Beyond Batiste: Electric Picnic hair

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

electric picnic hair

At this stage, you hopefully have your tent organised, located and rinsed off your wellies after Oxegen (or Electric Picnic last year – ewwwww) and are just about set for EP this weekend. We’ve covered make-up inspiration and general festial survival on the blog in the past, but what about your crowning glory? Won’t somebody please think of the children gruaig!

Needless to say, dry shampoo is your only man when it comes to keeping hair (reasonably) fresh. Sure, there will be pop-up salons offering a wash and blow dry service if you’re arsed to seek them out, but mostly you should just forget about high-octane glamour this weekend. It’s all about looking half decent while keeping things as low-maintenance as possible so you can spend less time fretting about your hair and more time looking at bands or queuing for mojitos in the Bacardi Live Tent. Work with what you’ve got. And don’t go next or near those pay-as-you-go straighteners: GHDing dirty locks is just dis-gus-ting.

Cheap and cheerful Batiste is now available in different colours as well as different fragrances, so you should be able to find a version to suit. It’ll also give hair a bit of grip and volume so you’ll be able to tie it up out of the way with ease.

(more…)

Tags: electric picnic, festival beauty, Hair & Hair Removal
Posted in Hair & Hair Removal, How to? | 9 Comments »

AW10: Trends that’ll Never Catch On

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

aw10 trends

We’ve been eagerly previewing the Autumn/Winter launches for the last while, and indeed there’s been lots of soon-to-hit counters loveliness to salivate over. However, every season throws up a couple of unlikely looks – here are two that I suspect none of us will be will be rushing out to try this season…

Seriously morning-after eyes

You can keep your smoky eyeshadow and your sexy smudged eyeliner. Artfully applied, intentionally messy-looking eyes with a graphic edge are where it’s at this season if the catwalks are to be believed. It was stippled black eye make-up a go go on the Chanel A/W Ready To Wear runway, where Peter Philip’s intention was apparently to mimic the smudged print effect featured on shoes and bags in the collection.

Bet he didn’t count on giving me flashbacks to leopard print versions of those press-on eyeshadow strip yokes.

At Jean Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen, it appeared that the make-up artists on duty had taken a fit of sneezing half-way through doing the model’s eyes, with smudged horizontal striped lines of eyeliner radiating out across the crease of the upper lid (and putting in an appearance beneath the eye, too.)

Runway to reality: Don’t cleanse your eye make-up after a heavy night out and you’ll be pretty much all set for the following evening, simply add some random stripes or spots. Could hardly be easier!

Ombre hair

For Spring/Summer, the magazines were full of talk about letting your roots grow out a centimetre or thereabouts for a two-tone effect. Everyone was at it, sure: Alexa and SJP and… well, everyone.

While it was a look that I didn’t really see happening much in real life – and did anybody else wonder if the celebs who were sporting it were just en route to the salon for a touch-up? – it’s going a step further for Autumn/Winter. Ombre hair, where mid-lengths to ends are much lighter than the top couple of inches, is supposedly The Next Big Thing where colour is concerned. Good news if a lack of cash has had you stretching the gap between your highlighting visits, but I can’t imagine that hairdressers are best pleased about this one.

Still, Ashlee Simpson is a fan, so the ombre hair trend is sure to catch on in a big way … right?

Runway to reality: Cancel the highlights for the next couple of months and book yourself a mini-break with the savings. Just send your colourist a postcard to let them know you’re thinking of them.

Pix via EmmaHill.net and MTV

Tags: AW10, horrible beauty, trends
Posted in Beauty News & Links, Eyes, Lips and Cheeks, Hair & Hair Removal | 26 Comments »

Sunny Side Up: Kerastase Soleil 2010

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Kerastase soleil

Developed to help protect and repair hair from the trauma of overexposure to sun, sea, and chlorine, the Kerastase Soleil range has had a bit of tweaking for its 2010 incarnation. New to the line-up are Aqua Seal, a fluid-cream protectant that you apply to dry hair prior to sun or water exposure, and Lait Richesse, €28.70, a leave-in daily use conditioner.

