Lady Bon loves you...: Hair care

Well hello there, long time, no blog.

So yeah, I've been away for ages (again). I'm using my new house and the relaunch of my website, tattybon.com (which has a veritable tonne of new products, by the way) as my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

I may have been busy, but never gone. Now, what better way to get the bloggin' toes wet again than by a wee sneaky product review. So here goes.....

A couple of months ago I got my first ever PERM! That's right, a perm. I managed to avoid them completely during their heyday in the 80's and 90's, and I have no idea what I was thinking, but hey, a perm I got. Now, I know that un-styled my hair can look like a halloween witches wig, but when I do style it, be it pin curled, blow dried or straightened, DAM does it look good! My hair is fine, but I have lots of it, and it has always been a little bitch and refused to do anything I tell it! Attempts at a curl ended up in it being straighter than if I hadn't bothered ten minutes after I've finished and volume was out of the question without a fuck tone of back combing....say hello to the fuzz!

But those days are gone now, I can pin curl for a fabby vintage style, straighten it or even curl the ends with straighteners and it stays all day...and always with a nice wee bit of bounce. So an 80's throwback perm has saved my hair....who knew, eh.

Now, all this fabulous permy goodness aside, I have done a fair bit of abuse to my hair over the years (including this perm), not least of all with bleach. You can't perm bleached hair as the 2 things HATE each other. Normally if you permed bleached hair it will end in a world of fuzz and broken hair. I haven't had my hair Pillarbox Red in some time, but there was def some left over bleached follicles from when I did for sure. So my hair through the ends was left a bit worse for wear. And so stepped in Old Wives Tail hair treatment oil!!

I nicked this picture fem their site....

If you've read my blog before you know I likes me a nice wee cruelty free product. I've been solely purchasing veggie products for a while now, so you can imagine my delight on discovering a hair treatment that was both cruelty free, vegan and made by a family owned company.

There are many reasons to LOVE Old Wives Tail and here are but a few.

They are a small family affair and their bio is delightful. Read all about it here.
Their products are all cruelty free and vegan.
Their products are all organic; no damaging chemicals, no paraben nasties, no silicon to con you into thinking you have lovely smooth hair after the first use and discover you have a grotty build up after the third.
They donate 10% from their profit to animal welfare charities.
They have a hairstyles blog on their website (useful) and it contains lots of info, not only on hair styling and the like, but information on animal testing prevention as well as competitions.
You can use a teeny bit of the oil on dry hair as serum.
It comes from the wisdom of grannies....& I love me a bit of granny wisdom.
And, most importably, IT WORKS A TREAT!!

Reasons to Hate Old Wives Tail;

The owner grew up somewhere sunny and I didn't.

I got the hair Melado Organic Hair Growth Oil Treatment for damaged hair. I really liked it.

It came mega fast, especially good when you consider the shipping is free, and when I got my oil there it was, wrapped in a wee granny napkin (I do enjoy the details). The first thing you notice when you open it is the smell. It smells amazing!! I kinda wanted to eat it. The consistency is that of an actual oil, rather than the serum type treatment oils, and is to be applied to damp hair and left on for about an hour or so then rinsed thoroughly and shampooed until the hair feels clean. The first time I used it I applied too much, that's a thing with me, I always get a bit over zealous when using new products, so it wasn't until the following day when I washed it that I felt the benefit of it. My hair felt smoother, was easier to comb when wet and my ends were definitely less scrunchy....and it still smelled great! Now, the only thing that was ever going to save the very ends of my hair was to chop them off (bleach + perming lotion, remember), but it really did make a difference.

My Melado Hair oil

After I had used it a couple of times I went to my hair dresser for the aforementioned chop and she was rather impressed by the condition my hair was in. I've still maintained dying it black after the perm and black hair dye can be pretty brutal on damaged hair, so I'm really pleased my hairdresser approved. She recommended that I use it once a month from now on to maintain its condition.

Price point wise you can expect to pay about what you would for a decent Argan oil treatment, maybe a little bit more. But there is no shipping cost with Old Wives Tail and you get a fair whack of product for you buck....it will last you ages.

So YES I most certainly do recommend this product. Like I said, don't get over excited like I did and use too much (although, despite this, my hair didn't look greasy). If your hair is especially damaged I would use it once a week as the site recommends, the reason I will be using it less is because I even struggle with shampoos leaving my hair lank and it currently sooks up product like no ones business, so less is more just now.

They're all over that social networking thing, so see their homepage and scroll to the bottom for links to your favourite.

So if your hairs in need of a treat it's good to know there is some truth in an old wives tale.....

Thank you for reading. And always remember....Lady Bon loves you...

Ok, firstly, prepare yourself, cos this is a long one...you may want to go have a cup of tea half way through.

So, it's came to my attention that I've been banging on about cruelty free make-up so much I've neglected all the other products us ladies are so fond of! So where better to correct this than with HAIR!

I have a bit of a 'thing' for shampoo (along with foundation & mascaras it's my cosmetic obsession). I have fine hair and lots of it, this means that A LOT of products are too heavy for my hair and it tends to look oily and lackluster very quickly as a result, often leaving me with dull lifeless hair more often than not. So, needless to say, I have gone through a fuck tone trying to find shampoos etc that I like....your gonna hear me whinge a lot about my hair in this post I'm afraid.

So I have compiled a list of hair products and brands, most of which I've used, that may be of help to the discerning lover of cruelty free, vegan/vegi to boot, hair care products!

Lets start at the very beginning....a very good place to start.

Shampoo & conditioner

Superdrug

Ah, good ol' Superdrug, I do love you.

See, the wonderful thing about Superdrug is that almost all of their own buy products are vegan and/or vegetarian, marked clearly on the back of their packaging.... & it is very light on the wallet!

