I Got a DevaCut…Again!

Last October, I got my first-ever DevaCut at Paolo Cuppari Hair Designs in Spotswood, NJ.  You can read about that experience here.  In fact, that was the last time I got a haircut.  I’m not one to get a haircut more than 2-3 times a year, but I have just really been putting it off.  I now get out of work later than I used to, but I made an appointment for 6:30pm on a Thursday.

I was greeted by Michele the receptionist and had Debbie as my stylist again, unlike Great Clips where I always used to go, where it would be uncommon to see the same people still there after a year.  Because I had already been to this location for a DevaCut and had the DevaCurl products used on me, there was much less explanation this time around regarding the haircut and the products, although Debbie did ask if I had been using Deva products and how I was liking them.  Although it has been a long time since I’ve used my No-Poo and One Condition Original, I do use the Styling Cream or Wave Maker from time to time.

Just as last time, first was the dry cut, curl by curl.  I opted to have about 3-4 inches of hair cut off.  I had a lot of split ends, because even though I almost never use heat on my hair, I admittedly have pulled on it quite a bit sometimes when detangling…and it’s gotten caught in my coat zippers during the winter.  Even before my hair was washed, it immediately looked bouncier and healthier after the ends were taken off.

Then came the wash, with No-Poo and One Condition Decadence, leaving some of the conditioner in my hair.  While I use the Original at home, I like the Decadence when getting my hair done 🙂  With my hair soaking wet, I then flipped my head upside down as my stylist applied the Ultra Defining Gel and the Frizz-Free Volumizing Foam, to give my hair hold without so much weight.  After all, if I don’t use enough gel in my hair, after two days it falls flat and looks rather loosely wavy, almost straight.

After the styling products were put in my hair, the DevaClips were applied at my crown for volume, then I was put under the bonnet dryer for 15-20 minutes.  Since the bottom of my hair was still wet by then, I was moved back to the stylist’s chair and a different type of dryer was put behind me, that dries the hair better from the bottom.  I sat with that for an additional 10 minutes or so.  Debbie did a final check of my hair, and I was good to go!

I will be completely honest and state that while it seems like my haircut, wash, and style went much faster than last time, I also was on my phone almost the entire time.  It helps a lot that the salon has free Wi-Fi, since I’m on a limited data plan!  I probably should have kept the phone away to take in the whole experience, but I had a lot of work to do 😦

The price of the DevaCut is advertised on the salon’s website as $65, but I paid a little less since there was a 10% off promotion.  (I would have gone even without the promotion, which isn’t true of a lot of places I spend my money at.)  They accepted my Visa gift card with the remainder and tip paid in cash, as tip is accepted in cash only.  I based the tip off of the pre-discounted rate.  I remember years ago, I tipped my stylist at Great Clips according to the discounted rate, and she seemed offended when I handed her the money. Fortunately, at Paolo Cuppari Hair Designs, I have experienced no such thing, as the staff is quite pleasant.  I’ll certainly be back, this time within less than a whole year!

Here’s a photo right after I got my haircut, while still at the salon. I didn’t sit down and have coffee this time as I did last time, but I did grab a mini Reese’s to take home 🙂

Here are some before and after photos. You can really see the difference!

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In the Before set of photos, my hair looks thinner on the ends and just hangs.  I had washed it with Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle shampoo on the roots, followed by CVS baby shampoo (generic of Johnson’s) on the ends, conditioned with Suave Naturals Aloe & Waterlily conditioner, styled it with LA Looks Mega Mega Hold gel, but not too much since the hair during a DevaCut is not supposed to have too much product.  Not my usual hair routine, but my hair was in need of a more thorough wash than usual.  I made no effort to style my hair after my shower, which absolutely does not help with it looking so flat.

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What a difference a few inches off makes!  The Deva method of using a generous amount of gel on soaking wet hair, which I’ve been doing myself since I got my first DevaCut, is really helpful in helping my waves and curls stay.  I also can appreciate how I can put on a microfiber turban after my shower, leave it on for 10-15 minutes, and once I take it off, my hair is done, unless I want to brush some pieces at the crown, with my rubber-based generic Denman brush, away from my head to give volume.

Not much use in keeping all that length if it doesn’t have a nice style to it.  Much better now.  I think I may go to a cheaper place like Great Clips, Supercuts, or Hair Cuttery for a dusting only, or even do it myself, then go to a nice salon like Paolo Cuppari Hair Designs for a more full haircut, and of course, for the experience.

Here is a referral link should anyone in the Spotswood, NJ area be interested: https://local.demandforce.com/b/paolocupparidesigns?rs=gm

First Impression: DevaCurl Curly Mini Transformation Kit

So I bought the DevaCurl Curly Mini Transformation Kit almost two weeks ago at Ulta, after the Wavy kit unfortunately fell quite short of my expectations.  (I did like the Wave Maker, though.)  I finally cracked it open today.  Even though I’ve only used the products once thus far, I’m already feeling pretty optimistic.  Here are my thoughts after my first use:

No-Poo Original: Has the consistency of a thin conditioner.  Smells minty due to the peppermint oil and menthol, but with something “extra” that I can’t put my finger on, probably from the other extracts.  Despite it being a non-lathering cleanser, I felt that it was easier to spread around my scalp than the Low-Poo Delight, and I suppose the minty sensation helped in making my scalp feel clean as well.  I massaged quite a bit with my fingers, then with my Sally Girl shampoo brush.  I tried not to overdo it on the no-poo, focusing it on key areas of my head, then spreading it around as I massaged my scalp.  Unlike the Low-Poo Delight, it did not feel like it was holding a lot of water in my hair, which I was in fact pleased with, because my hair is low porosity and gets weighed down easily.  After just two days, the roots may start to get flat and look oily, which is when I need to wash again.

I noticed that while the first oil in the ingredients list of the Low-Poo Delight is PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, in the No-Poo Original, it is grape seed oil, which I love to use for my hair and skin.  It is known to be great for low porosity hair, and non-comedogenic.  (That’s the stuff I have in the huge, ugly plastic bottle I’ve featured in an earlier blog post, but I’ve since moved some to an amber glass dropper bottle for easier use and storage, plus it looks a lot nicer.)  My hair felt moisturized yet not at all heavy when I rinsed the no-poo out.  Major win!

One Condition Original: Seems to be about the same thickness as the One Condition Delight, but with a different scent and definitely better slip.  I’m honestly not a big fan of the smell, but it’s not terrible either.  To me, it smells like baby powder.  I believe I used just two quarter-sized squirts, which was enough for almost my entire hair shaft.  Like the No-Poo Original, it spreads well.  Again, my hair felt moisturized but not heavy after using this product.

Styling Cream: Whereas the Wave Maker is basically a moussey cream, the styling cream has a somewhat thinner consistency and is a translucent white color.  It definitely is thinner than my Göt2b Kinkier curling cream, and has a candy scent.  I’ve read a review where someone said it smells like Skittles.  After taking another sniff of it just now, I would say that’s pretty accurate!  I used a nickel-sized amount on either side of my head, then just a pea-sized amount more around the center and in the front, just to cover any areas I may have missed.

Some key differences between the Wave Maker and the Styling Cream are that the Wave Maker contains hydrogenated vegetable oil and maracujá oil, and no proteins, starches, or glycerin, whereas the Styling Cream contains glycerin as one of the first ingredients, a few proteins and starches, and no oils.  Due to the oil content in the Wave Maker, even though it is the seventh ingredient in the list, I need to watch how much I use, or else my hair can look stringy.  Hopefully the Styling Cream will be a little more forgiving.

Although I posted it already in a previous blog post, just as a reminder, here are the ingredients lists for both the Wavy and Curly kits:

Of course, the real test will be how my hair looks over the next couple of days.  I’m really hoping my roots won’t get flat and oily prematurely, and that my ends will stay moisturized.  We shall see!

New Products: DevaCurl Curly Mini Transformation Kit

Back in May, I bought the DevaCurl Wavy Mini Transformation Kit from Ulta, using it in rotation with other shampoos and conditioners I own.  (That’s why I haven’t finished all of the products after all this time.)  Just recently, I’ve even started using the conditioner with other shampoos I have, and will be doing the same with the shampoo within the next few days.  I know by now that the Low-Poo Delight and the One Condition Delight unfortunately did not meet my expectations and I will not be repurchasing either.  I hate to ramble on about these products and write several blog entries about them when I still have yet to write a full review, but I do want to be very thorough and use them in different ways first.

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I decided to give the brand another chance and purchased the Curly Mini Transformation Kit at my local Ulta.  I will wait to finish my Low-Poo Delight until I crack this kit open, but for now, here are some pictures:

While taking these photos, I realized that for my blog entry on the Wavy Mini Transformation Kit, I never took a picture of the inside of the box, so here is that, for comparison:

Here are the ingredients for both.  The Wavy kit is on the left and the Curly kit is on the right:

Just from reading the packaging and taking a quick look at the ingredients, it appears that the One Condition Original will have better slip than the Delight.  Of course, the No-Poo Original’s ingredients look like those of a light conditioner.  It contains grape seed oil, which my hair does well with, but hopefully will not cause a problem when used on my roots.  I like that the No-Poo also contains peppermint oil, for a tingly feel on the scalp 🙂

As you may have guessed, I will not be purchasing the Super Curly set no matter how well or how poorly this Curly set may work, because the Decadence line and the Supercream would not work well for my hair type, leaving me unable to make a fair assessment of the products.

