snobgirls

Hair Care Routine

~ Michele Raiyne ~ 1 Comment

Updated hair care routine.

Before: I have dry, frizzy, fine, thinning, and coarse hair, and oily scalp. I have picked these products to nourish, repair, moisturize, and hopefully get my hair looking and feeling better.

Inkey List salicylic acid scalp treatment. Apply to scalp before shampooing. This helps with itchiness, oily scalp, and dry, flaky scalp. Exfoliates the scalp and helps irritation.

Redken acid bonding concentrate intensive treatment for moisture and repair. I do a quick shampoo before applying this, let it sit, then do a second shampoo.

OGX coconut miracle oil. I use this as a pre-shampoo protection treatment, after applying the Redken acid bonding concentrate.

Snobgirls Hydramend shampoo and Strong Force conditioner. The shampoo is particularly great for oily scalp and cleanses buildup very well. The conditioner makes hair moisturized and silky.

Pureology Color Fanatic leave-in conditioner moisturizes, nurtures, and smooths.

K18 Peptide Prep clarifying shampoo cleanses buildup and makes hair soft.

K18 molecular repair mask reverses damage and restores strength. I use this every couple weeks.

OGX argan oil mask applied every couple weeks.

After washing my hair, I dry with the LUS brands cotton t-shirt towel. Absorbs water without causing frizz.

I got the Suprent big round brush on Amazon, which is great. It does not tug on the hair and helps with a nice blowout, but at my front hairline, I was brushing too hard and getting breakage at my bangs, so I either flat iron them or use the Conair hot rollers. For the breakage, I tried the Ibiza brush with the white bristles that is for fragile hair, which turned out to be one of the worse brushes I have used. It tangled my hair, caused more breakage, and got stuck. I use the Wet Brush to detangle my hair when wet and to distribute conditioner, hair styling products, and oils. The wooden comb I use on non-wash days to detangle. The hairdryer I use is the Babyliss Pro TT, which is fine, but I am disappointed in the cool shot. It is not very cool; the Conair hair dryer that is 20 years old has a cool shot button and the air is cold.

Color Wow Dream Coat blocks humidity, prevents frizz, smooths, and adds shine while blow drying.

Redken Big Blowout provides heat protection while providing volume when blow drying.

Redken thermal spray high hold provides heat protection and hold while flat ironing, curling, or using hot rollers.

My thin hair lacks volume, so I use a couple of the Conair hot rollers on the top of my head and at my bangs.

Shu Uemura Essence Absolue nourishing overnight serum softens, nourishes, and smooths overnight.

These are favorite hair oils that I rotate through; Olaplex bonding oil, Kerastase Eilixir Ultime hydrating oil serum, OGX argan oil, and Shu Uemura Essence Absolue nourishing protective hair oil.

Redken dry shampoo paste absorbs oil, adds texture, and helps hold curls and braids.

Thanks for visiting.

Snobgirls Strong Force Prowash and Masque-Creme Review

~ Michele Raiyne ~ 2 Comments

Snobgirls is a Canadian professional line of products specifically for color-treated hair with their “100% free series,” banning over 40 harsh ingredients commonly found in skin care and hair care products. Each product contains their TruColour Guard antifading system.

I purchased the Strong Force shampoo and conditioner set for dry, over-processed, weak and damaged hair, and split ends. The shampoo and conditioner have a super-concentrated formula (92 uses in a 300 mL bottle), claiming to nourish, repair, strengthen and protect the hair. Zero-Snap helps prevent and reverse visible signs of hair breakage while sealing lifted cuticles and improving elasticity, frizz and static.

I have been using the shampoo and conditioner for a few months and recently purchased again. They changed the fragrance from a really nice, sort of flower/fruit perfume-like fragrance to a musky, masculine, cologne-like fragrance that I do not like.

I have an oily scalp and dry, fine hair. I have been blow drying my hair recently rather than letting it air dry; I have read that leaving hair wet is more damaging than heat from a blow dryer (I use medium heat and a protectant). Plus, my hair looks a little crazy air dried (and blow dried as well; I am practicing blowing it out with a round brush) at the length I have now. I last got my hair cut almost 4 months ago, so probably have a some heat/mechanical damage.

Strong Force Prowash:

The shampoo does not contain harsh sulfates (sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate) or silicones. This contains a number of plant extracts and oils, proteins, peptides and ceramide.

Directions: Apply to wet hair. Lather. Rinse well. Repeat. Follow with masque-creme and a bio-serum.

