Hair Archives - Strictly Kendra

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The BEST Dry Shampoo! | Pret-a-Powder Review

posted on : March 2, 2017 posted by : Stnkrbug 0 Comment

Having dark hair is sometimes the best and worst thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love the color of my hair, but it can be frustrating finding a dry shampoo that works with it. And, of course, my hair tends to get oily pretty quickly since I have a lot of hair, but the strands are fine. It’s strange because I have really dry skin, but my hair is the complete opposite. I used to wash my hair every single day, which is really bad, so I had to train it one summer to be able to wash it every other day, even with working out every morning. It’s gotten a lot better, but still gets a little oily on the days I don’t wash it.

The amount of dry shampoos I’ve tried is ridiculous; I’ve tried both salon and drugstore brands, and nothing really seems to make a difference and just ends up making my scalp itchy. I was watching one of Ingrid Nilsen’s videos and she mentioned the Bumble and Bumble Pret-a-Powder, and for some reason it still took me a couple of months to buy it. So, fast forward a couple of months, and I was in line at Sephora and saw this product in the “Beauty to go” section and decided to buy it. The small size is only around $15 so it’s not too bad! Here are my thoughts on the product:

When I first tried this product it literally looked like I had dumped a bunch of translucent powder on my hair, and I was worried it wouldn’t work itself in at all. After a couple of seconds of massaging my scalp and brushing my hair, the powder started to disappear, along with my oily roots! I was impressed with how quickly it blended in with my hair, and it didn’t make my roots look gray at all.

The smell was also really refreshing, and made my hair smell like I had just washed it, which is a huge plus when your hair is feeling a little limp and blah. It isn’t too fragrant, and I noticed that the smell lasted the whole day, and until the next morning when I washed my hair. I am a huge fan of nice smelling hair products, I don’t know what it is, but if something works well but doesn’t smell the best I’ll try and find something else that both works and smells nice. Call it one of my quirks, but I realize that it’s a bit ridiculous.

As well as being a dry shampoo, this powder also adds a lot of texture and volume to your hair, which is just what you want when it’s the second day and your hair is feeling a bit limp. I honestly will add the powder to my hair even on the same day I wash it if I feel like I need a little bit more texture. This really helps when I curl my hair and want the roots to have some volume since the strands are a bit weighed down from hair spray, and the fact that my hair tends to fall flat the minute I start touching and fixing it. My hair is able to hold its volume a lot better when I add this to the roots, and it’s also great when I want to do a messy hairstyle and need some extra texture!

Overall, I’m super satisfied with this product and have finally found a dry shampoo that works with my hair! I won’t be switching anytime soon, and I can even get away with washing my hair every three days if I don’t feel like washing it one day. I definitely recommend trying this product, especially just the travel size since it isn’t too much of a commitment. It actually lasts for a long time, too, which is great! I’m still on this little bottle and it’s been about two months now.

You can also check out the video review I did of this product, if you’d like!

What’s your favorite dry shampoo?

Thank you so much for reading, and have a great day! 🙂

This is NOT a sponsored post, and all opinions are my own.

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Why Cutting My Hair Was The Best Decision Ever

posted on : January 14, 2016 posted by : Stnkrbug 0 Comment

If you’ve been following my blog for a while now, you know that I’ve had long hair for the greater part of my life. I started growing it out around fifth grade because I always had short hair when I was younger. My mom always cut it into a bob to thicken it up because I had thin hair when I was a wee little tot, and that backfired because now I have enough hair to share with about five people. Okay, maybe it’s not that thick, but cutting it into a bob really must’ve done the trick.

Summer 2015

Because I had short hair, I always envied the girls who had long and flowing hair in my classes. I became obsessed with growing it out, and it was uber long until I cut it about a month ago. I loved my hair once it was long, and had no desire to cut it. That was all well and good until I started to really rely on it; my hair became my security blanket, and having it long made it easier for me to hide behind it in a way. I never did up-do’s for events like Prom, rather preferred to have it down and curled. I did not feel comfortable having it up because I truly felt naked without it. When I was in one of my best friend’s wedding a couple of summers ago, everyone suggested I put my hair up for the wedding, precisely because I never did. I actually went along with this, and felt super self conscious at first. As the day went on, I got more and more comfortable with it, and I began to put it up a lot more after that.

Spring 2014

The last couple of times that I’ve gone in to get my haircut, I played around with the idea of cutting all of my hair off, but I never did because I always chickened out. It wasn’t until I got six or seven inches cut off a month ago that I realized I relied on my hair way too much. I felt that it was kind of the last transition I went through in my 2015 journey to loving myself. (Will I ever stop mentioning The Year I Learned How to Love Myself? Probably not…) In order to be comfortable with myself, I wanted to challenge myself, and so I finally made the decision to cut off my hair. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but when you’ve had long hair for most of your life, it’s a big decision! All of my friends said, “Oh it’s just hair, Kendra…” and that was well and good, but to me, my hair had been my security blanket for the last ten years or so.

