August Favorites!

Although August has already come and gone, I'd like to clue you all in on some of my favorite products and techniques I used throughout August and really, all summer. In summer, hair tends to be less dry however if you have a pool, chlorine will definitely have a negative effect on your hair. So here are some favorites:


1. Au Naturel 
While this is not exactly a product, it was my theme for most of the summer. Why? Because hair needs a break and what better time to give it a break than when you spend a lot of your days working or doing nothing at all? I avoided heat almost all summer including, no blow drying, no straightening etc. Another way to keep in natural would be by only showering every other day to avoid drying it out completely. Whilst dry hair is worse in winter, if you're not careful it can creep in during summer as well. If you can figure out a way to make your hair look reasonable without actually doing anything with harmful product or heat, go for it! This could be showering before bed or having to wait until morning. Maybe french braiding it before bed could give you cute waves as well!


2. Dove Nutritive Solutions: Leave-In Smoothing Cream
Boy was this ever useful this summer! I did purchase some leave-in conditioners but they do virtually nothing compared to this great product! I bought it near the beginning of summer and still have some left, I used it quite frequently. I was a bad girl this summer and highlighted my hair, but this product really helped my hair out during this time. Basically any time I went into my highly chlorinated pool I put in about a quarter-sized amount of this miracle worker in my hair after. If I would forget my hair would be very puffy and dried out looking. But as soon as I rubbed this stuff throughout my roots it would automatically add oils to my hair, making them look silky and healthy once again. Not only that, but in the morning when my hair was crazy I'd just distribute the product throughout my hair and it would help it nicely curl. Almost like a curl enhancer would do.


3. L'Oreal Kids: Tangle Tamer
This is a very important thing, and I'm sure I've said it more than once on this blog but it continues to be an important part of my hair care routine. My hair gets very, very tangley throughout my day. I'm not sure if it's just my type of hair or the fact that it's getting really long but without detangler I would probably be bald. As you may have noticed, I use the kids detangler. This is simply because it smells glorious and I find it does the best job of detangling my hair. I spray it in my wet hair if I need to brush through wet hair. Because wet hair is very weak and needs a little extra help if I'm gonna be trying to tear it out with a brush while it's in this fragile state. Anyway, I feel like this product has been a huge contributor to the health of my hair and I would highly recommend it. Especially to anybody that has problems combing through their super tangled hair!


4. Infusium 23: Moisture Replenisher Leave-In Treatment
Earlier in this post I mentioned not being super impressed with any of the leave-in conditioner I got, remember? Yeah, well I still stand to the fact that my oils are far more effective but this product was really nice to have around in the summer. For one if you're in a rush and don't want oily hands and just want to give your hair a quick spritz before you leave the house, this is great for the job. It just adds that extra bit of shine to get your hair through the day. Also I found it great for a pre-swim. You always want to go in a pool with already wet hair so your hair doesn't soak up so much chlorine. But sometimes showering seems like a lot of work just to jump in a pool. That's how I feel anyway. So I would simply spray in this lovely product. It's very easy to just quickly dampen your hair with so that your hair won't take in all the chlorine. With this pre-swim product along with the oil earlier mentioned that I used after my swim, my hair was well looked after throughout the summer.

So those were some of my favorite products, not only for August but all summer. Although there were few, they were all really effective in making my hair as healthy as it could be. I hope these help you out, as you too try to keep your hair moisturized and beautiful throughout the year. Questions? Comments? Ideas for future posts? Please feel free to email me at the email listed below!

-Ashley
damagebegone@hotmail.com
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Interested in Writing Articles?

Are any of you out there hair experts? Hair dressers? Just have cool hair ideas that have not already been posted on my page? Any hair tutorials you'd like to promote?
If you're interested in any of the above I'd love for you to contribute to Damage-B-Gone. It would be great to get a lot of reader feedback and if you guys could send me any questions you have that would also be much appreciated! I love getting to know those of you who read my blogs and anyone who would like to become a part of it would be even better!
Am I missing some key things to hair styling? Any genius tricks that have been passed down your family? How about homemade hair mask recipes? I, and all my readers would love to be clued in on some ideas that I may be missing.
Interested in helping me out with keeping DBG going? Please email me at the address below with a hair tutorial video, a blog post or any questions and ideas you may have! It would be greatly appreciated. All of your feedback helps me keep my blog up to date. Thanks for your time and consideration!

damagebegone@hotmail.com
-Ashley

Follow Up on John Frieda.

