Silke London - Isla Silk Hair Wrap

 My hair has a mind of its own.  It's fine - but there is a hell of a lot of it - and it is by turns frizzy, wavy, flat in parts and curly in others, occasionally all of them at once, but the thing it most likes to be is ENORMOUS. I am always looking for ways to keep it under control.  Since it developed the mysterious habit of trying to choke Mr Lippie in his sleep, I decided that Something Must Be Done, and investigated the role of hair wraps for night-time.

I've known for a while that sleeping on a silk pillowcase has helped my hair be smoother, less frizzy and easier to control, but I was disappointed when looking for silk wraps that most wraps you can buy are actually man-made fibre.  Excellent for keep hair in place, perhaps, but not what I was looking for on the defrizzing front.  Then a friend posted a link on Facebook that mentioned Silke London hair wraps and I was intrigued.  They looked beautiful!  Gorgeous jewel-coloured silk turbans (to be honest, the thought of actually "wrapping" my hair was making me nervous, I'm a cack-handed muppet at the best of times), easy to wear, and stunning items in their own right.

Yeah, this isn't me.  I look more like Hilda Ogden in mine

The hardest part was choosing which colour I wanted. The Dita is purple and red; The Eva is black; The Sofia is ivory; and the Poppy is hot pink and orange.  Eventually I settled on the Isla (pictured), which is green and blue, and bought myself one as a birthday present.  It is gorgeously presented in it's tiny colour-co-ordinated box, and folded beautifully, it'd make a perfect gift.

The Silke London website promises that the use of their hair wrap will help your hair in the following ways:

1. Repair, protect and prevent hair breakage and damage
2. Maintain your style for longer
3. Save time spent restyling
4. Balance oily roots and dry ends
5. Wash your hair less
6. Reduce hair loss and boost hair growth
7. Eliminate frizz and flyaways
8. Naturally condition hair
9. Dramatically enhance your hair’s appearance

 Now, whilst I am cursed with uncontrollable hair, I'm also incredibly lazy, so anything that promises to reduce styling time and leaves you able to wash your hair less, well, I'm IN, so yes. I was champing at the bit slightly when it arrived.

Having used the Silke Hair Wrap for a good few weeks now, I can say that it definitely delivers on most of those promises, actually.  It's very easy for me to see that my hair is less frizzy after a few weeks wear, and I have to use less styling product now.  Before, I'd be using three pumps of Paul Mitchell Skinny Serum just to get my hair out of the bathroom once it had been washed, and my hair would just drink the stuff, then beg for some styling cream for afters.  Now it's just one pump, if that, and no styling cream (unless I'm going to use a heated appliance after), and it's less coarse-feeling in the mornings.

But the major difference I've seen is less breakage, it's amazing.  With the house move and everything this year, it's been a while since I've been able to see my hair dresser, and normally if I'd leave it three months between visits, the bottom three inches of my hair would be feeling like straw (the ends of my hair are subtly bleached, I've been having balayage for years now), but this time around, even after so long, my hair was only slightly damaged at the ends, and far less prone to breaking off when I run my fingers through it.  I couldn't be happier with the results. 

Even if I do look like a massive plonker wearing it, and my husband has developed an irritating habit of humming "... you can leave your hat on..." when entering the bedroom as a result.  The problem is that whilst I undoubtedly have a shedload of hair, it's mounted on my tiny, tiny pinhead, and sometimes the turban spins round a bit when I move my head.  Or slips over my eyes.  But all you lovely people with normal-sized bonces won't have these issues.  The wrap is soft, and the elastic is loose, so you won't get band marks around your face when you remove it.  It's comfortable to wear (though it can get a little warm on these really hot summer evenings, bear in mind).

So yes, £45 well spent, I think, especially on a cost-per-wear basis.  I just wish I'd bought the black one instead ...

The Fine Print: Purchase.
 
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Skincare of the Week 12 June 2016

I've been on a blog-hiatus. It wasn't intended, but it just sort of happened, and, I have to admit, I've rather enjoyed it.  I'm just now entering my eighth year of blogging (you read that right), so that's seven years of Sunday afternoons that I've spent at my computer,which equates to nearly a solid YEAR of taking pictures, editing pictures (always the worst part, tbh), actually doing the writing and doesn't even slightly take into account the hours I spend getting to events, reading press releases, testing products and the thinking (oh my god, the THINKING) about blog posts even before I sit down to write them!  

So, because I've been enjoying NOT blogging for a couple of months, its crossed my mind that maybe I should retire.  Year end was super-busy at work this year, and we just moved house, and I've been tired - so very, very tired - and the thought of adding blogging back into that particular mix has just been ... depressing. Another thing to worry about, and another obligation.  That said, I've been loving Instagram very much lately, pop on over!

Retiring from blogging at Get Lippie completely has been a tempting option under the circumstances, like the thought of going on a lovely, looooooooong, holiday.  Blogging, particularly beauty blogging, is both a bit of a rat-race and a popularity contest these days, and I'm never going to be Zoella or Pixiwoos.  Hell, I'm barely even Get Lippie these days! Luckily, I don't rely on my blog to make my living - there's no sponsorship or endorsement deals here - but, now I'm out of work-madness time, and we've practically got the new flat sorted,  I'm going to give a couple of Sundays* back up to the blogging muse, and see what occurs. 

So, yeah, skincare is what we're meant to be talking about, apparently, not my existential crisis, so here's some skincare chat:

I'm attempting to use up my much-beloved Zelens Intense Defence Serum, because it's nearly at the end, and that will make it the only serum I've used up in several years!  I love this stuff, on my picky, overly sensitive, prone-to-redness skin, this acts like a bandage, protecting it from all kinds of pollutants and cushioning it from the effects of overly harsh weather, or unsuitable skincare products.  I've been boosting it with Zelens Power D Drops in recent weeks, and I'll be giving a full review of those soon.

Clinique sent me a bumper pack of their Moisture Surge products the other week, and, whilst I've had trouble with gel-formula moisturisers in the past (they tend to be heavy on the silicones and irritate my skin by not letting it breathe too well), I'm really enjoying using Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief.  The stress of the last couple of months, combined with spending a lot of hours really staring at a computer - seriously, when you're getting 40 incomprehensible emails a day from a government department, you'd be screwing your face up too - have left me craving hydration, and I find this feels super-hydrating at first application and leaves my skin feeling velvety and wonderful, without the little angry bumps I can get from too many silicones.

Something else new that I'm trying right now is the Silke London silk hair wrap.  I've been toying with wrapping my hair for a while now, having found that sleeping on a silk pillow case makes a huge difference to my hair, but couldn't find a 100% silk wrap that I liked. Then Silke London launched, and I had to have one, so treated myself to an Isla, which is the green and blue version.  It's essentially a silk turban, and looks impossibly glamorous on the right person.  I am not the right person, and look like Hilda Ogden after a minor lottery win in mine, so there will be no selfies wearing it, but I'll keep you posted ...

How's your week been?  I've not retired.  Yet.


*But not next Sunday.  Ironically, I'm going on holiday ... ;)
 
The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


This post: Skincare of the Week 12 June 2016 originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper