I've been a blonde for 12 years so I'm constantly working on perfecting a healthy hair routine and these are my holy grail products to strengthen and moisturize my hair. I have 3c hair texture that is bleached and super dry. I experimented with airdrying my hair for a few months wondering if the lack of heat styling would make it healthier but that just made it extremely dry and brittle. My hairdresser told me on Sunday that I have healthy hair and I thought that was the biggest compliment ever! These are the products of someone who regularly blow-dries her hair every week (I wash and blow-dry once a week.) When my hair is blow out you can see how shiny it is.

The first two weeks of April Sephora is having their annual sale! I always save up my cart for this sale. I have type 3C hair texture which has thick strands with a tight curl pattern. My hair has a lot of volume but also gets very dry easily and has low porosity. I don't have a relaxer in my hair but I do color it. My hair needs a lot of moisture and some protein. These are all the products I have in my arsenal that I recommend you purchase during the sale. 

I've been a blonde for about 5 years now and let me tell you it's not easy maintaining platinum hair. I discovered a beauty secret from the stars as I was tipped off in a couple magazine articles that Khloe Kardashian and Rita Ora were using a product called Olaplex to go blonde. Olaplex is a revolutionary new product that stops breakage during the coloring process. It's insurance for your hair and makes it stronger than it was before. The line consists of  three products, the first two your stylist uses during the coloring process. And the No.3 bottle is a lower concentration of the other two products that you use weekly at home. In the two months, I've used No.3 I've noticed a difference in my natural curl pattern as its getting curlier. It's a game-changing treatment!

In addition, your hair needs Protein, Moisture, and Natural Oils. Protein strengthens hair, Glycerin moisturizes hair, and Oils make your hair shinier. I rotate nightly through different leave in sprays and put oil just on my ends.
Terax Life Drops I heard about this product in both Christie Brinkley's and Molly Sim's books. It's an Italian brand that is a leave in conditioner with silk and wheat protein that seals in color and locks in moisture. I spray my ends with this and it smells amazing!

It's a 10 Leave In (comes in two formulas and I'm using the one for blondes) This drugstore product has been around awhile and it's still a stellar product. It has silk protein and panthenol which make my hair so soft and prevents split ends. Panthenol helps your hair retain water which increases volume. I use it a heat protectant from my flat iron.

Camellia Oil Every time I'd look at the ingredients of an expensive product like Shu Uemura or a number of face oils at Sephora, they all have camellia oil. Camellia oil has been used in Japanese beauty for centuries because of its rich in vitamins, antioxidants and omegas and as absorbed quickly. I put a touch of this on the ends of my hair nightly to seal it from split ends and also use it as a face oil.

Glycerin I bought this from Whole Foods and keep in a spray bottle as I discussed in Protecting Blonde Tresses.

I also use a sulfate free shampoo - DevaCare Low-Poo. It has a low lather and is a gentle cleanser for dry, chemically treated, curly hair. Without the harsh chemicals most shampoos have, it won't strip hair. Instead it leaves your hair feeling moisturized, enhance your curls, reduces frizz and makes your hair feel soft.

Some of my other favorite hair products are in these posts:
Black Hair Care Tips
Must Haves for Frizzy Hair

I was searching for hairstyles for shoulder length hair with bangs and came across this cute side bang look. I gave it a try, what do you think?

I've been blonde for 3 years now and I have to admit it's a lot of work keeping it healthy. Between heat styling, bleach and the sun, it dries out very easily. I get my hair trimmed often and moisturize and seal my hair every evening following this routine. Then additionally I follow this video routine for my color treated hair. If you don't feel like watching the long video here's the gist of it:

I use Infusium 23 as my leave in conditioner. I put it in a small spray bottle because it's so thin it's just a mess coming out the original bottle. Then I combined the other products into a larger spray bottle with 40% Rosewater, 40% Aloe Vera Juice, 20% Vegetable Glycerin and a few drops of Vitamin E oil. The oil is just a preservative for the Aloe Vera Juice which would otherwise have to be refrigerated. You can read here the benefits of aloe vera and rosewater. That mixture I spray onto my hair every evening.

What I didn't realize is how much the sun damages my hair, in just the past two months it has lightened my hair to a Gwen Stefani blonde, not the wheat blonde you see in my picture. I thought fading color was something only colored red heads had to worry about. So I researched various products that claim to be hair sunscreen but they all had bad reviews. So I finally settled on the natural route of aloe vera, Sesame Seed oil and vitamin E as my hair sunscreen as they moisturize my hair and block sun rays. I've added them all to my large spray bottle that I talked about above. They also help with split ends and rejuvenating my hair. Aloe vera's properties allow it to penetrate deep into my hair shaft to moisturize while sesame oil coats my hair with a protectant layer and makes it a little darker. The Vitamin E helps to absorb the UV energy. I spray this onto my hair daily along with my anti-humidity products.

