Review: Lee Stafford Poker Straight Flat Iron Protection Shine Mist

Woahhh, what a mouthful this product name is! Gotte love them 3 for 2s at Boots, though. I was stocking up on purple shampoo and conditioner when a little offer meant I could sneak something into my basket completely free of charge, so in went this little pink bottle which promises to protect my hair from the almost daily straightening that I put it through. Granted, that was quite a while ago now, but I'm sure there'll be another 3 for 2 soon, as they have a tendency to crop up frequently.

I love the bright pink packaging of Lee Stafford products and it always draws me towards them when browsing the aisles of Boots, but I could definitely do without the mixture of upper- and lowercase lettering on the label. It's awfully outdated.
I've always been told that it's important to use heat protectant when blowdrying and straightening your hair to avoid breakage, but chose to avoid this advice for the majority of my life. Ever since I started using heat protectant my hair has been stronger and healthier, though I wouldn't say the difference is particularly mind blowing.

Anyway, this isn't the first heat protectant I've used and it's always a tad difficult to judge their efficiency other than by the fact that my hair isn't ruined (hey, that's better than nothing).
Positives I would like to mention is that the spray smells nice, albeit a little too sweet for me, the nozzle doesn't get blocked like it does with some other sprays and you can be quite generous with it without your hair going sticky or crispy.
Not bad for £5.99! If you're interested, you can find the Poker Straight Flat Iron Protection Shine Mist (whew) here.

Review: Lee Stafford Bleach Blondes Shampoo and Conditioner

Last December I changed my hair colour from natural dark brown to a light blonde and I haven't looked back since. I love the way it lifts my skin tone and lets me get away with wearing much brighter colours. Hell, it sounds like a cliche, but people even treat you differently depending on your hair colour.

But, to be completely honest here, it is a right pain up the backside to maintain bleached hair. It gets dry, frazzled and occasionally turns into a shade of Simpson yellow. It's certainly not a hair colour to go for if you prefer something low-maintenance!

One thing that's literally been a lifesaver when it comes to my bleached hair turning nasty, has been purple shampoo. And as far as purple shampoos are concerned, this one from Lee Stafford is among the strongest you can find. Even when my hair basically turned orange (hard water can make this a lot worse), this baby turned it into a beautiful shade of gold.

In fact, as it's so strong I would only recommend this to medium to dark blondes. When I had some highlights put into my hair it actually turned a light shade of purple, even though I rinsed it out immediately after applying it. Even then you only really need to use it once a week, or perhaps even every other week.

As for the conditioner, I only bought it to go with the shampoo, but to be honest, you may as well leave it on the shelf. It doesn't add any colour-correcting properties and the shampoo is strong enough anyway, so you don't really need to add any more purple for the conditioner. Considering it's a conditioner aimed at bleached (read dry and frazzled) hair, it could do with being a lot richer and more nourishing than it is.

For any bleaching accidents or hair that just doesn't want to stay that lovely shade of blonde, the shampoo gets both of my thumbs up, however.

Lee Stafford Treatment for Hair That Never Grows Past a Certain Length Review and Blog Update

How ironic that I'm posting about this just a day after having a major portion of my hair chopped off at the hair dresser's. There's also a bit of a personal blurb affecting this blog which I've stuck at the end of this post in case you're interested in reading that.

The name is quite a mouthful - it's never a good sign if it doesn't even fit into the title bar on Blogger! When it comes to the packaging I love the hot pink design, as it stands out nicely among my mostly white shower goodies, but I absolutely hate the mixed upper and lower case writing. I feel it's childish and cheap, but of course the packaging is sturdy enough, so it won't crack if you accidentally drop it in the bath. The lid is a screwtop type of lid, so it's safe to throw into your suitcase and take it on holiday with you.

I was stood in Boots for a while, torn between this and the same brand's Argan oil mask, but seeing as I'd already heard a few good things about this hair treatment this one popped into my basket. It also helped that at £7.99 it cost almost half as much as the other one. For that price you get a decent 200ml tub which will last a fair while. It's slightly more expensive than the likes of Herbal Essences and Pantene, but I'd still place it at the lower end of the price spectrum.

The product inside the tub is of what I would call your typical hair mask consistency. It's fairly thick, creamy and rich. Sticky enough to stick to your hair, but you still need to be careful not to grab a huge amount or the majority will end up down the plug. I expected the scent to match the pink packaging and be something incredibly sweet and sickly, but as a matter of fact it has a quite herbal scent which is not particularly noticable once it's on your hair.

The instructions state that you should use an egg sized amount on your hair every time after shampooing, then leave it on for 5 minutes, rinse off and use conditioner as usual. You're supposed to do this every time you wash your hair until its condition improves and then continue using it just once a week.
Obviously I didn't do that. I found that an egg sized amount of product was way too much, even when my hair was longer, as I mainly used it on my tips and only used a tiny amount on my roots, because I didn't want to make my hair all flat and limp. I also only used it once a week from the start.

Now, about my hair... I tried growing it, but the ideal of a long, thick, luscious mane never came true for me. As soon as my hair gets to "that certain length", it loses all its life and becomes flat and dry. Any products that combat dryness make it even flatter, whereas any products that combat flatness make it even drier. A lose/lose situation.

This treatment seemed to make a difference from the very first time I used it. My hair felt nice and moisturised and though it wasn't as silky smooth as some other treatments make it feel it didn't weigh my hair down either. It seems to provide that perfect middle ground between rich enough to make a difference and grease-inducing.

I feel I need to point out that this treatment does include silicones, but unlike some other drugstore hair masks I tried it didn't seem to cause silicone build up on my hair, despite the fact that I've now used the majority of the tub. Unlike those other masks it also doesn't give you that initial high shine that wears off after a day. Instead my hair literally feels a bit thicker and the results last a few days.

What it didn't do was make my hair grow longer. My tips were simply beyond repair, so I got them cut to just about shoulder-length. I actually have high hopes for this product and I feel that if used regularly it could help hair to stay healthy for longer and as a matter of fact grow past that certain length.



In other news:
Unfortunately this will be the last post for a while from me. I know they've been a bit sparse lately, but that's because I had a small backlog of posts which I wanted to spread out as much as I could. Well, this is the last one I've had as a backup.

You may have heard me moan about an arm injury before, which I've been having trouble with since last summer. It turns out it's a lot worse than anybody thought and the only way I'll ever be able to use my right wrist properly again is to have some major surgery, which I can't get on the NHS. I'm currently in Germany to have it done privately, but even here the first doctor I went to refused to do it and just told me to learn to live without my right arm.
I'm now going to go see someone else and if they go ahead with the operation I'll be off the radar for a couple of weeks. If they don't then I'll probably be back to full time blogging in about two weeks, though I'll obviously be pretty upset.

I hope you can stick with me through these depressing times and I promise I'll be back as soon as this is all over.

Edit: I've now found out I'll be here till mid-April, so towards the end of next month normal blogging shall resume with a few new categories thrown in for good measure!