For the next installment of my Best of Beauty 2019, I wanted to touch base on my hair care and styling routine since I frequently get questions about how I maintain my hair colour, and what I use to create my everyday curls.
I’ve had colour treated hair for the past 2 years or so (well colour treated hair that I’ve been properly taking care of) and have been trying a variety of different products to preserve both the colour and integrity of it. When you sit in a chair for over 9 hours taking your virgin hair to a platinum blonde, then dying it greyish blue, you really will do whatever possible to keep it looking tip top shape. I’ve seen way too many amazing colour jobs go to the curb because people don’t take the time to maintain it—what’s the point of spending that much money on your hair if you’re not going to take the time to take care of it so that the your hair actually looks good for longer than 2 weeks?!
So after a few years of testing out some of the best products available to me in the industry, I’ve more or less honed it down to some of my favourite products that help keep my hair in its best shape and to keeping it look even better when it’s styled. But before we jump into that, here’s a quick run down of my hair type, it’s current state, and what I’m looking for.
As I previously mentioned, I’ve had colour treated hair for the past two years or so. But within the most recent year, I’ve been slowing down the colouring in preparation for my wedding this May. Not only did I want to grow out, but I wanted to grow it out healthily as well. That meant less trips to the colourist to keep my balayage fresh, and less bleach to maintain the integrity of my strands. I wanted my hair to look as close to natural as possible for the wedding so that in the future when I look back at my wedding photos, my hair doesn’t look too dated for this decade. That being said, I did keep a bit of my balayage in and have only been getting baby lights every time I get my hair coloured. I primarily do this so that my hair has some dimension to it, and so that it isn’t all one single shade. If I left my hair to its own whims, it would be all one even boring shade of brown with zero dimension that that just doesn’t cut it for me.
Besides the colour, I have extremely stubbornly straight hair. This means that without and blow drying and styling, after a shower my hair will naturally dry stick straight on its own. Curling it is also a challenge because when curling virgin hair, I’ve found that mine tends to hold a curl for less time compared to when I curl my colour treated hair. Also another reason for continuing to colour it for a bit leading up to the wedding. For the the most part, my hair can hold a decent curl for 2-3 days in dry seasons. But when traveling to more humid destinations or when it’s wet outside, my curls will fall down in an instant, so a heavy duty yet touchable hair spray is essential to my routine.
Pre-Shower Hair Mask – Schwarzkopf BLONDME Tone Enhancing Bonding Mask Cool Blondes
Since my hair is colour treated, I always do whatever I can to maintain it’s integrity in between washes and styling. I style my hair about once or twice a week (curling it) so it gets heat applied to it quite often. I try to refrain from blow drying whenever I can so that I can minimize the exposure to heat, but 1-2 times a week with direct content to a hot tool is bad enough to not only fade my hair colour faster, but also damage it as well. Which is why I use a hair mask every single time before I wash my hair. If I have enough time, I also sleep with it in my hair overnight as well. But not all hair masks are made equal.
Some are designed hydrate your hair, some are designed to clean your scalp. I like using the ones that not only hydrate my hair but also help to maintain my hair colour as well. I started using the Schwarzkopf BLONDME line over the course of the past 2 months and have found that it’s done an amazing job t not only keeping my hair feeling soft and touchable, but also preventing it from getting brassy as well. Having Asian hair, I’ve found that even with countless toning sessions, my hair always ends up being brassy thanks to the harsh chemicals found in Toronto’s tap water, and the constantly styling that I succumb it to. Without this hair mask, I’m not quite sure what my hair would look like now.
Shampoo – Matrix Total Results Brass Off Blue Shampoo
While we’re on the topic of toning, I definitely cannot live without this shampoo. Over the course of the years, I’ve tried a myriad of blue/purple tinted shampoos to keep my hair a nicely toned ash colour, but all of them not only deposited blue pigment to my hair, but also made it extremely dry as well. This is the first ever hair system that I’ve tried that hasn’t made my hair feel like straw, yet it actually tones it properly. I’ve even had friends ask me when I was only on my 4th time using this system if I recently went into the salon for a tone. Nope, just the Brass Off system! Since I’ve begun using it, I really can’t imagine myself using anything else. The only caveat is that because it’s so tinted, I do end up with a blue ring around my bath tub afterwards. It’s not the biggest issue and is easily removed, but it is something worth noting if you’re looking into trying this shampoo out for yourself.
Conditioner – Matrix Total Results Brass Off Blue Conditioner
Similar to the shampoo, I wasn’t expecting this conditioner to to much to my hair since all other anti-brass shampoos that I’ve used in the past always leave my hair feeling ultra dry. I’ve resorted to just using hair oils after I shower to re-introduce moisture into my hair, but this conditioner does an amazing job at keeping it hydrated that I don’t really need to (I still do though for added hydration!). I can’t say much else for aiding in preventing my hair from going brassy since it doesn’t seem to do too much, but it’s a part of the system and I wouldn’t trade it up in the case that it breaks the system, so it gets an honorary place in my hair care round up for 2019!
