spring is in the hair

Last night I had a blast lurking around backstage at the fashion program's annual spring show here at Syracuse University, where freshmen, sophomores, and juniors have the opportunity to send their designs down the runway. While this year's theme was freedom of expression, as a part of the Newhouse School's yearlong celebration of the First Amendment, the hair concept created by Professor Jeff Mayer was pure spring.

Jeff and a crew of fashion students slicked hair back into a bun, clipped on a bed of moss, and arranged sprays of flowers and butterflies on top. The effect was gorgeous from the audience, it looked like the models were a sort of ethereal flower garden.

The look isn't at all practical for every day, but clipping a flower onto the side of a loose bun is a fast and easy way to dress up hair. Flower clips are widely available, or you can make your own from silk flowers, hot glue, and a clip as Mayer did for the show.

when your hair won't pick a direction

Seriously, does anyone know ANYONE who's happy with their hair?  Not to mitigate the plight of those who feel cursed with stick straight limpness or frizzy mess of curls, but I find my bipolar hair particularly frustrating.  The wavy/curly hair all the way around my hairline would be gorgeous if the rest of it would follow suit.  To make matters worse, all of it is resistant to hot tools.  Meticulously blow drying with a paddle brush right after getting out of the shower and constantly smoothing out frizz throughout the day was a must until I started using a couple choice products from Frederic Fekkai. 

 Glossing Cream- the perfect styling cream/leave-in conditioner.  This protects my ends when I blow dry and gives my hair enough slip to prevent tangled throughout the day.  It never feels heavy or makes hair look greasy, unlike silicone sprays and serums.  Just don't overdo, a dime-size blob is plenty for my long hair.

Luscious Curls Wave Spray- my favorite, all-purpose hair product.  This utterly lightweight hair spray sticks down frizz and baby hairs on straight hair days without feeling crunchy or heavy.  It also manages to convince all of my hair into reasonable, soft waves.  I wash my hair in the early evening, let it 60% air dry, spritz on some Wave Spray, and pin up into a loose, high bun before bed (make the bun too tight and it won't dry or will give you ringlets).  The pins fall out in the night, leaving me with perfect Kate Hudson beach hair in the morning.  To revive the wave, simply re-spritz and pin up for an hour.

Best of all, both these products smell incredible- like fresh, herbalish lemon.  They're pricey, but go a long way and worth the investment for performance alone.

Hair Pow(d)er!

Nothing like heat and humidity (hello thunderstormy summer in Central NY) to kill a good hair day. The added bonus of Bootcamp summer term for all of us grad students doing the Newhouse program at Syracuse U is the pressure of fitting propper grooming into a painfully long day- let's just say ponytails are on the rise.

My personal hair savior? Stila Hair Refresher. This fabulously finely milled and gorgeously scented powder is a step beyond the old trick of massaging baby powder into your scalp to soak up excess oil and banish limpness. The genius spout on the bottle distributes perfect whisps of powder into trouble spots like bangs or you can gently drop a small ammount of powder into your palm, coat your palms, and distribute across your whole head. Bonus? The powder provides the perfect ammount of grip for doing lavish updos with squeaky clean hair while preserving volume. I'm loving the scent of Creme Bouquet, a gorgeous vanilla tempered with white flowers and just a hint of clean baby powder. The generous 2.6 oz bottle lasts forever, making it a bargain at $28.

Mermaid Hair? Not so much...

If I had spent less time on my thesis and more time browsing magazines I would have been better prepared for our family beach extravaganza in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. But as a child of the icy-watered Pacific Northwest I somehow missed that swimming in the ocean 4 times a day really fries your hair.

About three days into the vacay I knew it was either deep condition or hack of six inches of fried mess. The conundrum was finding a suitable non-silicone loaded deep conditioner with very limited resources (i.e. no internet for research or Sephora for browsing). As your faithful guide in the world of beauty, I decided to utilize the (free) mayo in the fridge and thoroughly investigate the rumors of its hair restorative properties.

I used about a quarter cup of mayo on my very, long thick hair (so adjust accordingly if you decide to try). My hair was a little damp, but I don't think it matters as long as your hair isn't wet. I let it soak in for about 10 minutes, occasionally putting my head under the water to encourage deep penetration via the heat. The results? Fabulous soft hair, with no sign of split ends nearly 3 weeks later. The one treatment was also enough to keep my hair reasonably nice for the next four days of swimming and baking in the sun.

Just now I did it again to test whether it works decently on only slightly dried hair, and with the same great results. I would definitely recommend trying mayonaise over olive oil unless your hair is VERY damaged, it was quite difficult to get only two tablespoons of oil to wash out and even harder to work with in the first place.

If I could do the trip again (or if I get to go again next year) I would definitely invest in something from Carol's Daughter, either a leave-in conditioner or Lisa's Hair Elixir. I haven't been able to try the line as the Oregon Sephora doesn't carry it, but Kristin over at The Beauty Addict (www.beautyaddict.blogspot.com) gives the line nothing but raves. From what I've read and experienced, it seems like coating hair with a light oil would be ideal for protecting it from surf and sun. Personally I didn't find a standard leave-in conditioner to be enough (not even my beloved Fekkai Glossing Cream).

My one and only

I love my hair. I've spent the last three years growing it out so there would be more of it to love. But now that it's reached the middle of my back I'm starting to have a major split end problem. While silicone, listed on labels primarily as dimethicone, is often hailed as a miracle ingredient that protects hair from damage and seals split ends and is used in almost all hair products, I was shocked to read in a back issue of Allure that silicone actually damages hair further with prolonged use. Of course I immediately began scanning all of my product labels to start seriously cutting down. Most leave-in conditioners list silicone as a main ingredient, which will severely dry hair out if used in excess, so I've started slathering my ends with olive oil once a week for about a half an hour before showering. I've also invested in a tube of Frederic Fekkai's Glossing Cream.

This is probably one of the nicest hair products I've ever encountered. It's a thick gorgeously fresh scented leave-in conditioner/styling cream that promises to hydrate, eliminate frizz, and protect hair from heat tools and UV rays. Although it contains silicone, it also contains a healthy dose of olive oil so it doesn't primarily rely on silicone to protect hair. This product has replaced my Garnier Fructis Long'n'Strong leave-in and the Redken Glass that I used sparingly to smooth down the baby hairs at the top of my head. While Glossing Cream seems rather expensive, I only need about two peas worth of product as opposed to twice as much Garnier Fructis leave-in plus 3-6 drops of Redken Glass. Even the travel size will last you ages. This is a teriffic product and is now the only styling product I need to get great looking hair. Retials for 19.50 for 4 oz, or $9 for 1.6 oz