hair care

5 Steps to Great Hair with Amika

Hey everyone, welcome back. Today I’m sharing five tips to help you get the maximum shine out of your hair, and the new products that have helped me take the best care of my hair!

Step One: Cool It. Step away from the blow dryers, straighteners, curlers, etc. I know there are a million reasons why you need them, but they reek absolute havoc on your hair. I try to use mine only twice per week – usually on days of important events or when I’m shooting photos for the blog! When I do use a heat styling product, I make sure to use a heat protectant spray to conserve the shine and texture!

Step Two: Get Dirty. With the invention of dry shampoo, not washing your hair every single day has been easier than ever. Experts recommend only washing your hair three times per week! This is where Amika’s Dry Shampoo and Dry Conditioner come into play. They deodorize your hair while conditioning and adding texture and volume between washes, plus they smell amazing. You can buy them together to save $12 here or check out the travel size trio here.

Amika products use a natural rice starch to absorb excess oil and dirt, which means they do NOT use aluminum, sodium chloride, talc, parabens, sulfates, and phthalates! This is the reason their dry hairstyling products are my number one go to, over some more chemical heavy products.

Step Three: Momma Said Take Your Vitamins. These OLLY vitamins are a total game changer. They are rich in Biotin and Vitamins C & E, so they’re great for promoting hair, skin, and nail health. Plus they’re gummies and they taste delicious!

Step Four: The Cold Shoulder. I always end my showers with a quick cold water rinse. This is not only great for your pores, but great for your hair as well – it helps keep it shiny and strong all day! It’s also best to not take too hot of a shower as that can be really damaging to your hair (see step one).

Step Five: Take The Pressure Off. These hair ties even out the breakage of conventional hair ties by distributing the pressure out evenly. It’s also great for split ends! To all my fellow ponytail girls out there, I highly recommend you giving these a try – the difference you’ll see is incredible!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Do any of you have any great hair tips to share??

xo, C

Welcome back everyone. Today I’m going to be sharing my all-time favorite hair care products. A few weeks ago I shared my favorite Verb products in this post, but I have so many others I like that I felt I should dedicate a post to the rest of them. I tend to gravitate towards drugstore products, since I have a lot of very long and thick hair, and using high end products can get really expensive really quickly. I do have a few high end products I know I love, but I wanted to dedicate this post to the products I use on a regular basis.

Conair is my go to brand for hair tools. I have three of these gel grip paddle brushes (because I walk around and leave them in places they don’t belong and inevitably can’t find them at 5 am when I need them) and they are the bomb.com. I also love this classic comb, and I have been trying to get better at using it over my brush, since I’ve heard it’s kinder on your hair.

Pantene is to shampoo as Conair is to brushes in my book. For the price you absolutely cannot beat their products. I personally like to use the smooth & sleek line with argan oil, but it’s all dependent on your hair and preference. I always use this shampoo and conditioner not only because I love the way they smell (seriously I am ALWAYS smelling my own hair, to the point of it being kind of weird), but also because they are amazing at keeping my hair soft and smooth, even during the dry winter months.

Pantene 3 Minute Miracle Smooth & Sleek Deep Conditioner. This stuff is the real deal – it’s unbelievably effective and only $5 a bottle! When I was down visiting my family in New York over the summer we were talking about dried out hair from the salt water and chlorine, and I was raving about this so much I practically ran down to the store and grabbed a bottle for my aunt and grandmother to assure them of how much I love it. Plus, who really wants to spend more than three minutes deep conditioning their hair, amiright?

Pantene Pro-V Repair and Protect Overnight Miracle Repair Serum. This little bottle is a miracle worker. If you want your hair to be healthier and shinier, this is all you need. It’s also great if you have a lot of heat damage!