In-Shower Hair Mask – Matrix Total Results Brass Off Custom Neutralization Mask
This is an integral part of the system that isn’t 100% necessary, but it improves the colour of my hair by 200% that I feel that it’s necessary. When you’re finished washing your hair with the shampoo and conditioner, you’re actually supposed to towel dry your hair and apply this pigment mask to it for about 10-20 minutes for extra colour treatment. This mask is super pigmented and actually sometimes stains my fingernails for a few days afterwards but the effects are totally worth it. I’ve never once used an anti-brass product that is this effective as oppose to when I get my hair done in salons so I was mind blown that this can be purchased without me having to be a salon professional. You’re only really supposed to use this about once a week max, but I use it about twice and my hair has never been more toned than now! If there’s one thing that you can use to keep your hair ashy, it’s this one. Skip the shampoo and conditioner and just splurge on this mask alone, because it’s going to be a life changer for how ashy you can keep your hair from the comfort of your own home.
Hair Oil/Treatment – Revlon’s Uniq One
Like I said before, I usually only gravitate towards hair oils when my hair feels dry, but this one also heat protects so I tend to use it quite often. Even on days when I’m not heat styling my hair, I still integrate it into my hair routine. As soon as I’m out of the shower, I spray this all over my hair and evenly finger comb it through so that it coats all of my strands. From there I let my hair air dry, and not only is it detangled and smooth, but also nourished and protected from the heat as well.
It also comes in a coconut scented version as well if you’d like for your routine to whisk you away to a beach getaway—sometimes I close my eyes when I spray the coconut one and pretend that I’m on vacation somewhere and just showering off from a swim at the beach! Corny, but it works!
Dry Shampoo – IGK First Class Charcoal Detox Dry Shampoo
This dry shampoo is the Cadillac of all dry shampoos. I thought that I had already discovered my favourites and best ones until I tried this one—then I was blown away. Not only does it do an amazing job at soaking up all of the oils in your hair, but it doesn’t leave your hair feeling heavy and thick like some other dry shampoos do. Yes it does leave a slight white residue in your hair when first applied, but it very quickly disappears once you massage it into your scalp. I also love that it’s not too strongly scented, because as someone who uses a lot of dry shampoo on a regular basis, I don’t want to be breathing in anything too strong. Trust me, I’ve tried a few in the past that literally make me gag and gasp for air as I’m spraying it into my hair.
This may not be the cheapest alternative out there, but it works and checks off all of the boxes for me. Plus it’s quite a large canister so it’s going to last you for quite awhile. You can definitely get away with some other dry shampoos but this is one of those ones for me where I didn’t know what I was missing until I began using it. Highly recommend!
Dryer – Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer
I don’t blow dry my hair often, but when I do, I gravitate towards my Dyson Supersonic. I’ve used other hair dryers in the past but with long hair comes long blow drying sessions, and wrist pain. Trust me, nothing good comes with long hair. It’s just more time in the shower washing your hair, more time blow drying it, and more time styling it. So when I was first introduced to the Supersonic, and found out that my arms didn’t hurt from holding up the low dryer for so long I was impressed. Fast forward 2-3 years later and I haven’t given it up for anything else since! I also love that it can be cleaned super easily too, making it probably the lowest maintenance hair styling tool that I own!
Curling Iron – T3 Whirl Trio Interchangeable Styling Wand Set
You’ll almost never see me without curled hair, because that’s just the way that I like it to look. My hair is stick straight and when not styled, it looks like a messy hair bale. I’ve found that even with the messiest curls, my hair looks miles better than with clean straight hair, I almost always have my hair curled at least once during the week. Would you believe me if I said that I’ve been using the exact same curling iron for the past 3 years? Granted I’ve been changing out the barrel sizes in conjunction with the length of my hair (slimmer barrel for my short hair, and a thicker barrel for my long hair), so it’s not exactly the same for the entire period of time, but the base is!
The number one reason as to why I love the T3 is because of its versatility. Regardless of the length and style of my hair, I’ve always been able to achieve the look that I want by inter-changing the barrels. Which also makes it super easy to travel with because Mel and I both have different hair lengths so we often use different barrels. So when we travel, we each just bring the barrel that we want to use and one of us brings the base. Easy peasy! I recently re-filmed my everyday hair curling tutorial for my YouTube channel as well in case you’re interested in seeing how I curl my hair!
Hair Spray – OGX Smoothing + Shea Sleek Humidity Blocking Hairspray
When it comes to setting my hair, because my hair reacts really negatively to humidity, I always make sure to use a humidity blocking hairspray. The OGX one has quickly become my favourite when it proved its worth on our trip to Belize last year. I never quite believe that products can hold up against humidity because I’ve never seen my hair do so, but when I sprayed my curls with this hair spray and then spent 5 hours lounging by the beach only to go back inside to find out that my hair had kept about 75% of its curl, I was impressed. Seriously. And now I carry this hair spray with me to every single trip that I go on even if it’s not by the beach, because you never knew when rain can strike and your hair can fall apart within seconds!
I hope that you guys enjoyed my hair care and styling round up for my favourite products that I loved all throughout 2019. I’ve discovered some amazing new ones that I’ve since incorporated into my routine, along with continously using some oldies but goodies. I hope that this helped you out in some way or another if you were looking for a specific product to upgrade your current routine. Here’s to 2020 and to finding more amazing products!
