Review: Moroccan Oil

What's all the hype about Moroccan Oil?

Moroccan oil is basically a brand name form of argan oil. It is penetrating and your hair actually does benefit from it. It may be pricey, but it revives, strengthens, conditions, and reduces your blow dry time. It revives overprocessed, dry, brittle hair, and add shine and improves elasticity. Does not leave hair sticky or greasy (unless you use it wrong).

They also have a LIGHT formula which is for blondes and very fine hair.

To use Moroccan Oil, wash and condition your hair. Using a blow dryer, remove excess water from your hair until your hair is damp, but not dripping wet. Apply one pump of the oil into your hand and rub together. Apply it mid-shaft to ends and then blow dry completely. If you need more, add a dime size amount to your hands and run it through your ends only. Applying it to your scalp will make your hair greasy.

Review: Its a 10

Its a 10 Styling Serum
Last month, my salon was giving these out for free (full sized bottles, too!) for clients that received a haircut and color service, so I got to try it out for the first time and I have to say, it is pretty amazing!

This styling serum is medium weight, not too oily for fine hair (but keep it on the ends), but is good for all hair types. One pump and the frizz is gone. It adds shine, seals your cuticle, nourishes your hair, smooths, protects color, and is alcohol free.

Its a 10 Miracle Leave-in PLUS Keratin
This product is similar to the original Miracle Leave-in that millions of us love, but it has all the benefits of added keratin. Keratin is fancy for protein. Our excessive heat damage, dying, and chemical damage we do to our hair depletes our hair's protein and we need to put that back in. Whether by deep conditioner or this easy to use spray!

This spray also maintains keratin straightening treatments, increases manageability, protects natural keratin already in your hair, protects against heat (!!), restores hydration, detangles, defrizzes, and strengthens hair structure.

Its a 10 Miracle Hair Mask
This hair mask is once a week deep conditioner that you can do yourself at home! Wash your hair with your normal shampoo, towel dry or wring out your hair REALLY well before applying this hair mask. Leave it in for 5-10 minutes, or for very thirsty (dry) hair, leave it in while you clean your room (or house), cook, eat, etc and just rinse out with lukewarm water.

This hair mask detangles, nourishes, defrizzes, softens, restores moisture balance, restores elasticity (very important for healthy hair), improves your color vibrancy, and enhances natural body.

Temporary, Semi, Demi, Permanent? What's the Difference?!

I know a lot of people are confused on the subject of what is temporary? Semi-permanent? Didn't even know there was such thing as a demi-permanent?

So, temporary dyes are, well, temporary. Temporary in the sense that they are one time use. Temporary dyes are anything from spray ins, such as the photo on the right, colored gels (the kind that comes out during Halloween season), and rinses.

Apply the temporary coloring right over your own hair color (without bleaching or anything). When you wash your hair, the color comes out. Temporary cannot  lighten your hair.

Semi-permanent.
Semi-permanent hair dyes are most likely the vibrants. Red, blues, orange, yellow, green, purple, teal, etc. Semi-permanents do not require a developer but they do require that your hair be bleached to show up vibrant. Take a white piece of paper and get a pink crayon, the color comes out pink. Take a black piece of paper and try to color it pink, and it doesn't show up. Same concept with your hair. The darker your hair, the less likely it'll show at all.

Semi-permanent will last anywhere from 1 week to 3 months depending on your hair color, how damaged your hair is, what shampoo you use, how often you shampoo, and the temperature of water you use when shampooing. My brother got blue pieces in his hair (it was bleached). He shampoos twice a day with very warm water. His blue washed out in one week. I personally have red under my bangs and wash my hair twice a week with a color safe shampoo in between lukewarm and warm water. My red lasts about 2 months before it starts fading at all. Also semi-permanents cannot lighten hair.

Demi-permanent requires a developer for it to work, but a low volume developer. Demi's are a deposit only color which means, you can only use it if you are going DARKER. If you have dark blonde hair and want to be a chestnut brown, you can use a demi-permanent. They are not damaging and give you the healthiest, shiniest color. But, they cannot lighten your hair.

Permanent hair color contains ammonia which is mostly meant for people who have virgin hair (has not been colored) wanting to go lighter. Since this dye has ammonia, it is not meant for anyone to use if they want to go darker because it can take a toll on the hair for the worst.

Permanent hair dye also is very useful when trying to cover a lot grey or resistant hair.




Well, now you know the different types of hair dyes and what they are meant to achieve and why they are used! :)

How to Have Long, Healthy Hair!

