Posts Tagged ‘hair care’

Behind Beauty: Hot & Humid Summer Secrets

As things get hot and humid this summer, it’s important to adjust your hair care routine. Check out our Pro Tips for keeping your hair perfect all summer long!

What is Humidity?

Humidity refers to the moisture in the air. Water vapor is a natural part of our atmosphere. However, when summer heats up, the sun evaporates more water then usual from the oceans, lakes, and ponds. This causes an increase in humidity- and the volume of your hair! All of this excess moisture reacts with the proteins in your hair, causing them to swell and the cuticle to lift, resulting in weaker, frizzier hair! In fact, human hair is so sensitive to humidity changes, it’s actually used in humidity measuring devices!

Quick Tricks to “Humidity-Proof” Your Hair

• Use an anti-humidity Spray or Serum
• Try a Deep Conditioning Treatment
• Use a Leave In Conditioner
• Get Regular Trims to prevent split ends
• Squeeze Dry with a Towel Instead of Rubbing with a Towel
• Let your hair Air Dry to minimize frizz
• Super tight Curly Hair? Keep it long to lengthen curls

Can’t Beat Them? Join ‘Em!

Sometimes, the humidity is too powerful, and there;s no way that sleek, straight look is going to survive the day.Instead, try working with your natural hair texture. Break out a curl enhancer and try coaxing it into flirty curl. Use frizz reducing products, such as argan oil. On the go with out of control curls? Use hand lotion to tame frizz and flyaways.

Another great style, just off the runway, is the “Wet Look”. Using a firm styling gel, slick back your locks. The “almost too much gel” look works in your favor by locking your hair into shape. The only downside, is it really isn’t a two day look. Leaving the heavy styling products on your hair overnight leaves your pillow feeling sticky and it can be difficult to coax your hair back into shape after it decides to stand on end!

If you’re really struggling to get your hair to behave, accessorize! As someone with naturally curly / wavy hair, I’ve found there’s no substitute for a fantastic hat or bandanna. Acting as fashion statement and sun protection, the perfect hat, much like the perfect hair cut, can transform your lo0k!

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

Behind Beauty: Best Little Princess Hair Styles

Little girls love feeling like princesses. Here are our best tricks to give  your little girl Disney worthy princess hair!  However, most little princesses don’t have the patience for a lengthy styling. Here are some quick tricks to princess your little one’s look:

First, pick your princess inspiration. Disney has perfected the princess. With their long, flowing locks, they are the envy of most little girls. However, they are not the only princesses to draw inspiration from. There are My Little Pony Princesses, Fairy Princesses, Mermaid Princesses, Medieval Princesses, Ballerina Princesses, Anime Princesses, and Real Princesses. Encourage your little one’s imagination. Ask “What kind of Princess are you today?” The answers may surprise you.

What about short hair? Looking through the Disney catalog, most of the classic princesses feature long, flowing, bouncing hair. Unlike Disney princesses, most little girls don’t have 3-4 feet of hair to work with. Instead of trying to match the look, draw inspiration from it. Ariel pins back her mane with sea shells.  Snow White has a bob! Plus, Cinderella  Jasmine, and Belle all make avid use of ribbons and head bands.

Braids, particularly when side swept into a crown or waterfall style are essential for all princesses. A simple braid pinned up with sparkling clips is a practical up do for a girl on the go.

Proper Princess Hair Accessories Are Key:

Ribbons in fun colours and different widths
A tiara or sparking headband
Large bows
Clip in feathers, fun coloured fake hair, or beads
Flowers
Anything clips or pins covered in Glitter!
Small elastics (clear or neutral)

Quick Princess Hair Tricks:

• If your little one is eager to get playing, opt for a twist instead of a full braid.
• Accent a ponytail with an over-sized ribbon tied into a bow.
• Make a simple Yarn Wig for Dress up time. Attach yarn to a toque and style. Check out a fantastic Jasmine tutorial here.
• Use small elastics along a ponytail for a “Bubbled” effect instead of a braid.
• Add Ribbons to your usual style. Ribbons add a quick touch of colour, especially satin ones!

