Breakthrough Tangled Hair - Our Top 8 Tips!

There is help out there for those of you with constantly tangled hair! Does your hair tangle the minute you put the brush down? Well fear not, we are going to give you some tips and suggest some products to help you deal with those tangles!








Tips:

• Fine hair often tangles very easily so try using a volumising shampoo to avoid this problem.
• Rinse your hair with cool water as this helps to seal the cuticle, therefore avoiding frizz/tangles.
• Do not be too rough when drying your hair with the towel! Don't rub hair with the towel, just pat it dry.
• Use your fingers or a wide toothed comb to separate the hair strands a little, instead of attacking your hair with a brush the minute you notice some tangles!
• Use a detangling product after washing hair.
• Wind will tangle hair so just try to protect it a little.
• Use good quality hair straighteners as these will pull on your hair less.
• Try to gently untangle your hair as soon as you can rather than leaving it to worsen.

Products:

• Try Joico Body Luxe Hair Thickening Shampoo for thicker and therefore less tangled hair!
• Another great thickening shampoo is: Urban:Tribe Texture shampoo.
• A perfect conditioner to leave hair silky smooth and easy to keep under control is... Macadamia Hair Nourishing Leave-In Cream Natural Conditioner.
• Try Milkshake Intensive Conditioning Foam for super nourished and tangle free hair!
• Joico Daily Care Leave-In Detangler will protect your hair from heat styling and leave it amazing healthy and tangle-free.
• Milkshake Hair No Frizz Glistening Treatment is another very successful product in leaving your hair strong and healthy enough to fight tangles day and night.

Try out a few of these products and you will be amazed with the results. Give your hair a new lease of life!


Picture by Katie Tegtmeyer on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons Licence!

The Ins and Outs of Split Ends

So many of us suffer from split ends but don't know the causes or ways to prevent the problem. When the cuticle is damaged and the cortex unravel, we get the dreaded split ends. But nevermind the technical talk, we want to know what we're doing wrong and what we can do to help solve the problem!

So, what are the common causes of split ends?
Well basically, when our hair is dry and brittle, the ends split. Common causes of dry/damaged hair and therefore hair with split ends are:

• Excessive heat styling
• Bad quality hair brushes/combs
• Lack of good hair conditioning (with a good quality conditioner)
• Rough treatment of hair (for example, harsh towel-drying)
• Over colouring

What can we do to prevent/cure split ends?
As far as a cure is concerned, we are pretty much out of luck. The only solution to get rid of existing split ends is to get a hair cut. However, we can prevent split ends. Here are some tips to help you out:

• Try not to scrunch your hair up too much whilst washing to help avoid tangles.
• Use a good quality, preferably professional, conditioner.
• Comb through a leave-in-conditioner after washing hair on occasion.
• Brush/comb hair very gently (especially when wet) to avoid breakage.
• Don't use heat appliances too often and when you do, use a good thermal protection product.
• Have your hair cut regularly to remove split ends.

Recommended products to help with split ends:

• Keratin Complex Care Shampoo 400ml
• Joico K-PAK Cuticle Sealer Litre
• Macadamia Hair Nourishing Leave-In Cream Natural Conditioner
• Senscience Hair Thermal Design Styling Spray 200ml

Now go fight those split ends!


Picture by *Zara on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons Licence.

How to Get the Beach Hair Look - 5 Amazing Tips!

Create your very own beach look hair!

Ever wished you could hang on to those beach moments for a little longer? -Well now you can with our handy tips and versatile products.

We all know how great our hair looks after a dip in the sea and as straightforward as this sounds,  we are all not blessed with homes on the coast and we can't all afford a trip to the sea every few days. So, we need a simple alternative.

Photo: Ian Norman

In this entry I'm going to suggest some very simple tips and some great hair products to help create that surfer-style hair.
Holiday hair?! We can even turn this expression into a positive one... say goodbye to frizzy holiday hair and say hello to beautiful beach-look hair...

