My experience at an Ulta salon.

And it was an experience...  I will warn you though, this has turned out to be a long post!

I've been blonde since the beginning of last year.  It feels a lot longer than that though.  I've always dabbled in highlights since college and my hair consistently bleached out in the summer rays as well.  Light ash brown with some natural blonde highlights...  I had my first gray hair at 21, my sister actually pulled it out during an afternoon tea at a Bed & Breakfast in Ireland.  I remember it vividly.

I didn't start permanently dying my hair on the regular until I believe 2002.  I had strands of gray, but I would ignore them for a while, then they would bother me, etc, etc...  So for about 10 years now, I have been dying my hair, sometimes consistently, most times not however.  I received my first "dramatic" hair cut when I moved to VA in 2001.  My hair was past the middle of my back and I got the works, highlights, low lights, and a super short bob.  In fact the stylist had to shave the back of my head ever so slightly to even out my hair line.

That cut eventually grew out and a year after that I dyed it pretty dark, then red, then back to brown.  Back to a longer bob, shorter bob, layers, you name it, I did it.  About 2 years ago I got some highlights and eventually just went lighter and lighter until I was blonde.  The crazy hot sun in NC definitely helped it along as well as John Frieda, my box color of choice.  I never really worried too much about my hair cuts and color because there is one thing certain about hair, it grows and mine grows fast.

For a while now, close to a year, I have had this urge to go bright red.  Like Poppy Montgomery in tv show "Unforgettable."  Link!  I've gone red before and when I look at pictures, my face is also ruddy/red, complementing my hair.  Not a look a want to repeat so finding the right shade of red was paramount.  Earlier last week, I changed my mind suddenly and wanted to go dark, a deep chocolate brown.  I had 2 boxes of John Frieda foam in my cart at Walmart.  I eventually re-shelved them before checking out.

Then last Thursday night, my husband drove me to Sally's.   Perfectly capable of driving on my own, he just knew I needed some encouragement.  So there I was, walking down the hair color aisle of Sally's grabbing my supplies.  2 bottles of L'OREAL Professional Mega Browns in BR7 Chocolate, bottle of 20 volume developer, mixing bowl, gloves, brush, comb and a protein conditioner pack later, I was ready to dye my hair!

Before:

After:

The color was fantastic.  It covers amazingly well.  It also is a very dark color!  It has a red/violet base and came out nearly black but with all dark colors and red, I knew that this would eventually rinse out.  In the above picture, my bathroom lights highlight the red in the dye. One thing I love about dark hair is how it brings out the blue in my eyes.  They glow.  The color also pales out my fair skin... dramatically.  Think Snow White.  I look a bit red in the picture after blow drying it here though.

What this color needed was a fantastic cut!  I envisioned Megan Fox, long wavy layers, angles in the front.    Usually when it comes to fantastic haircuts and color I would find myself in an Ulta for a consultation.  I made an appointment Saturday morning and off to Ulta I went!

Sat down to be shampooed...  "Is your hair color treated?" she asks.  "Well yes of course, I just went from bleach blonde to this the other night.  The color is still rinsing out, " I quip.  She stops what she is doing and asks me more questions about my history with hair dying, how I got to blonde, etc, etc.  She then says that I really should break up the color with some caramel highlights.  The dark color washes me out.  I agree that the dark color washes me out but when I do get highlights, I pull red when my hair is dark. I tell her that I don't want to end up with orange hair.  She is confident that this will not happen.

Instinctively I knew not to get highlights.  I sat down almost panicking in her chair in front of the mirror telling myself not to get highlights.  My instincts were saying Danger! Danger! Danger!  Stop her from mixing the color!  Did I listen? No. The foils came out, I still never said anything.  I took a deep breath and the process started.  "Be careful, I pull red." She did see that I was uncomfortable.  "Don't worry!" she says.

