My secret weapon.

Kat 5/30/2013 17 Comments Edit

Now I normally never attempt to do anything related to beauty. As I've mentioned before, I am verging on luddite when it comes to all things cosmetic - I rely on the expert beauty bloggers out there who much better versed in such matters.

However the one area that I am actually quite pleased with (although looking forward to my colour being rescued this weekend by the wonderful Daniel Jordan) is my hair. Since I've started the blog, I've been asked numerous times how I do my hair and so due to excessive rain taking all the joy out of looking at summer clothes, I thought it was a perfect time to do a quick blog on my secret weapon.

Shampoo and conditioner wise, I've never found anything that works as well for me as Redken All Soft - the shampoo and the heavy cream and I will also come clean at this point and admit that I only wash my hair once a week. I know, I know - utterly ming a ring ding. But it's so naturally dry and coarse that if I washed it much more (I will sometimes give in at 5 days - hardly much better I appreciate) you would see me from space.

To be honest, even with the best shampoo I can find and not washing it too often, once I've dried it, this is how I look.

Just GAWJUS. Suffice to say, it's definitely not a shampoo or conditioner that I rely on.

As you can see, it's not the best to put it mildly. Now I used to add excessive amount of product, in the forms of serums and oils to make it smoother. Which did work but tended to take all body and bounce out in the meantime.

Until I found the styling brush of my dreams.

I reveal....(and by the way, this isn't a new purchase, I've had mine for around two years now)........the Babyliss Big Hair. I paid £39.99 for mine and so they haven't gone up in price, despite the fantastic reviews they've had.

Now I do know that people have had issues with them stopping so whilst most places have a two year warranty on them, John Lewis have three and in my experience, they are the best retailer on the High Street for a no quibble returns policy (I'm sure there will be people who have had issues with returns but I have never had any problems with them replacing new for old if something goes wrong in their generous guarantee period. And, for the record, I have no connection with them at all. I am just one of those hideous JL devotees)

Here we have the results, 15 mins later, no product in the hair at all. (at first it does take a little more practice and if I spend longer on it, I can get more body and more curl). Not quite a salon level blow dry, but compared to what I had to spend 38 years with, this is verging on perfect.

I would go so far to say that for me - yes a ridiculous exaggeration but ashamedly true on the beauty front - this has changed my life. There was literally no way I could get my hair smooth before, even after a hair drying lesson at Aveda years ago, spending a small fortune on every hair product known to man, expensive styling wands, dryers and brushes - nothing worked.

Until the Big Hair.

So there we have it. Nothing more than £40. Probably the best £40 I've ever spent!

And, as if by magic, we have the most ridiculous humid frizzy rain at the moment, and here below is me yesterday (I washed my hair on Sunday). Once smoothed, my hair stays smooth.

Cream vest - Cos

Lace swing jacket - Anthropolgie (this was give to me by one of my best friends the other day - I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Thank you so much S xxx)

Horn necklace - Mango

Washed indigo skinnies - Boden

Navy Newbury boots - Rag & Bone

Stone maxi zip satchel - Anya Hindmarch

And today for a meeting, in spite of the rain, I managed to get my fave pear drop (aka yellow!) sunshine jeans out. Bit of an experiment pairing them with black but I actually I am really pleased with the combo. A whole new lease of life for them.