• Tip number 1: Use an uplifting shampoo
  Why not try Montibello Densi Volume Shampoo. This fantastic product is designed to give your hair a lift. Densi volume is a redensifying volume shampoo that reinforces and moisturises the hair fibre providing your hair with more body and volume. If you want to give your hair a boost, this is the shampoo for you!


Another great shampoo which would be perfect for your beach-look hair is Milkshake No Frizz Glistening Shampoo Oil. Apply this every day use shampoo for frizz free hair. The natural ingredients used in this product nourish your hair with vitamins A, D and E. So if you want hair that's prepared to fight the humidity of long Summer days, use this nourishing shampoo.



• Tip number 2: Condition your hair
  Try Montibello Densi Volume Conditioner to further boost that volume. This wonderful conditioner is designed to give a weightless lift to your hair, making it easy to style and even preventing it from being weighed down by the Summer's relentless moisture and humidity. So for lively, bouncy hair, use Montibello Densi Volume Conditioner!



• Tip number 3: Restore your hair
  If you suffer from dry or damaged hair, be sure to restore it before hitting the Summer heat! Milkshake Argan Oil Deep Treatment promises to fully hydrate your hair, leaving it lusciously soft, healthy and ready for styling. This hair treatment is as easy to use as any regular conditioner but manages to restore your hair and protect it against any harsh weather all in just 3-5 minutes!



• Tip number 4: Protect your hair
  Don't neglect coloured hair! Coloured hair is especially vulnerable in the Summer months so protect it with Macadamia Nourishing Leave-In Hair Protectant. This product is perfect if you're in a rush in the morning, simply apply to your hair style and leave in for lasting hold and protection.



• Tip number 5: Complete your beach-look hair
  One simple step to create the wavy look everybody seeks in the Summer...
  Apply Montibello Densi Volume Treatment Hair Mousse This Re-densifying restructuring foam reinforces, moisturises and gives hair volume and body. Apply to damp hair and scrunch chunks of your hair with your hands.Do not rinse off. Smooth out, gently brush or re-apply for your own personal look!

One final suggestion for home or holidays: Milkshake Summer Pleasure Oil for Hair and Skin! This product replenishes your hair, scalp and skin after a day in the sun. Use this product for soft and moisturised hair and skin.

Now you and your hair can enjoy the sun!

Specialist Secrets to Youthful Looking Hair!

Everyone wants to look younger these days, nobody wants to look their age and there are lots of people claiming that they have the next 'quick fix' for all of your beauty problems. Well, not to be outdone, we have decided to compile a comprehensive guide to keeping those youthful looks without having to go to extreme lengths, and we will try and do it on the cheap as well! So, here is my jargon free youthful hair guide...

Photo: Nancy Frost

• Hair Length
  
  You can see it now, the temptation these days is that the minute you get over a certain age (40ish) you decide that you are not allowed to wear long, beautiful locks. So, rather than keep your long hair you chop it all off in something of an offering to hair gods in the hope that they will grace you with at least some hair on your head for the remainder of your days on this green earth.
  
  Well, I've got news for you. Hair life doesn't stop at 40 and there are no rules to dealing with your hair at any age. We thing that you should consider your hair length to fit in with a number of things, but not age. We think the length of your hair should be decided on things, like your general style and the shape of your face and other intangible things like that.
  
  Now I know that this is a very 'airy-fairy' tip but the real wisdom hidden in these words is that you should go and see a trusted hair stylist and they will know exactly what length hair would suit you, listen to them and not the voice in your head saying "cut it off, cut it all off!".



• Healthy Hair is Healthy Hair!
  
  A classic journey that many women take everyday is that of the 'road to healthy hair', you can throw as many products and styling irons and hair dryers as you like at your head but at the end of the day there is only one way to look at things; healthy hair is healthy hair, you can't fake it!
  
  So, with that in mind, I would like to encourage you, my loyal reader, to take a common sense approach to your hair care routine. As I always say, think of the hair care routine in three stages: wash, condition and style. So, with three simple steps in there you can set out with a clear head and find the best way to get healthy hair.
  