If you haven't read my last post I'd suggest doing that before this one. Just as a quick intro, I was using John Frieda Go Blonder Controlled Lightening spray to lighten up my roots. I was fairly pleased with the product to begin with. In the last few days I have a bit of a follow up to do.
          When they say not to use it on brown hair... they mean it. It's not that it did anything terrible to my hair, my roots are just more of an orange-y color now while my highlights are ash tone. Overall I'm not a super big fan of orange hair on myself so I'm not too pleased with that. Since I noticed a fairly good rust color beginning in my hair I haven't used it again. Because I am not sure whether it will make it even more red, or if it'll actually blonde out for me. I'm afraid to try because I'm broke and may not have money to fix my mistakes.
          As far as damage goes, I have been noticing a fair amount of damage. But my hair wasn't super healthy lately before I started using this. So I can't confirm that this product is completely to blame. I do know that sometimes my hair feels a little straw like right after I spray it in but it seems to soften out as I blow dry. I wouldn't say that this product did any intense damage to my hair, but it probably at least dried it out a bit.
          I'm sorry that this has to be so vague but overall I wouldn't suggest using this, even on light brown hair. Unless your hair is very dirty blonde or blonde, it's not worth it. It just makes it a rusty orange color. However the orange color does kind of make my roots look better because it's at least not a brown color. If you're super worried about damage also don't use the product. To my hair it didn't cause obscene amounts but it will probably cause a bit as it contains hydrogen peroxide. So if you're blonde and okay with a bit of damage, go for it. If you're brunette or very concerned about damage, you can do without it.
       If you want other alternatives I do have a post about highlighting your hair or how to bleach and dye it causing the least amount of damage. You can find them all on this blog. Good luck everyone!

-Ashley

John Frieda Controlled Lightening Spray Review & Instructions

So I've recently done something, not great for my hair. I started using John Frieda (sheer blonde, go blonder) controlled lightening spray. On the bottle it suggests to only use with light brown to blonde hair and not on dark hair. This is important as it could turn dark brown hair to an orangey colour as opposed to blonde. So please keep that in mind, it's not to bleach dark hair only to lighten already light hair.
          So I've done this about 3 times in my hair so far and I haven't noticed obscene amounts of damage besides what was already there. The spray bottle says you should see a difference of color between 3-5 times of use. I can confidently say that I think I see a difference. It is really hard to tell as I already have highlights and the summer sun begins to lighten my hair as well. But I definitely do think it has made a difference. I'll let you know in a few weeks how it is. For now I am quite pleased with the product. After 10 uses they say that's the lightest your hair will get.
              The bottle itself is quite cheap in my opinion, it's around 10 dollars at most drugstores. I've seen it at almost every drugstore I've checked in Canada. The downfall is that the bottle is quite small so if you're doing very long or thick hair you may run out quite easily. The product does smell nice in my opinion. Maybe slightly acidic but also very clean. I know that's a strange combination.
       So far the product has done a lot less damage than I would have thought it would do as it contains hydrogen peroxide. Although I have taken cautionary steps (some from other blogposts) to keep damage minimal. See below:

1. You're to use the product on towel-dried hair so I start with a shower. During this time I condition my hair TWICE instead of once just to be sure it's lathered in as much moisture as possible. Also you'll want to apply it on as clean hair as possible. When conditioner is in run your fingers through your hair to eliminate most tangles.

2. Once I'm done showering you're to towel dry your hair and then spray in the product. You can either spray it in sections to create highlights, I just spray overall. I concentrate on my roots as my highlights are growing out.

3. Then it instructs you to comb out your hair. I'm sure to use a wide tooth comb while doing this as it will be more gentle on your hair. I also quickly spray in some detangler just to reduce the pulling that goes on.

4. Last but not least you are to blow dry your hair, and when doing this I do have my blow dryer on the warmest setting as that is what will actually cause your hair to lighten. However the lightening spray does have a heat protector in it, so you'll have a bit of protection.

5. Once the hair is completely dry, before I style I always apply Moroccan Argan Oil to the ends to help put the moisture back into them.

6. Also on days where I don't use the product I try to not use heat on my hair and leave it natural. This just gives it a bit of a break after all the strain on 'blondifying' days. And if you want to be extra careful you can also cut off any split ends you may notice

Pros:
>it truly lightens the hair
>doesn't cause too much damage
>easy to use
>smells good
>cheap (I got it for $9.99)
>found in most stores

Cons:
>itchy scalp
>creates slight damage
>less noticeable than getting highlights at salon (this could be a 'pro' for some)
>must be done more than once
>small bottle

Highlighting Your Hair

So, as many of you know bleaching your hair is especially bad for it and for those of you who are like me, you do it anyways. Well here's a bit of a better way to get your hair a bit lighter for the summer. Just know that any way you go about lightening your hair will probably cause damage, but this is a bit more natural and better for your hair than bleach in a box.

