Say neigh to bad hair days with Mane ‘n Tail haircare, now for people! Review and Photos

Do you want to be the finest filly in the paddock this party season? Does a long, lush mane sadly elude you thanks to colouring, bleaching and heat styling? Let me introduce you to Mane ‘n Tail, the “horse to human” crossover range which was developed after equestrian enthusiasts used their horses’ shampoo on themselves, and loved it! Jennifer Aniston apparently uses the range and her hair condition speaks for itself.
I was kindly sent some items to review: Mane ‘n Tail Color Protect Shampoo and Conditioner (€8.95 for a large 355 mL Bottle) Herbal Grow Olive Oil Complex Spray Therapy (€12.95 for 178 mL) and Shine On Maximum High Gloss Finish (€10.85 for 120 mL). See my results below!

 

Mane N Tail Collection Review

A little background on my hair

I recently bleached the bejaysus out of my naturally dark brown locks, to lift the pigment so that I could apply red over it. The bleaching had its usual effects, turning my hair into a mop of knotty, dry, flyaway frizz which no amount of conditioner can tame.  My hair is also rather thin, so the usual oil-type treatments tend to leave me with greasy rats tails. Attractive. I honestly didn’t think I could find a middle ground between parched and saturated until I met this range.

 

How the Mane ‘n Tail products fit into my routine

The shampoo and conditioner are gentle, cleansing effectively without drying. My hair is much less straw-like following washing, but still not quite as sleek as I’d like, so I proceed to apply Herbal Grow Spray Therapy to towel dried hair. This when combed through either with fingers or a wide toothed comb gets rid of any knottiness and seals bushy dry ends. After blow-drying my hair is notably smoother and well conditioned. The pièce de résistance is a fine mist of the Shine On Maximum High Gloss Finish spray which helps tame the last of the flyaways and really does add maximum shine. See the picture above if you don’t believe me!

 

Any neighatives?

Back In The Ribbons (:The finishing sprays are rather silicone heavy, so if your hair doesn’t tolerate ‘cones, be aware. However my hair, which goes lank with the slightest dab of finishing product, absolutely loved these. Silicone is not the devil, in fact it’s one of the most effective ingredients to seal the hair’s cuticle. See a great post by Emma over on beaut.ie about the silicone controversy for more info.

 

So to sum up, I award the Mane n’ Tail collection zero faults and a red rosette for treating damaged hair. And having a fickle, high maintenance mop that says a lot. You can find Mane n’ Tail in McCabe’s Pharmacy and chemists nationwide priced from €6.95 to €12.95. Read more about the brand on manentail.ie.

 

Have you ever tried any products from the brand? Will you be galloping in to your local chemist? Let me know in the comments!

Aussie Hair Care: Rediscovering products from my teenage years

A couple of months back I was on the lookout for some supermarket haircare; I’d dyed my hair a more natural colour and figured a return to supermarket shampoos etc was now more feasible. I was up in Dublin that particular week so I nipped into Boots and discovered they had a three for two on Aussie haircare.

Aussie is a brand I haven’t touched since my teens; not because of the quality but to be honest just because I turned into a haircare snob and was happy to part with silly money for shampoos and conditioners during my No Mortgage days (oh how I remember/long for those days!). So, now that I have a firmer grip on reality I have pared back on some of my many “necessities”.

Long story short I picked up some Aussie bits that day and was excited to try them again. It had literally been ten years since I last used ‘em! One product that jumped out at me was the Luscious Long shampoo. Those that know me know that I have been painstakingly growing my hair for the past two years and its finally got some decent length in it! Yay! (I included photos below for ya’ll to have a look). Read on »

Supermarket Sweep/Dupe Alert: L’Oreal Elvive Triple Resist Shampoo & Conditioner

L'Oreal Triple Resist

I don’t have loyalties with many things in my life and beauty products are no different. Whilst I do have a HG conditioner I tend to chop and change my hair products on a very frequent basis. It’s a luxury I didn’t have for a year or so as I had to repair my hair after a couple of years of bleaching. Now that my hair is back to a sort of normality I have been experimenting with supermarket brands alongside more luxury haircare.

This leads me to a newish product that I have been using and seeing good results with. It’s L’Oreal Elvive Triple Resist shampoo and conditioner (bought for under a tenner in my local Petitts). It claims to reinforce, nourish and strengthen fragile hair with a tendency to fall. Read on »

Best in Blonde: Pro:Voke Touch Of Silver twice a week shampoo. You have been warned.

Pro:Voke Touch of Silver Shampoo

 

I had high hopes for this shampoo as I am a massive fan of their dry shampoo for blonde hair. Unfortunately this product is one you are best off avoiding. Its the first budget purple shampoo that I have tried and I am genuinely unimpressed.  I used it four times in the interest of fairness but each time my hair was left a dry, knotty mess and that was after intensively conditioning my hair AND adding an argan oil styling product. I even tried diluting the shampoo with a regular shampoo but my hair was still left extremely dry. As a result I actually broke some of my hair trying to brush it. Major fail. Read on »

Fine haired friends: Babyliss, Batiste, James Brown and Pantene

My hair is quite strange. The strands are thick and smooth. So much so that my hair doesn’t require any styling to fall straight and sleek, it dries naturally that way. The ends don’t split either, even though I haven’t had a trim in over 6 months (naughty me I know!). Before you curse me, the downside is that my hair never holds a style and as for a curl, only in my dreams. Also, even though the hair strands are individually thick, my hair sheds like bejaysus. It doesn’t make much sense for my body to invest so much building lushious strands for it to throw them away carelessly, but I digress. Because of its dog-like shedding the overall effect of my hair is quite limp, so I turn to a few different products to give it a much needed boost. Here are my fine feathered haired friends:


James Brown Volume Boost Shampoo and Conditioner
James Brown is hair stylist to Kate Moss, who has rather fine hair herself. His Volume Boost shampoo and conditioner contain rice proteins and oat extracts, which should apparently add volume and thickness without weighing fine hair down. Do they work? Read on »

Best in Blonde: Joico Color Endure Violet Shampoo

I decided to do a series of posts on the best and worst purple shampoos and products for blonde hair on the market as being a bleach blonde is hard work and expensive! I think everyone with blonde hair or highlights should have a bottle of purple shampoo in the shower as it really takes the brassiness out of blonde hair. There is nothing worse than having that horrible Yellow Hair. I have The Fear of it altogether. Read on »