousse. To be honest, I was not a fan of mousse because of their heavy, sticky nature and they tend to make my hair look and feel blah. So I *ahem* whinged a bit about it to Michael Brennan (Wella Pro Series ambassador) about my dislike for mousse He assured me that the new Wella Pro Series Volume Mousse does no such thing, and asked me to try it out myself. So I squirted a small amount of foam onto my hands, rubbed it between my palms, and ran it through my damp hair. Whaddyaknow? It wasn’t at all sticky and gross as I expected; in fact, it smelled good! After running the product all over my hair, my hands remained sticky-free and my hair was ready for styling. I have to say, the stylist did one heck of a job styling my thick, frizzy hair.

Before – Meh hair. No volume, no style. BLAH.

My hair felt incredibly soft and light, and it was an *ahem* Pantene-woosh-woosh-hair-ad moment for me. It smelled amazing (fruity but not cloyingly sweet) from the wash, and it didn’t feel at all heavy and reek of the 90s with all that mousse in my hair. In short, I left my chair feeling pretty damn good

After – Woosh woosh hair. Why can’t I have this all the time?

Below are some pictures I took during the event. Please excuse the ones of me eating. Seriously, I was pictured so often with a danish or tart in my mouth, I felt like such a heifer amongst those gorgeous ladies.

Bloggers always on their phones. Hello Twitter!

Me enjoying a peach danish. That was my second one. Cow.

Stef waiting for her hair to set. Look at those curls!

Val getting her freak on.

Kimmi channeling Gisele B.

Kimmi rocking better hair than Gisele.

Stef. So Mad Men.

With the experts of the day, Barney Martin and Michael Brennan.

Darling Millie, the studio mascot. I wanted to empty my bag contents and bring her back to Melbourne with me!

Many thanks to Saunders & Co and Proctor & Gamble for the very lovely day.

Note: Stef is from The Lip Print, Val from Ponikuta and Kimmi from The Plastic Diaries.

6 Things Your Hairstylist Should Stop Doing To Your Hair

Tine — Mon, 16 May 2011 23:00:00 +0000

I saved this interesting article I read in Paula’s Choice January-February 2011 newsletter just to share it with you. It’s about the things your hairstylist shouldn’t be doing to your hair. Unfortunately, other than #1, I get the rest all too often. I used to feel guilty telling my hairstylist to stop doing a certain action to my hair for fear of her disliking me. It took me many years to realise that at the end of the day, it’s MY hair, and I’m the one paying for it (with hair, scalp AND money).

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1. Have an oily scalp? Tell your stylist to skip applying conditioner to the roots of your hair

No matter what the claim on the product or how much menthol or eucalypstus it contains (which has no benefit for hair or scalp) it will just make your oily scalp feel greasy faster. Conditioners contain emollients which are great for hair but a problem for someone with an oily scalp.

2. Ask them to please not be so rough on your hair

Here’s what happens: You’ve just gotten done with a wonderful shampoo and then to dry your hair, the stylist or assistant takes the towel and begins to roughly rub it over your entire head and the length of your hair. This is a BIG no-no. Any kind of friction over your tresses breaks down the hair shaft, eventually causing split ends and breakage. They’re supposed to press, dab. and squeeze to dry the hair, not rub it around. If more stylists (or their assistants) did this, they would spend less time smoothing damaged, unruly hair when it’s time to style it.

3. Only comb wet hair in sections; don’t try to get a brush through tangled hair in one fell swoop.

Combing hair is small sections is far better for the hair and your scalp. The problem? Some stylists just plow through your hair without a thought to what they are doing. Maybe they don’t know how hard it is on the scalp and the hair to try and undo tangles by yanking on your hair. Using fingers to gently separate hair and comb through each section is the healthy way to start the styling process.

4. Stop pulling and tugging during heat-styling

When your hair is being styled, too many hairdressers pull and tug at your hair with no regard for the discomfort they are causing. Once, when I cringed and winced at the forceful blowdry I was getting, the stylist actually said “Boy aren’t you sensitive!” and continued doing just what she was doing. I finally said, “You’re hurting me and boy you are being completely insensitive! Please stop pulling so hard!”

5. Don’t hold the blow dryer so close to the scalp

Blow dryers heat up to almost 400 degrees Fahrenheit. As an idea of how hot that really is, consider that boiling point of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When such intense heat gets too close to your scalp, you can easily get a burn and lose some hair as a result.

6. Stop pushing expensive “special” hair treatments that they tell you everyone swears by (not sure who everyone is, but popularity is a great incentive to believe something must be worthwhile).

You are then put under the hair dryer while being told it will restructure your hair, which it absolutely cannot do! Oh, and they charge $35 for the service. What a waste of money. If you knew how to read the ingredient list, you would see the ingredients do not differ from what almost all conditioners contain. Hair is dead and you cannot feed it, repair it, or restructure it with any ingredient or allegedly special formula. All you can do it make it feel repaired. Although that helps, once you wash your hair again (unless you use a conditioner again), your hair will not feel the way you want. That’s because the product the stylist raved about “everyone loving” absolutely could not repair your hair.

