I mentioned before that I tried Pureology shampoo/conditioner and I HATED it.

I know it’s like the holy grail for so many people and I’ve probably just given several people heart attacks, for which I am very sorry, but my hair despised it.  I have no idea why.  I even tried two different formulations (the volumizing one and then I tried the moisturizing line) and they both made my hair feel like straw.  My hair had never felt so dry, even with the moisturizing shampoo.  Even when my hair was wet, it felt so dry and brittle.

It has taken almost two months to get my hair back to feeling and looking healthy.  It’s finally soft again; I can touch it without feeling like I’m going to break it.  I don’t know why my hair hated Pureology so much, but I’m never using it again.

I went back to an old staple shampoo/conditioner, which is Redken’s Color Extend.  Ulta had a liters sale awhile back so I got two huge bottles for pretty cheap and that’ll last me a good 4-5 months.  I’ve also gotten it on Amazon before when I’ve felt lazy.

In addition, I also started using a new deep conditioner which made my hair feel SO SOFT! And it smells AMAAZING!

It is the OGX Organics Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil Intensive Moisturizing Treatment, which is a hell of a mouth full, but it’s so good. You can get it on Amazon, at Ulta, at Target and probably a bunch of other places (though I have had a hard time finding it in Targets lately). I kinda hate the packaging, but I do just have a personal thing against products in tubs when you’re in the shower.  It’s just hard to use, at least for me.  I’d rather a bottle I can just squeeze the product out of, but that’s just me.

Regardless, it’s so good.  It smells amazing and it feels like whipped butter.  When I first got it, I used it a bit excessively because my hair was so disgustingly dry.  I used it two shampoos in a row because my hair just felt that bad (and I use it in place of my regular conditioner); I know you’re not supposed to, but I had to.  It felt significantly better after the first washing and even better after the second.  After that, I did it once a week for a couple weeks and since I’ve scaled it back to once every two weeks.

I just put a decent amount of it in my hands after shampooing and comb it through my hair with my hands in the shower.  It works out any knots plus I really wanted to make sure I got it through to the ends because those were bad.  I normally leave it in at least five minutes, at most ten.  I’m usually washing myself, shaving my legs, etc while it’s on my head.  Then I try to rinse it out with cooler water, it kind of helps keep the moisture in a bit better than hot water.  And it just feels so good.  So good.

The second thing, I actually used a few years ago a few times when I saw it circling around Pinterest and on a few hair tutorials from Kate of The Small Things Blog that I was obsessed with (that all of Pinterest was also obsessed with). It’s Aquage Uplifting Foam. I’m going to apologize right now because it’s really hard to find; I’ve pretty much always gotten it from Amazon, it’s the easiest place to find it.

I tried it again recently because I was looking for something to give me some good lift at the roots of my hair.  If you remember my hair issues, you’ll know I’ve had thinning issues due to various things.  While it’s gotten a lot better, it’s probably about as good as it’s going to get.  You can barely tell anymore that I’ve had issues except in one small spot of my head, which is annoying and that’s probably just not coming back.

But this stuff makes my hair really full and volumized and it looks really thick, which is what I love.  You are going to feel like you have product in your hair with this.  If you hate that feeling, then you will hate this.  There is no way around the feeling of a product in your hair when you use this, but the results make it worth it for me.

When your hair is wet/before you blow dry, you take the can, shake it up a bit and spray the nozzle directly at your roots.  I typically just do more the top of my hair, not so much near my neck or past my ears, I don’t need volume there.  Spray it directly at the roots then work it all throughout the hair with your hands and then blow dry.  You don’t need a ton of it unless you HUGE hair, so start off with a small amount and work up the next time you blow dry if it wasn’t quite enough.  But it will give so much lift and fullness to your hair, you won’t believe it.

You can definitely find both of these products on Amazon (if you’re not into actual shopping in stores like me) through the links above if you want to give either of them a try!