I’ve been giving the shampoo (or Bain Apres-Soleil Cheveux Colores, €19, to give it its full French title) and new leave-in conditioner a whirl over the last little while. Unfortunately – or fortunately, maybe! – I actually didn’t have too much summer hair damage for them to contend with. While my highlights looked impressively sparkly after use, I thought the shampoo was a little on the heavy side for my fine hair and it left my roots looking a bit limp. I’d definitely use it on holidays, when I’d be washing my hair more frequently anyway.

The leave-in conditioner, meanwhile, is a light milk formulation, and although it left my hair soft and smooth, soft and supple after application, I suspect coarser or more damaged locks would prefer something more intensive.

Tags: Hair & Hair Removal, Kerastase, soleil, summer, sun
Posted in Brands, treatment & product reviews, Hair & Hair Removal | 3 Comments »

First Impressions: Moroccanoil Shampoo and Conditioner

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Moroccanoil Moisture shampoo and conditioner

You can’t move crookedy at the moment without bumping into oil-based hair treats. We’ve got offerings from Shu Uemura, Orofluido, Joico and also Moroccanoil, which the glossies are going doo-lally for.

Lynnie’s checked out the Moroccanoil treatment and blow dry at Zeba and liked what it did for her, and I was recently sent the forthcoming shampoo and conditioner, so I’ve put them down the end of the bath and I’ve been giving them a go.

I find it hard to be wowed by (or wildly interested in) haircare, to be honest. Maybe it’s my particular pain-in-the-arse hair – fine, millions of it, hard to control and style and prone to frizziness – so I tend to generally wash it, despair of it and throw it up into a pony tail in order to forget it exists. I’ve also told you before how whelmed I am in general by conditioner – it just doesn’t seem to do much to my mane.

Anyway, Moroccanoil. I’ve used both products – yes, forced myself to use the conditioner too – twice and while this pair of argan oil-infused paraben-free products aren’t going to change my life or anything like that, my cursory forays into using them have been delivering nice results. Frizzy ends seem a lot more sleeked, but without being weighed down: I tweeted that my hair was “all big and bouncy” – but not in an Adrian Mole fashion, naturally.

It wasn’t a once-off either – a second wash and condition delivered similar results so its safe to say these will be staying put in the bathroom for the time being. While my non chemically-straightened, non-dyed hair is taking to them well, anyone who’s had the 12 Week Blowdry will also be a candidate thanks to their sulphate- and phosphate-free ways. These products are good for colour-treated hair too, and the fact that they’re paraben-free will also appeal to those who’re looking for more natural options.

Lastly, where to buy? Zeba and Queen Beauty Emporium are, to the best of my knowledge, the only Irish stockists – please add more in the comments if you know of ‘em. They’ll have the new products in from early September and the shampoo will cost around €18.80, the conditioner will be a little pricier. HQhair* also sells them online, with prices from €20.25 for the shampoo.

Tags: Haircare, HQhair, moroccanoil, paraben-free, zeba
Posted in Brands, treatment & product reviews, Ethical & Organic Beauty, Hair & Hair Removal | 29 Comments »

Student Style: Garnier Fructis Bamboo Flexihold Hairspray

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Garnier fructis bamboo hold (and a panda)

Curly girls around the world will empathise when I lament the difficulty in finding products that enhance our – ooer! – natural kink. It can be nigh on impossible to find something that works and doesn’t just sit atop the general accompanying frizz, creating a halo effect.

The Crunch Factor is what usually gets me. Serums and crèmes applied to and absorbed by wet or damp hair tend to be the best at taming the mane, but considering how dry curly hair often is, I don’t wash mine every day. Thus, mousses and sprays that work on dry hair without making it crispy are my holy grail. I’ve tried umpteen different types and have been, in general, disappointed. L’Oreal Paris’ Elnett is one of the few that comes up trumps – and now, so does Garnier Fructis Bamboo Flexihold hairspray, €3.99.

I don’t brush my hair, but I do run a comb through the straggly bits before leaving the house; knots and curls are not the same thing, whatever Ke$ha may think. Actually keeping one’s barnet in a swirly, soft daytime style can be difficult to do if your hair is fine, like mine is. When I comb it, it tends to droop as the day drags on. No fear, however – a few spritzes with the delish-smelling Flexihold kept my curls bouncy without making my hair brittle. I don’t know about the ‘24-hour hold’ it boasts, but it definitely lasted a day at work.