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There you go. It’s a lesson we all have to learn I suppose, to be polite but firm with our hairstylists so that they don’t inadvertently damage our hair and scalp. I can’t remember the number of times I’ve had the hairdryer and styling tools too near my scalp, causing minor burns. Yet, I kept quiet about it. Wuss.

Do you voice your opinions when it comes to getting your hair done? Or would you keep quiet and let the hairstylist do as he/she pleases?

Pampered My Hair Out With AVEDA

Tine — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:04:54 +0000

Six months ago, I purchased an AVEDA hair treatment package on Scoopon. Completely forgotten about it until a week ago, when I was doing a spot of spring-cleaning, and I discovered the unused voucher. That’s the problem with these cheap group discount deals; you get carried away buying pampering packages and then forget you bought them!

The package comprises a welcome head and neck massage, AVEDA hairwash, AVEDA hair treatment, haircut, style, blowdry, AVEDA foot scrub, AVEDA hand massage, and a makeover with AVEDA makeup, at Retreat at Hawksburn. Can’t remember how much I bought it for, but it definitely wasn’t over $50 for all that pampering. Double, triple, quadruple SCORE

Used for my welcome massage

Snip snip

AVEDA herbal tea. Mmmmm…

Getting there, getting there.

I have to say, I had just about the best time I’ve ever had at a hair salon. The staff were lovely. The service was amazing, and I walked out of the salon feeling (and *ahem* looking) like a million bucks. I’ve never used AVEDA products before, but after this, I sure am going to!

Gigantic sunnies on

From the back

Made over. Simple. I like.

Just so you know, I wasn’t paid to do this writeup. Mummy taught me to share

Speaking of sharing, I have gift voucher for 50% off towards a hair service to give away! Simply leave a comment below if you would like to win the gift voucher (Melbourne residents only). A winner will be selected at random. The giveaway closes April 15.

Good luck!

Retreat at Hawksburn, 540a Malvern Road, Hawksburn. Tel (03) 9529 3607

Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum

Tine — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:20:48 +0000

Description:

Smoothes, conditions and seals strands.
Leaves hair smooth, shiny and frizz-free in any weather.
Speeds up drying so you get silky smooth results in less time.

I have quite unfortunate hair. It’s terribly frizzy after a wash, and heaven forbid anyone but my husband to see me the next morning when my hair would look something like this

It’s the genes really; my mum has incredibly thick and coarse hair, my dad has even thicker and coarser hair. So when it came to me, I hit a double jackpot

Thus, an almost daily use of a flat iron is required (unless I have it properly straightened at the hair salon, which I’m not keen on as it makes my hair look incredibly flat and lifeless). After straightening my hair, a smoothing serum is a must to tame the flyaway hairs.

I was recommended Paul Mitchell’s Super Skinny Serum by a shop assistant at Hairhouse Warehouse. This is cheaper per ml in comparison to the Joico K-Pak Style Protect & Shine Serum I’ve been using for a year.

My impression of the smoothing serum is that it’s quite runny, and not as thick as most smoothing serums I know. Regardless, it did a wonderful job in smoothing my hair after treating it with the flat iron, and gave it a lovely shine. Since it’s quite oily, you only need a tiny pump of the serum for hair length as mine, which is a few inches past the shoulders.

Photo snapped right after I straightened my hair, with serum on. So no makeup

Oh, and this smoothing serum smells absolutely wonderful. For 150ml, this should last me well over a year. All in all, two enthusiastic thumbs up!

I bought Paul Mitchell’s Super Skinny Serum for $25.15 for 150ml at Hairhouse Warehouse at Melbourne Central. This is also available at other Hairhouse Warehouse outlets, Price Attack, and certain hair salons.

Remington & LUCA LUCA NYFW Spring/Summer 2011

Tine — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 03:31:41 +0000

I like what Teddy Charles did to the model’s hair, at about 35 seconds into the short video.

Going to try that out with my Remington hair iron. Mine is, of course, the el-cheapo, Priceline version compared to the fancypants ones they have

I Epilated And I Liked It

Tine — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:04:04 +0000

Would you be interested in trying out Braun’s latest epilator, the Silk-Epil 7 Xpressive Pro? We would love to send you one.

Oooh yes please, thanks!

In my enthusiasm in wanting to try out something I’ve never done before, epilate, it finally dawned on me that it was something I’ve never done before. Epilate. Hang on, isn’t that tweezing a lot of your hair at one go? Did I just agree to that?

It might seem weird to you, but I’ve never removed hair from my legs and arms before. The hairs on my legs are so fine, they’re hardly even noticable when I’m in a skirt or shorts. The hairs on my arms are thicker, but they’ve never really been a problem. Plus, growing up in Malaysia and with my parents, I get quite a lot of crap from my mum when I even suggested shaving my legs. “Aiyoh*, you shave one, three grows back! They become thicker! You’ll have rough skin!“. Of course, I was young then, didn’t know any better, didn’t know the anatomy of a single hair, etc.

