Hair density serum

I got this back in Skinstores Christmas calendar but never actually used it. Just haven't been bothered, I guess? Also it smells distinctly masculine, so... ugh.

Hubby found it in my stash of "semi rejected stuff" and asked if he could try it. Of course he could, so at least it gets used up now. 

This is one of those "I guess it can't hurt" things when it comes to haircare. I mean, some massage and moisture on your scalp can't be a bad thing, right?

Anyone ever tried this thing?

Today's hair

The double braids are getting pretty messy, but it still held up alright. At least no one noticed I was being lazy, heh.

Today's hair

Double buns held with two Flexies

Today's hair

I have a few busy days ahead, so I hope these braids can be used for bun-bases and keep looking nice for two days. That would save me some time...

We're going to Tenerife

...In about a month. Yay!

Hubby and I had some trouble deciding where to go for our next vacation. There are just so many cool options it was hard to chose.

Also, it's going to be seriously hard to beat our Madeira trip from last year. That was awesome!

(Do you all want to see pictures?)

We ended up deciding on Tenerife just because we want to see those strange pyramids. 

Of course we also have to see Teide national park (This tallest volcano in the world when measured from the sea bottom) 

We're also going on a "Stars and sunset" trip with a real astronomer, which we're really looking forward to. Tenerife has a lot of telescopes from different countries because of the clear weather and good conditions.

Also we need to spend some time just relaxing at a pool and eating fresh sea food. Ah... 

Today's hair

Braided Chinese bun held with a Ketylo set.

Product showdown

I usually buy my conditioners following the rule "Whatever is on sale", and then just grab one of each line out of the brand. So now I have a lot of conditioners from the same brands, but different lines. So today it got me thinking that maybe I should do a comparison for all of those "doubles" so in the future, I will only get the best one at the next sale.

Up for today's comparison:

Lovea Conditioner Shea butter

Lovea Conditioner Argan Oil

I'm going to compare them on a few different factors:

• First impressions

• Effect: Shine and manageability

• Ingredient analysis and interesting ingredients such as "actives": Oils, fruits, keratin, sunscreen

First impressions

Lovea Conditioner Shea butter

Lovea Conditioner Argan Oil

Not much a difference there: Both have a sort of thin and runny consistency and both smell vaguely "clean" with a hint of some sort of fruit. Both are easy to distribute, but both are annoying with the pump action. With both, I screwed the pump off and poured the product into my hair. This might work for those with less hair than me, but for me it was seriously annoying.

Effect

Lovea Conditioner Shea butter

Argh. Holy crap, did this thing suck!
As soon as I started rinsing, it gave my hair a really weird effect from root to tips: Sort of like if my hair had a crazy attack of super static. It wasn't tangles, more like all the hairs clung together. When I started detangling from one side, it would stick together from the other side as soon as I had finished. It also left some sort of strange "dry" feeling to my hair, even when wet. This weird effect was only underlined by my hair suddenly being really noisy and making a screeeeeeetcccccch noise when I pulled (forced) my comb through. It was really weird and upsetting!
I hurried to put some coney serum in my hair before even attempting to towel dry it and detangle further.
Poor hair!

I do have to admit though: It made my hair pretty shiny.

Lovea Conditioner Argan Oil
This made my hair slightly less pissed off, but I did also leave it on for shorter because my hair hated the shea butter one so much. Uhm.

Ingredient analysis

Lovea Conditioner Shea Butter

Aqua (Water), Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter, Panthenol, Parfum (Fragrance), Methyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Ceteareth-20, Bht, Magnesium Nitrate, Pantolactone, Ci 19140, Ci 15985, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Methylisothiazolinone, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.

What did my hair hate this so much??
It seems to have a sort of protein overload reaction, but I see no protein in there?

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"
With the first five ingredients, this is just a carrier for the shea butter. Nothing specially noteworthy there.

Interesting ingredients
Shea butter, panthenol and sunscreen. I do love my sunscreen so points for that.

21 ingredients in total

1 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 5 %

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 5 %

9 marked as "green" for safety. 42 %

8 marked as "yellow" for safety. 38 %

2 marked as "red" for safety. 9 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 5 %

Lovea Conditioner Argan Oil
Aqua (Water), Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Panthenol, Methyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Parfum (Fragrance), Argania Spinosa Kernel Extract, Ceteareth-20, Bht, Magnesium Nitrate, Pantolactone, Ci 19140, Ci 15985, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Methylisothiazolinone, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

With the first five ingredients, this is just a carrier for the panthenol. Nothing specially noteworthy there.

Interesting ingredients
Panthenol, argan oil and sunscreen. I do love my sunscreen so points for that.

21 ingredients in total

1 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 5 % 

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 5 %

9 marked as "green" for safety. 42%

7 marked as "yellow" for safety. 33 %

3 marked as "red" for safety. 14 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 5 %

Lady Igor says

I can't say I really liekd any of these, or would recommend them. But I guess since Lovea Conditioner Argan Oil pissed my hair off the least, this is the one I would pick if I had to pick one.

Meh. Not impressed.

Throwback Thursday

The first, big Amsterdam-meeting through LHC... Back in 2011 I think?

Trim

I just came back from a weekend at my parent's place. As usual, I have my mom take a few centimeter of the ends.
I'm really happy with it!
Mom commented on how thick and nice the ends are and how soft my hair felt.

Maybe I should get a firmer trimming schedule?
I'm really happy with the current length since it's by far the most convenient for me to comb and care for, but also long enough to do all the fun styles I like.
I get just 1,5 cm a month and 2 cm 2-3 months during the summer, so maybe I should try to find a stylist I could trust for an exact trim every month?

Still alive

Still alive and well, that is.
I guess with the awesomeness that is my new jobs, new colleagues and routines and all I really just got out of the habit of blogging.

It's late here, so i just wanted to check in before going to bed.

*Waves*