  So, you will need a shampoo. The shampoo you use should be selected specifically to suit the style and type of your hair. Here are some options to get you started: curly hair, straight hair, coloured hair, dry and damaged hair. You get the picture. Basically, you need to choose just for you the shampoo that will suit you best, by all means send me a message and a pic and I will give you a personal advice session!
  
  So, once you have the shampoo use it as advised on the bottle. There is no need to use too much and there is also no need to under do it either. Just a nice simple aproach will work wonders on stressed out hair and the more relaxed you are about the process the more cared for your hair will look! Be gentle!
  
  The same goes for conditioners and styling products. I can't really advise everybody what products to use here because it very much depends on your personal needs, but if I was to give you an amazing tip (and best kept secret) I would advise you browse Milkshake Hair Products.

More tips will be coming next week when we scale things down into specific hair types so that you have a specific rescource for your own situation. I would love to see some pics and hear some requests from you guys to get me started so by all means send them in to contactus@milkshakehairproducts.co.uk and I will be sure to include your message!

How To Get Hair Like...Katy Perry!

So, she is all the rage at the moment, she has even made an honest man of Russell Brand, so she must being doing something right. Now, we don't know if her hair has had anything to do with her success, but we certainly love Katy Perry's long, dark locks and we want to crack open the secrets behind her perfect hair. So, without further ado, here is our take on how to get hair as beautiful as Katy Perry's!

• The One With Shampoo...
  
  Ok, so with most guides to getting great hair, you are best to start with a clean set of locks, you can't get beutiful hair that isn't properley cleansed beforehand! Katy Perry has consistantly jet black hair that is always full of body and has a shine that draws you in to the deep dark beauty of her hair.
  
  It is important to take care of your hair colour, esspecially with a style like Katy Perry's that relies on having a consistant deep tone. As such, we decided to use a colour protecting shampoo that would cleanse and moisturise without taking away any of your hair's hue.
  
  The shampoo we used was the fantastic Milkshake Colour Maintainer Shampoo. Colour Maintainer Shampoo, as the name suggests, protects the colour of your hair whilst you cleanse. Milkshake Hair Products use a mixture of natural ingredients and all of the ones in here are going to be gentle to the colour tones in your hair whilst also leaving you with a natural shine and moisture, it is the only place to start really!



• What Condition is it in?
  
  Next we need to sort out a decent conditioner that is going to give your hair the vitality and lift it needs to achieve those effortless, full bodied loose curls that Katy Perry seems to achieve with ease. We need a conditioner that is going to make the most of your hair by adding a bit of oomph and moisture to stop any unwanted frizz.
  
  We have decided to use Montibello Ultra Rizzo Instant Mask. Ultra Rizzo or Very Curly (in English) is specially developed to add some real body to your hair as well as bringing together some salon professional ingredients that will promote the generation of healthy curls. We also love how this conditioner gives hair an amazing elasticity meaning your curls look like they have a genuine boost in body that is flexible and strong, this conditioner really put a smile on my face!



• You've Got Style!
  
  Really, there is only one more stage to achieve the loose curls of Katy Perry. You have washed your hair using a good quality, colour care shampoo and you have bathed it in a luxury conditioner that has set your hair ready for some curls. You will need to now prepare your hair to keep the curls, whether you have natural curls or need to coax them out with a curling iron.
  
  The product we have chosen as the styling tool for the loose curls look is Milk shake Curl Passion Designer. Milkshake Curl Passion is a specially formulated hair styling product that will work absolute wonders on curly hair styles.
  
  We simply applied a small amount to damp hair (can be applied to dry hair) and styled it as we wished. The hair was left feeling soft, looking full of body and it had a genuine strength and a lot of bounce in it! Milkshake Curl Passion is also another of my so called 'friendly' hair stlying products that wont ruin your hair in any way and uses really good ingredients that will stop your hair becoming frizzy.

So, there you have it. From flat and lifeless to the Katy Perry, full bodied, loose curls look in three painless steps. Let me know how it goes and we will be back next time with even more good hair advice for you!