The conversation was bizarre to say the least.  Religion, "getting saved," kids, relationships...  I was trying to figure out if she was trying to recruit me to her church.  She checked a foil and I knew immediately that my hair processed very quickly.  She says, "You weren't kidding when you said your hair pulls red."  Now I'm freaking out.  "Don't worry, we will tone it out."  Then her panic sets in.  She starts spraying off my hair with water and wiping off the bleach with a towel.  I had enough of that technique so I get up and head towards a sink.  They are all being used.  Sit back down for her to continue spraying off my hair and I notice a woman leave a sink and I run back.

Thankfully she did less then 10 foils, I was supposed to get 10 because it was 10 for $45 but since my color processed so quickly, she only got to 6 or 7.  She then hands me a magazine and tells me to pick out a color glaze.  I'm confused at this point, I thought we were doing caramel.  But then I realize, caramel isn't the correct color for me, I pick out a picture of Selena Gomez on my phone.  She has darker reddish brown highlights.  That will go better with the red/violet base of the hair dye.

She brings me back over the sink and starts the spraying this light brown glaze on my hair, at the sink, standing over me and rubbing it in for maybe 10 minutes.  My husband, who had been walking around the mall with the kids was checking in since it has been and hour and a half at this point.  He sits at a dryer in front of me and says, "Are you going lighter?"  I reply with, "I have no idea what is going on right now."  And I truly didn't and I was starting to get upset at myself for agreeing to highlights.

The hair cut starts. "Your ends really got blonde because your hair is so porous and damaged from the box dyes.  But you want layers anyway, so they will be cut out. What were you thinking again for the cut?"  "I want long layers in the back, keep the length and some angles in the front starting below my chin."   Its my standard haircut, I ask for it every time I get my hair cut.  She gets to the front of my head and asks me to show her where I want the front angles to start.  I point the hair below my chin.

Her style of cutting was... different...  She had me turned from the mirror so I really wasn't watching.  Bigger mistake than agreeing to highlights.  Always watch your hair cut.  She then thought a side bang would look nice and I agreed.  For the hair cut, my daughter sat in a chair next to me.  The entire time, she was just staring at me and then down to the  floor.  She didn't really like the fact that I dyed my hair in the first place.  At some point, I followed her gaze to the floor.  Piles and piles of black hair... Panic sets in again.  "What are you cutting off back there?" I say.  "You have a lot of bulk back here and I don't think I took anything off the length."  I say, "You don't think?"

I am having a full blown panic attack at this point.  I'm trying to tell myself to calm down.  It's just hair, it will grow back.  She starts drying my hair.  "Do you want a flat iron?"  I say no.  I want to get the hell out of that chair.  She spins me around to face the mirror.  I am horrified by my reflection.  Streaks of orange at the top of my head.  Crispy pieces of bleach blonde hair at the sides.  Choppy layers all over my head.  My long layers in the back start at the middle of the back of my head.  A non-existent side bang that is not layered properly, it just hangs there.  Layers on the side of my face that start up at my eyebrows.  I am visibly shaking and upset.

Now she says, "What?  What's wrong?"  A woman with her hands folded across her chest suddenly appears in the background.  At this point I can't really see or hear anything around me, I was trying my hardest not to cry.  "Point out what is wrong with your hair.  This is my manager."  I tell her everything.  "My hair is orange, we talked about this.  I didn't want orange hair.  My layers start way up here.  I wanted them to start past my chin."

She says, "I think you need some hair treatments, your hair is really damaged.  I will fix it at a discount the next time you come in.  Let me give you my card."

"Why do my layers start at my eyebrows on this side?"

"Those are face framing layers, those aren't your angles."  I repeat, "Face framing layers..."  I shake my head no.

I'm angry.  I want out of there.  She prints out the bill.  $80.  It really stung.  I just spent $80 for a mess that I will have to turn around and spend another $100 to fix.  My husband meets me in line at the register.  He says,  "Here are the keys to the car.  I will pay for this."  I burst in to tears and literally run out of Ulta.   I'm crying in front of my daughter who is also upset because I am so upset.  I couldn't believe what just happened.  I keep looking at my hair in the car mirror, torturing myself, hoping it will change suddenly and not be as bad as I think it was.  However, it just gets worse.

