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I am very hesitant to call this a hair curling tutorial. I’m forever hesitant to use that word anywhere on Beautynook to be honest. But, it’s what people search for, so I’m just jumping on the bandwagon. Don’t think any less of me 🙂

irish beauty blogger

Myself and hair styling would not be the best of friends. I’m lucky in that my hair isn’t too unruly so I can get away with doing the bare minimum with it most of the time. There is really only two facets to my ability. Straightening, which I use the L’Oréal Steampod for. (Review here). Or, I can curl it, which I’m doing a lot of lately.

irish beauty blog

At first when I was asked a few times by you lovely lot on Snapchat and Instagram how I curl my hair, I kind of got embarrassed. I just think of myself as so shit at hair. I decided to give a ‘hair curling tutorial’ a go anyways though and as I got into it, I realised, maybe I do have a couple of tips that people might learn from. We all do these things differently, right?

hair curling tutorial

I generally curl my hair when it’s freshly clean. I know most people don’t do that, but I have oily roots and if I did it on second or third day hair, it just wouldn’t be worth my while. I’ll use heat protection spray before drying and then just blast dry it. I used the fancy Dyson hairdryer in this video because we’re house sitting. Sad to say, I definitely don’t have one of these at home 🙁

top irish beauty blog

I’ll link the vent brush here too that I use in case you like the look of it 🙂 I let my hair cool and let my really old but favourite Babyliss curling wand heat up. I like less uniformed waves rather than full on curls. That’s of course personal preference though.

irish beauty blog

I do one side of my head at a time, taking approximately one inch sections. I like the tousled look, so I don’t think too much about it, once all the hair has a bit of a wave I’m happy. Click on the video above or directly here to see the whole Hair Curling Tutorial in action. You’ll get a better sense at how crap I am at hair and of the finished result 🙂

hair curling tutorial

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, as always.

Gemma

xxx

**********INCLUDES A PR SAMPLE*************

If you don’t follow me on social media, firstly eh why? 🙂 and secondly you won’t have seen that I took the chop with my hair this week. I decided to go to Lisa in Zinc Hair and Beauty because I had heard such great things about her. I can attest to that and say I had a really great experience there and I would definitely recommend them! I was happy to find out my hair is in pretty good shape too, so it sparked the idea to talk about my current hair care favourites in a blog post 🙂

hair care favourites beauty blogI am by no means an expert on hair care, these are just the products I am using at the minute and seem to be working for me. I have alot of hair, although the hair itself is quite fine. I also get oily roots really quickly so products can weigh my hair down and make it look flat and greasy. I have to be careful.

First up is my shampoo and conditioner.

joico irelandirish makeup and beauty blogThese are from the Joico Body Luxe Range. I got sent these at Christmas and only got around to using them in the last few weeks. I have really been liking them. These are designed for fullness and volume. I usually wash my hair twice with the shampoo and then add a little conditioner to the ends while finishing off the rest of my shower routine. My hair feels lovely and soft after using them and not at all weighed down.

After washing and to add a bit more conditioning…because I can’t get enough of it 🙂 I’ve been using the Mane n’ Tail Olive Oil Complex Spray Therapy.

mane n tail irelandbeauty blog irelandThis is for shine, detangling and it’s a heat protector, score!

My hair comes out by the bucket load, honestly I shed like a dog, so something like this is great. I apply a layer to my towel dried hair and then use my trusty Wet Brush (I actually have a full review of this here).

the wet brush irelandThis combo seems to give me the less amount of breakage, it doesn’t tug on any knots and I’ve definitely noticed less hair in the brush afterwards.

If I know I am going to be washing my hair early in the morning or early in the day, I love to do a conditioning treatment the night before. I call it a treatment, I literally mean put loads of conditioner into my hair and pin it up when I’m going to bed 🙂

alfaparf irelandmakeup and beauty blogger irelandThe last few months, I have been using the Alfaparf Precious Nature Leave In Spray. I spoke about doing this on my Snapchat a while back. I love giving mini reviews over there. My username is ‘Beautynook’.

