When your hair is happy

You know that awesome feeling after you get a hair cut and your hair just becomes very agreeable to anything you want to do with it?

It's a great feeling because of  a couple of factors:

1) NO SPLIT/DEAD ENDS

2) There is not a lot of weight on your roots anymore

3) YOUR HAIR JUST GOT PAMPERED

Now your hair stylists always tell you to come to get it trimmed every 6 to 9 weeks and to be honest, no one has any idea how much hair they would have grown by then and also how busy they are etc. My hairstylist can even attest to not having time to get her hair cut. Now, she can cut her own hair every now and then, but nothing can compare to getting it done by someone else because they can REACH all the nooks and crannies.This does not mean you need to go and shove $20 to $30 for a haircut each time. In my opinion is about finding a stylist who you like and has the experience and the skill. My hairstylist works at Super Cut here in the States and I only need to pay $15 total however I like to tip her well because she gives me a lot of tips for hair all of the time and just a nice person to be around. Trust me I do get picky about who cut my hair because my last couple of sessions with someone who is non Asian seems to mess up my hair because they are unaware of what really works. However, I have noticed like with my current hair stylist, who is non Asian by the way, if you give them like picture of what you really want when you are first getting started then they are able to help you better. As for myself, if I had to go to someone where I have no idea what I want to do with my hair, it will only be my cousin in China who is an amazing hair stylist.

For myself personally my hair will grow 1 to 3 inches in 6 to 9 weeks, yes my hair grows fast it's a luxury but also a hassle. I'm a very low maintenance person when it comes to styling my hair, keeping my hair healthy I will take the time to do it. In my opinion, no make up can truly enhance your natural beauty unlike just eating right and taking care of your skin with masks etc. The same goes for hair, if you are not drinking enough water, then you are not giving your body enough nutrient and it shows through your hair and nails because they are make through dead cells.

So when my hair decided to grow like 3 to 4 inches within the last three months I was kind of shocked because that's usually it might grow in half a year but then again it might be that once you have too many split ends, it might just stop growing. TIP to those who want to grow their hair out, getting it trimmed slightly just get split ends off every 6 weeks will help you grow your hair faster because split ends does not just stay at the ends, I have one time where I didn't cut my hair for I say a year and a half and I had over 6 inches of split ends but they just keep splitting up the shaft.

Another reason to why my hair grew so much is because of two reason:

1) I drank more water this summer than I've probably ever had before because I was speaking so much and also I decided to get a filtered water bottle.

The current one I use is the EZ Freeze PURE Filtered Water Bottle I got it for around $5 at Wal-Mart and it works fine plus you can freeze the center part to get your water to be cold throughout the day because it's gel in there so it will stay frozen longer. Now it took me forever to get a filtered water bottle because the greater majority of them are expensive, and yes $12 for a Water Bobble is expensive to me! So when I found this for $5 I snagged it up and I don't regret it at all because I drank SOO much more water for the sole reason that I don't need to constantly buy more water and I don't need to wait for the traditional water filters to use, now we still have those at home but this is just more convenient.

2) Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil

I love it for the smell and I heard people talk about the moroccan oil this or moroccan oil that all the time. Now this is not the original expensive brand but I just saw a sample size while in line at Ulta and decided to try it out just to see how it reacts to my hair. It doesn't weight my hair down much, I try to keep my hair tamed with the least amount of product because I wash my hair every other day and if I put too much product then by the second day my hair just becomes too greasy. And my hair feels much softer after using this oil especially in the hot heat of the summer my hair becomes extra dry.

I am also using the Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil Renewing Renewing Treatment.

I am still half and half about this, it doesn't make my hair feel amazing soft as other deep conditioners I have used in the past. I use it once a week and I when I first put it on it is not like a super thick deep conditioner that you feel is just like a thick cream over your hair. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I put enough even though I know for sure I took a hefty amount of it. I am still in the process of trying to notice a difference or not but it also depends on what else you are adding into your hair.

So whether you are a fan of piling products into your hair or just simple maintenance or none at all, it's always important to watch the progress of your hair especially when it comes to styling. If you hair is just becoming unmanageable and you very tired of it, it's time to go to a hair salon that you know is good.

Best,
Ren

The Blackhead Annoyance

Everyone has blackheads, it's what happens particularly in the nose area where you start seeking black spots on your nose. For myself personally I never noticed them until I started to get into makeup which was senior year of high school to be quite honest I never had a problem with them until that year. Here's what I did learn from a beautician when I was getting a facial one time where they were taking a humidifier machine or something along those lines and practicially squeezing all of the dirt and blackheads out. Your blackheads and the dirt in your pores and build up to the point that it becomes a mole and when it get to that level, then it will become very hard to get out.