I'm an extremely active person, I love working out and luckily I don't sweat very much, but running is a whole another ball game, it leaves my hair a wet sweaty mess. My hair texture is not meant to be washed more than once a week because shampooing more than that would be too drying as would the extra blowdry and flat ironing.  And dry shampoo is not for my hair texture either. Plus being a blonde it's very important for me to keep my hair healthy so I moisture my hair every single night. So I needed to find a way to get frizz free beautiful hair. Now on my running days (2-3x a week) I blast just my bang roots with the blow-dryer to dry out any sweat from my workout and put in a little defrizzer product. This only takes a minute verses if I were to wash my whole head that takes over an hour!

If you're avoiding working out because you're afraid your workout regimen will wreak havoc on your hair, be sure to wear a headband made of cotton while working out so that it will absorb the sweat and keep it away from your hairline so it won't become drier than normal. Here's my top products that I rotate between so I don't have to wear a hat all the time! lol The L'oreal and Shea Moisture products are under $10. Ouidad was the first salon in the country that catered to curly haired people so I made an appointment to check out the salon when I'm in California.

Keri Hilson has always been my hair inspiration. You might have heard her songs "Pretty Girl Rock", "Lose Control", or "Knock you Down". With African-American hair processed with a chemical you have to moisturize and seal it every night. That means I put a leave in conditioner on my ends then seal it with oil - either coconut, vitamin E or castrol oil. Do a quick search on youtube and you'll find tons of women giving instructions on how to do it. This woman is my favorite and I found most other people were using the same exact products as her. The Herbal Essences leave in conditioner has since been discontinued, found that out just as I noticed my body was empty. 

Luster has released a new version of my absolute favorite moisturizer the S-Curl Activator Moisturizer. The new formula does not contain parabens, sulfates, or sodium chloride, mineral oil or petrolatum. Yes it was initially designed for people with jheri curls so you might find it hilarious that I use this, but if you read hair blogs you'll find it a very popular product by both relaxed and natural haired black women around the globe.  It's inexpensive and can be used daily as part of your nightly regimen. It contains glycerine, vitamin B5, Argan oil, and Olive oil, which together eliminate breakage and keep your curls. It's non-greasy and I always wake up with soft moisturized hair.


The key thing to growing out African-American hair is to preserve your ends and treat it as well as you can so it won't break off. I've been doing this nightly regime for two years now and it's definitely what has kept my hair healthy with the color and allowed it to grow. I know it's been two years because I recently had a Blonde Anniversary Party to celebrate two fabulous years as a blonde! Yes I'm serious. lol

Kerastud, not available in salons

I live in one of the stickiest cities in the US, literally, it should be listed in one of the top cities for bad hair! I looked up the stats and we have an average of 37 days a year above 90 degrees (but it was 67 days two years ago), the rest of the summer it rains.  The average humidity here is 85% in the summertime. It's so hot here I work up a light sweat walking to the hairdresser. I smiled when a woman walked into the salon dripping in water apologizing for her sweat, she looked like she just jumped out the pool. lol


My hairdresser recommended that the Keratin Complex Express Blowout would be perfect for me for the summertime to protect against humidity and sweat from working out. So since we're halfway through the summer, it's 100 degrees outside, and I have a two week trip to Spain where I won't be able to wash my hair and it's just as hot there, I figured what perfect timing to get a Keratin treatment! It will last me 6 weeks, well actually since I only wash my hair once a week it should last me 3 months.

You might have heard of the Brazilian blowout but I think it's being phased out of popularity as people don't want to be exposed to the chemicals in it.  Supposedly the Keratin Complex doesn't have that but I found a website that says its a hidden ingredient, even though the company that makes the Express Blowout has a rebuttal letter on their website. While treatment doesn't have a smell (unlike the strong odor from the Brazilian blowout), my eyes could feel the gas from the formaldehyde so I had to keep them closed while my hairdresser blow dried and flat ironed it into my hair.

The Keratin Complex Smoothing  system infuses Keratin deep into the hair cuticle, eliminating up to ninety-five percent of frizz and curl and leaving the hair smooth, shiny and luxurious. I didn't know if it would be safe for color treated hair, but unlike a perm/relaxer, keratin actually strengthens the hair. It rejuvenates and revitalizes the hair, giving it a softer, silkier feel. It makes your hair easier and faster to blowdry while blocking the effects of humidity. Keratin can repair damaged and splitting hair by replacing the missing and damaged keratin from your hair. The Express Blowout is 50% cheaper than the original service and allows you to still curl your hair if you want but its frizz free curls. The whole treatment only takes one hour!

before and after

Needless to say I was excited for my treatment, which yielded immediate smooth hair! I was warned to stop using shampoos that have sodium chloride or sulphates in them. The reason being is these ingredients are  drying, harsh and will wreck your keratin treatment so you can't use them. Keratin treatments are temporary, but they improve chemically treated hair. The treatment moisturizes and adds to existing chemical treatments already present. It also helps to seal color into hair.