It’s strange how sometimes things just work out. I remember a few months back I was attending an event at Oscar Oscar Salon, where the key hair stylist Jackie made a comment that the GHD hair dryers were one of the best in the market, fastest drying ever. But I wasn’t totally convinced till I saw Val nod in agreement, which is when I knew I’d have to purchase this hair dryer for myself to try.

I’ve been using the same one at home for years now, my trusty Remington which I bought ages ago. And generally it’s great, and with hair as long as mine (waist length), it takes a good 20-30 mins to dry my hair to almost 80-90% (I never get it fully dry)

I’d been planning to purchase the GHD hair dryer, but due to all the recent travel I didn’t think it was a good time since I wouldn’t even be home to try it out anyways. Figured I’d wait till after I got back from Europe.

And then what do you know? GHD contacts me the week I arrive home and asked if there was anything from their range I’d like to try? Isn’t it great how things just work out? I already own two of their hair straighteners so my thoughts naturally went straight to the hair dryer.

Jackie and Val were right, this hair dryer is -amazing-. Before I get into the functionality, the main thing I love about this dryer is how fast it is able to dry my hair. It managed to dry my hair to around 80% within 10 minutes, which blew my mind! 10 minutes compared to what was originally 20-30 minutes! And given I usually dry and style my hair at night before bed at around 12am – 1am, I’m looking for something that will work fast so I can go to bed.

The hair dryer gives you a number of different functions, ranging from three power settings (none, medium and max) and three heat settings (cool, warm and hot). It also has a cooling button at the front in case you need cool bursts of air which is very important for long hair prone to heat damage. It encourages the cuticles in your hair to close (hence why a blast of cold water before you get out of the shower on your skin and hair is highly recommended!!)

The set comes with two nozzles to help style your hair, I don’t personally use them as I do all my styling with my GHD straighteners once my hair is dry.

Once my hair is about 80% dry, I bring in the large GHD paddle brush to help finish off the job.

If you are in the market for a top notch hair dryer, especially if you do have very long hair I highly recommend this! The fact that it could cut my drying time in half is enough for me to want to buy a travel backup. This hair dryer is priced at $199AU from the GHD website, which I is expensive. But personally for me, like the GHD straighteners, it’s an investment for me.

Now that my hair is as long as it is, I’ve been having a lot more fun playing with different styles, especially curls! I couldn’t really before since my hair is so thick, curling it always made my hair look extra poofy X_x; One of my favourite styles at the moment is to straighten the roots of my hair and curl the ends, it’s my current favourite style

So I’ve been working my way through a number of curling and straightening products. One of them is KMS’s Free Shape Hot Flex which was kindly sent to me by KMS to potentially feature on the blog.

Basically after towel drying your hair (and I personally like to blow dry my hair for 5 minutes before as well), I spray this to the ends of my hair, work the product in and then let my hair naturally dry. It’s designed to help provide heat protection and styling for your hair.

One of the big changes I’ve noticed is that when I do curl my hair, when the curls eventually relax they are still far tighter than they would be without the product, and I can run my fingers through my hair and not feel any of the product.

For day to day styling, I always prefer using products (if I have to) that make your hair feel soft, as if I don’t have any product in my hair , so I avoid hair spray as best I can (only use it for shoots or special events). Hence why products like this and the Goldwell Straight Sleek are my current favourites to use

If I had to pick on something it would be the effort to spray, call me weak but I find the pump to have quite a bit of resistance to it, unlike the Goldwell can. This can be a real chore sometimes, so I can’t go too crazy with the spray before my fingers get tired.

Overall it’s a lovely product that I can see lasting me a long time If you’re interested this product is available for most salons for $31.95AU a bottle.

Pros:

• Can be applied to dry hair
• Keeps hair sleek straight for longer
• Leaves her silky and soft

Cons:

• Fruity scent can be a bit over powering

Price: $22.95AU

Rating:

Where: RY or check out your local salon.

A couple weeks ago I did an outfit of the day post that had some swishy hair photos in them, and I mentioned a product I’ve been using for the last few weeks that to me has made all the difference.