Switch to night-time and I had half-straightened my mop to a messy, beachy level. Sprayed on upside-down hair which was tousled straight after application, this product actually worked wonders. It kept my hair slightly matt and full all night, and brushed straight out before I went to bed. Thumbs up from me, Garnier!

Tags: budget, Garnier, hairspray
Posted in Beaut.ienomics - brilliant budget buys, Brands, treatment & product reviews, Hair & Hair Removal | 6 Comments »

Oops: Falling Off The Threading Wagon

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

threading

On the sporadic occasions when I used to get my eyebrows threaded in the past – and no matter how deliriously happy I am with the job done and the resulting shape – my express intention is to simply maintain the threaded shape myself at home by tweezing any errant hairs.

However, I committed myself to a more long-term threading relationship with Libby in Elysian Brows before going on holidays. I let the brows grow for a full fortnight before my first appointment, and then didn’t touch them – at all – for almost an entire three weeks until my next threading appointment rocked around.

I was all set to keep up this routine for the sake of a pair uber-groomed brows: after just two visits, the overall shape was immensely improved, the position of my arch had been tweaked, and, well it was just difficult to say “no” to those super clean defined edges.

Or so I thought.

An impromptu night out two weeks in to my next growth cycle, though, had me reconsidering and ultimately I had to reach for the tweezers. My hair is naturally mid-brown, but my eyebrows are pretty much jet black and regrowth stands out a mile against my fair skin – it only takes one or two hairs to make things look decidedly untidy. If I ever want to be able to show my face in polite company again without scheduling outings weeks in advance, it seems that regular threading is not going to be the way to go!

Tags: eyebrow, threading, tweezing
Posted in Brands, treatment & product reviews, Eyes, Lips and Cheeks, Hair & Hair Removal | 22 Comments »

New from Pantene: Aqua Light range

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Pantene Aqua Light Shampoo

Pantene is a haircare brand that tends not to get all that much love from yours truly, even though I usually love a good supermarket bargain. That might all be about to change, however, with the launch of their latest range: Aqua Light shampoo and conditioners, €2.99 each, are specifically designed for anyone who regularly skips conditioner or just finds that their hair feels weighed down by heavy shampoos, conditioners, or styling aids.

One of the criticisms which has regularly been leveled at Pantene in the past is that there are just too many heavy silicones in its products, which make hair look lovely and silky initially but may leave a build-up. That’s something they brand has addressed in this range by significantly reducing the amount of silicones in the Aqua Light products.

While it’s not a totally silicone-free line, it appears from a quick scan of the ingredients lists that neither the shampoo nor the leave-in nourishing spray contain silicones, and they’re further down the ingredients lists of the rinse-out conditioner and intensive conditioning treatment than I’d have expected.

Pantene reckons these lightweight products are particularly easy to rinse out of hair, too – the gel rather than cream formulations contain what the brand is calling a Clean Rinse formula to ensure that there’s virtually no residue left behind to weigh down fine locks.

That’s not all – the products have been getting rave reviews across the beauty blogosphere too.

Would you be tempted to try them?

Tags: Hair & Hair Removal, Pantene, silicone, silicones
Posted in Beaut.ienomics - brilliant budget buys, Beauty News & Links, Hair & Hair Removal | 31 Comments »

Batiste you’re a feckin life saver: dry shampoo may be the best budget buy ever

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Batiste

Yanking my neck out of whack (don’t worry I won’t go into the boring details) has meant being literally unable to wash the gruaig for four days straight.

And the morning I woke up unable to move with the pain it needed to be washed anyway.

So I was stuck at home. Unable to drive. Unable to go to work. Unable to do any work at home as I couldn’t even use my laptop And unable to wash my hair, which as the days passed was becoming possibly the worst side effect ever.

Dinner hair was a real and present danger.

What I would have done without Batiste I don’t know. We’re always raving about this dry shampoo – perfect for festival hair and for getting another day or so out of your blowdry. Also it’s great for adding volume and as it freshens up your hair you don’t get that Jessica Simpson stink either.