A lot of you may have wanted to try something different and some of you probably got a bad haircut, but you all have one thing in common. YOU WANT LONG HAIR.

First things first, to have long hair, your current hair needs to be healthy. If you're a monthly bleach and tone with above shoulder length hair and its breaking off, it's not going to appear to be growing very fast at all. If your hair is constantly breaking, it's getting shorter and shorter.

Number 2: Don't wait too long before trims if you have split ends. The longer you wait, the higher the split ends will travel up your hair and break. When your split ends have traveled up, you need to cut off more length to get rid of it all.

Number 3: ALWAYS use a heat protectant when blow drying, straightening, or curling your hair. Heat burns your hair, causing damage.

Number 4: Use professional products/Shampoo/Conditioner. Drug store shampoos contain cheap waxes, detergents and fillers that build up on the hair over time, preventing the hair to "breathe" and also weighing it down so you have no body. Shampooing less frequently is also a plus in growing healthy, long hair. Constantly stripping the hair of its natural oil dries out the hair and also makes your scalp think it needs to produce more oil, and this is why most people say they get greasy one day after shampooing. If you already have this issue, using a dry shampoo or baby powder at the roots will solve this problem. Remember to condition after every shampoo from midshaft to ends to replenish lost moisture from shampooing.

Number 5: Hair masks and deep conditioners. Get a deep conditioner once a month from the salon. Salon's use top of the line products that may contain plant or animal proteins that "deep conditioners" you can buy from the drug store do not contain. Your stylist can determine whether your hair needs moisture or protein to suit your individual hair needs. At home every 1-2 weeks, you should be using a hair mask. A hair mask is similar to a deep conditioner, but one that you can perform at home. It keeps your hair healthy and soft and prevents split ends! After shampooing, apply your choice of hair mask to your towel dried hair. Put a disposable processing cap (you can buy a package of a lot for a few dollars at Sally's) on and let it sit for anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple hours (while you clean the house, do chores) to over night. Rinse with lukewarm water. A great hair mask to try is "Its a 10" Miracle Hair Mask or Moroccan Oil Hair Mask (this one is a bit pricier than the first).

Number 6: Healthy diet/Vitamins. Eating a healthy, balanced diet will benefit your hair a lot. Taking biotin improves hair, skin, AND nails. Fish oil helps with shiny hair and glowy skin, and a multivitamin or a prenatal may promote more (thicker) hair growth. It is true that prenatals can make your hair grow faster and folic acid is to blame. Folic acid aids in cell generation (new follicles for thicker hair) and growth.

Tips: Don't use rubberbands (hair ties that are meant for hair are fine). If you have massive tangles, start at the bottom and work your way up with a wide toothed comb (use a leave in conditioner like "Its a 10" Miracle Leave-In if your hair is VERY tangled). Don't vigorously brush or comb wet hair. It will result in breakage.

Good luck!

Digital Perm Vs. Wave Perm

Even being a licensed hairstylist, I had no idea this digital perm concept even existed until finding it on Google and asking some other hairdressers about it.

Apparently the digital perm makes it so that when you air dry your hair, your hair goes from slightly wavy to big and round. Exactly like if you were to curl your hair with a curling iron.

Only most Asian salons will perform this service. They wrap your hair in some metal perm rods and then hook up this machine to the perm rods to heat them up while apply perm solution on the rods.

A spiral perm or ordinary perm you can get at any salon is  like the photo on the right. It is wrapped with rods and then a perming solution is applied. You wait, and then rinse when it is done processing. This procedure causes your hair to have more frizz  and is more damaging than the digital perm. 

But keep in mind that both perms are very damaging and not anyone can get one. If you have pre lightened hair (bleached/highlighte) you cannot receive a perm. It will overprocess your hair and  you will get breakage.

                                Digital perm                                  Normal Perm

Heat Protectant

Everyone should always be using a heat protectant when blow drying, flat ironing, or curling your hair. You don't really know what kind of damage it is causing until you have it and can't get rid of it without cutting your hair short.

The way a heat protectant works is by coating your hair with the product. When you use any sort of heat tool, the heat burns the product coating off your hair before actually burning your hair.


Sebastian Trilliant, Paul Mitchel Hot Off the Press, Chi Iron Guard, RedKen Iron Silk 07, RedKen Smooth Down, Joico Leave-in Protectant.

You can go from having sleek, silky, healthy hair to having split ends, breakage, frizz, and fluffy hair. 

Your hair may also seem like it is growing very slow, not growing, or even getting shorter depending on how much damage you have because it is possible that your hair is breaking at the same rate that your hair is growing!

