Considering that GHD stands for "Good Hair Day", I guess I shouldn't really be too surprised!
But, anyway, I'm not gonna lie when I say that I honestly didn't have any clue that GHD sold anything other than hair straighteners, so I was a bit surprised to discover that they sell other types of hair products too. And excited to be given the opportunity to try one out.
My Hair: I have incredibly fine hair, that is currently quite long (I hate to think how overdue a hair cut I am!!), and because it's quite long it has become quite lank and heavy, so it's craving a little bit of lift and va-va-voom. I've tried using volumising products in the past, from foams to sprays and some have worked nicely, whilst others have just made my feel heavy and bogged down with product. I've even tried using a crimper especially designed for adding volume, and whilst I did love the effect that had in the sense of volume, it was incredibly drying, and I suspect damaging on my poor fine hair, so I try not to use that too often!
The Packaging: The product came wrapped up in this awesome GHD paper. Okay, so it's nothing fancy, but I liked it, because it seemed like a really nice touch. And I think I'll be using this paper in the future :P You might notice that the photos that appeared on my blog the other day, were also taken on this paper ;)
The product actually came in a box, but I haven't got any photo's because they were all blurred and pretty rubbish, so I decided not to include them, which is a bit of a shame. But, overall, the design was very much like the bottle, in that it has a black background, and the same coloured dot pattern!
The Bottle: The bottle is really quite big, and very heavy. I found this very assuring, because it suggests that there's a lot of product in there to use, so I'm confident that it'll last a fair amount of time.
From what I can see, each product in the styling range comes in a different color to represent which range it comes from:
Volumising = Purple
Straight and Smooth = Green
Shine = Blue
Curls = Pink
Initial Thoughts: As I've already mentioned, I've tried a few other volumising products, and some of them tend to make my hair feel heavy and weigh it down, which is obviously counter-productive when you're seeking volume. I've also found that a large majority of foam-based products weigh my hair down, so I definitely bore this in mind when trying the product out. I'm certainly vary aware that because my hair is fine, that I generally don't need to use as much product as the instructions usually recommend.
Another reason that I would normally regulate the amount of foam I'd use, is because they tend to be goopy or sticky and ultimately leave my hair feeling pretty disgusting.
The Smell: I absolutely love the smell of this product, and don't really know how to explain it. But, anyone that doesn't use expensive brands very often, will hopefully understand what I mean when I say that this smells like a "better" brand. I don't know what that means exactly, but it just has a nicer, and more subtle smell than the overpowering chemically smell of cheaper brands.
How to Use: The bottle recommends applying two to four pumps evenly from root to tip, and I really wasn't sure how much to use for my first attempt with this product, because the pump looks like it'll chuck out loads of product, so I decided to just pump carefully, and judge it on how much comes out.
I ended up sticking to the minimum recommendation, and put two pumps of foam into my hand, which looked like this...
On first glance, it looks like quite a lot, so I was a bit nervous that I'd used too much, but I rubbed it between my hands and rubbed it into my hair, starting at the roots and kind of scrunching my hair away from the scalp. I did this all the way down to the roots. I remember that my friends, at School, used to do this to their permed hair, which always turned out quite crunchy, so I was paranoid that my hair would turn out all crispy and yucky! I was convinced that I'd used too much!!
Next, I blow dried my hair like I normally would, and since I am always looking to add volume, this included drying my hair upside down and scrunching it up a bit, especially at the roots.
Results: Once I'd dried my hair completely, I kept my hair upside down and quickly combed out any knots with my Tangle Teezer. I then flipped my hair over, and yeah my hair did seem to have a little bit of extra volume. It wasn't anywhere near as volumised as Cheryl Cole's is, in the L'Oreal adverts, but then I'm not naive enough to think that any product would ever be able to give my hair that much volume!!
I don't think that this product was amazing, but it certainly helped, and it didn't feel like it was weighing my hair down, which is always a huge plus. An even bigger plus, for me, was the fact that my hair felt lovely and silky. Okay, so that was probably assisted by the natural shampoo and conditioner that I'd used on my hair, but a lot of products applied after shampooing often leave my hair feeling yucky, so that was impressive.
The scent of the product lingered for a long time after drying, and not in an intrusive way, so that was another positive.
One thing that really does put this product ahead of a lot of other volumising products, is that it includes the GHD Heat Protect System, that protects your hair from damage caused by drying, straightening etc, so that is a good.
Any Let Downs? Just one, and that was that it didn't really give my hair volume for very long, and it wasn't long before it started to look a bit flat again. I think it might do with a little help from a blast of hairspray after I've blow dried, just for a little extra held. However, I don't necessarily blame the product for that, because most styles fall out of my hair incredibly quickly, which is the reason that I rarely bother to curl my hair!
Would I Buy This Again? For £14.95, probably not. It is expensive, in my opinion, and although I like it, due to it's smell and how light the product was, I don't think I can justify paying almost £15 for it! Saying that, due to the size, I don't think I'll get the chance to need to buy another one in a hurry, because I can imagine this product lasting a long time!!
Where to Buy: The GHD website.
Has anyone else tried this product? What do you think?Did you even know that GHD sold hair products like this?
** I was sent this product, for reviewing purposes, however this does not effect my review, which has been written honestly :) **