Alright so you're going to need some things to start off:
>1 cup lemon juice
>1/4 cup conditioner
>1/4 warm water
>hot sunny day
>spray bottle

Step One: 
Mix all of the ingredients together until they are well blended.

Step Two:
Take your spray bottle and pour in the mixture you just created.

Step Three:
Spray the mixture into your dry hair. It is important that you do this an evenly as possible. Continue spraying evenly throughout your hair, roots to ends until it's completely wet, or until mixture it gone.

Step Four:
Sit out in the hot sun for up to 2 hours to allow the Sun to do it's thing on your hair.

Step Five:
Wash out hair using a deep conditioner (or if you only have normal that will do). As I said bleaching hair any way is bad for it and this will dry out your hair so conditioner generously!

Step Six:
Repeat the process until you get your desired look. Only do this once a week, it may take up to 4 weeks to notice a very significant difference.

So there you have it! Just please note that with really dark brown to black hair it can be very difficult to get results, for some people they do it a long time and nothing happens others see slight results. This process works better on people with already blonde hair or people with light brown hair.
I hope this helped you out a bit! Good luck!
Questions? Email damagebegone@hotmail.com

-Ashley

Long Summer Hair!

This has been a long awaited post... lots of questions like this come up over and over again, and although this whole blog will really help you with growing longer hair but this post is just a lot of tips combined to help you with longer hair! Hope you enjoy!

1. Eat more protein!

Your hair is made of protein and so when you don't get enough of it your body stops giving your hair any, therefore slowing down growth. Protein is found in eggs, chicken, red meat, beans and a lot of other foods.

2. Drink lots of water!

This helps keep your hair healthy. If your hair is not healthy and hydrated then it gets dry causing split ends and breaking off of the ends of your hair. When the ends of your hair constantly break off it can't grow at it's full speed.

3. Get hair trimmed every 6-8 weeks.

Although you might feel like this slows the growth it doesn't! It is better to cut off all the dead ends sooner than later. Because eventually the split ends travel up your hair and the higher up they go the shorter you'll have to cut it. And again you don't want split ends because they break off and cause hair to grow slower.

4. Protect hair from heat.

This can be done various ways. For one eliminating all heat tools on your hair is probably the best, but if you must use a heat tool use heat protectant and LET IT DRY before applying heat to your hair. You can find all sorts of hair tutorials not involving heat on youtube or on my blog (see other posts). Also using protectant spray before going out into the hot sun is useful. It's also good to not have your shower too hot (difficult I know). The purpose for this again is to reduce split ends.

5. Keep your hair moisturized!

Again this can be done different ways, like using a deep conditioner about once a week. Using a hair mask once a month (approximately depending on amount of damage). Also being sure to always use normal conditioner is helpful. Moisture in hair is healthy hair, and healthy hair is faster growing hair.

6. Protect from chlorine!

Okay, okay, wearing a swim cap IS dorky. But there are ways you can reduce chlorine damage without the swim cap. Try rinsing out your hair with fresh water before entering a pool, and applying spray-in conditioner to help your hair not to absorb so much chlorine. Chlorine can be very damaging for hair!

7. Get more natural products!

The more natural the better. All these chemicals in the hair products we use can be very handy for our hair but also very harmful. If you can get natural shampoos and conditioners, oils are very good for this. I used Moroccan hair oil shampoo and conditioner for a long time, my hair was so much healthier!

8. Don't stress it!

Reducing stress and increasing sleep can help with hair growth. A lot of times if you are not sleeping well or are very stressed or not eating right, hair can start to fall out and break. So keep your entire body physically and mentally happy to increase the time in which your hair grows. If you struggle with stress/depression/eating disorders see if you can do something about it. Anything from listening to music on your bed, seeing a counselor or doing yoga can help your stress level decrease. Whatever works for you!

9. Do not wash your hair daily!

This will end up drying your hair out. As you have read in former tips, this is not good for your hair. So to keep your hair moist and healthy try avoiding washing hair daily. Dry shampoo or baby powder can really help with being able to go 2 days without washing your hair.

10. Avoid dying and bleaching your hair.

This involves a lot of chemicals and is not natural at all and can fry your hair completely if involving bleach. So do your best not to dye or bleach your hair. Because as I have mentioned lots, dry hair is unhealthy and will decrease the speed in which your hair grows.

