What did my red hair say to the rain? “Make like a tree and LEAVE!”
The punchline may be corny and overused (and also a line from Back to the Future Part II), but it’s exactly what my hair would say if it had the ability to speak.
When Hurricane Irene hit Jersey this past August, I did a little experiment. I wasn’t leaving the house, so I knew that if there was any time to let myself have a bad hair day as torrential as the downpour outside, Irene Weekend would be it.
Background
My hair is curly. Think curly fries, only not so edible (except to that one horse that tried to eat my hair at the zoo when I was a baby). My mom used to twist a few tendrils around her fingers and the curls would bounce and stay that way through hours of playtime in preschool. Gone are the days when the cute Shirley Temple curls I loathed so much moved back and forth on my head like a Slinky. Old ladies who went to the beauty parlor for perms were always entranced by my Slinky-esque hair.
My biggest problem with it was the frizz. I dreaded rain just like the Wicked Witch of the West, not to mention the humidity! I’ve lost count as to how many frizz products I’ve tried throughout the years, and many did not work. Not Frizz-Ease; not Garnier. Biosilk worked to a point, but if you apply too much your dry frizzy strands experience the texture of swimming in the ocean during an oil spill. Some products either didn’t do enough or overcompensated. My quest for good hair products was one of the many reasons why I was never brand-loyal to anything before Avon.
Advance Techniques Lotus Shield
The Experiment
I took a shower the morning that the rain was to be expected. I towel-dried my hair, and then I squeezed a dime-sized amount of Avon Advance Techniques Lotus Shield onto my hands, rubbing them together. My hair was already parted down the center of my scalp, and I applied the serum on the right half of my head. I combed the untreated side, then the treated side and didn’t touch my hair after that. I let it air dry.
A few hours later, when I kept myself occupied enough to let my locks loose without touching it, I looked in the mirror. The treated side was shinier, curls were bouncier and caught more light, and it was so smooth to the touch. The untreated side had lots of stray frizzies toward the top of my head, and the baby hairs along my hairline stuck out like Einstein’s ‘do. When I ran my fingers through the untreated side, they got caught on more curls than the treated side. Split ends were more visible when untreated, and hair was smooth from root to tip on the Lotus Shield side. It passed the frizz test.
Would it pass the humidity test? My promotional material from Avon claimed that one application could keep hair “smooth and well-behaved for 3 days” and that it could defy up to 97% of humidity. Hmm…let’s try this!
Avon named their anti-frizz treatment “Lotus Shield” because when rain falls on a lotus leaf, it’s special coating has properties that repel water. Avon wanted to create a a serum that would do the same thing to hair, because humidity occurs when there is a lot of water evaporated in the air. Like a flower thirsty for a summer rainfall, I let myself go outside for a few minutes.
I stood under heaven’s buckets of tears for about a minute to get my hair wet enough to ruin a hairstyle, but dry enough that it doesn’t give a shower effect. When I got back inside, I got comfortable and let my strands tough it out. The treated side had little damage; only a strand here or there was out of place. The untreated side, however, was a nightmare! It looked like Christina Aguilera’s hair in the “Lady Marmalade” music video. Yes, that bad. Lotus Shield passed the rain test. It definitely repelled water like a lotus leaf!
The final test (or cruel and unusual punishment) for my hair was to see how it reacted to “normal styling.” I almost never blow dry my hair, because of the aforementioned Xtina hairdo, but I know many ladies who love to damage their straw strands. My “normal styling” sometimes included straightening, because it was a way to hide a bad hair day. I wanted to see how greasy the product would look when the wild waves were tamed. I found that the treated side took much less time to straighten and still remained silky soft, and not greasy at all! The untreated side’s split ends were yanked off as I pulled the hot tool down, and I had to run the same section through the straightener at least two more times to get it just right. The untreated side looked dull and more strawberry blonde than the treated side, where the dark and light shades accentuated my natural highlights and lowlights. Yup, it worked in normal conditions.
I’ve been using it ever since, and though it’s a small bottle I have yet to run out of it! How much did it cost? Regular price is $12, but I bought it on sale for $9.99!
Know what else is cool? Other ladies agree! Advance Techniques Lotus Shield has won both the Latina Beauty Award and Cosmopolitan Beauty Award. You trust your magazines, so now you can trust me too!
Get it at http://www.youravon.com/cynthiadagenais
Redheaded Avon Rep 