I have a mane...

Nope. That is not a typo in the title.

I actually have a mane. Of hair. Its thick. And mostly unruly and it can't decide if its curly or straight. And it has a kink. The Hairdresser is the only one who can really tame it into slick, sleek, awesome straightness. This is the best I can usually manage:

Its behaving in this pic, normally I look like a wild mad woman...

My hair is too thick to hold a curl. I tried. Oh, how I tried. I spent many nights sleeping with curlers in to get that wonderful curly "do" that so many of my thinner-haired friends had. But 10 minutes after taking the curlers out of my hair there was nary a trace nor hint that I had just spent the most uncomfortable night of my life, trying to comfortably rest my head on heated, prickly curlers and their bastard pins. I used mousse and setting sprays and everything I could mange to persuade my mother to buy, to try to convince my stubborn hair to hold a curl. Nothing worked. Nothing. sob.

And yes. I tried perms. I wanted Julia Roberts' hair in Pretty Woman. *hangs head in shame and hides face* It turned into a big head of frizz. EEP. Just ask my Bestie. We did a skit for school one year and we did hardly any teasing or back-combing to manipulate my spiral knot mess perm into something that would make any crazy demented mad professor jealous, never mind proud. "Lightening Struck" are the words I think my teacher used. I wish I could tell you that it was easy to comb out. It wasn't. I walked around trying to get the knots out for 3 days. Eish.

So generally, once I wash it, I use a combination of a whip (comb) and a chair (bristle brush) to beat my hair into submission and back it into a corner and get an elastic around it. And because its so thick, the elastic only goes around twice. And then it takes positively ages to dry. If I wash it in the morning and lash it back into a pony tail straight away, when I take the elastic out at night to go to bed my hair is still wet. Not damp, wet. You should see what happens if I go to bed with wet hair...

When Scrunchies were still cool my mom had to make mine as the ones they sold in the shops couldn't get round my hair more than once. Which is pretty useless really. So now before I buy the elastic, I test its stretch-ability. Much to the absolute horror of any onlooking shop assistants. Lets just say that I have had a few ping out of my hands. One on occasion I had to retrieve the elastics from on top of the next isle. I liked those ones. I liked them a lot. I can't find them any more :(

My last hair product post was about 5 months ago. That Tresemme Stuff lasts and lasts, and I don't like to change from something until its properly finished, unless it is utter crap or irritates my skin. I did find that the Tresemme conditioner wasn't quite doing enough for me after 3 months of using it, My Frizz-fest needed something more.

Welcome, Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Frizz Remedy, welcome to my shower. It was on sale in the chemist and I picked up a bottle to see if it would help. It did. I fell a little bit in love with its sweet yummy smell and it ability to ease the kinks and frizz.

Then it finished and I died a little bit. But I was thrown a life line when I walked into my pharmacy later that week and discovered that all their Aussie range were on sale. I picked up the Moist range. My hair is not really dry, but it does seem to like the extra "moisture" that the Aussie Miracle Mask added.

It smells nice and.... eh... that is all.

I am not sold on the Shampoo or the Conditioner. They seem to leave a film on my hair that makes it feel greasy, straight after washing. And it seems to be encouraging my scalp to flake a bit., not something that I have really struggled with in my short little life. I don't like it. I wash my hair every 3rd or 4th day, but using Aussie Miracle Moist Shampoo and conditioner means that every 2nd or 3rd wash I have to use a clarifying shampoo to strip the residue. And the conditioner does very little in the way of de-tangling and conditioning my hair. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it leaves my hair feeling coated, and dull and thicker than tow-rope. Rinse, rinse, and rinse again doesn't help, neither does a cold rinse which is not a great thing to do in winter.

I have to use conditioner. HAVE to. Otherwise it just gets ugly. I was going to show you what I look like without conditioner, but I just can't justify the horrifying image. Not on a blog where I like Nice things. So just imagine it.

I don't like to waste stuff though, so I am using the shampoo and the conditioner to get it finished. And of course it seems to be taking positively aaaaaaaages to finish.

The Mask, the Mask is a different story altogether. Like it was adopted or something, not a sibling to the nonsense that constitutes the Shampoo and conditioner.

I love the mask. I love it so much that I bought 3 when they were on special. I paid €3.59 for each bottle instead of the usual €5.29.

The bottle is awesome. It has no lid that you need to faff with. When you buy it there is a little sticker that you remove from the nozzle (in the "lid" that is on the bottom). Because it stands on its dispensing nozzle/valve, there is never the need to shake the conditioner to the top of the bottle where the nozzle is (and then it slips out of your hand, smashes to the floor and the bottle splits and you loose 80% of the conditioner down the drain).

You just pick it up and give it a small gentle squish and it dispenses the conditioner into the palm of your waiting hand. No messing, no fussing, no shaking.

I leave it on for 2 minutes while I wash my face and then rinse it out. It rinses out easily and leaves my hair soft, swishy and tangle free.

When I dry it the sweet smell of Australian Balm Mint lingers and my hair capitulates to my handling and allows me to wrangle it into a respectable pony. Or if I choose to straighten it (about once a month) then it sits quietly and surrenders to sleekness. And it stays like that for the day, all quiet and shiny and sleek. Almost as nicely as it behaves for my hairdresser.

Yes its full of silicones, but my hair needs them. I know that you are supposed to use it once or twice a week, but I use it every time I wash my hair. I have taken to mixing a teensy bit of it with the conditioner to improve the effectiveness of the conditioner, and also so that I can get the bloody conditioner finished.

I love the 3 Minute Miracle masks. They do a great job at taming the frizz, without leaving a weird scummy deposit on my hair.

Right, I wonder what I am going to use next on my nest hair...