From the very fateful day that my on-going battle against the batter-inspired grease began several years ago, I partly dedicate my energy towards searching for products which not only keep my hair under control (and as oil-free as you could expect from deep fat fryer), but revolutionizes my style to a certain extent. Who ever said that you had to stop having fun with your hair during the oh-so-tedious teenage years?
As with 99.9% of the whole planet's population, there are certain things which I love with an undeniable passion, but wouldn't I be placed in the same boat as the seemingly perfect Hollywood stars by failing to complain about my small bugbears from time to time? Sure, I may not intend to bore yourself with moaning about so-called 'problems' which could be viewed as heavenly gift in a few peoples' eyes - whether we choose to face the truth or not, all of us will always hear a negative voice which declares that our arms are as wide as a bucket of KFC chicken wings or the hairs which we believed had been waxed never truly disappeared (sometimes, seeing is believing if an army of stubby hairs are on the prowl!) - but I would probably have to be one in a million to avoid being prone to periods of sadness over having a body which isn't quite how I WISH it could be.
Over the years, I've lost count (as the maths-detesting fool I am at heart) over the amount of times that I've prayed to a glittering star outside of my window and gritted my teeth against yet another spell of greasy locks placing a miserable damper on my happiness, taking one aspect of my body which I always loved out of my hands and into the unknown. It quickly became clear that if I were to win back what was rightfully mine, trialing several of the thousands of self-praising 'amazing' products aimed at greasy locks and beyond on the hair market was in order - regardless of whether the results were what I'd wanted or not!
As you will read later, I finally found my hair equivalent of Prince Charming from an unexpected source and, despite being obliged to wash it every two days (in total, my royalty-treated mane receives three-to-four washes per week, so you needn't place a horrible image of the blocked plughole into your mind), I'm definitely more confident about my locks than I did several years ago! Please bear in mind that you must follow the guidelines for your hair type because everybody, as I probably have been declaring a little too much recently, is different - the rule applies for virtually everything!
So, take this advice from a teenager whose hair is miles straighter than Justin Bieber's criminal record and now reaches below the shoulder, despite being cut into a razor-short bob in the past. Although you would initially my hair to get rather thin due to the relatively long length, I'm either struggling to see without my glasses or it is true - my hair looks thicker than I can remember it, and these words are coming from somebody who spends twenty minutes or so gazing at her glossy, just-washed mane almost every night!
Alright, alright, I'll stop bragging about how fabulous (well, the word is rather fitting) my hair looks and get down to business: which products do and do not help greasy hair? Let's find out!
Alberto Balsam Juicy Green Apple Herbal Shampoo, 400ml, £1, Asda
Before I even begin, there is an ever-loudening stampede trooping outside of my bedroom, shrieking at the unbelievably cheap price at this shampoo, which I swear by!
Although the price might raise a few overplucked eyebrows as to whether the quality is any less than a more expensive shampoo, let me clarify (as clearly as one can whilst immersed in an apple-scented haze) a few things: first of all, Alberto Balsam - a brand of which is pretty much sold in every supermarket and cosmetics store throughout England - uses herbals in their shampoos (I use 'their' because I cannot truly imagine that one single man created the whole operation) . OK, I'll admit that I find it pretty difficult to make out which herbals are used in the shampoos because reading the list of ingredients is as boring as translating a page of Latin, but who honestly cares if your hair becomes bouncier than a Premier League football within a single wash?
At first, I was hesitant against trialing the shampoo - the time of which took place over a year ago, shortly after Alberto Balsam began their takeover at the local supermarket - because my hair was in a pretty fragile state, what with the bucket loads of measly-looking grease and lank appearance taking its toll. However, my inner bargainista couldn't resist giving this shampoo a go because I realized that a wave of money-related guilt would knock me off my feet if the need to chuck the bottle away arose - thankfully, I never reached that situation!