Hope you found this helpful! Good luck with growing your long hair!

Feel free to e-mail me with questions or suggestions for future posts:

damagebegone@hotmail.com

-Ashley

Post Requests and March Favorites!

Hey everyone! March favorites is in next paragraph if you want to skip ahead! I'm sorry I haven't been blogging much lately, I know it sounds lame but I have been very busy. I am obviously off my once a week blogging schedule, that has just been too much for me so I'm going to try to post once a month and hopefully more if everything goes well! I REALLY WANT YOUR HELP. I'm looking for ideas for new posts, or requests of what you'd like to know about! So please if you have ideas, tips, requests or questions please e-mail me at damagebegone@hotmail.com I would appreciate it and would be more than happy to reply or make a post about it. So feel free to e-mail away! I will also start putting up polls again, it stopped working but I'm going to see if that will work again. Also feel free to let your friends know about my blog! Would you like more product reviews, videos,  pictures? Feedback is always appreciated!

Now for my favorites! These are more my favorites from the past 2 or 3 months but let's just go with March favorites. Recently I've been very happy with the way my hair has been going. I've tried 2 new shampoo/conditioners and I am really pleased with them!

The first I tried was Dove Therapy Volume Boost Shampoo and Conditioner (link below). I really liked the product, I thought it made my hair feel a lot more smooth, which I really like, I'm not sure if it helped for volume at all but most of the shampoos I try for volume don't really work. (If you know one please comment or e-mail!) But I was happy with the product and thought it worked fairly well. You can probably buy it at your local Wal-Mart!
http://www.dove.ca/en/Products/Hair/Dove-Volume-Boost-Shampoo.aspx

The next shampoo and conditioner I tried was from the new Clear brand. I had heard a lot of good things about it but still wasn't sure if I wanted to jump into it, but then my mom bought some and I figured, why not?
She purchased the Volumizing Root Boost Nourishing Shampoo (and conditioner). Okay I LOVE this product, like it's actually amazing. To start off it smells AMAZING, like actually I've gotten a bunch of compliments about the smell. Also it really helps my hair to not get greasy so fast, usually I have to wash my hair every day to make it not greasy, or at least use dry shampoo because you're not suppose to wash your hair everyday but with this stuff it's not even greasy on the second day! I'm super impressed with this product so far, have any of you tried Clear? I would recommend it because it worked great for me!
http://www.clearhaircare.com/women/212394/volumizing-root-boost-nourishing-shampoo-conditioner

The last product for today is my "It's a 10 Miracle leave-in Product" I got a bottle of it from my hairdresser because she didn't need it anymore, I was so excited because I've been wanting to try it but it's slightly pricey! However now I know that it's absolutely worth it! On the back of the bottle it lists 10 things it's supposed to do, I will list them and let you know how I think it actually did with my hair!
1. Repair dry, damaged hair ~ well I don't think my hair can be repaired within a couple of days but I think it's definitely feeling more healthy than before!
2. adds shine ~ I would agree with this one, if I spray it in after my shower while my hair is wet, it dries shinier.
3. Smooths and Controls Frizz ~ Definitely! My hair is a lot smoother.
4. seals and protects hair color ~ I could not say, my hair isn't dyed, sorry!
5. flat iron spray & thermal protector ~ I can't say for sure but I'm pretty sure it does this pretty well because my hair doesn't feel as "blow dried" when I'm finished blow drying it. (Shame on me, I know.)
6. Detanlges ~ this is actually one of my favorite parts, I feel like it detangles my hair so well! Which I need because my hairs curly and I must only brush it when it's wet so I need a good dentangler to really reduce the damage, this works amazing!
7. stops hair breakage ~ It's not stopping all the breakage but I think it's making my hair stronger!
8. Creates silkiness ~ I feel like this is a lot like smoother hair and yes it's silkier!
9. enhances natural body ~ I'm not sure I agree with this one because my hair is still pretty flat however I only really spray it on my ends.
10. prevents split ends ~ This I can't really say for sure off hand. Sorry.
So that's how it's been working for me. All in all I feel like it's a really good, healthy product for my hair and I  encourage you all to try it out! Oh and it also smells DELICIOUS. It smells like a hairdresser, kind of. Maybe all hairdressers smell different but I love the smell of stuff my hairdresser uses in my hair and this smells like a profession product to me!

I hope you enjoyed, comments and feedback are always appreciated and encouraged!
Any products you've been loving or wanting to be reviewed? Feel free to e-mail me. Have a great day!

damagebegone@hotmail.com
-Ashley