Stay tuned for my first impression of the Curly Mini Transformation Kit! 😀

First Impression: DevaCurl Wavy Mini Transformation Kit

This blog may make me seem like I’m obsessed with DevaCurl, when in fact, the first time I’ve ever used any of their products was…about an hour ago, when I washed and styled my hair with the products in this kit.  It comes with a shampoo, conditioner, and styling product: the Low-Poo Delight, One Condition Delight, and Wave Maker.

I must mention first that before washing, my hair felt incredibly flat at the roots today (I used gel to slick my hair back in a ponytail for the gym last night), yet had the usual hairs sticking up while in a ponytail today since I forgot my gel, and looked dry at the shaft.  Today was quite humid here in New Jersey, and we had a fair amount of rain…and now it’s pouring and thundering as I write this.  I used to detangle in the shower, but recently started using my Tangle Teezer on my dry hair before washing, doing the bottom section of my hair first, then working my way up.

Whereas I usually take rather warm showers and use warm/hot water on my hair (not so bad since my hair is low porosity), today, the water just wasn’t heating up.  The colder water may have had some effect on my hair.  I usually squeeze the excess water out of my hair before getting out of the shower, but today I left it soaking wet as I applied my t-shirt to my head after my shower.

I wanted to LOVE these products, but after using them once, I have mixed feelings.

 

Low-Poo Delight: Has a slightly thinner consistency than that of most sulfate shampoos I’ve used.  When they say “mild lather cleansing”, they are not kidding!  I’ve used other sulfate-free shampoos that lathered much better than this, and I felt like I had to use a lot of product just to get it well-distributed on my scalp, almost as if I were co-washing.  In fact, I must have used a lot more shampoo than conditioner.  I wasn’t planning on using my shampoo brush, but ended up doing so since the Low-Poo felt like it wasn’t getting my scalp clean.  The shampoo brush actually helped a lot.  However, as I rinsed it out of my hair, my hair had the same kind of moisturized feeling that I get when applying oil to my wet hair.  This would be great if it were a conditioner, but I don’t know how I feel about that for a product that I apply to my scalp, especially since my scalp gets oily after only two days.  I see that glycerin is the third ingredient, so it could have been that.  I actually wouldn’t mind having to use so much product if only DevaCurl were not so expensive!

One Condition Delight: Same kind of scent as the shampoo; quite pleasant.  I would say it is of a medium thickness, probably comparable to Suave Naturals conditioner.  It moisturized my hair just fine, but nothing about it stood out to me, so I’m not sure if I could justify the price of a full size.  Like with any other conditioner I use, I kept finger raking to a minimum so I would not lose much hair.  However, I will say that with the combination of shampoo and conditioner, my hair felt moisturized enough that I felt that I did not need to use my leave-in conditioner.

Wave Maker: After what I would consider a ho-hum wash, this “touchable texture whip”, as it’s called, really impressed me!  It has a creamy yet moussey texture, and it smells quite nice.  The tube says to use a nickel-sized portion, but I used three dime-sized portions the same way I apply my gel: on both sides with my head rightside up, then in the back while my head is flipped upside down.  My hair is currently drying and the waves/curls look so defined!  Although I rarely use any styling products besides gel or mousse, just because I guess they’re the most easily accessible and do the job for everyday, I’ve found that Göt2B Kinkier Gloss ‘n Define Curl Cream (sadly no longer in production) and Marc Anthony Strictly Curls Curl Defining Lotion also make my hair look great.

Other things not specific to each item:

Packaging: 1.5 fl. oz. tubes.  The caps are sturdy yet make the tube difficult to open, especially with wet hands in the shower.  I had to use a dry towel to flip open the cap.  Of course, the full sizes come in bottles, not tubes.

Scent: Fresh, clean, not too strong.  The Wave Maker also had a bit of a sweet hint to it.

Price: $12 for the kit.  As previously stated, each tube measures 1.5 fl. oz.  The 12 fl. oz. Low-Poo Delight and One Condition Delight typically run at $22, and $44 for 32 fl. oz, whereas the full size of the Wave Maker usually goes for $26 for 5 fl. oz.

Although the Wave Maker is pricey and is not very widely available (my local Ulta has it, but not CVS or Harmon), out of the three products in this collection, this is the only one that I would actually strongly consider buying.  However, I will continue to use all three to see how they go.

Some bonus photos of how my hair looks now: