You Guuuuuyys! I finally got a haircut! It feels so fresh and so clean clean! Seriously, it feels real good. My hair was really long, and I won’t lie to you, I was digging it, but it was also getting really hard to manage and it needed to be shaped and thinned out. The ends were still healthy, but I decided to get a few inches taken off anyway, in case it takes me a while to get it cut again. Otherwise I was going to have to start tucking it into my pants to keep it under control. I like to be a trend setter, but I know my limits! Hair-pants are not going to happen.

How did I manage not to have fried ends when I haven’t had it cut for so long? Well you can read a bit more about that HERE. But I never really elaborated on different choices in hair masks. There are a ton of different options from high end to drugstore to DIY so let’s talk about my favorite one of each.

SPLURGE: This one has a story behind it, and it’s confession time - My name is Nicole and I am a former hair dye addict. Back in 2007-2008 I had bright red hair, and I loved it SO much. The problem was that I had to color it every two weeks to maintain the color. Red is notorious for washing out quickly, apparently. So as you can imagine, that took a toll on my hair, and by took a toll I mean eventually it all broke off and I had to cut it to just below my shoulders. It was literally my nightmare. Going from waist length red to shoulder length brown was a pretty traumatic experience, so naturally I did everything in my power to get it back into good health and grow it back out as quickly as possible. Not that there is anything wrong with shoulder length brown hair, it was just a huge change for someone who loved their hair so much.

One of the things that I began to do was use a very potent hair mask by Phyto called the Phytodensium Mask. At first, when my hair was still fried to hell I would use it every time I washed my hair. I applied it to the ends of my wet hair while I did my makeup and then rinsed it with cold water just before styling. It took it from fried and unmanageable to decent and normal, when nothing else would. Eventually as the condition of my hair improved I began to use it just once a week as recommended. Long story short I swear by this stuff! If your hair is really damaged, I think it’s worth the splurge. Nothing can reverse the damage, but you can at least keep it softer and more manageable until you grow it out.

Steal: A while back the internet was abuzz with people praising the Macadamia Oil Deep Repair Masque. I was pretty skeptical, so I didn’t go out and buy it, but I happened to get a sample in my Birchbox. I’m glad I didn’t buy it because honestly, I felt like it was average at best. It wasn’t terrible by any means and it does smell awesome, but If I want my hair to smell awesome I’ll spray some perfume in it. I’m in it for the results here, guys. A while later as I was killing time walking around target I noticed that OGX (didn’t they used to be called Organix? Am I missing something?) had a “Macadamia Oil Intensive Moisture Mask” and it was like $5.99. To my delight, when I got it home I found that it made my hair softer and shinier than the Macadamia Brand one. Since then I have been using this as my once a week mask. I haven’t needed to go heavy duty and get the Phyto one because my hair has been in good spirits so in the meantime this little steal has got me covered.

DIY: Please don’t e-punch my in the face for talking about coconut oil again. I’m sorry . . .actually no I’m not! Coconut Oil is the base for many awesome DIY hair masks. I still use my DIY Maple Coconut Mask and love it, and you can even use just plain old straight coconut oil as a deep conditioning mask! Sometimes I just a small amount of coconut oil into my hair and then let it sit under a plastic shower cap for a about a half hour. The plastic cap holds in the heat from your head and that warmth helps the oils penetrate the hair shaft, or so they say. All I know is my hair feels pretty freakin’ good after, and I only needed stuff from my kitchen. Be warned though, you may need to wash your hair twice after using an oil mask, otherwise it could be grease city. Nobody will appreciate your healthy tresses if you look like the smelly kid in class. 😉