It’s a leave in conditioner so it doesn’t make my hair hard and unmoveable when going to sleep. You know when you put a conditioning treatment in and then your hair is like a rock so it’s super uncomfortable? If I’m super fancy, I’ll even apply some, then throw a towel into the microwave for a couple of seconds to heat it up and then put my hair into it, the heat helps the conditioner on it’s way and your hair feels extra awesome then when you wash it! The Precious Nature Leave In Spray is made specifically for coloured hair. It’s also sulphate and paraben free.

The last thing I wanted to mention is this Joico Hair Shaker.

joico hair shakerirish makeup and beauty bloggerThis is a liquid to powder texturising spray. Now I know texturising sprays don’t make your hair feel particularly nice, but if you’re looking for extra volume, they are a fab addition to your hair care collection. I don’t like backcombing my hair if I can help it, it’s so bad for the condition of it and it makes my hair fuzzy. The Hair Shaker is cool because it applies to your hair as a liquid, so you can move your hair freely into your desired style. For me that’s pretty much straight or wavy I’m low maintenance ha, and then the Hair Shaker dries to a powder finish to hold the volume you created in place. I’ve used hair powders in the past and they are just messy and leave your hair looking dull because the powder is white. Charles Worthington do a texturising spray that I love too and you can buy in Boots.

There you have it. All the hair care products I have been truly using and loving over the last couple of months. I would have included dry shampoo in this too, but the one I’m using has been discontinued…devo!

You can buy Joico from Shampoo.ie

Salon places like Xpert Professional sell Alfaparf

And Mane n Tail is available in pharmacies nationwide.

xxx

 

 

TRESemmé Keratin Smooth

You  might have noticed I don’t get negative very often here on Beautynook. I try talk about things I like and feel positive about usually because that’s how I like to do it. Every so often something crosses your path though and you can’t keep the béal shut. The TRESemmé Keratin Treatment 7 Day Smooth is that for me.

Keratin Smooth

I had high hopes for this product. I picked it up excitedly in Boots, brought it home and washed my hair straight away. It claims to leave you with salon smooth hair with less frizz and more manageability (who wouldn’t want that!).You apply 8-10 pumps on medium length towel dried hair, without putting it on your scalp and comb it through. It has a cream like texture so it’s just like putting conditioner in your hair.

 

TRESemmé

Next, you blow dry your hair until it’s completely dry.Babyliss Hair DryerThen the instructions say to activate the thermal technology, straighten your hair in small sections, using a hair straightener at its highest setting. You need to repeat the process 3-5 times over each section. I can say honestly I abided by the instructions wholeheartedly.

GHD Hair Straighteners

So when you’re finished drying and straightening your hair of course it’s smooth and straight, you spent a long time straightening it, good stuff! However this stuff is meant to make this look last for up to four washes with minimal styling. When I bought the TRESemmé Keratin Treatment 7 Day Smooth, I bought it because lets face it I wanted less hair frizz but also with also with my blogger hat on. I thought it would be such a cool thing to recommend to people. I had plans on taking pics of my long fabulous locks and saying, you can get this too, but honestly this stuff did nothing for me whatsoever, taking a picture of my hair would be a complete waste of time.

I wash my hair every couple of days, so after a couple of days of putting on the treatment I washed it again. I have naturally straight full hair so I was not expecting anything amazing. I do get frizz at the crown of my head so I really expected this to be at least minimized…nothing.

I gave it to the mammy, made her stick to the regime and watched closely as she abided by all the instructions, left her for a few days, she washed her hair as normal and let it dry as she normally does. She has finer, shorter hair than me with more frizz. Her hair did not look any different, she handed it back to me and said “this stuff is shite”! (apologies for the language) :p

I hate being negative, but I felt it necessary with this product as it claims to do alot.

 

Have you tried it, or anything similar that actually works? Be sure to share it with everyone, don’t be shy 🙂

Thanks for reading you luscious locked lot!

Gemma

xxx