I’m writing about this but I can’t actually vouch for this method but it seems that it would work well on curly styles, no matter how tight the curl. I was watching What Not to Wear yesterday (a lot happened yesterday) and a woman came to the stylist with bleached, rough, loosely curly hair that was uneven, unhealthy and just terribly damaged. She hadn’t been to a salon in over 3 years (I thought I was bad) and had been doing her own “styling” at home.

The stylist suggested that she cut off her hair that was the best advice that anyone could give to her. He covered up all that process with some chestnut browns throughout and gave her an angled cut with a little curl allowed to frame her face. I appreciated that his first instinct was not to straighten her hair, but to allow her to keep her natural curls.

His method. After rinsing out the deep conditioner, he applied mousse (which gives hair volume and allows it to hold a style) and then he applied a frizz serum (I like Frizz Ease by John Frieda). Then, he combed through the hair and dried it with a diffuser. The diffuser was great because it didn’t fluff out the style like a conventional sit down dryer nor did it give that wind blown look that a blow dryer would have produced.

The diffuser seemed perfect for the curly style & I’ll make it a point to pick one up. The less heat on my hair the better.

Spring is almost here. Although you wouldn’t know it anywhere in the country given the frigid temps. I’m in Chi town and one day its 60 the next its 25 and snowy. Seriously, the weather is more BiPo than our pal Brit Brit and I for one am ready to shed my puffy jacket and grab myself a cute spring dress (and a bottle of self tanner).

So since spring technically starts next week, I though I’d gear us for those springy days with my five loves of spring. Who knows? Maybe some positive thinking coupled with some cute spring staples will convince Mother Nature to bring us sunny skies and warmer weather.

Come on, woman! Help a sister out.

1) The Spring Rain Jacket - There are so many cute jackets for spring, but this one is my fave for one reason. The hood. Wait, there is another reason. It’s really effing cute, but I digress. We know that while we wish everything was coming up roses, Spring brings a lot of rain leaving your hair looking like it is straight out of 1981. Sporting the hood is a must… and some Frizz-Ease in your tote wouldn’t hurt either.

2) The Spring Flat – Usually by February I am so sick of wearing boots every day that I pull out a pair of my flats, dream longingly of skipping in the street, iced coffee in tow. Then I put them out walk out the door and almost lose my feet to frost bite. I can’t help it though; there are so many great options for springtime flats and I just want to buy them all up and wear them out of the store. I am in love with these. I always wanted to be a ballerina on Pointe but my pirouettes were never good enough. So, I’m happily settling for these – perfect for sasayhing down the sidewalk.

3) Spring Sunglasses – When you hear the words Paul Frank you think: the must-have shirt with a monkey….from 7th grade. Being that I was ultra awkward back then, I try to stay as far away from Paul Frank anything that I can. I don’t need to take that trip down memory lane. But then I found these CUTE must-have sunglasses! They are the perfect in-between of overly expensive and so cheap that they will probably break. Still an investment – but an oh-so-cute one. And if these bright seafoams aren’t your thing, he makes them in more muted colors as well. I think I may love Pauly Frank more now than I did in 7th grade. And that is a sentence I never thought I would type.

4) Iced beverages. Iced tea, Iced Coffee, Iced Margaritas (not that I’ve ever had a hot one), Arnold Palmers… Iced is just better. Love, love, love, love, LOVE.

5) The Spring brings all the best out of hibernation. I swear I heard a bird chirp yesterday for the first time in MONTHS and it was music to my ears. Spring brings outside tables to cafes, fun outside ways to spend the day, and must we not forget– lots of men in spring style. Call me a sucker for boys in great jeans and a springy hoodie and I won’t argue. I won’t argue at all.

