What does this photo make you think of?

Floating before my eyes are apparitions of sticky sweet pudding, icing on top of cupcakes, whipped cream, ice cream, flavored yogurt - you get the idea! Now I want dessert! Anyway, seriously now. The good-looking stuff on top can't actually be eaten (sadly) since they're for your hair.

Lorys Hair Cream just landed on the shelves of Watsons two months ago. It's big in Brazil, which is what compelled the Filipino distributors to bring it to the Philippines. They contacted me and asked me to try Lorys.

So what is it exactly? It's a product that you can use for a quick n' cheap hair spa at home. You can use it two ways: as a conditioner and as a treatment (hot oil). The five variants (Ceramidas, Duo Chocolate, Snake Oil, Shea Butter, and Fruit Cocktail) are designed to target specific hair problems. I only tried one that seemed the most applicable to my topmost hair concern -  Shea Butter, which is supposed to nourish and shine curly, dry hair.

What I love about the product

• As promised, it really moisturized my curly hair. It's more bouncy and soft to the touch.
• The texture is very creamy. Half a handful is enough for my whole head of hair.

I was super duper duper bored with my hair. All I can do with it before is just wash it and tie it up. My last hair cut was at a Korean salon called Beauty Brick, way back in March, so obviously my hair has grown a lot since then. I craved for something new, something I haven't tried yet! But what?

The answer was clear as day. I had to dye my hair for the first time. And get bangs! Now, if you have wavy hair like me, you know that bangs are slightly equivalent to having hell on your head. Okay, that's over the top. But you see, when I last had bangs (a decade ago) it was something I hated dealing with everyday so I just stopped having them. That's until last week, when I wanted to be challenged by my hair for a change.

The result, blow-dried:

Here is my hair washed (sorry for the yellow tinge, forgot to adjust my camera's settings):

I had a voucher to try L'Oreal INOA for free, so off I went to Regine's Salon at The Link, Makati to claim the free treatment. It was Karina Mantolino, the head stylist, who accommodated me. I asked her to give me a hair cut first before we got on to the dyeing session. The whole thing was pretty quick at less than 15 minutes since she just gave me layers, and it only cost me P450.

I've never had my hair colored, ever. Whenever I go to salons to get a cut, I always smell the distinctive stink of hair dye. It's the kind of odor that goes straight inside your nasal passage and stays there, painfully. That's a huge deterrent for me! My hair is really thin plus I suffer from hair fall so I've been staying away from any sort of chemical treatment for years now.

And then came L'Oreal INOA. A play on the words "Innovation No Ammonia", L'Oreal's revolutionary hair coloration system promises optimal scalp comfort and the absence of smell. It's because there is zero ammonia in the formula. At the heart of INOA is the ODS (Oil Delivery System) which is supposed to optimize the hair penetration of the coloring active ingredients.

Robbie discussing the system

Demoing. The system has three major components just manually mixed with each other.

Pureology is well-known for its line of hair color care shampoos and conditioners. Their products has Anti-Fade and ZeroSulfate properties to ensure that colored hair is always in top notch condition. Now, the popular brand has branched off to provide not only products, but hair care and styling services!

Alex Carbonell of Studio Fix by Alex Carbonell and Chrissy Calderon-Uy of Hairworks Salon attended the Pureologist Certification Training held last April 27-29, 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ms. Lynna Choi, the Asia Regional Education Manager of Pureology, facilitated the three-day training and certification.

The beauty writers with Alex Carbonell (photo grabbed from Nikki)

I was overdue for my yearly haircut so I decided, quite spontaneously, that I wanted to get my hair chopped last Friday. I was at home, bored, procrastinating when suddenly, poof! I shot off to get a cut. Not before Googling salons, of course! I asked Lauren about Beauty Brick, since it's well-reviewed online. She got her lovely digiperm there. She was so happy with the service so she enthusiastically referred Beauty Brick to me.

The salon is located in Dona Consolacion Bldng, Jupiter St. Makati, near the corner of Makati Avenue. The place looks quite cozy and homey. As soon as I got in, all the salon people greeted me good afternoon! They were very warm and friendly. They greeted my by name since I called in for an appointment and hour before.

The whole time I was there I didn't have to wait for anything. After greeting me, they herded me to the shampoo area where they oohed about my naturally wavy hair. I think they're so used to getting customers who are sick of their straight hair! After all Beauty Brick is really known for their digiperm, not haircuts per se. 

After shampooing, they seated me in front of the huge mirror and proceeded to blow dry my hair. Once they're done with that, they gave me three ring-bound books full of pictures of hairdos specifically for wavy hair. I super appreciate that little gesture because when I went there I didn't have a specific style in mind. While I was browsing, they asked if I wanted coffee, tea, or iced tea. How nice, eh?

Once I picked a cut, Mr. Shin, the owner of the salon, went over to study my hair and make suggestions based on the style I wanted. He spoke mainly in Korean and knew a little English. We didn't have a problem with communicating though since some of his staff were fluent in Korean and translated quite well.

Snip, snip, snip...the whole haircut was done in under 30 minutes. Wanna see?