November Loves: Schwarzkopf Color Freeze Purple Shampoo

With my new hair colour comes a plethora of different products to help care for my unnatural blonde hair. Bottle blondes will know what I mean - yes, purple shampoo is one of them. It's also called 'silver shampoo' by some brand names but I'm going to call it what it actually is - purple shampoo! 

Recommended by my hairdresser friend, purple shampoo is almost an essential for anyone with freshly dyed blonde locks to combat the brassy-ness that comes over time through using regular shampoo. 

The one I've gone for is Schwarzkopf BC Freeze Shampoo in 1000ml, it's a purple shampoo (even though it's labelled silver shampoo) with a thick consistency slightly different to what you'd have in your regular shampoo. The smell of this product is great and it doesn't dry your hair out as I've read with other purple shampoos. It leaves your hair feeling soft, smelling great and removing all tones of brassy-ness. 

I use this product every other time I wash my hair. You don't need a lot of it either, I see some videos using tonnes of this product to cover the entire head, I just use it like normal shampoo, lather it up and leave it on my head for about 3-5 minutes then rinse. I haven't used any other brand before so in terms of it not lathering up like regular shampoo, this particular one really does lather up nicely which I really like. My colleague at work warned me before it doesn't lather properly so my worry there was that it wouldn't clean my hair thoroughly but this one really does! 

One bottle will last you a loooong time, especially if your hair is around the same length as mine. You're using it every other wash plus it's a massive 1000ml bottle, I think after using it for a month, it's barely made a dent in the weight of the bottle. It costs around £14.99 (more expensive than any other shampoo you might own) off Amazon but like I said, it'll probably last you a good number of months before you need another bottle so it's pretty good value for money. 

Update: NEW HAIR!

Guess who got a new hairdo! 

I finally decided to take a plunge and get my hair sorted once and for all. Bearing in mind, I've never been to a salon before to get my hair professionally dyed, I've always heavily relied on box dyes and general trial and error using salon professional dye to try and get a colour that I'm happy with. 

This is going to a reaaaaally long and detailed post on how I decided what colour and style I wanted pre-salon visit and the whole process of getting it done in the salon so if you're interested please read on! 

Review: Got2Be Oil-Licious Tame & Shine Styling Oil

Picked up this little bottle of hair oil as part of an offer at Boots. I must say, I was skeptical because I usually use overpriced hair oil products to tame my dry ends but I thought I may as well give this a try as it was free! It contains Argan oil which is enriched with Vitamin E and used to nourish dry and damaged hair - this isn't pure Argan oil but it contains some which is better than nothing I guess!

The instructions say you can use this product pre-washing, pre-styling or just when your hair is dry. My personal preference for using hair oil is always after blow drying, my hair tends to get a bit dry at the ends after using a hairdryer as my hair is subject to much heat abuse through straighteners and the dryer.

For the price this product is normally sold at, I'd say it's a pretty decent hair oil! The fragrance is one of the best things about the product, it smells sweet and fresh and just adds that much more to your hair after washing. It's quite greasy but not greasy enough that you need to wash your hands everytime after applying. Does it do what it claims to do? Yes, it's a great product that moisturises your hair when you need it and the small sized bottle makes it perfect to bring around in your handbag especially if you're on holiday and your hair gets a bit dry from heat/sea water. The pump bottle with a cap is also a great design, you can control how much you need when you need it.

One of the downsides to me is that it doesn't really stay on your hair that long, it keeps my hair moisturised after drying before bed but when I wake up, my ends feel quite dry again. I guess that's why it says on the bottle 'for daily use'. But for something that's used daily, I think the bottle needs to be a bit larger in size!

I'd definitely buy this product again, it's a much cheaper alternative to pure Argan oil/other professional hair oils, except you'll need to use it daily to keep your hair tame. It's the perfect summer holiday product for hair that gets frizzy and out of control very easily.

Top 5 Hair Care Buys

A good haircare routine is just as important as a good skincare routine.

As a self-confessed hair dye lover who is overly attached to her straighteners and often forgets to drag a brush through her hair at the beginning of the day, it's really important for me to take care of the quality of my hair using the right products and equipment. Frizzy, dry, hay-feeling hair is a huge annoyance to me so I'm going to share the top 5 hair care products that I use on a routine basis to keep my hair protected and looking the best it can be.

5. Schwarzkopf Bonacure Repair Rescue Sealed Ends - £6-7 per 75ml

This stuff is great if you have split ends often from heat damage. It's a cream based serum that you apply to the ends of your hair before or after blow drying and it claims to seal split ends and prevent splitting. 

It's pretty good upon application but I find the effects wear off quickly before my next hair wash so it's not my number 1 choice of hair product. For the part about it "sealing split ends" I don't really notice a vast improvement apart from a temporary shine to my ends. I'm generally really skeptical about hair products that claim to "repair split ends" anyway so for me, this product was mediocre. 