Check Out Our Favourite Princess Hair Tutorials!

Images found on Pinterest

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

BEHIND BEAUTY: April Showers: Maximize Your Shower Routine!

April Showers Bring May Flowers. Some mornings, stumbling into the shower is less about feeling radiant and glowing, and more about trying to make sure I don’t smell funny before scrambling to catch the bus… Yet, with a good chunk of my morning dedicated to the skin on my face, why am I neglecting the rest of my body. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I vowed to really start focusing on improving and streamlining my shower routine. With a few quick tricks, I was able to optimize my shower time, and even cut it down from 20 minutes to 15! Here are the top 10 ways I managed to Maximize my shower:

1. Wash from Head to Toe.  Start with your hair and work your way to your toes. As you wash, the water carries dirt, excess oil down your body. By moving from top to toe, you keep the water flowing, ensuring your whole body receives optimal cleaning.

2. Choose your shampoo based on your hair needs- not the colour of the bottle. Oily hair needs a regulating shampoo, curly a sustaining & nourishing, coloured extra hydration and support.

3. Most hair only needs to be washed every other day, but the rest of us can’t always wait so long! Try a Principessa Doccia Me Satin Shower Cap shower cap to keep your tresses dry on non-wash days. Want to go a little longer? Add a touch of Joico Instant Refresh Dry Shampoo to refresh your locks.

4. Choose a shower gel or body wash that complements your skin type. This way, you can skip an intense scrub if you’re on the run. When using a body or shower gel, always use a pouf or loufa like this Principessa Shower Pouf. These happy balls of soft netting gently exfoliate as you scrub and help your gel lather into foamy joy. Our Favourite Shower essentials: Eminence Soy Blueberry Body Wash, Burt’s Bees Body Wash, Lacoste Love of Pink Shower Gel and Thalgo Thalgomen Wake-up Shower Gel. Soaps, Shower Gels, and Body Washes are a great way to help balance the pH of your skin. Make sure you choose one that complements your skin type and needs.

5. If you find yourself running out of time and skipping your exfoliation routine, try swapping out your body wash for one that has an exfoliating element. We love Yonka Phyto Gel Exfoliant: Exfoliating Foaming Shower Gel and Aqua Laure Shower Gel with Exfoliating Pearls. Prefer bar soap to gel? The same rule applies. Opt for an exfoliating soap, such as Aqua Laure Shower Brittany Algae Soap (125 g) or Phytomer Seaweed Soap.   

6. Time yourself. Between the warmth of the water and luscious scents, it’s easy to get lost in thought. Try setting a timer or creating a “Shower Playlist”.  Plan a 15 or 20 minute playlist with songs of predictable lengths. That way, when Nancy Sinatra Starts wailing how her ”boots are made for Walking” you know you only have 2 and a half minutes till you have to hop out.

7. Learn to Love Lukewarm Showers. As much fun as the hot, hot water can be- it’s highly damaging to the skin. You can dry out your skin, cause irritation, and accelerate the signs of aging.

8. Struggle to keep your feet smooth? Gently run a pumice stone over your your heels while showering.

9. Always save your shave until the end of your shower. By this point, the warmth from the water will have opened the follicle  allowing for a closer shave with less irritation. Run out of Shaving cream? Try using a dab of conditioner.

10. Moisturize as soon as you finish your shower. Excess oil has been removed, your pores are open and receptive. Immediately after a shower is the absolute best time to apply moisturizers and other creams is immediately after you shower. Choose a body lotion that will work with your skin.   Our top Body Lotions? Eminence Coconut Firming Body Lotion, Cellex-C Body Smoothing Lotion, Burt’s Bees Naturally Nourishing Milk & Honey Body Lotion and Sothys Thalassothys Hydra-Nourishing Body Lotion

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

Drug Store or Salon Hair Products?

This is an endless debate. Depending on the forum or article you get “Salon products use better quality ingredients!” or “Drug store brands are owned by the the professional companies and use the same formulas!” or my favorite people, “I’ve used soap/dish detergent/carpet cleaner on my scalp for years and have gorgeous hair!”…or something to that effect.

