My Hair

I have always had a love-hate relationship with my hair.  I have a head full of very fine hair which makes it seem thin.  Although I've been told by more than one hair dresses that I have a lot of hair just really fine.

So my dilemma came while my hair was blond....very blond.  Oneday after washing my hair, as I combed it out, I heard a sound much like paper being torn. 

It was my hair.

It had finally reached it's limit and the entire crown section on top of my head had melted and was breaking....along with my heart.  I tried to my hardest to be as gentle as possible while combing out my hair, but with each stroke more and more hair showed up on my comb.

I sprang into action and starting deep condition, doing protein packs, cut an inch off the bottom and even dyed my hair brown so that I wouldn't have as much color up keep.  Still I had dry straw-like hair.  So I went out in search of products that might help salvage what was left of my hair and treat the damage that had been done.  After several exhaustive and bank breaking trips I think I've finally found the answer for my hair.

I found a product at my local drug store called Organix "Beauty Pure and Simple."  It's a hair care line that is sodium and sulfate free and very affordable.  They've come out with a new line called "Ever Straight Brazilian Keratin Therapy."  I grabbed everything in the line....shampoo, conditioner, flat iron spray and anti-breakage serum.  Why do I love this stuff so much?  Not only is it an affordable sodium and sulfate free product by it has keratin in it.  Since our hair is made of keratin, these products help to put the keratin back in my hair to make it stronger.  Plus it has cocoa nut oil in it so everything smells like cocoa power....yummy!! 

Now as for a deep conditioning at home treatment I was at a loss for a while.  It seemed like nothing I found worked.  Then I went ahead and tried one I saw by Pantene.  Now I have never been a huge Pantene fan, but I do like the conditioning mask I found.  It's part of their "Beautiful Lengths" line of hair care and is formulated to help reduce breakage for longer stronger hair (by the way I'm trying to grow my hair out long).

Finally as a super intense conditioning treatment I'm using good old VO5 Hot Oil.  Yup that's right VO5!!  I like it because it too has keratin protein in it so again I'm putting keratin back into my hair to help strengthen it.  The only down fall I really see is there are a lot of chemicals I'd rather not be in VO5 like parabens.  I'll definitely be on the hunt for a more natural alternative to the VO5, but for now that's what I'm using.

The result you ask?  Well my hair is not damage free...that will take many hair cuts to rid my hair of the damage parts.  However it is softer, shinier and is not breaking as much.  That makes me very very happy :o)

A Few of My Favorite Things

So I am a huge AVON fan...so much so that I became an AVON Representative.  So I decided to post a few of my favorite products.

• AVON ANEW Age-Transforming Foundation SPF-15 ~ This stuff is amazing....it is full-coverage (think MAC foundation) without feeling having or making my skin breakout (like MAC foundation).  I was very sad the day I realized my skin couldn't handle MAC foundations anymore.  Imagine my delight at finally finding a foundation that covers and gives the finish of MAC without the bad skin and much better price...only $16!
• AVON ULTRA COLOR RICH Lipstick ~ I love the way this stuff feels on AND it smells great.  My two favorite colors are Poppy Love (a red-orange and VERY glamorous) and Pout (a nude pink).  At only $7 each at regular price you can totally afford to buy more than one at a time.
• AVON ANEW Skincare ~ It's the first anti-aging skincare line that did not irritate my skin.  It's broken down into age groups of 30's, 40's, 50's and newly added 60's.  You can definitely mix and match within the categories according to specific skincare needs.  When compared to department store or drug store brand anti-aging skincare products, the price is just right!
• AVON ANEW CLINICAL ~ This line caters to specific skin aging issues from crow's feet to wrinkles to sagging skin to cellulite treatment...ANEW CLINICAL can treat anything!

So there you have it, a few of my favorite things!  To check out all the AVON products you can go to www.youravon.com/jaelhicks or http://www.avon.com/ to find a rep closest to you.