They have 2 shampoos that are among my favorites, their Extracts cherry and fig shampoo & conditioner & their Pro Vitamin full volume shampoo. I found both of these great for my fine hair and got a full day before my hair started to look oily. The fig and cherry smells amazing, so if you don't like it, you can always use the shampoo as a body wash.

As for the Pro Vitamin volumising, I don't think I've ever been given so many 'oh my god, your hair is so shiney' compliments in all my days as when I use it! Which is lovely. Now, granted, I do have dyed black hair, so it is likely to have a bit of shine, but still.....

I'm also a fan of their dry shampoo. Not only is it cheap with a range of fragrances and colours but it's good stuff too.

Oh Superdrug, your hallowed aisles are like a cruelty free, budget wonderland.

Lush

Again, you can't go wrong with Lush. Most of their products are vegan and all are vegetarian.

I'm currently using one of their shampoo bars. Granted their price point is a good deal higher than Superdrug, but in fairness their stuff does last a good long while. Their hair care is also free from any nasties such as silicones, parabens and sulfates, and as a lot of folks find these very irritating it's good to know you can get cosmetics free from these all in one place.

The shampoo bar I'm using is a sea salt affair for hair that gets oily quickly called Seanik. This is the second time I've bought it and I can get a full day out of my hair, so I like it. The only pain in the arse is trying to get that wee bloody tin I got for it open with wet hands!!

Co-op

Co-op is another you just can't go wrong with if you're a fan of cruelty free. Much like the Superdrug they're Leaping Bunny approved and very few of their own buy products have contain animal byproducts and it's clearly marked on their packaging.

I don't think I've used their hair care yet (I've used so many my brain sometimes turns to mush), but they do have a tea tree shampoo, and as tea tree is good for fine hair that gets oily quickly, I'll def be giving it a bash at some point. Price point wise you can expect to pay just over £1 for shampoo and the same again for conditioner, which is pretty damn reasonable.

Having at least 3 shampoos at any one given time? Yes, I'm aware I'm mental

Asda

I've read a lot of bitching on forums about Asda products along the lines of 'it said it was vegan, but when I read the ingredients it had beeswax in. OMG, sob, sob'. Now, this is because Asda DO NOT mark their products vegan, they mark them vegetarian. To be fair vegans, that has knocked most of the negative ingredients off the list, so it shouldn't be too hard to work out the ones that actually are vegan.

Price point wise, Adsa has 'V' marked shampoos and conditioners from as little as 22p, so if you're on a tight budget or have a family, these are the guys for you. Some of the bottles are MASSIVE as well.

I have used Asda hair care, but found it a little too heavy for my fine, limp hair, although I have only tried one shampoo and one conditioner so far.

Holland and Barrett

Holland and Barrett, your local friendly health shop chain, has a whole host of cruelty free cosmetic products. I think a lot of people don't realise this as they think of it as a health 'food' store. They carry the Dr.organic range which is vegan and free from sulphates, parabens and artificial colours, so another good one for those with sensitive scalps. The price point is just below 6 bucks each for a shampoo & conditioner, but Holland and Barrett often do buy one get one half price and penny sales, so you can still get a bargain.

I've used the Dr.organic rose otto volumising shampoo and conditioner. This was maybe a wee bit too heavy for my hair, but not too bad. Again, as it smells of amazing rosey goodness, so if you don't like it as a shampoo you can use it as a body wash!

Wholefoods

Wholefoods is another chain of stores that offers a range of cruelty free cosmetics and toiletries. They have the likes of Weleda who are cruelty free and offer a lot of vegan and vegetarian options and everything they do is free of any nasty chemicals so, again, another good one for you sensitive types.

I haven't used any of the toiletries from Wholefoods as yet (& there's way more besides Weleda), but know folk who use Weleda skin care and love it.

Price wise....well, Wholefoods ain't cheap I'm afraid.

Daniel Field

Daniel Field has been cutting about for years and has always offered cruelty free, vegan hair care...bravo sir!

He was a hairdresser with a chemistry background (weird, right?) who decided to make his own hair friendly range.

I used his shampoo many, many years ago, so can't really make any fair comment on it. It used to be available in Boots, but I can only see it online just now.

Ion

Ion is another of my favorites. It's available in Sally (Salon Services) as it's a 'professional' product. I used their Vitalising Thickening shampoo and not only did I get a full day of fresh, clean hair from it, but boy, did it give my hair volume! I think it's wise to use a conditioner each time you wash with this one though.

For some reason you it only tells you what's vegan (which is most of it) on Sally's US site. It's in the box below each product description in the 'more details' section.

As a 'professional' product they price point is a it higher, but on a par with Lush. Luckily there are Sally stores everywhere, but you may only find this in the larger stores.

Tara Smith.

Tara Smith is another brand I used years and years ago when it was available in Tesco. I think it I found the shampoo I used a wee bit too heavy for my shitty fine hair, but it'd be unfair to say that with any certainty. The packaging has changed a lot since then and it looks fucking awesome!

It's another organic, free from nasties hair care range and, lets face it, Tara Smith seems just lovely!

Marks and Spencer (who are Leaping Bunny approved, by the way) now sell a plethora of Tara Smith products!

Price wise, again, it's similar to Lush.

Styling

OK, this is pretty much the same as what you see above. All of those brands also offer styling products.

Superdrug have a fair few own brand ranges, all with different names, so keep a keen eye out when you peruse their shelves. I use a heat styling cream and volumizing dry shampoo from their 'This One' range and they're just dandy....& watch out for those special offers too.

Osmo

Osmo are another 'professional' hair brand to be found in Sally. They're cruelty free and I found on the lovely 'Vegan Beauty Blog' a list of their products that ARE NOT vegan...and it's a pretty short list HERE