Your Hair Is An Asset – So Invest In These 3 Mane Necessities

I recently made the unfortunate decision to cut my bangs, and they looked good for exactly 1.5 days. I have spent the last 90 days doing everything in my power to help them grow so I no longer look like a hipster lesbian. Not that there’s anything wrong with lesbians – it just didn’t work for me. I’m on folic acid, GNC’s ‘hair, skin and nail’ vitamin, and viviscal (which is shark cartilage). I think that they’re working, but the vitamins may just be making me delusional.

I’ve learned that the key to looking amazing is to have great looking hair – we all know that nothing bad can happen when you’re having a good hair day. That being said, you do need to shell out a little more money when it comes to these hair necessities:

1. Hair cut/color: Go to a great salon (aka no cheesy photos of spikey haired models from the 80’s in the window). I’ve seen offers on LifeBooker for hair salon services, but I suggest that if you have a hairdresser you love, you should stick with them. This is absolutely worth paying full price for – because you likely only get a cut/color three or four times a year, plus your stylist understands that by “short layers”, you don’t mean you want to look like that chick from the dragon tattoo movies.

If you do not have the funds or simply refuse to pay up to 3 figures for a haircut, I would suggest trying out a “training night” at one of the top salons in the city. NY mag outlines the best ones here: http://nymag.com/guides/cheap/haircuts/

2. Hairdryer: You use this sucker almost daily, so it’s a sound investment since you’ll likely have it for years. Get an ionic dryer; Instead of heating the air like old hair dryers, ionic products use negative ions to shrink water droplets in the hair, making it less damaging. Tourmaline are supposedly the best. I currently own a hot dog HDT2000 that was $125, but before I left it in a hotel room I used the Babyliss that was purchased on amazon (buy all of your hair tools on amazon to easily price compare and save):

3. Curling Iron: I personally love Hot Tools – Not the priciest curling irons out there, but a little higher priced than the conair ones you could purchase at the drug store. People say ceramic is better for your hair, but if your hair doesn’t take a curl very easily like mine, I’ve found its better to use the traditional gold curling irons since they do allow for higher temperatures** (I will not be held responsible for endorsing this product and you burn your hair off).