Essential: My secret to healthy and manageable hair!

How important is it to have healthy and manageable hair?

I don't know about you, but I'm quite conscious about taking care of my hair! Especially cos I always bleach/color my hair and that means my hair is somewhat less healthy than "normal" hair, boohoo. It's true that doing chemical treatments to your hair will damage it and I always advise readers to ensure that you do your own regular hair treatment at home to take care of your hair!

So I really have to share about my latest favourite range from a shampoo brand that I've loved and trusted for many years: Essential! I think Essential is such a life-saver for my hair! Remember my previous blog post about Essential's Sleeping Hair Mask? They have got the best haircare products, and at super affordable prices :O

I was sent this huge box D: And I opened it to find...

Essential's brand new packaging with improved formulas and a new variant!

Oh and they also sent me a selfie stick too :D :D :D

This is gonna be helpful when I go overseas next week hehehehe.

More important than the selfie stick.. The brand new Essential shampoo range with four different formulas!

Essential Nourishing Breakage Defense for weak and damaged hair

Essential Moisturizing Frizz Free for dull and rough hair

Essential Light Finishing Volumizing for flat and limp hair

Essential Deep Cleansing Care for oily scalp and dry ends

There are FOUR different variants, based on your hair type and different hair needs!

It's quite confusing sometimes I know. Cos my problem is that my hair is dry and damaged and needs something rich, but at the same time, my scalp/hair roots are more towards the oily side and if I use a very rich formula it makes my scalp get oilier faster and I find it super icky when my head feels so gross and oily!!

Especially in Singapore's hot and humid weather. Sometimes I wash my hair in the morning and in just a few hours my hair is so gross already and I feel like my hair is as greasy as Severus Snape HAHAHA (whenever I think of oily hair I think of him)


Have You Heard Of "Combination Hair?"

When I learnt about this concept called "Combination Hair", I was mind blown! D: We all know about combination skin when you have oily T-zone and dry cheeks etc but did you know that "combination hair" is also a hair condition too?

So people like me who have combination hair usually have oily roots and dry ends, which means that just one haircare product usually does not work well for us to solve both the problems of oily roots and dry ends. If a rich moisturising product is used, this will cause too much product build up on my scalp and make it heavy and oily. However, if I use a light clarifying product, my oily scalp may be better but my hair ends will be super dry! :(

I totally feel the pain cos whenever I try a rich formula for damaged hair, I always feel that my scalp cannot accept the formula. But using those shampoos designed for scalp care makes my hair feel very brittle and dry. It's a huge problem for me!


The Solution To Haircare Woes

Good thing Essential thought about this problem for "combination hair" people like me and came up with four different variants to cater for different needs! And if you have oily scalp but dry hair like me, I think you will LOVE the new Essential Light Finish Volumizing (yellow) and Deep Cleansing Care (blue)!

Infused with the new Microfine All Smooth Essence, the new Essential haircare range coats each hair strand evenly with a protective veil, delivering nutrients to repair damaged hair. Its uniform veil locks in moisture and repairs the dry, damaged hair ends without causing the hair roots to be sticky and heavy.This new formulation also soothes the damaged hair cuticles from root to tip, allowing you to run your fingers through your hair effortlessly even during shampooing. With strong, healthy and tangle-free hair, styling your hair has never been easier!

To decide which variant is best-suited for you, just ask yourself the two questions and choose from the matrix below!

1. Do you have oily hair roots/scalp?
2. Do you have dry/damaged hair ends?


For me it was quite an easy choice. Yes, very oily hair roots/scalp, and yes, very dry/damaged hair ends D: Anyway, I'm also quite kiasu la so I picked what seems like the best choice for me to minimise oily scalp and yet maximise hair nourishment!!!

If you find the blue formula (Deep Cleansing Care) too drying though, you can also try the yellow formula (Light Finish Volumizing) cos both of them have the optimum combination of Smart Cuticle Care and Sebum Cleansing Technology to target both problems of roots and hair ends! Thus, you get the best of both worlds!

I've been using the Essential Deep Cleansing Care range for quite some time now and it's really super love! I don't know what kind of magic Essential put in their shampoo but it makes my hair feel SO soft and light! And super duper smooth when you comb through it whether it's wet or dry. It really helps with the tangles!

If you have dry hair like me too, you should know that hair washing and bow-drying takes really long sometimes cos your hair keeps on getting tangled and it's so annoying. But using Essential makes my hair feel so smooth and even blow-drying my hair is faster and easier!

