Garnier Fructis Style Sleek & Shine Blow Dry Perfector

Whoa, that title is a mouthful!

A couple of weeks ago I got a notification from BzzAgent for the Garnier Fructis Style Sleek and Shine Blow Dry Perfector (Firefox keeps telling me that's spelled wrong but that's what the box says!) and I immediately signed up. I HATE blow drying my hair. It's thick, frizzy, coarse, color treated and downright stubborn. Every person who has ever cut or styled my hair comments on how thick it is. When my hair was longer it could take up to 30 minutes just to get it most of the way dry. So when a product comes along with claims like "Tames Frizz; Stays Smooth & Shiny; Easier, Faster Blow Dries" I'm all over it.




I actually received it about a week or so ago but I wasn't feeling up to trying it. It's not a simple product that you put on your hair and go. It's a two step system that requires at least 20 minutes to process and when you're done you need to heat style to activate it. Not to mention I kept forgetting not to condition when I would shampoo my hair in the shower. Oops.

First of all, the product. There are two tubes. Step one is the 20-min Smooth-It Serum and step two is the Heat-Activated Perfect-It Cream. You also get instructions and some plastic gloves. Similar to what comes in a box of hair dye you buy at the store. Why the gloves? This is actually a chemical process. The 20-min Smooth-It Serum has a faint perm-like smell. The instruction do say this is a Thiol product (contains Cysteine) so that's where that smell comes from. It also states that it is not a relaxer or straightener.

Now warnings. Do not use on hair that is damaged from chemical processes. That includes bleaching, highlighting and relaxing (lye and no-lye). Do not use on damaged and breaking hair. Do not used on relaxed hair (doesn't matter what kind of relaxer. The answer is NO). Avoid eye contact, don't ingest, wear gloves. The usual for any chemical process.

You start by shampooing your hair but not conditioning. Towel dry your hair and then apply step one, 20-min Smooth-It Serum. Concentrate on mid-shaft and ends. Don't massage into your scalp. Use a comb to distribute through hair and to smooth it towards the scalp. Let process for 20 minutes. It says if you have very thick or resistant hair you can leave it up to 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water; do not shampoo.

Towel dry your hair and apply Heat-Activated Perfect-It Cream all over the head. Apply it just as you would any other styling product. Now, heat style your hair as usual. I usually don't blow dry my hair for a while after I shower, I like to let it air dry for a while first. For the sake of this though, I went ahead and blow dried.

Since I'm not used to blow drying my hair when it's that wet, I can't honestly tell you the time was shorter. I would like to say I think it was but that's just remembering when my hair was a good foot longer and took FOREVER. What I can say though, is this. It's a hell of a lot smoother. Usually blow drying my hair makes it poof out and frizz up (seriously, my step-sister used to call me Diana. As in Ross. Yeah.) but right now it isn't crazy at all. It's very well behaved! It almost looks like I've flat ironed it, even though I haven't.

Cons? I've noticed quite a bit of breakage. BUT in defense of the product my genius self decided about a year ago that I wanted to bleach the top of my hair and dye it pink and I've still got the results of that incident floating around the ends of my hair. Most likely that hair is what is breaking. It's colored to match (mostly) the rest of my hair now so I can't see a color difference in the hair that broke off.

There was no stinging, no burning. There is that faint chemical smell (if you've ever had a perm or been around someone who was getting one you know it) but it's nowhere near as strong as the smell of an actual perm. It doesn't make your hair feel nasty, no straw-like feeling when you're finished and it actually does have some shine to it.

My first reaction is so far it seems to be doing what it claims it will. The big test will come in the next few days. Can Blow Dry Perfector stand up to the humidity of the Ohio Valley? Will I look my usual puffball self tomorrow when I get to school? Will it really hold up for 7 shampoos? I hope so!


Some before pictures (ignore the face, look at the hair LOL)

And immediately afterward.






All of those pictures are with it just being blow dried, no flat ironing. The first one I have a little bit of Got2B Smoothing Lustre Lotion in my hair but that's it. I went ahead and cropped my bra that was hanging on the door out of them just for you guys ha. Those were taken with two different cameras but both are 8mp and they were both done in the same room with no flash.
You can see a little bit that my hair is smoother, a little more sleek (they love that word). You can't really see the shine but I don't want to use the flash and make it seem to be more than it is.


So, I'll end this post here but will continue in a few days when I see how it's going to hold up against the weather and how shampoos affect it.


♥