Introducing Goldwell’s Straight and Sleek spray, this was one of the items I received in my goodie bag after attending ABBW. We were given a shameful amount of products and I found this to really stand out. My favourite aspect of this product is that you can spray it on your hair dry, sometimes I tend to forget to add products to my hair after my shower because I’m easy distracted *cough*. So this is great, especially since I only ever straighten my hair once it is dry!

It sprays a very light mist all over, I comb it through with my fingers and let my trusty GHD do all the work!

The only thing I’m not a fan of is the smell, it has a fruity scent that might appeal to others, but it’s a bit over powering for me. Almost feels like it’s there to mask another scent which I can’t quite put my finger on. But the smell subsides quite a bit once you’ve straightened your hair. It’s still there, but more like it just lingers.

The result for me is ultra straight silk swishy hair! And I find that it keeps my hair straighter for longer too, usually after day 2 (I wash my hair every 3-4 days) I can see my hair starting to curl again, but with this the kinks hardly show up even by day 4. Very pleased

Pros:

• Very convenient pump package
• Smooths out dry hair (or at least gives the illusion)
• Pleasant scent

Cons:

• Doesn’t actually repair damage to the ends of my hair

Price: $10.99AU each

Rating:

Where: Supermarkets, hair care stores and pharmacies in Australia.

I have some pretty terrible hair, if I do say so myself. And that’s for a number of reasons:

1. I haven’t cut my hair in about 2 years, yes don’t judge me I’ve never met a hair dresser I like, so I don’t go and as a result I cut my own hair… but I’ve been… busy! Yeah… busy….
2. I straighten my hair without constantly using a heat protectant…. *twitch*
3. I don’t use conditioner….
4. I comb my hair wet and it constantly breaks…. what!? *face*

So yeah, despite haven’t never bleached nor dyed it, it’s not in the best condition, though most of the time it looks pretty decent if I straighten it, my GHD does wonders!

The lovely people at Wella sent me the two bottles you see above, and since I pretty much survive off sample shampoos and conditioners (I siphon sample packs into bottles, I don’t know why, I get a kick out of it….) this was a real welcome change to finally have real bottles

I’ve been using this for a few weeks now, and I have only positive things to say! It’s no miracle product, for example the ends of my hair which are crunched, split and generally fraying as still crunched, split and fraying. But the rest of my hair is much smoother, easier to comb my dry hair now (I used to get knots all the time).I find now when I straighten my hair, it’s much shiner and smoother!

The two bottles combined are about $22AU, but I’ve seen them cheaper at Coles when a special was running. And look at the size of these! They are going to last me a very long time before I need to start hunting for samples again And the packaging was just cake, I don’t like storing my bottles in the shower since over time they collect dirt, so I sit them just outside and all I need to do is do a quick pump when I need product.

If you’ve got dry hair, give this a whirl, it helped improve my hair. But if your ends are really rancid like mine, don’t expect this to fix them. I actually haven’t found a product that can do that, besides a pair of scissors

Pros:

• Smooths down medium to fine fly aways
• Compact and travel friendly
• Subtle pleasant scent
• Long lasting
• No residue or greasy hair
• Can be applied without using hands / fingers

Cons:

• Unable to smooth down large sections of coarse hair

Price: $19.95AU

Rating:

Where: Local Salons

I’ve had this little gem for a while now and have given it quite the work out, especially when it comes to quickly styling my hair before leaving work for dinner or for impromptu photo shoots.

And I can attest that this product is truly a gem, the lovely people at KMS were kind enough to send this to me to try out several months ago and I’ve been loving it since!

It does an amazing job at smoothing down medium to fine fly aways and helps make my hair look very slick. It doesn’t leave hair with any residue or feeling greasy, very easy to use. Just roll up a bit (like a glue stick) and apply. And because it’s so travel friendly, I’ve been able to keep it in my handbag without weighting myself down as normal hair spray or gel would.

Especially since I don’t need to use my hands for this (straight from the tube), unlike gels or hair spray I can just zip in and out of the bathroom.

