Josie Maran Argan Oil Hair Serum

If you have read my blog post called Hair Help, you’ll know that I’ve been having a lot of issues with my hair. To put a long story short, I was experiencing stress related hair loss, and it really sucked. I’m very happy to report that it has finally stopped, and I’m back to heat styling my hair. It feels so amazing to run my hands through my hair and not have any come out. I feel like a new person! I wanted to talk about a product that I was using during my hair loss, and have loved and continued using post Telogen effluvium (the technical term for stress related hair loss).

Josie Maran Argan Oil Hair Serum – $15.00 CAD

I have the little mini size of this hair serum, my boyfriend surprised me with it because he knew I was having a really hard time with my hair. He’s the best. I have the trial size here, so it’s only half of an ounce, but there are bigger bottles available. I don’t even mind having the small bottle because a very small amount of product goes a very long way.

The pump is really lovely on the packaging, but I find it pumps out a little too much product for me, because I have medium length hair that’s super thin right now, if I use more than half a pump things tends to get oily and funky looking. I would suggest using about half of what you think you’d need. Now on to the actual product: this serum is really lovely. It’s thicker than your average oil, but still translucent and not nearly as thick as a lotion. The oil smells really nice as well. It’s got a nice light and fresh scent that has a hint of citrus. The serum sinks in quickly to damp hair, and keeps things moisturized and helps cut air drying time somewhat.

This product claims to have anti-frizz and high shine properties. I can attest to the shine factor, however I don’t think it does much in the anti-frizz department, which is ok with me as I’m mainly looking for moisture. I’ve used this serum when air drying my hair as well as using heat styling tools, and the effects are pretty much the same either way. The serum helps to add some moisture to the ends of my hair, and adds a nice fragrance and some shine.

Overall I do like this product, however I’m not sure it’s a holy grail product. I wouldn’t recommend running out and buying it immediately, but if you’re looking to give the ends of your hair a little TLC, or want to try a more natural hair care product, I think this would be a good place to start.

Talk soon,

Xx Brianna

Hair Help!

This blog post is a touchy subject for me. I don’t really have a quirky intro for this blog post, so I’ll just get right into it. Since about the middle of May, my hair has basically been falling out in handfuls. I’m not trying to be dramatic when I say this, it’s just unfortunately the ugly truth. I first started noticing in the shower that when I washed my hair, there was a lot coming out (I like to stick any hair that comes out to the wall to keep it from clogging up the drain). This went on for a couple of weeks. One day I was running a straightening iron through my hair and I noticed that there was a TON of hair on the floor. And so began my realization that my hair was falling out. Majorly. When I ran my hands through my hair, nothing but handfuls of hair would come out. It’s been really disheartening.

Now I know it’s just hair and in the grand scheme of all of the terrible, horrible things that happen in this world, your hair falling out doesn’t even register on the richter scale. But when your body starts to betray you like that with no warning, it’s really scary. I immediately started thinking back to the beginning of the year, as I know that stress can cause your hair to fall out. I’ve had a rough go this year, between medical things like getting my wisdom teeth out, starting a new job, and some other un-fun adult stuff, I realized that it had been almost exactly 3 months since I had gotten my wisdom teeth out. Some may say this is an easy procedure, but I’ve been crazy lucky to be really healthy my whole life, and this was the most traumatic thing my body had been through.

I began obsessively researching stress related hair loss, and what I found seemed to relate to my situation. What I learned is that your hair goes through phases of growth, resting, and shedding. When you go through a stressful event, emotionally or physically, a bigger percentage of your hair gets shocked into going into a ‘resting phase’ that lasts for about 3 months. After that resting phase, all of that hair sheds off. Though it was relieving to research that what I was experiencing seemed to fit the stress hair loss situation, it was still really stressful, for the lack of a better term.

What was really unnerving about this situation is that I could never stop thinking about it. If I left my hair down, every time I would look down there would be a ton of hair on my shirt. If I put my hair up there was some temporary mind relief, but if I took my hair down to re-do a pony tail, I’d be pulling out clumps with the hair band. My hair loss is quite literally always on my mind. Don’t even get me started on washing it. When I wash my hair, that seems to be when the most comes out. I’ll sit in the bathroom for over half an hour just procrastinating because washing my hair is very, very stressful.

I went to my doctor to make sure there was nothing funny going on. He assured me I would not go bald and that ‘sometimes hair just falls out’… whatever that’s supposed to mean. My blood work all came back normal, so there’s nothing deficiencies going on. It is, however, still happening, and it’s almost been 3 months, so according to my research all of this should be ending some time soon. I can only hope. In the mean time I’ve been using a lot of products targeting a healthy scalp so I can put my mind at ease knowing I’m at least doing something.

It has been a very tough couple of months. I’m thinking if this incessant hair shedding ever stops, I’m going to treat myself to getting my hair done.

