Whenever I go to the hairdresser, the first thing I tell them is “
don’t thin out my hair”. They have a habit of going “oh you have such thick hair, here let me remove the bulk for you… snip snip snip” and my hair is thinned out before I have a chance to protest.
Yes I know that thinning out parts of the bulk that I call my hair, will probably make it fall nicer, but I’m Armenian. We like big bouffy hair. Ok, maybe not bouffy, but we love volume.
The bigger the hair, the skinnier the girl looks. (And yes, I’m totally generalising here, I’m sure there are sleek haired Armos out there too… but none in my circle of friends, or family, or in the Kardashians).
 |
The Kardashian sisters - lovers of voluminous hair! |
Anyway, are you still with me? This post is about this miracle product that helps me get big fat volume at the roots. And it is...
Schwarzkopf Taft Full On Styling Powder
I first heard about hair powders from the gorgeous Christina of
Hair Romance (and if you haven’t been reading her blog you absolutely must), but for some reason I assumed they would be like dry shampoos and leave my dark hair with white powdery roots.
Then I kept seeing these styling powders popping up everywhere, with drugstore and salon brands all bringing out their versions.
So one day I decided to give it a try and went with the cheapest option I could fine, the Taft Styling Powder (around $6.95) especially since Christina
had written that she saw no difference between this powder (which incidentally is marketed at men), and the OSIS, powder which is also by Schwarzkopf, but is aimed at women and is 5 times the price. Hmmmm...
(NOTE: Please check the end of this post for an important update regarding the ingredients).
How I use it
- I style my hair as per normal (either straighten or curl it), then part my hair at the crown where I want volume and sprinkle a tiny bit of the powder straight onto it.
- I then massage it in using my fingertips and marvel at the instant volume. The effect is similar to one you’d get if you backcombed or teased your hair, it has that matte texture, but of course it’s kinder to your hair than teasing it.
- The powder is white but it dissolves immediately into my hair and doesn’t leave any white powdery mess around. In fact I tried to take photos of the powder itself but it kept dissolving too quickly for me to get a good shot.
- The best thing is, the powder is re-workable. Meaning, if at the end of the day you notice the hair is falling flat just massage the area where you'd sprinkled the powder to reactivate it.
- If you use too much your hair will just get sticky, so use a tiny tiny amount and you can always add more later. The bottle is a bit like a salt shaker, so you need to be careful how much you sprinkle.
These styling powders are also great for giving texture to soft hair (good for up dos), and for mattifying your hair for a rockstar tousled look. But my preference is to use it only at the roots for root lift and volume. Even though there are so many other such powders in the market, I'm extremely happy with this one and have already bought backups.
Oh and did I mention I got a haircut? I got some layers cut around my face (but not thinned out... I've found a good hairdresser who understands my needs for volume), and a little bit taken off the length. Enough to give it some shape, but still long enough to wear it up or have it curly.
Also in the photo above it might look like I've dyed my hair, but it's actually my natural colour coming through as I haven't dyed it in ages (normally I dye it Darkest Brown by L'Oreal Preference). In fact if you look closely you can see a stray grey hair winding its way down my fringe.
Have you tried styling powders yet?
UPDATE: Thanks to a reader (thanks
KriSTYLES!), we compared the ingredients of Full On, Got2B Volumizing Powder and OSIS styling powders which are all made by Schwarzkopf but are all sold at different prices. Here are the ingredients.
- Taft Full On ($6.95) - Aqua, Silica Silylate, Sodium Benzoate, Octyl Acrylamide/Acrylates/Butylaminoethyl Methacrylate Copolymer, Citric Acid
- Got2B (approx $11) - Aqua, Silica Silylate, Sodium Benzoate, Citric Acid, Octyl Acrylamide/Acrylates/Butylaminoethyl Methacrylate Copolymer
- OSIS ($25) - Aqua (Water/Eau), Silica Silylate, Sodium Benzoate, Octyl Acrylamide/Acrylates/Butylaminoethyl Methacrylate Copolymer, Citric Acid
Yes, they all have exactly the same ingredients but in different packaging (same size though) and aimed at different market segments.