Within weeks, I noticed a remarkable difference with my hair staying fresher and looking cleaner for longer, which became somewhat of a life-changing revolution because I had grown sick of applying a squirt of Johnsons Baby Shampoo (despite being as simple as a cast member of The Only Way of Essex, it offered no solution to decreasing my endless supply of oil) every few days and frowning at the confidence-destroying sight of a greasy lock several hours after washing it thoroughly. Happiness, without a doubt, found its way into my life as soon as I began using this shampoo and I haven't swapped it since because the once all-powerful need to do so has diminished like the career of a one hit wonder - why try something else if you have finally found what you have been looking for?
In case you were wondering, the reason for which I chose the Juicy Apple scent is that the bottle recommended it for both normal and greasy hair, which isn't awfully easy to come across whilst searching for a standard bottle of shampoo. My dad has added another scent, one of which features the acne-improving ingredient known as tea tree oil (for once, it is a type of oil which you can safely use!), to his essential products and it works perfectly well for him, so I think that anyone could give the Alberto Balsam range a go.
Sometimes, price doesn't offer a proper representation for quality and it is a lesson which I have learnt very well from this shampoo - as long as I continue to use it, I doubt that I'll ever complain about greasy locks again!
Bristows Hairspray, 300ml, £1, www.chemistdirect.co.uk
Without even placing you in a position to open your mouth, I do not use half a bottle or so of hairspray whenever the need calls for it, which is only on the occasions that I wish to tie my hair into a secure, polished ponytail - although I would question quite a few people about their hair-related habits!
For years, I've been familiar with Bristows because my mum used to have a massive, semi-die hard penchant for the brand, but I wish to clarify that she has since cut down on her use of this well-known hairspray; nowadays, I am the one who uses the whole bottle!
You are probably getting the idea that a £1 theme is beginning to form here, but this truly isn't the case; as my mum only buys this strong-hold hairspray very rarely, I'm always unsure as to how much it costs, though I'm pretty thrilled that I can always afford to get more of it! Despite probably not sharing such a large fanbase like the L'Oreal Elnett range, Bristows does its job just the way that I expect and a waft of loose hair has never once stuck to my face, regardless of the numerous storms and downpours of rain in which I've unfortunately found myself!
As with any other hairspray, only an idiot would fail to open a window or switch on the extraction (although I struggle to reach the button above the door, my wannabe 6ft supermodel spurs me to stretch beyond my usual expectations) whilst using it because the smell is definitely strong, but my wonderful readers are bursting with common sense, am I not correct? Only a couple of short sprays are necessary to cover the wanted areas, then you are ready to walk out of the house sharing a remarkable resemblance to the old-fashioned model on the bottle - or so I always hope!
In my opinion, you can't really find a better hairspray than Bristows and the sight of it when I was a young child will undoubtedly remain with me through the whole of my life - at least I no longer receive a stern telling off for using Mum's special styling product!
Mason and Pearson Hairbrush
For those of you in the know, Mason and Pearson have long received critical acclaim for their outstanding collection of hair brushes, which stimulate the circulation in your hair and helps to achieve the natural glossiness which makes anybody turn green with envy.
As I received my brush on an occasion where my dad was rifling through a box of old stuff, I cannot give a price for the type which I own because I have absolutely no idea about the size in which it would be categorized - without a doubt, it definitely cost more than what one would pay for an average hairbrush!
Yet this is a special case where one truly pays for what they get, and I'm constantly using it on my hair (well, one has to find something useful to do during their lunch hour, especially as I'm educated at home) which would probably be nominated as the understatement of the century!
Within a single brush, my hair looks glossy, shiny and oh-so-thick, a word of which can only be viewed a positive when associated with hair - the thicker, the better, I say! My only complaint is that it isn't ideal for getting rid of those irritating knots I'm prone to getting whilst washing my longer-than-ever hair, but it's a small price to pay - or not, because it was handed down to me!
Aussie Mega Shampoo, 300ml, £4.69, Boots
Whilst embarking on my search for the Product of My Dreams several years ago, I took a chance by trialling this popular shampoo by no other than the Aussie brand, who has been long renowned for its usage of kangaroo paw flower (seriously, I've never been able to understand what kind of benefits it offers to one's hair).
