Kate is in talks with her friend and hairdresser James Brown (no, not the dead guy musician) to start a new line of hair care products. [source] Interestingly enough, the line will feature her image, not her name. I am not sure why. Do they not want to be associated with her name? Not bloody likely. Does she not want to too closely associate with the product line? I can’t imagine, especially after seeing her name splashed all over her recent clothing line. Questions questions. I guess, since they are still in talks, it remains to be seen.

On a related note, Kate is plummetting down in this picture like I am into being that gray rooted woman I can’t stand seeing. This is just about what my hair looks like now. Still. haven’t. colored. Oy.

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Have you noticed the big trend towards hair extensions entering the world around you? We have all seen Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, and many other celebrities wearing them alot over the past couple of years, but I have seen them really going mainstream lately. There are several different methods of putting extensions in, prior to recently they mostly required a trip to the salon, but that is no more. But for your information, I am going to talk a little about the different types of hair extensions available to you, in the salon and at home – as a great fan of transformations, I have tried most of these methods over the years, so will add what I like and dislike about them all. So, here we go, first off with Sew-In Wefts:

Sew in wefts – Wefts are the basis of most hair extensions – whether they are natural hair, or synthetic. Pictured above, wefts are long sewn together strings of hair. Sew in wefts are usually done at the salon, but really aren’t tremensdously difficult to do yourself, but it is necessary to have patience and the help of a friend. What you want to do (or what will be done to you in a salon) is to create a very thin cornrow that spirals around your head, starting at about an inch off of your crown. This is the bulk of the time issue with this method, it takes sometimes quite a few hours to get the tiny cornrow put into your hair. You want several spirals – the more spirals you have, the thicker your hair will be. There is nothing uglier than hair extensions that are not quite thick enough.

Once your cornrow is complete, you simply sew (yes, with a needle and some sturdy thread that matches your hair) the wefts on to the cornrow. This method is the longest lasting and most natural looking of all of the hair extension methods, I think, but in a salon it will cost big bucks, mostly due to the time it takes your stylist. Make sure your hair extensions are dyed the proper color first, but once they are in your hair, you can cut them into the perfect style for you!

Have any of you tried this before?

Image: HairUWear

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So, back to the Hair Powder. I was in Nashville the week prior, and in all honesty, was totally embarassed about the amount of twinkling roots I had showing, but I had a couple of hours I needed to kill before my brother was going to be home from work, so I went and found a Cosmetics Mall in a shopping center, and killed my 2 hours. Easily. And expensively! So, I have never used much of the Bumble & Bumble line, but my bestest girlfriend is a Bumble & Bumble fanatic and has been raving about them forever to me. So at the B & B display I see their hair powder – take a look, and spray it on (from the sample can). It is a colored powder, in an aerosol can, and comes in blonde, brown and red (I think). I thought – no way is this gonna work – but oh, boy was I wrong. Worked perfectly. Completely covered my gray – no shiny white showing through AT ALL. So after oohing and aahing over it for a while in the store, I sprung the $36 bucks for a can I could call my own. So now, as I am hitting week 3, I have this fabulous powder that is going to allow me to make it to week 4, or maybe even week 5. The best part? If I don’t wash my hair, I don’t have to reapply, and the powder itself makes you able to stretch an extra day or two between shampoos. The color lasted for several days before I started seeing white show through – and it was high time to shampoo then anyway. And no color deposited on my pillows as I slept either. Amazing!

Have you used this? If not (and you need it, of course) you should!

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Going against all of my beauty editor friends who did not much care for John Frieda’s Luminous Color Glaze, I have given it a good, full out try, and I like it. I will buy it again.