The Hair Products We Used:

Milkshake Colour Maintainer Shampoo - £10.10 from milkshakehairproducts.co.uk

Montibello Ultra Rizzo Instant Mask - £12.40 from Specialist Hair Supplies

Milkshake Curl Passion Designer - £12.39 from Specialist Hair Supplies

Picture by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/machechy/ - Used under a Creative Commons Licence.

How to Get Hair Like Eva Longoria-Parker (Desperate Housewives)!

How To Get Hair Like Eva Longoria Parker

She might be a desperate housewive, but she isn't desperate for beautiful hair. Eva Longoria-Parker has permenantly perfect hair and we are desperate to find out the secrets behind her great look. So, with Desperate Houswives in full flow at the moment (ooh it's getting good!) we are going to crack open the secrets behind this desperately good hair!

Eva Longoria Parker has beautiful thick, dark and naturally wavy hair. She manages to keep it looking full bodied and her wavy locks look healthy with a beautiful shine and a natural vitality and tone.

• The Shampoo Stage
  
  The first thing we need to do is to use an excellent shampoo that will not only cleanse the hair, but add some real body and volume to the hair. There is another key ingredient to this shampoo that we require as well...luxury. Any desperate houswife worth their salt should count the actual experience of using a hair product as important as the end result, and so we have thought up an excellent, luxury shampoo that is not only a joy to use, but will take care of your hair salon style!
  
  The luxury shampoo we have chosen to use is Milkshake Volume Solution Shampoo. Milkshake is an excellent range of salon shampoo and hair care products. They are designed to be used by professional hair stylists in salons and so, as you can imagine, are excellent quality, if they weren't then there would be lots of salon stylists moaining! Milkshake Volume Solution Shampoo does what it says on the bottle, it adds volume to your hair. Give your hair real body that will turn heads and leave your hair looking and feeling healthy and amazing! The consistency and aroma of this shampoo is wonderful and you will be bathing your hair in the kind of luxury suitable for any housewife, desperate or not!



• Positive Conditioning!
  
  Ok, here I go again...conditioning hair is a bit of a speciality for me. As I have said in previous weeks, and I am sure the regular readers amongst you will be sick of hearing this, if you spend money in only one place, spend it on your conditioner. Having worked in the hair care and beauty industry for some time, I have learned that the best and most easy way to ensure that you have beautiful hair is to condition it with a good quality product. If you are looking to make cuts somewhere, make it on the shampoo, but don't sacrifice the conditioner! With that nugget of advice out of the way, we are looking to emulate the beautiful hair of Eva Longoria-Parker (of Desperate Housewives fame!). We have added some excellent volume using your luxury Milkshake shampoo, now we need to make the most of this volume and add some shine to it as well as promoting the hair's volume.
  
  The conditioner we have chosen to get the Eva Longoria-Parker look is again from the fantastic Milkshake range. If you haven't heard of Milkshake yet, then where have you been!? Just in case you didn't know then Milkshake are a fantastic range of hair products, that originated from Z.One concepts in Italy. Normally we would spend a little more time raving about Milkshake but we will save that for an article of its own, for now we are only interested in a good quality volumising conditioner for hair.
  
  The Milkshake conditioner we have chosen to use is the Volume Solution Conditioner, the perfect partner for the Milkshake Volume Solution Shampoo, it uses active volumizing ingredients that work with the keratin in your hair to give it a natural boost and leave it feeling silky smooth. As well as this, it is another luxury hair product that will suit you Desperate Housewives out there! We found that using just a modest amount of the Volume Solution Conditioner had some fantastic results. Just work it through your hair after using the partner shampoo and your hair will not only be left volumised but it will have a beautiful, natural shine. 




• Style and Class!

We have decided that we want to make this 'hair tutorial' as simple as possible and so we have tried to keep it to three helpful, bitesize stages. As such, we are looking for a hair styler that will take care of the remainder of the task in hand; namely, to get hair just like Desperate Housewife, Eva Longoria-Parker. The hair styler we are looking for needs to make the most of your hair's volume as well allowing your to hold those loose curls and waves in place without allowing frizz to spoil the fun.