So senior year of high school I went through a whole process, some products I put into my daily routine and some I used on a weekly to occasional basis.

On a daily basis I used Clean and Clear Blackhead Cleanser

  Honestly I have to say, I just liked it for the fact that it was a good exfoliating cleanser and it got rid of all of the dead skin sells whenever I had dry skin. Now for any reading this, my skin has it's extremities but in all boggle down to how much water I am drinking. During the winter due to the combination that it's dryer weather and I'm replacing water with warm drinks like tea (FYI for ever cup of tea you drink your should be adding two cups of water back into your system because tea is good for you but it also takes away water in your body), my skin becomes dry to the point that I can use up a tube of Bath and Body Works lotion in two weeks. During the summer because the weather is hotter, I drink more water and because it's more humid I use less lotion because my body seems to just sweat a lot more so the skin becomes more normal.

Irregardless to whether it winter or summer my face will still get dry to the point that I need a good exfoliation simply because of dead skin sells. So when I used this cleanser as my everyday cleanser it worked great in keeping things in check and just making my face stay clean. However, I don't think I will personally go back to it because there are so many other cleansers out there and nowadays I'm looking for a gentler exfoliation to use.

On a weekly basis I used Clean and Clear Blackhead Eraser Cleansing Mask

Now this baby was AMAZING. I loved the minty tingle it had on my skin and each time after I used it my face felt refreshed and my blackheads were more toned down. Sometimes I think I just need to go back to start using this again but I have so many other masks that I'm trying that I have yet to make a round to go back to it. Now apparently it's designed to loosen blackheads so it doesn't cleans it all the way out however at the time that I used it, I didn't have huge blackhead problems so it worked great to use just as a pick me up when my face felt dull.

The product does have salicylic acid in it to help fighting acne which is why I felt the tingle and now that I think back to it, it was probably the major reason that during that time in high school, I didn't have a lot of pimples even through all the stress of signing up for college, AP exams, and prom.

However when it comes down to it, my secret weapon is Biore Deep Cleansing Pore Strips

This works like a charm every time but it's is on the more pricy side and if you use this on a regular basis, it does add up. Now I am a college student so money is always tight and I will ration these out. I generally would use one every two weeks or once a month depending on whenever I am in the mood.

I love it because you get a chance to just see after you peal it off to see all of the dirty little things that were in your pores. I have tried a knock off weird asian brand that I found while I was in China, I still have some packets and it does take out some of the dirt but I wouldn't recommend using them because the smell is horrible. It smells like chinese medicine and the Biore pore strips are made of clothe so it's easier peel and you don't have to wait as long. It is apparently made out of natural bamboo and "so on" as written on the packets although I've noticed a lot of grammar mistakes so I'm not to keen on it the english translation that the have on the packaging.

The Chinese knock off brand is similar to the DIY version of pore strips however I suggest using the DIY version for the sole reason that you are using natural products that you would have normally consume. Below is a video tutorial from the famous Michelle Phan explaining the whole process. I have yet to try it out because I am still working on the Chinese knock off brand.

So whether you need a scrub, mask, or pore strip, it is still good at the end of the day to cleans your pores because that is what clearing blackheads mean, you are stripping your pores from the dirt and bacteria it has collected over a period of time.

Best,
Ren

The To Do List...

Hi to all silent readers/procrastinators/future self,

Everyone runs on some sort of to do list whether small or large. Now when a task is done is it completed and certain tasks are actions or stepping stones to a greater task/dream/goal however you wish to call it. Sometimes we are all so set on the next goal just to stay "productive" we kind of either a) forget to live in the moment or b) we do live in the moment but then we forgot about it after because sometimes it just doesn't seem to have that much of an importance in our lives.

We all seem to have those moments when we hear a song on the radio that we love but forgot about or that movie that we will watch and remember why we love it all over again or that product or trick that we use to make out lives easier whether it relates to personal hygiene or organization.

Well I, being a girl and also a marketing major, have been fascinated by the growth of the marketing on products like the youtube beauty community, the blogging community, etc. The internet has provided a huge resource for the average person like myself to be able to share my ideas or opinion of things. If you think about a conversation with someone is you are sharing your opinions over a topic and therefore you are learning from each other. So instead of just pouring advice or opinion after opinion to my friends who might not have a single interest in things like beauty products or things like that unless you are going shopping with them, I might as well create a blog just to at the very least archive my experiences and it's always interesting to watch them grow.

And you never know, maybe if you read one of the posts it will create that nostalgic moment when you think back as to why you like/love the product or idea in the first place.

So please bear with me and my grammar mistakes as I plow through my experiences throughout my life as I watch the way companies market products and how I fair with such products or ideas.

Best,
Ren