Splurge or save

One of the things I like to advice people when it comes to long hair care is to save on products.

More expensive products don’t mean better effect on your hair.

Even the fanciest and most exotic extract of something-something-probably some Brazilian flower-something can’t make your hair healthier than “standard” ingredients.

Quite the opposite actually: More expensive products seem to come with more perfume or more colour. Things that doesn’t have any effect on your hair, but is supposed to make the consumer feel more pampered.

Things to spend serious money on, is usually limited to hair tools and toys. But even then you need to be critical: Just because something is expensive or labelled with “Hair friendly” does not mean it actually is hair friendly!

One thing that has surprised me is those little “baby” elastics I use for my braids. With those, you definitely need to spend some money.

Cheap ones snap or slide around and can’t get a good grip.

Like in my double braids from today where one slid around and the other one snapped, but remained around the ends since it was tangled in itself.

Meh.

I like the ones I get here: http://glitter.dk/

Their elastics are very sturdy and have a good grip without sticking to hair or themselves.

I admit one of the reasons I like this store is their magazines. They make a surprisingly hair-friendly magazine on hair inspiration. Instead of the usual stuff with backcombing, curling irons and hairspray, it is centred around “Use this gadget like this”.

Of course this is all to sell their gadgets, I know. But it still warms my cynical old heart to see people know how to make an updo without frying their hair.