For the combination hair peeps like me who have very damaged hair, you're also recommended to use Essential's orange range hair treatment products (Treatment Tube and Hair Mask, to be applied to hair ends only, not scalp!) for best results!

The results? My hair ends are much more nourished now while my scalp now feels way fresher and lighter!

All thanks to Essential :D

Healthy manageable hair is just a switch away.. Switch to new Essential today!
The new range is available at leading supermarkets, hypermarkets, western pharmacies and personal care stores. Prices start from S$4.50.

Oh, and you can also redeem samples of Essential Light Finish Volumizing shampoo & conditioner (yellow variant) from Essential's Facebook page here! :) Experience it for yourself and I promise you'll be sold too! Pop by Essential's instagram at @essentialsingapore for more news and updates too!

xoxo

No more Bed Hair with Essential Sleeping Hair Mask!

If you've heard of the term "Bed Head"... Sometimes I think this term was coined for me.

You should see my freshly rolled-out-of-bed look, it's something like...

THIS.

Messy, unkempt mane of hair. 

I have A LOT of hair (I don't exaggerate, every one of my past and present hair stylists has at least exclaimed once about my generous amount of hair), and now that I'm trying to grow my hair out for my wedding day, the length is getting longer and more unmanageable! :( It's really annoying at times, especially when I wash my hair before bed time and try to get my hair all nice and neat, but wake up to a sight like this.

And the only way to fix the bad hair is.. To wash my hair again in the morning. Boo! Which means having to drag myself out of bed earlier to do the entire shampoo-wash-rinse-dry-style routine all over again.

I never really understood what's the cause behind what I call "bed hair", but I have discovered the main reason.. And it's something known as Pillow Damage! D:

What happens is that when you toss and turn in your sleep, friction is created, causing hair cuticles to open up unevenly and become rough, frizzy and prone to tangles. And that is why we often wake up in the morning with frizzy and unmanageable hair like a lion's mane!

And here are the main culprits behind Pillow Damage: Toss, Snap, Tug & Pull, Knot, Tangle and Frizz!

My two most worrisome issues are frizziness, and tangled hair ;( And it's no joy to try to comb out tangles and yanking away at my hair with my hair brush in the mornings! It results in even more breakage of my already fragile hair, as I try to sort out the untameable mess.

 

These naughty little imps are at work in the middle of the night, creating havoc and causing damage to our poor tresses, resulting in that terrible bed hair! :(

So, how to turn from.... THIS:

My usual bed hair,

To....

THIS!

Sleek, manageable and tame tresses that actually listen to you and fall right into place without you feeling like pulling your hair out!

My secret is.. Essential Sleeping Hair Mask!

Yes, it is an overnight intensive repair leave-on sleeping mask that helps to protect every single strand of your hair, so that you can wake up to strong, healthy and silly hair that will be a breeze to style and manage on dreaded mornings!

Essential is one of the most well-known Japanese haircare brands in our local market, so you must have heard of it or even tried it before! 

Essential offers products ranging from basic care items like Shampoo and Conditioner to Treatment items such as Intensive Hair Mask and Leave On Hair Treatments. Made with natural ingredients, Essential nourishes one’s tresses and effectively cares for damaged hair even up to the last 15cm, which is the oldest and most damaged part of our hair.

So if you are facing the same problem of waking up to a lion's mane on your head, fret not! Essential Sleeping Hair Mask will definitely be your best friend from now on. I promise, it really works wonders!

As the name suggests already, this is a Sleeping Mask and is to be applied at night, before you sleep! So here's a guide to how to use Essential Sleeping Hair Mask!

Without applying Sleeping Hair Mask the night before, this is my usual bed hair... Lol. Don't judge!!!

Sorry, there's no way to look pretty with bed hair. Haha!

As yo can tell, my hair is quite fine and dry, which means it gets tangled easily if I'm not careful!
But with the Essential Sleeping Hair Mask... GOOD HAIR DAYS ARE NOW MINE!

To put an end to horrible bed hair, all you have to do is to apply Essential Sleeping Hair Mask before you go to bed!

I really like the milky and non-greasy texture of the sleeping mask! It is absorbed easily into the hair and forms a protective layer between each hair strand and your pillow, protecting hair cuticles from Pillow Friction when you toss and turn in your sleep. Which means you won't find yourself waking up to that unkempt mane in the morning!

