A bit of TLC for my hair - Shisheido Senscience C.P.R.

As I probably mentioned in some of the past posts, I switched my hairdresser about six months ago. I was getting really unsatisfied with my old one (who in my opinion was not following the trends in products and styling at all) and decided to go for it. It was stressful, but I think it turned out OK

Anyway, I had blonde hair with highlights forever. For about half of my life. Since my old hairdresser really was not paying much attention to the quality of the products, my hair was damaged, brittle and breaking all the time. 

So anyway, with the change of stylist, I was ready for something completely new. I decided that we should go back to my natural hair color (which is this really boring light brown), but give it a little somethin’ somethin’, if you know what I mean. After spending countless hours on internet, I eventually decided to go with sombre – basically a more subtle variation of ombre, where only individual locks are highlighted by hand. I am happy with the color, but my stylist kept going on and on about how we should do something more for my hair since it’s so damaged and unfortunate looking. 

Eventually, I gave in and booked an appointment for “botox” – which leads us to this post.

This is my hair before the treatment. You can see that I had tons of split hair, frizz and how dry the hair looks (BTW, don’t judge, this was taken moments before I left for my appointment and at that point in time, I haven’t brushed it for about 10 hours).

Now let’s discuss this botox thing. The first thing that I want to make clear is that there is no actual botox involved. It’s basically a buzzword for a deep conditioning treatment, which can’t (well, is not supposed to) be done at home, like you would do with a normal hair mask. 

There are many variations of these treatment available, but two are most frequent. First is the L’Oreal Fiberceutics treatment. This is the “light” version, apparently only takes less than an hour with the styling and everything and is considerably less expensive. From what I could gather, it gives a good first result, but is really not as effective in locking in the moisture in the hair. Basically, a glorified hair mask. You can find such treatments often on the websites offering special promotions. 

The other treatment, which I have undergone, is the Senscience C.P.R. (Cuticle Porosity Reconstructive Treatment), developed by Shisheido. It is intended for very dry and damaged hair, which, in short, described my hair situation perfectly. The products contain Keratin, Silk Amino Acids and Bio-Structurer (which apparently is the key of the “secret” formula). It’s a two-step process which takes about an hour and a half to complete, so I was styled and out the door in about two hours. 

My hairdresser first used a special shampoo which prepares the hair for the treatment. Then, she used the first step of the treatment, the Porosity Equalizer. This is applied to individual strands of hair until the whole head is covered, which you can imagine takes quite some time. This step replenishes the hair with moisture and increases its strength. After sitting for about 15 minutes, the second product is applied, which is the Cuticle repair which infiltrates the damaged cuticle layers and finally seals the moisture in the hair. After about 20 minutes under the salon hair dryer, the stylist used a straightener to really seal the product in. And that was it – I just needed a second hair wash, a quick blow-dry and I was done. 

Here is the result a couple of hours later. 

I will say this: at the first glance (although again, the photo doesn’t do it justice), it’s a considerable change. And now, after a week and three washes, my hair is still a lot smoother, less dry and generally looks healthier. Of course, it cannot make all my broken hair miraculously grow back to a normal length, but I think it did a good job and my hair grows at an unnaturally fast pace, so I'm not too worried about that. However, to completely restore the moisture, apparently I will need to repeat the process three more times in the next six months to really get the ultimate effect. For less damaged hair, two or maximum three treatments are enough. 

Each treatment along with a regular blow-dry costs a little over 50 €, which is what I normally also pay for the coloring. I am willing to spend it just to see if I will be happy with the final result as I am with the intermediate one. But for this price, everyone should consider for themselves is their hair is really beyond the point of salvage with home remedies and needs some professional assistance.

Have you ever had something like this done by your hairdresser? Let me know in the comments below, if you recommend/advise against any other treatments!

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Until next time, stay beautiful.