Product Review: HE Beautiful Ends (also known as HE LTR)

Herbal Essences - Beautiful Ends - Split Ends Protection Cream

Price: £1.95 (at Superdrug NOW!)

Ingredients: Aqua, Stearyl Alcohol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Glutamic Acid, Dimethicone, Benzyl Alcohol, Parfum, DMDM Hydantoin, Cittic Acid, EDTA, Sodium Chloride, Limonene, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Propylene Glycol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxadehyde, Citronellol, Hydrolyzed Silk, Rubus Idseus Fruit Extract, Linalool, Amyl Cinnamal, Sodium Benzote, Potassium Sorbate. 

Assessment: 

The first time I used it, I noticed it left a waxy/sticky residue that weighed down my hair and made it ICKY! I was not impressed but after a while decided to give it a second chance & OMG was that a good decision. 

Since then I've been using it as my moisturiser non-stop & its been FAB! 

When I had my hair out I would part my hair into 6/8 sections and moisturise my hair with it nightly (ONE PUMP goes a long way) before sealing with my coconut, olive & castor oil mix. Now that my hair is in a weave, I only use it on my leave out/occasionally on the ends of my weave. 

Since I've started using this product I've noticed my hair is definitely more moisturised and therefore I have suffered from less breakage. It is no longer waxy/sticky/heavy but rather light and it leaves my hair soft and bouncy - so much so that I cant keep my hands out of it! 

Does it protect the hair against spilt ends? YES it does! I have noticed a huge reduction in my spilt ends since I've been using this. 

Oh & the smell is AMAZING! Put not overpowering which is a good thing. 

Rating:

I am giving this product a rating of *4 Stars*

I will become a staple product for the time being (maybe even for life) but right now, I am looking for a moisturiser with better ingredients. I will, however repurchase this whilst looking for another moisturiser as I am afraid to run out of it. 

Would I recommend this product?

YES! It is a great staple product to have! The ingredients might not be 100% au naturel  but the results are amazing. 

Hope this review has helped & if you have any questions leave them in the comment box below :)

Starting Hair Length (Warning - Poor Quality Pic)!

Starting Hair Length (lets say 01/01/12)

So as you can see the orange line represents SL & the green line my current hair length. Now I'm not sure how to explain this but under normal circumstances (when I'm not stretching my hair) its just sitting on SL, but this might be due to the fact that I'm not straightening my hair properly. 

Yes the picture is not great & I don't have a proper picture of my whole head of hair but I needed to post some sort of picture. I would've posted pics of my hair straightened on NYE but I was in a rush and forgot to take pictures. 

Don't worry the quality of my pictures will improve in the future (expect an update in 2/3 weeks and then another during the Easter hols).

M.I.A until the end of the month!

With my exams looming & revision not going so well, I'm going to have to restrict myself from posting until the end of the month. But do not fear, I will make up for it ;)!

See you later & good luck to every else who also has exams this month!

Expect: two product reviews & my weave regimen when I return.

I've been naughty :( & by the looks of it my HCJ is going down the drain!

(sorry in advance for the excessive use of caps lock & exclamation marks lol)

So, for the past week I have only moisturised and sealed my hair ... ONCE! I literally forgot all about my hair journey &  went back to my old habits which involved doing nothing!
But i'm getting a weave tomorrow & so i'll M&S my hair tonight.

BUT THAT'S NOT IT! I plan on relaxing my hair tomorrow after 3 WEEKS! Ok, not all of my hair, only the front so I can leave it out. I know this goes against everything a HCJ is all about but I going to uni on Tuesday & I  won't be able to get my hair relaxed there and I can't afford to come back after a few weeks. I'll try and convince my hairdresser not to overlap as this is something i've always done in the past.

I'll post my weave regimen later on in the month but don't expect too much from me this month as I have quite a few exams.

Past SL? Picture Heavy-ish!

So, originally I thought I would be somewhere in between NL & SL (because from the age of 13 onwards my hair has never been longer than NL), however it dawned on me a few days ago that my hair could be longer than NL. I didn't realise this before (last Wednesday when I'd just relaxed my hair) because I've kept my hair in buns since my relaxer like so:

(ignore my lack of bunning skills :p)

So here's a pic of my hair this morning:

(this is the result of moisturising & sealing my hair in 8 sections (with herbal essences beautiful ends + coconut oil) and bagging my hair in 4 ponytails (with a shower cap & silk cap) last night & light combing with a wide-tooth comb this morning)

& this is a picture of me stretching out a small section of my hair:

So by the looks of it I am past shoulder length & maybe even CBL but before I get my hopes up, i'm going to straighten my hair (using Fantasia IC hair polish straightening serum & my BaByliss straighteners) and trim my ends on Friday/Saturday, in time for my parents New Years Day party. 

Apologies for not wishing you guys a Merry Christmas but I've been really busy! So Merry Belated Christmas! (if that makes sense) & I wish you all a Happy New Year in advance just in case I don't have time to post something before the 1st of Jan!

Ok, initially I planned to relax my hair on Monday but it seems as though my mum had other ideas! So after pestering her relentlessly she has decided to relax it tomorrow (i usually go to my personal hairdresser but my mum refuses to pay for me to get my hair done twice in a month so she's offered to relax my hair herself even though she hasn't done so in years).

So here is a picture of my hair after I took out my weave & after my 'attempt' at de tangling!
Take note: I haven't blow-dried my hair (this time) or dyed it (ever).

The relaxer I plan on using is Dark & Lovely Super No-Lye Relaxer. I've tried other relaxers in the past (including the regular Dark & Lovely Relaxer, Motion relaxer & ORS relaxer) but this is the only one that works for me atm. 

Look out for an update tomorrow with the result of my mum's first attempt at a relaxer in over 5 years!

My Hair Regimen For the Next 3 Weeks

It's now the Christmas Holidays and I just got back home yesterday. I plan on relaxing my hair on Monday and uploading a picture (hopefully my hair should be in-between NL & SL) so look out for that :)
I've been thinking of using braids as a protective style from January until the Easter Holidays because I find it easier to take care of my hair when its in braids (i.e. M&S, wash and oil my scalp) than when I have a weave.  Therefore my regimen for these next 3 weeks will be my way of strengthening my hair before I put it in braids.

Each week I will do the same thing & only change the way I will shampoo. My reason for co-washing in week 1 is because straight after my relaxer I always use a neutralising shampoo & so using a clarifying shampoo in the same week would strip my hair too much. However in week 3 I will use a clarifying shampoo as I intend on keeping my hair in braids for 6 weeks and so it would help me get rid of any build up over the next 3 weeks.

After washing my hair I plan on air drying (not sure how yet) so i'll post how that goes :)