At least growing my hair long will be less of a pain if I'm able to keep my hair manageable and healthy!

With Essential Sleeping Hair Mask applied the night before.. Not say I purposely want to make it very obvious, but..... look!!!

Hair that's a lot more manageable and none of those annoying stray strands and messy tangles! Out of the house in a jiffy ;)

Oh, don't forget your hair serum too, before you leave the house!

Apply Essential Leave On Serum in the morning before you head out, and the Cuticle Protection Ingredients will form a protective veil over hair to prevent frizz and dryness caused by humidity and UV rays. Just spread the serum evenly onto hair and it invigorates hair, giving it a healthy and lustrous shine while protecting it from the sun!

Daily haircare products apart from the regular hair treatments are really very important to maintain gorgeous, smooth and silky tresses. These products are a god-send! Thank you, Essential!

 

If you're still not convinced, you can even test Essential Sleeping Hair Mask for yourself: There are free samples of Essential Sleeping Hair Mask to be redeemed, so do check it out!

And here's the exciting part!!!

Win tickets to 2NE1’s All or Nothing concert held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 28th June! Simply buy $10 worth of Essential products to qualify! That's too easy, just one product will qualify you for a chance to win these tickets to see the hottest K-pop girl band group ever! There are SIX pairs of tickets, worth over $2000 to be won! D: 

For more information, visit www.essentialsg.com/2ne1! PS. Essential is on Instagram now (@essentialsingapore)!

You can find Essential Sleeping Hair Mask and Leave-In Serum at all leading supermarkets, hypermarkets, personal care stores and pharmacies $11.90 each :)

Salon Vim: New Hair Color + Arimino Privy Treatment!

It has been a really long time since my last visit to Salon Vim! 

The last time I got my tresses managed and pampered was four months ago, in April! And I feel so guilty about it because I'm extremely privileged to have the luxury of getting my hair done monthly at the best salon in town, but I haven't been giving my hair TLC.. My hair has grown quite abit longer since my last visit, plus the colors have faded as well. Thought it was time I headed back to do something about the sorry state of my hair!

Anyway, it's the first time I've stepped into Salon Vim since their renovation! Everything looks so stylish and professional now!!

Hair buddy and partner-in-crime Evonne who went to Salon Vim together with me! Her hair is somewhat of a walking miracle, considering that she's gotten it bleached more than 10 over times in the past 15 months or so and it still looks so amazing!

As usual, I walked into Salon Vim without any concrete idea of what I wanted to do on my hair.. For the past one year or more, I've been addicted to pink hair, and have tried ten thousand variations of pink highlights.. Magenta pink, strawberry pink, pink blended with purple, dip-dyed pink, etc etc. 

I really love pink and how it brightens up my look instantly, but after more than a year of pink hair, I wanted to be a lil more adventurous and try a new hair color, so after some discussion with Stephanie (my trusted hair stylist), we decided to venture into uncharted grounds!

Of course, as with any kind of candy hair colors, you need to bleach your hair prior to application of the hair dye! 

Now, I'm deathly afraid of bleaching my hair, which is why I'd never go for a full head of crazy hair colors, but just that few streaks of bleached hair is fine by me, and a small price to pay for those pretty colors in my hair! And also because it's a sort of balayage effect (the color doesn't go all the way up to the root of my hair), it doesn't hurt my scalp either!

My new hair colors sitting in bowls and waiting to be applied onto my hair :D Not an accurate representation but you can sort of tell: it's gonna be a cocktail of violet purple, turquoise green and electric blue highlights!

I cannot emphasise more on how apprehensive I was. Going green and blue is something I've always been firmly adamant against because I used to think that these two colours looked terribly unnatural and ugly on hair! However, Stephanie suggested that I do a fusion of three tone highlights, with the purple, turquoise and blue streaks melding into a dark matte brown base, which I hesitantly agreed to.

Here's the colors being applied onto the bleached strands! In order to achieve brilliant candy tones, it is always necessary to bleach the hair first.

I've received queries from many readers, asking if bleaching is required for bright colours, and if it is damaging to the hair.. The answer is yes, it is required, and yes, it will always dry out the hair somewhat, for sure. The good news is, if you're just doing streaks like me, bleached hair can still be easy to maintain, you just need to give it a little more care at home with regular hair masks, and hair treatments at Salon Vim once in a while! :)

Waiting for the colors to set in... I also got the base color touched up to a slightly darker and more neutral matte brown because it had lightened to a yellowish brown, and my dark roots were very obvious!

