Like most people, my spending has evolved over time across many areas, and beauty is no exception. My wants, needs, and what I find fun have obviously evolved – and I don’t want to store a ton of stuff that may expire, too!
Here’s the latest on what I don’t spend money on:
Busy. Tired of spending money to try to find a good product. Tired in general. Got better things to do than troubleshoot why your hair is acting like an unhinged psychopath? Does this sound like you?
I could pitch you some expensive, fancy, salon or prestige product and you could spend an arm and a leg on it…
…or you could just chill and get Costco’s liter-sized Kirkland Signature Shampoo and Conditioner.
While I’m a content Costco customer, don’t worry – I’m not a sample-rabid zombie. I just appreciate a good value – and Kirkland Signature Shampoo and Conditioner is certainly that.
Since my hair loss disaster (I’m all better!), I switched primarily to the wholesaler’s in house product. I didn’t do extensive product testing or sampling; I just picked it up in my usual groceries because my time is currently at a premium.
The formulas of Kirkland Signature Shampoo and Conditioner are salon-tier, and that is not just marketing hype. We’re talking a sulfate-free conditioner (its main surfactant is used by Ethique bars). It is gentle on my balayage, doesn’t dry my hair out, make it brittle, make it flat, etc.
A pair of influencers on TikTok (which I don’t use) and Instagram gained notoriety last fall for sharing a profound discovery: you can shave both ways! SIGH. No, you cannot.
They explain that the the blades of women’s razors are dual edged and can cut on both an up and a downstroke. So, without changing the orientation of your razor, you can just go in one direction, then reverse. They say you shave faster with this method because you’re covering the area in half the time (or less). You may also think of this as backwards and forwards, or a push motion in addition to a pull when the razor is held in such a way that you do not change its direction.
These ladies are wrong.
The conclusions some people reach astound me. It makes me wonder, “Have you ever looked at your razor?” But of course, if they had, they would not be peddling this nonsense on social media. Or maybe they would. Maybe they realize people are gullible and don’t care if they embarrass themselves for the sake of content.
The construction of a modern consumer non-safety razor won’t let you do this fake life hack. That’s whether it is disposable or the replacement-head variety, (the likes of which are sold by Billie, Gillette, Schick, Flamingo, etc). These razors are built such that the blades are secured in a housing angled so that they can only cut on a downstroke (or, perhaps, sideways if you’re unlucky and slip/slice. Ouch.)
Okay, guilty. But I’m also not wrong. Let’s look at this through a scientific lens. We’ll start by making a hypothesis that supports these ladies’ position. We will keep that hypothesis simple and focused on the part that makes their stance fall apart: that the razor can cut backwards.
If I glide my razor backwards, then it will cut hair.
It won’t, because the angle of the blades cannot possibly shave that way. It would be like writing with the end of your pen instead of the tip. You can’t. More accurately, it would be like trying to cut a steak with the blunt (non-sharpened) side of your steak knife.
Look at this razor head. This is a Gillette Venus head. Each of the three red lines terminates at a blade’s edge. They don’t just flip around, and hairs don’t come into contact with the top of that blade. That would be necessary for this claim to work.
This is a simple case of reaching the wrong conclusion. It isn’t that they aren’t experiencing a speed or efficiency gain necessarily. It’s that how they might be, if they are, is not what they think.
Instead of hair being cut on both a forward and backward pass, it has more to do with momentum and glide. The influencers who demonstrate this are moving very quickly. They don’t realize that they’re applying more of the lubricant bar’s product to their skin as they move, for one. Two, because its a constant up-down-up-down-up-down motion rather than calculated top-to-bottom (or vice-versa), reset, repeat, they are using their momentum to get the job done faster.
Science!
Look, I’m a curmudgeon these days. Okay, I’ll be honest, I was always a curmudgeon. But when I saw this not only making waves on other platforms but also making it onto blogs I otherwise trust, I had to facepalm and point this out, even if it took a while.
Suffice to say, critical thinking isn’t a bad thing. It isn’t to say that TikTok and Instagram never get things or clever little life hacks right, but this isn’t one of them.
After a decade and a half and thousands of dollars spent, Ulta lost my business. For years, Ulta impressed me with its unique combination of products. Having drugstore, prestige, and salon all in one place is great! It was convenient and felt like a more inclusive place to shop. It wasn’t intimidating to my younger self the same way Sephora and beauty counters were.
I’ve been a member of their Ultamate Rewards program since 2008. Unfortunately, though, Ulta lost my business due to a critical security issue. You should reconsider whether you do business with them, as well.
Like many, my beauty spending tapered off in 2020. I wasn’t going through product at the same rate. Add that to the amount of uncertainty in the world, I was being judicious and cautious with nonessential spending. I expected my rewards tiers at both Sephora and Ulta to lapse. So, imagine my surprise when I got an email from Ulta suggesting I had more points than I expected.
It isn’t common for me to write a post jumping STRAIGHT to it, but I feel extremely strongly about the HydraSkin Hydra-dermabrasion device:
I’m not even going to link to it because that’s how bad it is. Now we’ll do that annoying movie trope where we rewind some number of weeks.
Back in January, I shared some fairly shocking news: I was suffering some pretty dramatic hair loss which seemed related to my use of a shampoo from TRESemme. A reader recently reached out having suffered a similar experience – which made me realize that it is time for a hair loss update.
No matter your age, sudden hair loss is unnerving. But when:
Your concern turns to fear.
Cancer-surviving fitness instructor and entrepreneur Linn Lowes asserted in a recent Instagram Story that our hair isn’t just frivolous vanity. She would know: she lost hers to chemo (but now has a beautiful head of her own hair again).
I threw out the TRESemme. Then, I switched to Costco’s salon quality Kirkland Signature Moisture Shampoo after scrutinizing its label for things that concerned me. It passed my test and is (un)surprisingly good (review).
Two weeks after stopping use of the shampoo, full-shaft hair shedding started to slow. More of my loss was midshaft breakage. This is a marked improvement, but is still wild as hell to me. My hair wasn’t even damaged to that point from my balayage highlights.
Since then, I’ve been trying to reverse the damage.