A spring in my hair….

The dawn of a new decade brought with it only one New Year’s ambition (if you set resolutions you can fail, ambitions are kinder!). To stop abusing my hair and start treating it with the TLC, love and respect that my skin gets!

Haircare has always been the most neglected part of beauty for me, given the least amount of time and attention and treated as if it’s disposable (which it 100% isn’t, i’ve seen what I look like when I wear a hat and I’m not ready to embrace the no hair look just yet….)

…stop abusing my hair and start treating it with the TLC, love and respect that my skin gets!

So armed with a good telling off from my hairdresser, strict instructions to get it cut more than once a year and a bucket load of  (self imposed) shame I set to work on revamping my hair care routine with the goal of doing it for the year and reviewing the progress along the way.

First things first, hair washing. My name is Jess and I am addicted to washing my hair every single day. And I have done for the best part of the past 10 years at least.  So my first action was to only wash my hair every other day, with the occasional 2 day gap  where I can bare it. The thought of leaving the house with unwashed hair was harder than it actually has been and I’ve very quickly got used to the every other day washing, thanks namely to the discovery of the world’s best dry shampoo from Living Proof, which is the only dry shampoo I’ve ever tried that actually leaves my hair feeling cleaner after using and with minimal white residue.

‘…..the discovery of the world’s best dry shampoo from Living Proof’

Putting to one side the amount of shampoo and conditioner I must have gone through over those years, there’s also the issue of the type of shampoo I’ve been using. Namely SLS laden monstrosities which suck the life out of your hair much like a foaming cleanser which prides itself on leaving your face ‘squeaky clean’….

Luckily I’ve not been monogamous to one shampoo over the years so switching it up was not that painful and I’ve settled on the OGX thickening range which contains collagen to help boost fullness. Much like the switch to SLS free cleansers if you are used to the foam, SLS free shampoos can feel a bit strange at first and you wonder whether they are actually cleaning your hair. (They are btw) and you soon forgot the 90’s foam party vibe in the shower that used to occur and focus more on massaging the product into your scalp to get into the roots where it does the most work.

Once I week I have also been using the new detoxifying shampoo from Living Proof (this range as a whole is amazing and is totally worth the extra cost for the results). This shampoo has been developed to help combat pollution and hard water build up in hair and works brilliantly as a once a week ‘reset’ shampoo – again there’s minimal lather and it also boasts a slightly odd charcoal colour, get passed that and you’ll be impressed with the clean, but most definitely not squeaky results!

‘…..you’ll be impressed with the clean, but most definitely not squeaky results!’

And then last up in my hair care SOS tool kit has been the introduction of the much accoladed at-home treatment Olaplex. Olaplex as an in salon bonding treatment has been around for several years now but the at home treatment (No.3 in the range) step is fairly new and claims to transform dry, damaged, broken hair by working on a molecular level to seek out broken bonds in hair and repair them. I deliberated for some time before taking the £26 plunge for 100ml of product but was swayed by the numerous ‘this will change your hair life’ stories (I’m a beauty marketers dream!). You apply it as a pre shampoo treatment, massage into damp hair and leave on for as long as possible, overnight if you can. I’ve tried both a couple of hours and overnight and definitely felt the results more the longer it’s on the hair. I can definitely see and feel an improvement in the strength and texture of my hair with continued use. From the reading I’ve done it seems that the product continues to work the more you use it (think of it as a gym work out for your hair) with continued results including strengthened, glossier hair. I am going to continue using up the 100ml before committing myself to a full review but initial results are encouraging.

‘…apply it as a pre shampoo treatment, massage into damp hair and leave on for as long as possible, overnight if you can…’

And then there’s also all the other thing we know we should be doing, lower heat settings, less hair styling, heat protection sprays ect. I would be lying if I said I had stuck to this religiously but I am definitely more conscious about being kinder to my hair at every stage and 3 months in I really am starting to see an improvement.

If there are any other serial hair abusers out there who have also taken a long hard look at their locks and turned their haircare around I’d love to know any recommendations or tips you’ve learnt along the way –  leave them below and I’ll take a look!

Jess X

~ Living Proof products gifted with no obligation to feature. Opinions, as ever, are wholly my own and 100% authentic ~