Kristen wasn’t fond of the cap – and she is very right there, it desperately needs a nice flip top cap. That is really my only complaint – the big, plastic screw top pops right out of wet hands, and in my case, over the edge and underneath the claw foot tub. Not fun. I am not friendly with the creepy crawlies that live under there. Texas has LOTS of HUGE spiders, if you didn’t know that. Other than that little ergonomical issue, I really love the product. It adds a touch of shine – nothing as dramatic as a peroxide glaze would give – but my favorite benefit is that it adds a touch of color to my white hair when it is growing out. I waited 4 weeks instead of my usual 3 weeks between color touch ups, and the glaze adds just enough color to make the white look like blonde and easily extend my time between touch ups. I will still continue to touch up every three weeks, ’cause that is just the kinda girl I am – but I just like in general that you can’t see the white when it is growing out.

Also, I didnt really see much improvement after using it several times like is suggested in the directions. I wash my hair about 2 times a week and use it both times – and that just maintains, I think. The effect does not seem to be improved with the repeated uses.

Probably the best tip I have is to make sure your hair is not sopping wet – towel dry it first, apply the glaze in a few steps so you don’t have too much in your hand and you waste it by it dripping out, and leave the glaze on for as long as you can – up to a max of about 20 minutes (although I didn’t test it beyond that, so I don’t know how a longer time would affect it). Be sure to rinse your hair well and use it AFTER you have used all of your shampoos and conditioners.

Oh, and a chlorine pool will strip it out of your hair almost immediately, so plan on starting over with it after swimming. I have had my bottle for about a month and it is about half gone – like I said before, when it is gone, I will buy it again. Hope you like it too!

Christina rates it: [rate 3.5]

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I do like glazes, and especially like that they fatten up my super baby-fine hair so that I get a little more cooperation in the styling department. But I have a question–in cases like mine, where one has both high and low-lights, what glaze color should you go with if there isn’t no-color, clear glaze offered? The glaze that matches your lightest color, so it won’t mask your darker tones?

Suzzann, yes, when doing temporary or semi-permanent color, especially to touch up and brighten color to extend the life of your color job for a couple more weeks, always go with the color that matches, or is a bit lighter than, your lightest color. This will brighten up your whole head of hair, give you some shine, and will not cover up what your colorist has worked so hard to achieve. Especially when you are dealing with things like highlights AND lowlights in your hair.

You should also consider the base tones in your hair. If you are unsure whether your hair has a yellow, ash or platinum base color, be sure and choose a glaze that is labelled neutral so you don’t wind up covering up the gold in your hair, or make your ash based color too brassy. I will talk a little more about those this week if you don’t quite understand what all of that means, so keep an eye out for that.

For now, always match the lightest color in your hair with a glaze for results you will be happy with! Thanks for the question Suz.

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Elke, over at one of my favorite blogs, The Beauty Newsletter, did a review last weekend of John Frieda’s Luminous Color Glaze that I thought was pretty interesting, especially considering how often I recommend using semi permanent color to home users. Elke had pretty good results with it:

So as I’m waiting for my hair to dry, I notice that it’s drying super fast. And hair feels smooth to the touch. So far so good! And the next morning? Hair is definitely much thicker feeling, and looks great. Color I’ve noticed that it brings out reddish chestnut highlights a bit more, and as far as shine? Hmmm, not so much. But hair feels better, thicker, and cooperates with me.

This is what John Frieda’s web site says about glazing and what it is:

Glazing is a process that’s been offered in professional salons for years to optimize the look and feel of dull, faded, lifeless hair. In fact, if you’ve ever gotten your hair colored at a salon, chances are you’ve had a glaze done.

Luminous Color Glaze™ delivers the results of a professional salon glaze, right in the shower. In just 3 minutes, you can give your hair a complete makeover, effortlessly.

The big difference in this product and what you get in a salon is the salon glazing product is a good bit longer lasting than this will be. The salon glazes (like Clairol’s) have some peroxide in them, which will give them a semi permanent quality that should last you about 6 weeks. This product has no peroxide, so you really can’t expect the effects to last through too many shampoos. Maybe we should talk about how the hair coloring process works, but that is a post for the future.

I have always liked John Frieda’s products alot – I haven’t been disappointed with one of them yet, and I am going to try this soon myself, my hair color has been looking a little dull lately.

You can buy John Frieda’s Glazes at your local drugstore, or at drugstore.com for $9.99.

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