L’Oreal recently launched two different clay based product lines; the Pure Clay Masks, and the Extraordinary Clay hair products. I was so beyond excited about being able to find great clay benefits in the drugstore at a great price point, I picked up two of each (mask review coming soon). The Extraordinary Clay hair products are intended for oily roots, which I don’t tend usually have, but every once in a while I find they need a little more attention. I love the idea of this pre-shampoo mask. It soaks up all the oils in your scalp and then you can wash it out with your shampoo! The dry shampoo has a similar concept (ridding your scalp of unwanted oils) but with the added benefit of not requiring a shower and shampoo after!

Kristin Ess Weightless Shine Leave In Conditioner. I was so excited when Kristin Ess launched her full haircare line at Target a month ago, I wanted to buy every single thing. Unfortunately without an unlimited budget, I told myself to just try one thing at a time, so I decided to go with this Leave In Conditioner. I love that you just spray it on your wet hair after the shower, so it makes a great alternative when I don’t want to use a leave in conditioner that has to be rinsed out. My hair no longer has to suffer on mornings that I’m tight on time. Of all the extra hair products I’ve been using, the functionality of this one is by far the best for a girl on the go.

The Tangle Teezer is 100% worth the hype. I bought mine a while back at Sephora, but Target even carries them now. I will not go to the beach without throwing this rockstar in my bag. They are so amazing for detangling your hair, especially when wet, without ripping or tearing. They’re also cute and fun to hold so… Win/win.

My cousin recommended this Moroccanoil hair treatment to us years ago when she was in cosmetology school and we have used it nonstop ever since. There is really nothing that competes. It tames your fly aways, smooths your hair, and keeps it healthy and shiny. If you have dry hair like I do, you will not regret buying this. It’s definitely the most pricy item I use, but is 100% worth it and since it’s a treatment you shouldn’t use it every day and it won’t burn a hole in your wallet too quickly. Oh, and did I mention it smells amazing?

What are your favorite hair care products? Leave your recommendations of things to try in the comment section!

xo, C

Verb

Welcome back everyone and happy Friday! Today I want to share with you a haircare company that I have absolutely fallen in love with recently. One of my favorite natural beauty brands, w3ll people, is based out of Austin, and so when I was planning my trip down I was looking to see what other brands are located in Texas’ natural beauty loving capital. When I discovered Verb, I dove headfirst into finding out everything I could about their product line. Developed by stylists for their clients, Verb is a brand of high-quality products designed at price point that doesn’t punch your bank account in the gut.

I have a terrible bad habit of buying troves of Pantene shampoo and conditioner when Target has a sale or promo deal going on, so my closet was a little bit backed up with conventional products at the time I first discovered Verb. While the hydrating shampoo and conditioner instantly caught my eye, I only picked up this mask. After treatment I fell in love with the soft, shiny, and smooth hair I suddenly had.

When I’m traveling for short periods of time, I tend to leave the hair products at home and go a little lower maintenance. The week before we went to Florida for ten days though, my hair was already feeling a little sad and on the dry side from the first onset of winter, and I knew it would only get worse using hotel shampoo for over a week. With Sephora swooping in to the rescue, I managed to snag this Hair to Go kit to bring with me, excited that I could bring hydration with me in such a small portable package and try out more of Verb’s products.

Sephora is also still selling a lot of amazing holiday bundles with Verb products at amazing price points, all of which you can find here.

The Breakdown

Ghost Oil – A restorative hair oil. Perfect to add extra softness to your hair and to tame frizz.

Hydrating Shampoo & Conditioner – Excellent for smoothing and hydrating. Helps with volume a surprising amount for not being the “volumizing” shampoo. Cleaned my hair thoroughly enough that I didn’t feel like I had to wash it again the next day (my number one complaint about shampoos).

Leave-In Mist – Detangles, shines, de-frizzes all in one miraculous little bottle.

Hydrating Mask – If you hate having soft, shiny, smooth hair, then I’m sorry I can no longer help you. But if you want your hair to resemble Gigi’s on the runway, get this. That’s all you need to know.

Sea Spray – The perfect product to toss in your hair after a day at the pool but before dinner, this sea spray adds just the right amount of texture for that effortless beach babe look.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Hope you all have an amazing weekend!

xo, C