Positives: Adds a lovely shine to your hair when you apply it, non-greasy on the hands, doesn't cause your hair to become greasy over time, a little goes a really long way so for the price tag it sells for it's pretty worth.

Negatives: Not widely available in drugstores, frequent application is necessary for it to do anything permanent to the hair. 

Would buy again? Not likely, there are better products out there that can protect the hair before heat styling so in theory you wouldn't even need a product like this. 

4. L'Oréal Paris Studio Line Hot & Smooth Hot Straight Spray - £3.69 per 200ml

With the amount of heat protection sprays out there, it can be hard to label one as the best. This product claims to keep hair straight for 3 days (who doesn't wash their hair for 3 straight days though...?) and gives a frizz free, polished finish. Some of you may be familiar with the cream based heat protection product L'Oréal had a few years ago. I'm pretty happy they've launched a spray version now.

I used to be a huge fan of the TRESemmé heat protection spray until I tried this one. It takes my number 4 because it's cheap, the spray mechanism is really broad and diffuse and it can be used for blowdrying and straightening. I really feel a remarkable difference to my hair after using this every time I blowdry and straighten.

Positives: Affordable compared to the TRESemmé version, really gives a polished finish after use, no more frazzled ends from straightening, the spray is really diffuse.

Negatives: If you use this spray for blowdrying and straightening, 200ml may finish quite quickly.

Would buy again? Definitely. My hair feels a lot healthier and protected from heat styling ever since switching out TRESemmé for this product. 

3. Batiste Dry Shampoo Cherry - £2.99 per 200ml

As you may or may not know, dry shampoo has become one of the next big things. An instant hair refresh for those of you waking up with greasy second-day hair. This product basically works by removing excess oils in the scalp leaving your hair feeling fresh.

For me, this product isn't really an essential, it's more of a usage only when my hair is feeling gross. But even then, after a few hours I feel like the grease has come back so I assume the instant refresh only lasts for as long as it says it does - "instant". So if you're going for this, you may as well buy the mini travel sized ones too to keep in your handbag for mini refresh sessions when you go to the bathroom. It barely overtakes the heat defence spray because of its convenience and uniqueness.

Positives: Lovely scent (the cherry one really tops it for me), huge range for different types of hair, rather inexpensive, quick and easy to use.

Negatives: A 200ml bottle really does not last long if you use it every other day and if you don't brush properly after applying it can leave white residue behind.

Would buy again? Maybe, it's not an essential for me to have this on my dressing table but it is handy to have when my hair doesn't feel fresh. 

2. Parlux 3200 Compact (Flowers Edition) - £64.95 

What the hell, right? A hairdryer? Yes, a hairdryer. Won't go into analysing the specifications because I know nothing about hairdryers. My typical hairdryer usually dies after 1-2 years of use so I finally invested in one that should last me more than 2 years. This hairdryer was recommended to me by a hairdresser friend and he claims it will outlast my children so... 

I really like this hairdryer, it's not as noisy as other hairdryers, is lightweight and feels sturdy. The vent at the back seems easy to clean too which is a plus. My hair dries super quick using this hairdryer and the heat settings are really convenient (even though I use the highest heat setting anyway). 

Positives: Super pretty design, compact, comes in other colours too. Dries hair really quickly, powerful but not noisy, convenient heat settings, easy to clean. 

Negatives: Expensive and doesn't feel expensive when you see the packaging (really), Parlux isn't a well known brand that is widely available like Babyliss, TRESemmé, Toni & Guy, Nicky Clarke etc.

1. TRESemmé Thermal Recovery Intensive Repair & Rehydration Treatment - £3 per 500ml

This hair masque claims to target areas of hair damaged by heat styling, the intense rehydration restores shine to hair exposed to heat styling equipment and protects hair from damage up to 450 degrees C (!!!).

I've finally said my goodbyes to dry, hay-like hair because of this hair masque. I use it along with the TRESemmé thermal recovery shampoo and conditioner weekly and I have to say, it has permanently improved the quality of my hair which I didn't even think was possible. The fact that it repairs hair AND protects it from heat styling equipment is just amazing to me. The price is another reason why this product is my number 1 - for £3 you get 500ml of this stuff which you only have to use once a week! I bought mine about 3-4 months ago and it still looks barely touched.  

Positives: Does what it says on the tin 100%, dirt cheap, a tub lasts a very long time, repairs damaged hair - very useful straight after hair dyeing, protects hair from heat exposure even after washing. 

Negatives: None.

Would buy again? 110% yes, this product has basically resurrected my hair after years of exposure to straighteners and hair dye. Would definitely recommend it to anyone who has damaged hair whether from styling equipment or excessive hair dyeing. 

Hope you guys enjoyed my mini reviews of my top 5 hair care products. Will be doing a similar one for skincare as soon as I think about what products will make it to my top 5! 

Peace and love.