At first, my hair seemed to improve drastically by developing a glossy shine which radiated like a pair of diamond earrings reflecting in a mirror - in fact, I was using a bottle which my mum had found whilst going through an old box of beauty products, and I had absolutely no complaints with it because my hair somehow appeared to working with the not only grease-controlling benefits of the shampoo, but receiving the volume which I had so long craved to have. Back then, I was all but desperate to achieve a volumized look as regularly featured in my inspirational fashion magazines - whatever I ever wanted in relation to my ever-so-precious hair, nothing would stand in my way of fulfilling my ambition!
Yet, as soon as I squirted the last of the sweet-flavoured shampoo from the old bottle, my hair-related destiny had practically been written in the stars: despite purchasing the same product, I never managed to successfully the exact results which I had achieved beforehand, placing me in a worryingly awkward position. Due to my lack of confidence regarding the problems which I was 99.9% prone to getting with fellow shampoos on the market, I felt somewhat obliged to continue using this shampoo, despite sighing à la the hair-stroking queen Bella Swan on a daily basis whenever I caught an unfortunate glimpse of my lifeless and duller-than-New Moon hair.
Even to this day, I still cannot find a logical explanation for which my dream come true with this Aussie shampoo morphed into a tedious nightmare literally overnight; frustratingly, it never occurred to me that keeping the original bottle was a clever idea, so I'll never find out whether Aussie changed the ingredients sometime in the future.
On a brighter note, my dad - yes, he is probably the one who ought to trial almost all of my hair-styling products because of his fondness for my shampoos - was bursting with praise for the Aussie brand because he truly believed that his short, thickish (in this case, it's a compliment, I promise!) hair looked healthier, although he hasn't noticed a slightest difference since swapping to the Alberto Balsam range several months ago.
Depending on the time in your life and obviously the type of your hair (when I was around twelve or thirteen, my hair was oiler than a serving of carrot cake; have you ever wondered why teenagers never like getting up in the morning?), not every single product guarantees the results which you seek and perhaps I'm not in a good position to complain about my unfortunate experience with the Aussie shampoo, especially as I've finally gained control over the production of my hormone-fuelled oil.
I've since learned that I should only choose shampoos which are specifically aimed towards greasy hair - if you've ever since this bottle, you'll quickly learn that the words 'oil' and 'grease' don't feature anywhere on it!
N.B. Considering that I appear to have an undying penchant for all things associated with shampoo, I truly don't need to use a conditioner to keep my hair moisturised. The reason why? Bearing in mind that I've been struggling against keeping my oil production to a relatively normal level since I hit puberty around five years ago (the early bird catches the worm, me thinks), adding the usage of a conditioner to my hair-cleansing routine would have secured the destruction of my plans to improve the appearance and health of my hair - regardless of what anybody or yourself may believe!
A larger-than-recommended squirt of shampoo more than does the trick for myself because it neatly covers what I could be missing out from a conditioner, and it is a practice which has always worked well; depending on what it is, some things are best unchanged! At this stage, I'm not interested in rocking the bottle because I've reached a point where my hair has settled down (as much as you would expect whilst tiny whiffs fly into the air like static) and adjusted to its stable cleansing routine, and as I'm placing my attention upon the damning dilemma of coping with spots, returning to my former grease-related issues is a thought which I needn't contemplate.
At long last, I feel proud about being blessed with my longish mane of chocolate brown and thicker-than-a-hardback-book hair!
For those of you in the know, Mason and Pearson have long received critical acclaim for their outstanding collection of hair brushes, which stimulate the circulation in your hair and helps to achieve the natural glossiness which makes anybody turn green with envy.
As I received my brush on an occasion where my dad was rifling through a box of old stuff, I cannot give a price for the type which I own because I have absolutely no idea about the size in which it would be categorized - without a doubt, it definitely cost more than what one would pay for an average hairbrush!
Yet this is a special case where one truly pays for what they get, and I'm constantly using it on my hair (well, one has to find something useful to do during their lunch hour, especially as I'm educated at home) which would probably be nominated as the understatement of the century!