This is a clear shampoo (clear shampoos are good for oily scalp, rather than a cream shampoo). It has a lot of lather and cleans the scalp and hair very well. My hair feels “squeaky clean,” near to that of some clarifying and sulfate shampoos I have used , which I love for my oily scalp. Despite the squeaky clean feeling, my hair and scalp do not feel dried out, perhaps owing to the equally good Masque-Creme (I also like Briogeo’s Scalp Revival Hydration Mask). I am not sure about the 92 uses, but I am able to use half as much per use (I always shampoo my hair twice per wash) than with other shampoos I have used.

Strong Force Masque-Creme:

Behentrimoium chloride is used as the anti-static, emulsifying conditioning agent, as well as containing a number of plant oils, proteins, ceramide and peptides. As far as I can tell, this does not contain silicone.

Directions: After shampooing, apply to wet hair. Leave on for 1 minute. Rinse thoroughly. Follow with a bio-serum.

This conditioner is a lightweight cream, but is rich and seems to coat and emulsify into the hair. It detangles well and on rinsing, the hair feels hydrated and silky. Like the shampoo, I am able to use half as much as with other conditioners.

I cannot really speak to the anti-breakage claims for the shampoo and conditioner, as I have also been using K18 (have used twice I believe since I got my hair cut), but the ends of my hair still look good for having a cut almost 4 months ago.

Snobgirls has a line of bio-serums (hair oil capsules) that are really good for hydration, frizz, styling, and heat/UV protection.

Having used the Snobgirls Prowash and Masque-Creme (I have also used the Hydramend line and the above bio-serums) for a few months, I love how well the shampoo cleanses and the conditioner moisturizes and detangles. While I will continue to review shampoo and conditioners from time to time (my order of the new shampoo, conditioner and scalp serum from The Ordinary should arrive in a couple days), I will for sure return to the Snobgirls line of products.

Thanks for visiting.

Snobgirls Curalign Ultra-Smoothing Control Hair Oil Capsules Review

~ Michele Raiyne ~ 2 Comments

I recently purchased a few hair products from Snobgirls, a Canadian professional line of products specifically for color-treated hair with their “100% free series,” banning over 40 harsh ingredients commonly found in skin care and hair care products. Each product contains their TruColour Guard antifading system. One of the hair oils I got are the Curalign Ultra-Smoothing Control Hair Oil Capsules, a leave-in treatment for dry, unruly, frizzy and/or coarse hair. These oil capsules are said to provide weightless control, tame frizz, smooth hair, provide protection from heat and UV light, soothe irritated, dry or itchy scalp, preserve and prolong color, diminish drying time by 55%, help hot tools glide through the hair, add shine, keep moisture in and humidity out and provide lasting results until the next shampoo.

Directions: Twist or cut open stem of capsule. Rub into palms to activate. Glide through clean, towel-dried hair and/or scalp. Do not rinse. Blow dry hair straight and follow with flat iron if desired. To be used after each shampoo and condition. To add shine or control static, apply one drop to dry hair.

Ingredients:

The hair oil contains a few silicones, vitamins, amino acids, hyaluronic acid, plant extracts and oils and proteins.

I have thin, frizzy and dry hair and have used the Curalign hair oil capsules a few times when doing a quick blow dry and flat iron on the hair.

The capsules themselves do not smell good, however, the oil has a slight perfume type fragrance that I cannot smell once applied to the hair. The oil is quite thick, the capsule contains a lot of oil and it seems like it would be heavy, but I used a whole capsule on my collarbone length hair and my hair was not weighed down or greasy and had no residue or stickiness. I also added one drop after flat ironing to smooth some flyaways and static. Using more than a drop or two on dry hair would for sure weigh the hair down and it would feel oily. Rubbing some of the oil onto my hand made my skin feel so smooth and this feeling lasted until I washed my hands.

For each of the above photos, I added the respective oils to the hair when damp, blow dried and then did a quick flat iron (still using this one). These are perhaps not the most accurate for the look of the hair because I used minimal heat and large sections to minimize heat damage; I am getting my hair colored next month and want it to be as healthy as possible (I am so looking forward to covering all this grey hair). The Curalign oil provided the best results in terms of smoothing and straightening the hair and adding shine and a sleek feel. The next day my hair was still straight, felt very smooth and had no poof (I usually get poof on my flat ironed second day hair).

The Snobgirls Curalign Ultra-Smoothing Control Hair Oil Capsules add shine and give the hair a smooth, sleek feel without adding heaviness or residue and I will continue to use this when blow drying and flat ironing the hair.

Thanks for visiting.