This is sort of a review/suggestion entry for today.  I’ll start off by saying that I have really curly hair that just loves to frizz out and tangle itself all over the place!  For the longest time I was straightening it, but one day I decided to look up some products to try and tame the wild thing I call hair.  I came across John Frieda Frizz-Ease collection and decided to try it out.  I went out and bought the Curl-Around shampoo and conditioner along with “Dream Curls, curl perfecter” spray.  I tried them out and they worked wonders!  My hair is no longer wild and frizzy but tamed and sleek.  Plus it smells very nice,  it’s more subtle than most products (and the spray doesn’t seem to really have a scent to me).  I can run my fingers through my hair, which can be a rare thing for curly hair.  I’m immensely satisfied with the product and it’s funny because a few people thought I got it done by a stylist Here is an example of what the product line looks like:

John Frieda's Frizz-Ease line for curly and straight hair.

I just thought I would share this product with you.  I believe they each cost $10.99 Canadian and can be bought at the local Shoppers Drug Mart, which is where I got mine.

I’m quite happy to leave my hair curly (but not the bangs) after straightening my hair for so long, this is way easier to manage.  And as a side note, the Frizz-Ease line also has products for straight hair and everything inbetween.

Oh, the scourge of naturally curly-haired. We spend most of our lives longing for straight, sleek, shiny ‘dos, rather than the unruly mops that nature dealt us. Yeah, yeah, love yourself and embrace what you have. Fuck that. Nothing gets a curly girl to open her wallet faster than the promise of a little less poof.

And so I have accumulated approximately three billion bottles of all manner of flotsam intended to tame my hair. Some of it is bullshit, some of it is pretty decent, some of it can be mixed with something else, and some of it I should have thrown out long ago and sworn never to buy again.

In this feature, I will be reviewing and classifying all the hair products that have tormented me with their false promises in the hopes of clearing some space on my bathroom counter.

First up:

It’s easy to fall for John Frieda. Those slick ads show seamless transformations from shiny curls to bone-straight strands and back again. It’s hard to resist all that air-brushed gloss. John Frieda is like a fancy big-city agent who whips into town and promises to make you a shiny-haired STAR!

Except then, as soon as you sign over your life savings and put up with some casting couch hanky-panky, he skips town leaving you unemployed with a dry, frizz-covered head. The bastard.
His Frizz-Ease line is a bunch of crap, full of more false promises than we heard during the last election. You might as well be rubbing hand-lotion on your head (shut up you straight-haired freaks for whom this is an amazing beauty tip). And Secret Weapon: Flawless Finishing Cream is the most useless product I have ever finger-combed through my tangly locks. And it smells weird, like static electricity.

And yet I always want to believe: “Instantly transforms puffy, parched hair into a smooth, supple, shiny texture.” But no. No it does not. It does not transform anything into anything. My hair looks and feels exactly the same (maybe a touch greasier). No smooth. No supple. No shiny.

And sometimes I start to worry that it’s me. Maybe the product is perfectly useful – maybe my hair is just…wrong.

Then I go and eat some breakfast and think dark thoughts about where, exactly, John Frieda can put his “silkening” moisture.

It was the no-name tin foil that got me thinking about doing this list. For years, I bought the expensive brand, listening to a little voice inside my head that said, “You know what a cheap haircut looks like. Now imagine cheap tin foil. It’s probably see-thru.”

And it’s true–there are some things you just can’t scrimp on. BUT that’s not the whole story. There are great freebies, reliable cheapies, and products that save you money because they’re so damned ingenious. To make it onto my list, a product has to be one of these things.

1. Tap water

You can’t beat it. Our city (Toronto) has a little campaign going on right now to convince people to drink water from the tap. I’m hoping we’ll join other communities in signing the Think Outside the Bottle pledge and switching to tap water. Kudos to my gym for going with filtered water and getting rid of the water and pop machine. Those plastic bottles? Bad. We don’t need ‘em. Go visit the Think Outside website to learn more.

2. Free e-cards

How many times have these delightful little products saved my kiester. Love the animation, love the music–love sending ‘em, period. Yahoo and Hallmark forever, but if you ever require a free human or pet sympathy card, check out the unique free cards at Self-Healing Expressions. I was so glad to find them.