It was not until this morning that I could wash my hair – at that stage it was composed almost entirely of Batiste. And I thank God for it. Thanks God!

Tags: Batiste, budget, dry shampoo, Hair & Hair Removal, jessica simpson
Posted in Beaut.ienomics - brilliant budget buys, Brands, treatment & product reviews, Hair & Hair Removal | 44 Comments »

A Very Modern Mystery: Indole and Cultural Attitudes Towards Hair Removal

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

scent

Last week’s meeting with the man they call The Nose, Roja Dove, threw up more than freebie fragrances, Neutrogena-product-introductions and a lovely Four Seasons lunch: as we ate we got chatting about all things fragrant and the topic turned to how scent can be used as an attractor. This works on two levels really: one, the knowing brain basically likes the notes in the scent someone is wearing, and two, the limbic system, which is the primitive, sex-fuelled part, picks up on and responds to certain smells because of what they contain; namely pheromones.

Roja revealed that certain flowers like jasmine contain a substance called indole, which, fact fans, is also present at the root of pubic hair. Essentially, indole is a sex attractor and it’s one of the things the primitive brain uses as a marker to hone in on when seeking a mate; it’s equally what makes some fragrances attractive to the opposite sex.

Scent and attraction is a pretty fascinating topic all on its own, but this got me me thinking (in an urgh, Carrie Bradshaw-style way) about the bizarre state of affairs the modern gal fond of a little garden maintenance finds herself in. We live in a hyper-sexualised society where women can feel pressurised to remove every scrap of body hair, and thanks to the easy availability of porn, it often seems to me we’re breeding generations of men who expect women to have bolt-on breasts and completely smooth erogenous zones.

All it takes the average female is a look at her own breasts with natural drop and her oops-I-really-need-to-shave-’em legs to appreciate the fallacy. And the irony of excessive hair removal, is of course, that with the hair gone, so is the sex attractor. The Brazilian-or Hollywood-based contemporary standard of sexiness remains, but hey, you can’t fool the limbic system.

Hairy men are seen as virile yet women are pressurised to remove hair – clearly, when you read about the power of scent and attraction you can see what a double-standard there is, and equally how it’s such an artificially- and culturally-constructed one to boot. Magazines and peer pressure to depilate may tell you one thing about what’s considered sexy, but your nose – and your brain – know better.

Interesting, eh?

Tags: fragrance, hair removal, roja dove, sexuality
Posted in Hair & Hair Removal, Here comes the science, Lotions, Potions & Scent | 29 Comments »

Could Scrunchies Be Making A Comeback? (Really?)

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

the horror of hair scrunchies

Last week, I read an article on Glamour magazine’s website which breathlessly predicts the imminent return of the scrunchie.

Yes, fabric covered hair ties. Those scrunchies.

I’m a bit dubious about this particular bit of crystal ball gazing, to be honest, and not just because InStyle made a similar prediction last year. Most of the women I talked to about it haven’t worn a scrunchie since the mid ’90s and were insistant that they’d never be caught dead in public wearing one. (Using an old day-glo scrunchie to keep your hair pulled back while scrubbing the loo is an entirely different proposition.)

American Apparel are with Glamour on this one, though. The brand have an insane extensive line of scrunchies in a myriad of colours and choice of fabrics from cotton to lamé to – everyone’s favourite, surely – velvet.

Have you seen an increase in scrunchie-related activity lately? Would you wear one again?

Tags: '80s, 80, Hair & Hair Removal, scrunchie
Posted in Gadgets, Books & Accessories, Hair & Hair Removal | 47 Comments »

Beyond Batiste: Electric Picnic hair

AW10: Trends that’ll Never Catch On

Seriously morning-after eyes

Ombre hair

Sunny Side Up: Kerastase Soleil 2010

First Impressions: Moroccanoil Shampoo and Conditioner

Student Style: Garnier Fructis Bamboo Flexihold Hairspray

Oops: Falling Off The Threading Wagon

New from Pantene: Aqua Light range

Batiste you’re a feckin life saver: dry shampoo may be the best budget buy ever

A Very Modern Mystery: Indole and Cultural Attitudes Towards Hair Removal

Could Scrunchies Be Making A Comeback? (Really?)

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