If you want soft, shiny, manageable hair, it all starts with finding the best conditioner for your hair type. Our readers have tried the top hair conditioners on the market for dry hair, frizzy hair, curly hair and more -- and they're here to tell us which ones they deem the best conditioners.
Summer is an invitation for a more lackadaisical approach to hair. (Hallelujah!) It means letting bangs grow out, letting hair air-dry, getting beachy waves from actually going to the beach and covering up unwashed summer hair with floppy hats. But with the season also comes certain summer hair hazards, like chlorine, UV rays, salt water and humidity -- all of which can lead to pool-hair, fried scalps and frizzy, dried-out, damaged strands.
Here'a a scenario you might be familiar with: You just walked out of the salon with freshly dyed hair. It's vibrant, it's shiny, it's beautiful and you love it. But then, day after day, your pricey, gorgeous hair color starts swirling down the drain. Not pretty. So what's a girl to do? One word: condition. Okay, let's make it three words: color-protecting conditioner.
Keratin treatments for straight, smooth hair has reached major popularity among our readers. According to Eric Rosado, Artistic Director at Ted Gibson Salon in New York City, keratin treatments are truly, "the best option for defrizzing and smoothing many textures of hair from curly to relaxed."
You've probably seen a Wen infomercial, or at least heard of the all-natural brand with a cult-like following. Wen was created by celebrity hair stylist Chaz Dean, and is "a new approach to the way you cleanse your hair." In addition to hair products, there are also all-natural body products in the Wen line … and the beauty-obsessed go crazy for both. Here, the eight Wen products TotalBeauty.com reviewers love -- and the two products they simply can't stand.
We always hope the next hairstyling product we buy will be the miracle we've been searching for -- something to make our flat, frizzy, or unruly hair look full, smooth and fabulous.
These days, it seems like there is an organic alternative for everything-- organic toothpaste, organic socks, organic mattresses. And with the word 'organic' being slapped on products left and right, it's beginning to loose its initial eco-friendly allure. So what does it really mean? And more importantly, when is it better to steer clear of the regular item and snatch up the organic alternative?
Meet Lynn, a 52-year-old film and theater director. She admits to a lifetime of struggling with her unruly curls, which are now rapidly losing their youthful volume and brunette hue. "I'm at the point where my hair is mostly gray and it's starting to thin," she says. "I don't know what to do with my hair."
If you've been "blessed" with hair that's fine, thin, and just lays flat, then you know finding a volumizing product that works is tough; finding one that's actually good for your hair is even tougher. Many volumizing products do give you some lift, but they also leave hair feeling dry and like hay. That is, until now.
There are currently 2,084 hair products on ulta.com, and I've tried almost all of them.
I'm a beauty editor after all, so this comes with the territory. And while testing every new hair product that hits the market is a serious job perk, the one little downside is that my bathroom is overflowing with flat irons, curl creams, spray foams, scalp exfoliators... you get the drift.
Some people daydream about winning the lottery or taking an around-the-world trip. We fantasize about having healthy, full-bodied hair that bounces when we walk. So when a product comes out that promises to turn our stringy, ho-hum hair into wind machine-ready, volumized goodness, we're first in line to try it. Nioxin DiaMax with HTX, $50, was no exception. But this time we weren't the only guinea pigs. We also had TotalBeauty.com readers test the product and share their thoughts. Ready to see if this miracle in a bottle really works?
We have a policy here at Total Beauty: The more a product costs, the more it needs to wow us. A $2 lip gloss that's a little sticky? Meh, we can deal. A $30 lip gloss that pulls the same stunt -- sorry, that's just not going to fly.
Who doesn't love spending a lazy Saturday afternoon lying out by the pool or attending one of the many outdoor BBQs that summer brings? But while these warmer days offer the perfect backdrop for beachy waves or casual updos, the weather is also to blame for ruining our perfect coifs and damaging our hair. With humidity and heat causing frizzy, brittle hair and oily roots, it can take a lot of work to keep hair looking "effortlessly" beautiful. To the rescue: This new crop of hair care products that specifically address these annoying issues that come with warmer weather.
Of all the hair care products in your shower, your shampoo is a nonnegotiable necessity.
We all need a good lather to wash out the grime after a run or after we've employed multiple styling products. But a great shampoo (like the reader-approved hair care products on this list) should not only leave our hair soft, clean and smelling delightful, it should also help cut down post-shower styling time by priming strands for our desired style of the day.
Getting whiffs of "vinegar" or "wet paint" are acceptable when you're making salad dressing or redecorating your house, but when they come out of a hairspray bottle, they can be quite gag inducing.
We're brand-addicts as much as the next girl, but in these rather rough economic times, if we can get, say, the same great hair without dishing out big bucks for salon brands, then a penny saved is a penny earned, agreed? So it's truth time: Is all that money you're spending on fancy ingredients like rose water and honeysuckle extract really making your hair shinier and smoother (as the expensive brands would like you to believe) or is it just an enticing advertising ploy? To find out the truth, we asked Paula Begoun, author of the best-selling "Don't Go Shopping for Hair-Care Products Without Me" and creator of Paula's Choice skin care line, to look through the ingredients of five products from the Suave Professionals' line and compare them to high-end counterparts to see whether the extra money you're shelling out is really just for the fancy packaging and brand name. Read on to find out what she discovered ...
Hair washing and drying is quite a chore, no? And your life is more or less ruled by when you're going to wash it, right? (Unless, of course, you have a pixie cut.) Regardless, we are all busy ladies and when we wash our hair, we expect our shampoo to clean and protect our hair color ... and for the smell to intoxicate all who are lucky enough to walk by us. We're not saying that you must spend a ton of money on hair care products to get the quality you're looking for, but what we are saying is that there is a huge difference in quality -- even among the shampoos in the drugstore aisles. And the shampoos on this list are not of high quality.
If you could just have a hairstylist on call every day, then your hair would always look perfect. Unfortunately, unless you're a celeb (as in uber-rich) or married to a stylist, the chances of that happening are slim. So the next best option? Why not use the hairstyling tools and products that experts swear by? That's why we turned to Brig Van Osten, the third season winner of "Shear Genius" to tell us about her favorite styling tools and products. Now you won't have to waste time pining for salon-styled, perfect hair, you can just go out and get the tools needed to create it.
Your hair type is about as unique as your personality. And just like you wouldn't marry someone that didn't mesh with say, your easygoing attitude, you wouldn't choose a hair product or hairstyle that didn't compliment your hair texture. But with so many styles and products choices out there, it can be difficult to know what works best on you. To guide you in your product and style sea of options, we chose four celebrities with four different hair types and rounded up five of their best hairstyles. So find the celeb who has a similar hair type to yours then copy their looks using the easy-to-follow, step-by-step hairstyling how-tos. Photo Research: Ashley Roberts