It is worth adding here that if you don't have naturally wavey hair (I don't) then you will want to perhaps style it using a curling iron. Now, this is important, make sure you use a styling treatment before using a styling iron, otherwise you will damage your hair. I tend to use Simply Zen Cuticle Redefiner before I style with irons, it protects my hair from damage and promotes the style I am going for! Make sure you only gently cure your hair, we only want loose curls and waves here after-all!

With that taken care of, I have decided the best thing for the job will be to use a nice hair spray to finish things off. I have chosen to use Milkshake Lifestyling Open Air Hair Spray. This is a hair spray made by Milkshake who are specialists in natural hair care. The fact that this is a Milkshake hair product means that it uses the best ingredients and cares for all hair types.

To use the hair spray, be gentle with it and spray sparingly until you feel you have achieved the Eva Longoria-Parker look. The Milkshake hair spray will then do all of the hard work to keep your hair beautiful and in place.

So, there you have, now we can all be Desperate Housewives. If you have any questions of need any help feel free to send us a message and we will get our experts to take a look! Please send in your pictures of the results of trying out our guides and we will do our best to feature them in our blogs. We also take requests! Sign up to our e-mailing list and we'll keep you entertained with hairstyle how to's and wonderful hair care advice delivered straight to your inbox! Anyway, what are you still doing here?? Go and do your hair!

The Hair Products We Used in This Guide:

Milkshake Volume Solution Shampoo

Milkshake Volume Solution Conditioner

Simply Zen Cuticle Redefiner Hair Treatment

Milkshake Lifestyling Open Air Hair Spray

Picture by: Guadalajara Used under Creative Commons licence

Condition Your Hair Like A Pro! Our Top 5 Tips

Conditioning your hair might sound like an everyday kind of task yet there are certain nuances that will allow you to take it to the next level... You shampoo and then you condition, that's the routine and it never changes... But wait! We know that a lot of the ladies out there don't put nearly enough thought into conditioning their hair. Conditioning is very important, and I am here to show you why. Don't just think of hair conditioning as an after thought, plan your hair regime around your beautifully soft and healthy hair and you will not regret it! See, look how happy your hair can be ;)

Photo: David365

1. If you are looking to save money, save it on the shampoo. Don't get me wrong, having a good quality shampoo and a top quality conditioner at the same time is an excellent thing, but if you have to make cuts somewhere, make them on the shampoo. A good quality hair conditioner will make up for the losses you are making on shampoo, but try it the other way around and you could be left with a dried out mess in weeks. So, tip 1, condition with a good quality conditioner, even if you have a standard shampoo.

2. Don't just slap a palm full of conditioner in your hair and work it in like you would with shampoo. All you need is a small amount of conditioner. Then apply it to your hair gently, working it down the length of the hair. We suggest you use a comb to gently work the conditioner right along the hair to the tip, don't force the comb through your hair though, let the conditioner smooth it out slowly, there is no rush when conditioning.

3. Avoid the root of the problem! Conditioner is designed to work on the length of the hair, not the roots. There is no point in spending time working conditioner into the roots, that is the work of shampoo. Just concentrate along the length of the hair. Working conditioner into your roots will only clog up your style and leave your hair looking lacklustre.

4. Timing is important. The optimum amount of time to leave conditioner in your hair varies from person to person, but there are general rules of thumb to follow. If you are just taking care of your hair in your normal routine, then leaving the conditioner in your hair for 2-3 minutes should be long enough for the conditioner to work its' magic. If your hair is particularly dry and in poor quality you may want to leave the conditioner in for about 5 minutes before washing out. If your hair is very badly damaged it is time to use a hair treatment mask. Masks are best described as intensive conditioners and are designed to be used on a weekly basis, follow the instructions on the mask and be amazed at your new silky smooth hair afterwards!

5. Wash it all out! One of the silliest things you can do is to not take care when rinsing your hair after conditioning. The top tip is don't leave any conditioner in your hair, it will only clog things up and effectively undo all of the good work you have done. A good rinse to make sure that all residue is out of your hair will ensure that the conditioner has done its' job properly.

So, now we know... conditioning is important and if you are going to do it, do it properly! Watch this space for our top 5 conditioners of all time...