Another word of advice lol.

If you're intending to get intensive works done on your hair (For instance, cut, color, highlight, treatment) do try to book an earlier slot because it does take quite a fair amount of time! I had to go back to Salon Vim on another day to get hair treatment done because there wasn't enough time, I had to rush off for another appointment on my first visit!

I've done the Arimino Privy Hair Treatment twice, and it's amazing! It's a new Japanese hair treatment, and leaves the hair feeling incredibly soft and nourished. Just what I need for my hair!

The Arimino Privy Hair Treatment consists of three steps, and I must say that it is one of the fastest treatments I've done! One of the salon assistants was placing the steaming machine thingy over my head and I went like "Huh? You put the treatment already meh?"

That's because the first step of the Arimino Privy treatment starts with the hair wash, with a special shampoo and hair moisturizer, before a serum and cream are gently massaged into the hair cuticles to complete the treatment! #noob

The end results? I don't know how Stephanie and the amazing team at Salon Vim do it, but I do feel that every time I step into the salon, I somehow leave with even more amazing hair than I did the last time! With the Arimino Privy treatment, my hair feels silky smooth and soft to the touch, and much less frizzy and brittle!

I am in love with my new hair colour! It's seriously stunning! A medley of blue, purple and turquoise highlights subtly blended into the ends of my hair. Reminds me of the vibrant hues of a peacock feather, or the tail of a fighting fish!

What I love most about the new hair is how artfully blended in the colors are, it makes the colors look so fabulously wearable! All the highlights are done on the inside layers of my hair, so they weave in and out, peeking out of the brown base beautifully.

A close-up on the vibrant hues.

My wonderful hair stylist Stephanie! She was just as pleased with the results as I was. Thank you Steph! ❤



A couple of pictures I took when I got back home! And I've received tons and tons of compliments on the new hair colour! Super love!

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SALON VIM 313 @ Somerset 

#04-07/08/09 Singapore 

68847757/68847767 

http://salonvim.com

Check out Salon Vim's facebook page too, for the latest promos and services available! :)

***

I have been recommending all my friends to Salon Vim ever since I've been with the salon, and now, nearly all my close friends go to Salon Vim for hair services as well! And many of them are repeat customers and have lots of raves about Salon Vim!

There's been some misconceptions that Salon Vim only does crazy hair colors (I believe this is all Evonne's fault) but that's not true, because they do an amazing job with just about everything, even if all you're looking for is a safe dark brown hair color or even just a hair cut! :) Even my sissy Gina swears by Salon Vim (Gary, the director)'s hair-cutting techniques. So guys and girls, don't be scared hehe. Go to Salon Vim!!

The fun part about getting crazy colors done, I feel like a chameleon because the candy hues fade a little every time I wash it, and now it's like a mixture of ash turquoise, baby blue, and lilac! 

Took the above picture one week after the initial hair color was done, when I went back to Salon Vim for a wash and blow-dry. I adore the streaks of baby blue! Never thought I'd like blue in my hair but oh well, I take back my words now.

Got my hair braided at an event one week ago. Shows off the peacock hues so well!

Took this picture a couple days ago. Guess you can tell how much I luuuurve these colors. YZ's super smug about it too because he's been telling me to try blue/green hair colors for the longest time and I was so reluctant to, and now he's all like "See, I told you so!"

A couple more tips for colored hair: Remember to use shampoo especially for color-treated hair! This helps the color to last longer, as well as keep your hair looking healthy and radiant! Hair masks can be used regularly in lieu of conditioner, in order to replenish moisture in your hair more effectively.

I also use cool or lukewarm water instead of hot water to wash my hair because heat will strip the colour off faster, as well as remove moisture from your hair, causing your hair to turn brittle, dry and lifeless-looking. 

Lastly, always use heat-protecting products if you style/blowdry your hair frequently! I use these two products (Bain Chroma Captive Colour Radiance Protecting Shampoo for Color-treated Hair and Nectar Thermique Nourishing Care with Heat-styling Protective Agent) from Kerastase and I love them! Available at Salon Vim too, so just ask your friendly hair stylist for product recommendations!

Hope this post was informative and useful! If you do have any queries, just drop me a comment below! ;) Have a smashing week!

xoxo