Within a single brush, my hair looks glossy, shiny and oh-so-thick, a word of which can only be viewed a positive when associated with hair - the thicker, the better, I say! My only complaint is that it isn't ideal for getting rid of those irritating knots I'm prone to getting whilst washing my longer-than-ever hair, but it's a small price to pay - or not, because it was handed down to me!
Aussie Mega Shampoo, 300ml, £4.69, Boots
Whilst embarking on my search for the Product of My Dreams several years ago, I took a chance by trialling this popular shampoo by no other than the Aussie brand, who has been long renowned for its usage of kangaroo paw flower (seriously, I've never been able to understand what kind of benefits it offers to one's hair).
At first, my hair seemed to improve drastically by developing a glossy shine which radiated like a pair of diamond earrings reflecting in a mirror - in fact, I was using a bottle which my mum had found whilst going through an old box of beauty products, and I had absolutely no complaints with it because my hair somehow appeared to working with the not only grease-controlling benefits of the shampoo, but receiving the volume which I had so long craved to have. Back then, I was all but desperate to achieve a volumized look as regularly featured in my inspirational fashion magazines - whatever I ever wanted in relation to my ever-so-precious hair, nothing would stand in my way of fulfilling my ambition!
Yet, as soon as I squirted the last of the sweet-flavoured shampoo from the old bottle, my hair-related destiny had practically been written in the stars: despite purchasing the same product, I never managed to successfully the exact results which I had achieved beforehand, placing me in a worryingly awkward position. Due to my lack of confidence regarding the problems which I was 99.9% prone to getting with fellow shampoos on the market, I felt somewhat obliged to continue using this shampoo, despite sighing à la the hair-stroking queen Bella Swan on a daily basis whenever I caught an unfortunate glimpse of my lifeless and duller-than-New Moon hair.
Even to this day, I still cannot find a logical explanation for which my dream come true with this Aussie shampoo morphed into a tedious nightmare literally overnight; frustratingly, it never occurred to me that keeping the original bottle was a clever idea, so I'll never find out whether Aussie changed the ingredients sometime in the future.
On a brighter note, my dad - yes, he is probably the one who ought to trial almost all of my hair-styling products because of his fondness for my shampoos - was bursting with praise for the Aussie brand because he truly believed that his short, thickish (in this case, it's a compliment, I promise!) hair looked healthier, although he hasn't noticed a slightest difference since swapping to the Alberto Balsam range several months ago.
Depending on the time in your life and obviously the type of your hair (when I was around twelve or thirteen, my hair was oiler than a serving of carrot cake; have you ever wondered why teenagers never like getting up in the morning?), not every single product guarantees the results which you seek and perhaps I'm not in a good position to complain about my unfortunate experience with the Aussie shampoo, especially as I've finally gained control over the production of my hormone-fuelled oil.
I've since learned that I should only choose shampoos which are specifically aimed towards greasy hair - if you've ever since this bottle, you'll quickly learn that the words 'oil' and 'grease' don't feature anywhere on it!
N.B. Considering that I appear to have an undying penchant for all things associated with shampoo, I truly don't need to use a conditioner to keep my hair moisturised. The reason why? Bearing in mind that I've been struggling against keeping my oil production to a relatively normal level since I hit puberty around five years ago (the early bird catches the worm, me thinks), adding the usage of a conditioner to my hair-cleansing routine would have secured the destruction of my plans to improve the appearance and health of my hair - regardless of what anybody or yourself may believe!
A larger-than-recommended squirt of shampoo more than does the trick for myself because it neatly covers what I could be missing out from a conditioner, and it is a practice which has always worked well; depending on what it is, some things are best unchanged! At this stage, I'm not interested in rocking the bottle because I've reached a point where my hair has settled down (as much as you would expect whilst tiny whiffs fly into the air like static) and adjusted to its stable cleansing routine, and as I'm placing my attention upon the damning dilemma of coping with spots, returning to my former grease-related issues is a thought which I needn't contemplate.
At long last, I feel proud about being blessed with my longish mane of chocolate brown and thicker-than-a-hardback-book hair!
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