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3. Defrizzer serum

When you’re a single mom, you don’t exactly get to browse the hair care aisle whenever you like so products you choose can be hit and miss. Not so with this one. For years, I searched for a product that would detangle, stop the “puff,” make my hair look sleek without oily build-up. And I found it! It even does a decent job on humid days. The defrizzer serums are amazing. My current favourite: John Frieda Frizz-Ease Thermal Protection.

4. Debbie Myer’s Green Bags

I got a set of these as a gift, and they blew me away.

And they’re washable.

Debbie’s bags are usually seen on shopping networks but you can order them directly from her website. If you’ve been under a rock since the new millennium, Green Bags prevent the build-up of damaging ethylene gas that occurs with ordinary plastic bags and let you keep fruits, vegetables, and cut flowers for weeks and weeks. Great for when you buy that broccoli, eat half of it, and can’t convince the kid to eat it again.

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5. No-name tin foil

Yup, I’d been buying the expensive brand for years when I stood in the aisle comparing 100 feet of no-name with 25 feet of brand name, and ka-ching. Everything you need tin foil for, you can do with no-name and if you want to double it up occasionally, it will still save you dollars and dollars.

6. Teriyaki sauce

How do I love thee, teriyaki? Too many ways to count. Teriyaki sauce is enhanced soy sauce. I add it to DD’s burgers, use it on salmon and chicken, and sometimes sprinkle a bit on vegetables if I’m grilling or browning them quickly. It just makes everything taste good. Note: You can eliminate salt when you use teriyaki. Our standby: Kikkoman

7. Matte lipstick

Speaking of food, did you know that a woman ingests about 4 pounds of lipstick over a lifetime? Blech. But here’s the deal: matte lipstick definitely lasts longer and I’m a diehard. Just detest wandering around with a set of puckers that feel like petroleum jelly. The queen of the mattes is Clinique’s Soft Matte Lipstick, which has been around for ages and costs $14 in the US. It really does stay on better than most. Note: Watch for it as a freebie in the bonus packs.

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8. The Samsung Mono Laser Printer

Bought one because my daughter’s godfather researched them all. When he bought his, he raved about it. Now I have one and I rave about it too. I have the old 2010 model, but you can generally find later models for around the $100 range. This printer often makes it into the top 5 in consumer research reports. It’s attractive, sturdy, and easy to operate.

9. Melissa and Doug Toys

First happened on these toys for kids when I was shopping for a gift for my new niece. Not only do I love the look and feel of the product, the value is superb. Opposite, the stamp calligraphy set which I purchased at a local Toronto shop for around $20 but which you can order an Amazon for $11.83. They also have a “responsibility” magnet toy to start kids thinking about simple things to say and do (saying please and thank you, helping with chores).

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10. Rainbow Cinemas

If you live in Canada, you already know that these theatres are the best deal in town. I mean, you’ve heard of Discount Tuesday, right? Well at Rainbow, Discount Tuesday (prices quoted for Toronto) is $4 for everyone. (In Regina, it’s $2!) The regular matinee price is a budget-busting $6 for everyone. Only in the evening does the price of an adult ticket rise to $8.50. Plus, they hold the line on prices of drinks and popcorn. Coming to Toronto? If you want to catch a flick, check out the Rainbow Market Square first.

Growing up I always saw models as tall beautiful people with clear skin and perfect shiny hair. So when I see models for designers like Nicole Farhi and Pringle of Scotland looking like they have just got out of bed (and not in a sexy way) it kind of goes against the grain. I suppose this is probably the point (you know, the need to be edgy) but really if that’s what it takes then my hair has tonnes of model potential every morning when I wake up! Take Nicole Farhi’s girl she looks like she has just stuck her fingers in a plug socket… (Also some one should really tell her, her shoes don’t match her frock!)