I digress.

A couple of weeks later, the epilator arrived. It gave me the giggles as to how it arrived. The courier rang my doorbell, asked me for my name and handed me this large beach bag. It contained a beach towel, silk scarf and the boxed epilator. He gave me such a quizzical look when he held the beach bag to me with two fingers (“what crazy package is this? I have more important parcels to deliver, yo!“).

I immediately shot an email to Val, and messaged Legeeque over Gmail chat, bombarding them with questions on how to use it, the best times to use it, best ways to use it. Ways that will give me minimal amount of pain. Yes, I’m chickenshit to pain when it comes to hair. Surprisingly, you can pull hair off my head and I won’t feel a thing, thanks to a bout of trichotillomania I had years ago (that’s a whole different story altogether, which I will tell you some day).

Both recommended I epilate on dry skin, and to begin with the legs. Alrighty, so I did. Warned my husband about any sounds he’d hear of me in the loo, and that I love him just in case I don’t make it. Drama queen, much? Of course.

Thank God, the epilating experience was all right. There was a slight stinging sensation on my legs and arms as I epilated, but it didn’t actually hurt. Since it was my first time, my skin became patches of red after epilation. That’s normal, and the user manual suggested I apply body moisturiser to soothe the skin and redness. I slapped on body cream and some aloe vera gel. The latter completely eased the stinging sensation, and the redness was gone the very next morning.

And for the first time in my life, I have fuzz-free arms and legs.

Cue “HALLELUJAH!”

Since I’ve never epilated before, I cannot compare the Silk-Epil 7 with other epilators. Still, I’m glad it was completely fuss-free, and gave me minimal pain the first time I tried it. After a while, epilating became a doozy. Here are some of my tips for a first-timer:
- Do it on dry skin. It gets to hair better, and you finish quicker.
- Shave the area first, and let it grow back up to 0.5mm before epilating. The Silk-Epil 7 comes with a shaver and trimmer that do the trimming for you if you don’t want to wait. I stupidly tried to epilate my arm hair untrimmed. It felt like pulling UHU or super glue off your skin. Yowza.
- Aloe vera gel is great for soothing the stinging sensation.
- Try on your legs and arms first, before you proceed to the underarm area. The underarms are more sensitive and it’s going to be painful the first time.
- Forget epilating “down there”, it hurts donkey balls.

All in all, I’m loving the epilator and my fuzz-free arms and legs, all in time for summer. Which made me wonder, why the heck did it take me so long to try epilating?!

Braun Silk-epil Xpressive 7681WD retails at AU$208.95 and is available at selected electrical outlets and major department stores.

*Aiyoh = a Malaysian exclamation.

Makeup For Beginners at Elite Hair & Makeup Academy

Tine — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 01:50:38 +0000

There’s a professional makeup course for beginners in town with a special spring offer, and I thought I’d let you know about it.

Learn the secrets of professional makeup artistry and advance your career into this dynamic industry. The course is designed for beginners, and will teach you all the elements of makeup application and professional techniques.

Plus participate in industry work experience and a professional photo shoot to get your folio started. It’s a 10 week evening course. Something different and interesting to dabble in if you’re not in the industry but love makeup like I do.

When: Starts 12 October 2010

Where: Elite Hair & Makeup Academy, Suite 1 & 2, Level 7, 94 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Time: Weekly Tuesdays 6-9pm

Other: Payment plans available

Contact: Justine Poniris (Academy Director) on 0408 546 828 for more information

When you call the makeup academy, mention this blogpost and get $100 off the October course AND receive a Paintbox Cosmetics gift pack!

Pantene All Day Smooth Light Weight Creme

Tine — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:23:34 +0000

Following the success of Pantene’s 3 Minute Miracle Treatment and the Night Miracle Leave On Creme Serum, Pantene has introduced a day care formula to complete the range, the All Day Smooth Light Weight Creme.

Description:

The recharging fluid Pro-V formula absorbs into damaged tips transforming your hair into healthy locks. The lightweight formula forms a protective shield over the hair’s surface to instantly detangle and help protect your hair from signs of damage caused by air-conditioning, sun and environmental factors.

This is very similar to Pantene’s Night Miracle Leave On Creme Serum. I was comparing the ingredients between the two haircare products, and the day serum actually contained less ingredients than the night serum (this is a good thing when less ingredients are used, and that it does not sound so much like a chemistry lab on a tube). It does not contain parabens whereas the night serum does.

What’s the texture like? In comparison to the night serum, it’s lighter and runnier. It smells the same, which is good. I have a thing for Pantene’s fragrance. Smells mmmmmm-good.

A tiny dollop of this tames my unruly hair, and smooths out the kinks and frizz. It’s not heavy and does not leave any greasy residue. All in all, me likey and would give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Personally, I prefer this to the night serum.

Pantene All Day Smooth Light Weight Creme retails at AU$6.99 for 90ml and is available at leading pharmacies and supermarkets.

What I like about it: Light in texture, does not weigh hair down. Smooths the frizz. Smells good.

What I do not like about it: Nothing.