H'suan Wen Hua

Recently I've been on a mad one looking for a really good hair mask. Lads, I was even prepared to fork out the big bucks for it - thats how bad my hair has gotten. With memories of beautiful soft hair after using Lush products and a lovely suggestion from Lesley (bellinisandblush.wordpress.com) on twitter, I decided to go into Lush and get a mask. I know I'm still on a ban, but in my defense I've bought maybe 5 things since I started it, which for me is really impressive considering how much I would normally buy in there..

Anyway! I tried h'suan wen hua a few years ago and I remembered not getting any decent results, but I was totally willing to try again considering how bad my hair is. The one thing I forgot was the awful smell of strong cinnamon that made me feel sick while using it, but none the less I was determent to see if this could help! Apart from cinnamon, it has eggs, bananas, avocados and bay leaves all packed into one pot. These ingredients have lots of oils and are great for moisturising and softening the hair, with the cinnamon to stimulate the scalp. Its a lovely consistency - not too thick that it wont spread easy, but not watery enough that it will just slide off your hair. Its just right!

Its recommend that once you liberally apply the mask to dry hair that you leave it for about 20 minutes. I left mine in for close to two hours as I really wanted all the good stuff to sink into my hair and work its magic. On the back of the pot it says that if your hair is in really bad condition its advised to use the treatment once a week for six weeks, which is ok if you have short hair. However if your like myself and your almost sitting on your hair then this will be a pricey treatment as each pot is €11.50.  I used two thirds of the pot in my hair purely as I didn't want to use it all in one go and there was plenty in my hair already. 

The end result? I wasn't overly impressed (yet again) with my hair after I washed it out and let it dry. I think that I would need to do this treatment a few times before I noticed any major improvements, but I do think for someone thats just looking to perk their hair up a little its the perfect product. On the downside, it took about three or four washes before the horrible smell of cinnamon was gone - but my granny thought it was only gorgeous so I'm sure a lot of you out there would enjoy the smell. (Or maybe my granny is just a bit mad, like me!)

If you do decide to try this out or any other Lush product that comes in a black pot, remember to wash it out and keep it. For every five clean empty pots you bring back to Lush for them to recycle, you get a free face mask of your choice, fancy!

Macadamia Oil and Conditioning treatments

I'm on a roll with pound shop finds recently. Last month I stumbled across a macadamia oil extract hair treatment and a hair mask for the grand total of €3. Where would you get it! I am forever on the lookout for something to help with my mane, as I dye the crap out of it and generally abuse it. Macadamia oil is one of those hyped ingredients that a lot of must-have  products contain right now, but what does the stuff actually do? Or is it just that - hype? (like oil pulling, my favourite thing to listen to people 'swear by.' So much loling, so little time.)  

Macadamia oil originates from Australia, but now is also grown in Hawaii. The plants help to grow seeds that produce the lovely rich oil that everyones hair wants these days. The oil contains vitamin E and B, sources of calcium, iron and about 80% mono saturated fat, to name a few things. Despite the oil having so much packed into it, its lightweight and not really that greasy so it absorbs easily into hair. Because it absorbs quickly into your hair, it means that there is no product build up that you can get with products that are slow working. It nourishes, softens and fights the never ending battle with frizzy hair. It helps to keep hair healthy and well, is a wonder ingredient to use. But considering most products say there is only an extract of macadamia oil, I always wonder if there is enough in the product to actually make a difference. 

For €1.50 each, whats the thoughts after using both a few times? I really liked them, especially the oil. I'm not normally one to put oil in my hair and leave it as I feel kind of dirty and in need of a shower, but this stuff didn't make me feel like a total grease ball (sexy phrase alert). The hair mask added to the oils hard work is total bonus hair lovin', but the hair mask on its own doesn't seem to have the same softie soft effect as both used together. However theres no harm in trying out things that could help your hair when they are so super cheap. That and it makes your hair smell really good! I'd definitely recommend picking these up if you see them, especially the little bottle of oil as it has made a difference to my hair. I'm a slightly softer cailin now.