To wash my hair, I’ve been using the Jason Normalizing Tea Tree Shampoo. This is supposed to balance the scalp and keep any funny business like dandruff from wreaking havoc on your scalp. From what I’ve read, the fungus that causes dandruff doesn’t cause hair loss, but lots of aggressive scratching can make that happen, and I don’t want to loose any more hairs than I have to. This has been a really solid shampoo that makes my hair feel clean, and my scalp nice and fresh. I’ve also been using the Live Clean Professional Healthy Balance Conditioner. This conditioner I have noticed to make the biggest difference so far. I rub this into my scalp and let it sit for a good 5 minutes or so. This doesn’t make my hair greasy or stringy, and really soothes my scalp. This has a really non-offensive scent, and rinses out of the hair beautifully. I usually never put conditioner on my scalp, but with this mess going on, I’ve made an exception.

Treatment wise, I’ve been loving the Live Clean Professional Miracle Nutrition Oil as a pre-shower treatment. This is one of those oils that is two separate colours, and when you mix them together it turns into this orange oil. I put in a few pumps of this into the lengths of my hair, and even on my scalp, about 10 minutes before my shower and then shampoo it out. This is really lovely, and it smells so amazing! This is the best smelling product I have used in ages and I love it purely for the scent, not to mention the moisturizing properties. Lastly, after I get out of the shower I’ve been putting the Josie Maran Argan Oil Hair Serum in my towel dried hair. Since I find heat styling my hair to put me in the most depressed mood ever (because of all the hair loss that occurs), I’ve been just letting my hair air dry.

All I can say is if this ever stops, my hair is going to be crazy healthy because I haven’t put any heat on my hair for over two months. Have any of you ever experienced stress related hair loss?

I’m very fortunate to have had extremely thick hair before this started, because I’m starting to feel like I have 7 hairs left.

Talk soon,

Xx Brianna

June 2015 Favorites

June is in the books, and I know I fell slightly silent on here for about two weeks. It was a combination of a bunch of things, mostly that the sun came out and I wanted to be at the beach instead of glued to my computer. It happens to all of us. But I’ve got the itch for blogging again, and I obviously continued to use beauty products throughout my mini hiatus, so let’s get into what I was loving this month.

I have to say, this month’s favorites is full of gems.

The Lush Cream Eyeshadow in the shade ‘Sophisticated’ has been absolutely fantastic for me this month. This is a gorgeous bronze-shimmer shadow that looks so effortless on the lid. I love this eyeshadow because it stays in place beautifully, it’s really subtle so I don’t feel like a clown in the office, and you just need this one shadow and your eye look is complete.

The Body Shop nail polish in the shade Rosy Cheeks is perfection for summer. I actually don’t find this polish to be rose hued at all, to me it’s a pink-coral that’s very bright on the nail. The polish is beautifully opaque in two coats, and lasts a solid week.

I snagged the Sonia Kashuk Eye on Neutral Palette well before Target peaced out of Canada, and I’m forever grateful I did. This is probably one of the best neutral matte palettes out there if you’re basic like me and shy away from all forms of colour. It has the most beautiful assortment of matte shades, I specifically love the shade on the bottom left all over the lid as a one and done shade. Big surprise here: I am lazy.

The Josie Maran Coconut Water Cheek Gelee, this one specifically is in the shade Pink Escape. I have 3 of these blushes and I am forever obsessed with them. They are so natural and easy to apply, they look beautiful and like you’ve just been out in the cold weather. One day, I swear I will own them all. I also really like these on the lips, they give a gorgeous natural flush to the lips, and they don’t dry anything out.

I have also been getting a lot of use out of my Body Shop Colour Crush Lipstick in Sunset Romance. Also known as the number 18 as the Body Shop has not gotten with the program and only puts the name on the wrapping that gets thrown out immediately. This lipstick is nice and sheer, and just gives a gorgeous hint of coral. I like this lipstick because I can easily apply it without a mirror, and it’s not a total full on colour, so I’m not completely intimidated by it.

I began my love affair with the Josie Maran Argan Oil Hair Serum this month. My boyfriend gifted me this travel size serum because I’ve been having some serious issues with my hair lately. A whole blog post is coming about the past two month nightmare that is my hair. This serum smells really lovely, and helps to tame away frizz, which my hair is very prone to when I don’t heat style it. This serum has never made my hair feel sticky or greasy, and a very, very small amount goes a very long way. I like to scrunch this into my hair on towel dried hair, and it leaves a gorgeous scent, and soft locks.

The Real Techniques Duo Fiber Brush has been all over my face this month. I have two of these, and I like to use one for powder, and one for bronzer. When the summer months hit, I find I want a really natural look, and these duo fiber brushes from Real Techniques do the trick. Plus they wash up beautifully, and are super soft.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been hitting the beach a lot lately, and because of that none of my base products match my skin anymore. I ran out and picked up the Flower Beauty BB Cream in the shade BB2. This is a really nice BB Cream, however I have to say it’s more like a tinted moisturizer. This has a matte finish and light to medium coverage. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the blendability, this product sets pretty quickly, so I’d recommend working in one section of your face at a time.

I’ve been all about the Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara again. This mascara is just my holy grail and I don’t think I’ll ever find one that’s as good as this one. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the price, but this just gives me all the length, separation, and volume I could ever ask for. This is the one, please never get discontinued.

That’s it for the month of June! July is my birthday month so I always look forward to it. It’s also my last month at one of my jobs as I’ll be moving into full time at the other. This adult-no-more-student thing is still very strange.

Talk soon,

Xx Brianna