As sad as this sounds, one of my proudest achievements of 2012, aside from my A Level results and my blog, was the fact that I have managed to grow my hair by a noticeable several inches. It looks dramatically different to how it did last year, and this is due to a collaboration of going on a ‘hair cut’ strike, in addition to treating it well and using the right products (at the right times). However, now that it’s long, I am far more inclined to style it or use heat treatments – which has meant that I ended 2012 with slightly frazzled looking locks. I gave it a little trim myself, but am determined to have it looking healthier and shiner this year.
So if you, like me have resolved to making 2013 a healthy hair year but find it a daunting prospect (we don’t want to go out with bed hair and scare everyone!) then following Cloud Nine’s ‘New Hair Resolutions’ might be the perfect, and simplest solution. With styles created by Leigh Keates and Angel Montague-Sayers (who has styled the likes of Rita Ora and Kelly Brook’s hair), the plan follows the premise that you have ‘style days’ and ‘hair kind days’ which alternate depending on the day of the week. So, whilst you can straighten your hair on a Monday, Tuesday is a sleek bun and Wednesday’s curls turn into Thursday’s curly up-do.
As someone who always loves getting involved, I decided to recreate the New Hair Resolutions day by day (some of the images are from previous events where I have done my hair similarly), print the resolutions out and stick it on my wall next to my dressing table. Seeing as I quite often look at my hair frustratingly in my dressing table mirror, it seemed a good place to put it – as if I ever run out of inspiration, I can simply look over to the resolutions board.
Admittedly, I don’t look as gorgeous as Amanda Seyfried sporting Friday’s waves, or Cheryl Cole’s Sunday Flicked Ponytail, but hey – I gave it a good go. And creating the styles is made so much easier by using the Cloud Nine tools, which are not searingly hot (and damaging) but are heated to a controlled temperature and are quite literally, the best thing I have EVER used. No exaggeration. I was kindly sent the Cloud Nine Wand to trial when re-creating these styles, and found it unbelievable with regards to creating natural waves, curls and flicks.
A week ago, I tested out Enrapture’s Jumbo Waver, which was a great product – but I expressed the need for something heat proof whilst waving/curling your hair, as I burnt myself several times. Luckily, the Cloud Nine Wand comes with a heatproof glove (which I did feel a little silly wearing at first) that protects yourself from burns when twisting your hair round the wand.
In fact, it seems like Cloud Nine really do ensure that your safety is their first priority (despite the fact that it’s in your hands) as there is also a heat safety guard, which can be set to ‘close’ when you have switched off your wand, so that it doesn’t burn the surface it is resting on. I can’t tell you how many times I have burnt my dressing table surface, and just the once (oops) I will admit I’ve burnt the carpet, so to have a heat guard that slots onto the wand, making it easy to put down anywhere without the worry of what mark it will leave, is a real time-saver!
Similar to The O, which I trialed a few days back (see post here), the wand heats up extremely quickly and produces results extremely quickly (I never knew you could curl your hair quite so fast!). As I practiced with the wand, I found it was better to twist your hair slightly when wrapping it around the wand, so that the curl came out like a ringlet (which is what I was trying to achieve for Friday’s waves) whereas if you loosely wrapped hair around and tugged it gently once it was free, it would create a much softer, mermaid style wave. The wand itself is slightly cone shaped, which makes it easier to use, as you simply wrap the thicker top part of the hair around the wider base, and the tips of the hair around the thinner area, resulting in a gorgeously natural looking curl, every time!
Overall, I was extremely impressed with the Cloud Nine Wand and will definitely be using it to keep up my New Year’s Hair resolutions, which surprisingly (as they look very polished) takes far less time than my normal hair regime. The Wand is currently on a £20 off promotion, bringing it down to the affordable price of £99.95 (for a hair styler, that’s a brilliant price tag!), which I think is a bargain. I think it really pays to invest in high quality hair stylers, whose producers have taken time and effort in researching the latest technology, so that you don’t have to compromise on style or damage your hair.
What do you think of my attempts? Have you made a New Year’s Hair resolution?