Summer 2015

I went to a new hair stylist to get my hair cut, and I’m really glad I did, because she didn’t know that I usually chicken out of cutting my hair. She just said okay, and chopped away. I think I worked myself up so much before, that I had no energy left to feel worried or stress about my decision. (I’m a very indecisive person, if you hadn’t already gathered.) After she cut it, I was so happy! My hair is so much lighter now, and it really fits where I’m at in my life, if that makes sense. I changed a lot last year, and learned just as much. I’m so much more comfortable with myself, and a lot more outgoing, so having short hair just felt right. It’s so much fun to play around with (is it strange that I feel sassier?), and I feel like it makes me look a lot older. It’s also a great decision logistically, since I workout every morning, and simply don’t have the time to deal with fixing long hair. Not that I make too much of an effort with my short hair, but it’s a lot faster to wash and look presentable.

The day I got my haircut! December 2015

My hair is still auburn, but it’s a lot shorter. I seriously couldn’t be happier with it, even though I can’t braid it anymore. That’s probably the only thing that I miss, but I can braid my hair into half-do’s at least! It’s so cool to have a different length of hair to play around with, instead of my ultra-long hair that I was getting pretty bored with. I think my short hair is around to stay for a while, and it’s a really good thing for me right now! I don’t rely on my hair to hide behind anymore, and having it short makes me feel a lot more confident.

January 2016

All of my family commented on how much older I look now, and that my this length really suits me. I just couldn’t say enough good things about this decision, and I have no #ragrets. I’m sorry, I had to. This was the perfect way to end 2015, and the transformation of learning to love myself! It forced me to take a different look at myself, and take a risk of absolutely hating my new hair length.

Do you like taking risks with your hair?

Thank you so much for reading and have a wonderful day! 🙂

Change,Hair,Life,Lifestyle,New Look,New Year

New Year, New….Hair?

posted on : January 11, 2015 posted by : Stnkrbug 0 Comment

Change is something that I definitely struggle with. It makes me super nervous because I don’t know what to expect and I don’t know if I’ll end up liking the change or not; however, I have been wanting to change up my hair for a while now, and I didn’t want to dramatically cut it all off. I also was really worried about coloring it because I colored my hair when I was younger and eventually started to hate it.

This past August, you guys may remember, I got red in the ends of my hair when I wanted a subtle balyage, but that just ended up washing out after a couple of weeks. Since I wanted the change to be more noticeable than last time, I decided to go for something that would show up more! I also want this year to be a great one, so I decided to start it off with a pretty big change (to me anyway)! I thought, what the heck, I’m only young once, right? And, if I ended up not liking the color, I could just get it colored back to my natural color. So without further ado, here is my new hair!

Ok, so it isn’t as fire engine red as it looks in this picture. The lighting made it look crazy red, but it’s actually more of a dark auburn with lighter copper highlights!

This is what it looks like when it’s not directly under the light.

You can kind of see the copper highlights here!

I really love how it turned out! It’s honestly not too drastic of a change, and I think it looks nice against my paler skin, and it brings out my green eyes way more!

These photos were taken when I was home, and I’m back at college now, so I’ll probably have a post soon of how it looks now that I’ve washed it a couple of times. I’m so glad I decided to color it, though! It’s the perfect time for a change, and having the different tones in my hair kind of forces me to actually style my hair everyday in order to actually see them, instead of just leaving my hair to dry at night.

Have you guys made any changes so far this year?

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day! 🙂

Beauty,Hair,Life,New Look

New Hair!

posted on : August 23, 2014 posted by : Stnkrbug 0 Comment

I’ve been thinking about changing up my hair for a while now, and I thought now would be the perfect time since I’ll be going to college in about a month! I want to have a fresh start this fall, so this is a great start!

Two of my dogs (Miki on the left and Z on the right). They love sneaking into pictures!

I really wanted to get auburn in my hair, but I didn’t want the change to be too drastic or look really unnatural, so I asked for a balyage look but with red instead of a blonder shade. I’m super happy with the result! I think it adds a little more depth to my hair and I love all the different shades and how gradual it is.

I really like the front as well – my hair stylist put a couple of red strands higher up to frame my face so I feel like that really finishes off my hair. I feel like the color change isn’t too drastic from the front either, which I really love!

Overall, I’m so happy with how it turned out and I’m really glad I decided to put some red in my hair! I was pretty nervous about it, and it took me so long to finally decide to color it. I’m a super indecisive person and change really scares me, but I thought what the heck, I’m only 18 and I’m going to college so I might as well change my hair – it just makes me even more excited to start this new chapter in my life!

What would you do to your hair if you knew you would have no regrets afterwards?

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great day! 🙂

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