Reading all this I realized it ultimately comes down to the individual. If you can get a look you are happy with and only have to spend $2 or dunk your head in water once a week, more power to you. You are lucky. Stop reading here.

So let me share with you the interesting facts I learned whilst surfing through the interwebs regarding the showdown: Drug Store versus Salon products.

1. Where does the company spend their money? Drug store brands spend millions on marketing, and packaging, and celebrities (cause we all know Heather Locklear uses box hair dye.)  Yet the product costs next to nothing. How much are they investing in research and quality ingredients? Salon brands put money back into the product. People will not re-buy a $30 shampoo if they don’t see results. They have to deliver.
2. Hair is made of keratin protein and is dead as soon as it leaves the folicle. So to bulk  up fine hair or repair damaged, the products need to contain protein that can be absorbed by the shaft. Because it’s dead, it’s near impossible to “repair” split ends. The hair won’t magically stitch itself back together. You can however smooth them with products. Most drug store brands use smells or promises of herbal ingredients to hook you. Scent does not improve the condition of your hair.
3. pH affects tangles! If the pH balance of a product is off, the cuticles on the shaft will stick up and get caught on each other. This causes more knots and tangles. A pH balanced shampoo and conditioner will smooth them down, letting the hairs glide over each other. Knot free!
4. Certain Drug Store brands are known by dermatologists to worsen acne and break outs. Don’t  want to slander anyone, but they have orgasmic commercials. For some people switching to another brand will almost instantly get rid of pimples along the hairline and on the forehead. This came up in a lot of different forums, so it’s annecdotal which causes me to be skeptical. But it was frequent enough that I decided to include it.
5. When salon brands are available in drug stores…confusing! These are called diversions. A distributer somewhere has done something naughty. You have no way of knowing how old the product is and as a result it may not be as effective, it could be discontinued or even tampered with or counterfeit. Either way, salon brands ONLY guarantee the product when bought in a salon.
6. Drug Store and Salon product ingredients lists will often be exactly the same. However this can be misleading. Unless you have an advanced degree in chemistry and can see the complete formulations there is no way to know if they are in fact the same product. In different concentrations and how they’re mixed, ingredients can react and preform in different manners. Quality of ingredient is also a factor.
7. Lather has nothing to do with how clean your hair will get. At all. In fact it’s worse for it. But it does make for sexier commercials. The cheaper and more irritating the detergent/surfactant it is, the more it will lather. So drug store ones will get all kinds of bubbly and big but strip the hair of too much oil, drying it out and irritating the scalp. Shampoos that use more quality surfactants will lather significantly less but dissolve the grimy dirt, product and excess oil. Ingredients to watch for!

• Sodium Laurel Sulfate: This is the most common, cheapest and most irritating. When combined with Cocoamidopropyl Betaine it is less irritating.
• Sodium Laureth Sulfate: The slightly less irritating cousin of the above. While it is gentler it is not without controversy. Some claim it absorbs into the skin. At this time it has still been deemed safe to use in cosmetics.
• Cocoamidopropyl Betaine: Made from cocnut oil and petrochemicals, this is a medium strength surfactant and used to give a thicker texture to the product. It isn’t as irritating but is listed as an allergen and has been known to cause contact dermatitis in a small percentage of people.
• Ammonium Laurel Sulfate: The harshest of all this strips oils and color from the hair.

Even knowing this information, it still comes down to individual products and the results you see. People with normal, naturally healthy hair (genetic lottery) can usually use anything and achieve the same result.

Those with any specific issue may need to start focusing on higher end lines to start seeing actual results.It may take a bit until they find the product that works for their hair. It’s always made more sense to me to spend a tiny bit more for  a product that will last longer and actually give me results. With most drugstore, yes it’s cheaper, but you buy more frequently and usually see no difference. Does that make sense?

Be an informed consumer and critical of your products. Don’t just keep using something because you always have. Does it fix the issue? Or does it just smell really nice?

We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic of this blog!  Feel free to post your comments or questions below.  As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!