Review: TIGI Bed Head Hard Head Hairspray

TIGI Bed Head Hard Head Hairspray. I've been using this hairspray now for 2 years and even though I've strayed away and tried others, I've always come back to Hard Head! This is the ultimate universal hairspray.

The more you use, the harder it gets. So if you want a light hold, just do a fine mist over your hair, for a hard hold so your hair won't move at all, spray it until its hard.

I personally tease my hair pretty big and like it to stay big all day and so I will use this hairspray to help hold my teasing in, and then spray over the top of my hair when I'm done teasing it. It doesn't flake or anything.

Purple Shampoo and What it Does

Purple shampoo, aka violet shampoo or silver shampoo is just what it is. Purple!

When you squeeze it out of the bottle, it looks like what it does in the photo below. It is very pigmented.

So who should use this? Blondes especially that want to get rid of brassiness or yellow will benefit from this. Violet/purple pigments cancel out the yellow tones and will leave you with a much brighter, cooler blonde. :)

Dark hair will also benefit from the purple shampoo and make it nice and rich with a lot of added depth.

To use, wet your hair down and squeeze a bit of the shampoo in your palm and rub your hands together. Then shampoo as you would normally. Instead of rinsing your hair out right away, let the shampoo sit on your hair for about 5-7 minutes. This gives it time to cancel out the warm tones. Rinse and condition.

Repeat this every time you wash your hair until you achieve desired results (a cool, brass-free blonde!), and then start using it about once a week or whenever you start to see the brassiness coming back.

A couple of different brand names of purple shampoos are:

-Joico Color Endure Violet Shampoo
-Schwartzkopf Silver Shampoo
-Shimmer Lights Violet Shampoo (Sally's Beauty)
-KMS Violet Shampoo
-DesignLine Silver Shine (Regis Salons Only)

And there are TONS more. These are just the most popular ones. Let me know if you've used one you love and it isn't on the list!

Review: Redken Body Full

Redken Body Full is a spray in volumizer. This is one of my favorite products to give a boost of volume and you can buy a matching shampoo and conditioner to go with it!

When I use the Body Full on my clients, I first wash their hair and bring them back to my chair. Once I've towel dried it really good and went through the hair with a blow dryer for a minute to get the excess water out, I spray the Body Full in all around the crown area and the temples. When you blow dry, use a round brush or blow dry with your head upside down. It will amazingly boost your volume!

Feather Extensions!

Feather extensions are just about the coolest thing out right now and EVERYONE is getting them! There are a few types of feather extensions.

The first kind is the long slender plume feather. They come in many different colors and also come in striped colors as well.

The second kind is a regular feather. These can be put in by themselves or as a combo with one of the slender plume feathers.

There are also a few different ways you can install them. You can get them glued in, clipped in, or clamped in. To get it glued in, a stylist has a machine that looks like a mini flat iron connected to a box. This melts the glue onto the hair. To get it clamped in, there is a round metal bead that comes in many different colors (brown, blonde, black) and you stick your hair through it and the feathers and clamp them down with pliers. To get a clip in, you can attach the feathers onto fishing wire and then thread the fishing wire through the loops on the clip barrette (sold at many beauty stores including Sally's for $1.99).

A bundle of 3 feathers at my salon cost $24, so I'm assuming the price is about that at other salons as well.
You can kind of see one of my red/black and white polka dotted feathers peeking out. I have two of these but one is hidden :)

Review: TIGI Rockaholic

TIGI Bed Head Rockaholic is the ultimate dry shampoo. It comes in an aerosol can and sprays like a hairspray, but it helps you go longer without washing your hair, and fights greasy/oily bangs.

At the sight of grease, spray it directly on your roots and grease-B-gone! Rockaholic also lifts your roots higher to get more volume, and creates hold for those of you who like to tease your hair!


You can pick up a can of these for about $12.95 at most salons and beauty supply stores.

OPI Shatter Nail Polish

You probably have seen this or have personally bought one yourself. It is new out on the market and a silver shatter has just come out last week as well! Here are some tips that I have learned about OPI SHATTER.

If you apply a very thick layer of the Shatter, the crackles will look more like this. 

If you apply the Shatter in one thin layer without any polish overlapping each other, it will look more like this photo. 

You can even do a Shatter french tip! I have personally tried the french tip with the Shatter and got many, many compliments on it at the salon where I work! :)

HAPPY PAINTING!! :3

And feel free to post your own shatter pic experiences!