All in all, I love this and am so glad I was given a chance to review it! I will have to find a 2nd tube soon before I run out

Okay, tough topic time *deep breath* I really didn’t want to ever mention this to anyone, let alone my blog. Buuuut, I do want to be as upfront and honest about myself as possible! I suffer from dandruff, to a pretty bad level. Gross, I know. I’m not leaving flakes everywhere I go, but it’s still bad to look in the mirror and be able to spot them! Having black hair doesn’t help either

It’s actually one of the reasons I stopped going to the hairdressers. I think the last time I went to the hairdressers was probably about 4 years ago. And admittedly I’ve never really had an enjoyable hair cut experience, but after the last lady I tried pretty much humiliated me at the salon because of my dandruff -_-

I’m a cosplayer, I style wigs ALL the time, how hard can it be to just cut my own hair?

Surprisingly easy actually, so I’ve been cutting my own ever since, saves me money and awkward forced chit chat =D

I think over the course of my 4 years I’ve tried a number of anti-dandruff shampoos, Head and Shoulders appears to be the most popular one, but honestly it didn’t make a massive difference for me I know, I forced myself through an entire bottle.

So I searched the internet and discovered the two Neutrogena products above in the Yahoo Answer forums. I tried the Daily Control first, just because it seems more readily available and was cheaper. A few months later when I was able to check out the Priceline store in the city, I managed to grab the Therapeutic version. Comparison time?

Daily Control didn’t cut it for me, I wonder if it really made a difference at all. Maybe I have severe dandruff, who knows. But despite following the instructions down to the T (Gel… sorry bad joke ) it probably only rid me of 10% of my dandruff?

Moving on to the Therapeutic version, wow! This probably eliminated about 90% of my dandruff after about 2-3 washes. BUT, this stuff stinks. I’m not kidding, I cringed every time I put this stuff in my hair, but it looked amazing! So sleek and clean @_@

But as with all anti-dandruff treatments, if you stop using it, the dandruff will return. As mine did, I just couldn’t hack the smell. Still, I’m not throwing this bottle out, not only was it on the $$ side, but hey, it’s the only formula I’ve found that works! Maybe when I toughen up my sense of smell I dive back into it.

In Summary

If you suffer from bad dandruff, go the Therapeutic formula, it at least does actually treat dandruff really well! BUT, beware the smell. Hopefully you’ll be able to put up with it better than me :O

Okay, awkward post over! Moving on to cuter things later~~

So, how many of us won’t leave the house (you know for work, seeing friends, dinners etc, not counting a grocery run) without using heat to style our hair? I have no idea, but I am definitely one of those people who cannot live without my hair straightener. I’ve probably been straightening my hair (or curling, in other words I use direct heat) around 2-3 times a week for the last 4-5 years. Often I’ll be bad and go without heat protector and I honestly use conditioner like 30% of the time :/ BUT, big but here! I don’t ever dye or bleach my hair! So I figure since I haven’t done that, I should be allowed some flexibility in how I care for my hair Right? *nervous laugh*

Well last weekend I thought I want to try and NOT heat style my hair for one week. It was a big ask, and whilst my hair to me seems healthy and fine (maybe a bit dry), I think I find my obsessive dependency on my hair straightener to be more frightening than anything else In a small way, it does suck to not feel confident and proud without having to styling my hair (let’s not even touch makeup here!)

Happy to say I did it! This is me, with my natural hair, absolutely no heat styling (but I did throw in a bit of gel to stop it from frizzing, baby steps!?)

Sorry for my less than friendly face, I honestly did try and smile, but those photos ended up look a bit goofy :/ lol

It was strangely liberating to go a week without my straightener. I’m sure it could use the break from me, and now I have more time in the mornings to be productive (aka sleep)

As for right now (so 1.5 weeks) I still haven’t touched my straightener, but I DID blow dry my hair straight (in the photos in this post I let my hair dry naturally). I’ll probably embrace my straightener soon, but it’s good to know I can go out and look half way decent without it, plus I can probably use it a bit less too.

Enough of my rambly post, I would love to hear if you guys can relate, don’t leave me feeling like I’m the only addicted nut out there ?

My favourite aspect of the entire show were the hair styles! Gorgeous!

Here are some of my favourites from the collection:

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