The color for one was awful.  Thankfully its was just a few foils.  The above picture of course is in poor lighting at night but you can see that the cut was an uneven choppy mess.  My right side was longer than my left and I had this weird sharp v almost like a short cattail at the end of my hair in the middle of my back.  I resolve to keep it in a ponytail or sock bun for the next month.  My ponytail doesn't even lay right.  My neighbor pointed that out to me.  "What's going on in the back of your head?" I am a mess.  I realize that she was trying to cut out the blonde.

I call Ulta that evening when I feel calm and ask to speak to a manager.  "I think you came over to her chair while I was pointing out all the things that were wrong or another manager did.  You didn't say anything.  Do you remember? "  I get what I considered  to be an attitude. "Do I remember you specifically?  No.  We had over 100 clients today. I don't remember it looking bad.  What is it that you want me to do?"

She wants me to come in on Tuesday (yesterday) and she will take a look at it.  "And do me a favor.  Don't touch or do anything to your hair until Tuesday."  Now I am fuming mad.  I am not going to let anyone talk to me like that.  I call Ulta Guest Services and speak to a representative, tell her my story.  She apologizes.  I tell her that I don't feel comfortable stepping foot into that Ulta.  I will drive an hour to go to the next nearest store. She tells me that she will refer this to the district manager and someone will be contacting me in a couple of days.  I apologize for being so emotional, I just wished they had handled the situation better and stopped me from leaving Ulta in tears.

The manager from Ulta calls me Monday afternoon.  "I got an email from Guest Services.  I know that you are upset.  Please come in and let me make the situation right.  I know your hair is really damaged from the box dyes that you have used."  I tell her that's not the issue.  The haircut is terrible, the color is equally terrible.  She continues with, "I have some ideas and I know you will leave the salon happy.  Ulta rarely receives complaints, I opened this salon, been here since day one and I take complaints very seriously.  Give me a chance to make it right."

I reluctantly agree to come in and have her look at it.  I don't really have a choice.  Since spending $115 (my husband left a $35 tip), I don't have anything left to go someplace else.  She also informs me that the stylist will also be present so she can learn what to do and what not to do in future situations, but she doesn't want that to make me uncomfortable.  Yeah, that won't be uncomfortable...at all.

So I go to my appointment and check in with of course the previous stylist.  I sit down and happen to be the only one in the salon at the time.  The manager comes over and starts with, "So tell me what's going on."  I point out all the things I had mentioned before I left on Saturday and I also pointed out more things that I found later like the color, sections on the side of my head that were longer than pieces under neath, etc, etc, etc.  She runs her fingers through my hair not saying a word.

She thought the real issue is that I went from blonde to dark brown in one shot.  "I think that is what this is really about.  You should never go lighter or darker more than 2 shades at a time.  And if you are going to do a dramatic color, you need to come into a salon."   She then talks about how pregnancy, medication, and how our menstrual cycle affect the texture of our hair and how the color takes.

I tell her that I do not take any medications, I am not ovulating, PMSing, menstruating, and I am definitely not pregnant.  She continues with what I have done for the past 6-7 years to my hair will affect the outcome of the highlights as well since that length of my hair is about that many years of growth.  We talk more about the cut.

After we were done with our hair heart to heart I asked her, "After looking at my hair, do you feel that my concerns are validated?"  She says, very carefully, "I think the color is not what you were looking for.  I see a difference in color at the top of your head which is new growth and the bottom of the hair strands which is old growth.  They will take to the color differently.  I feel that the placement of the color looks really good.  I have a vegetable based glaze that will take care of that concern for you that won't be damaging.  The hair is more resilient than we think.  I can clean up the cut for you so that it lays better and fix the side bangs so they flip out more."

Okay, sounds good.  I feel like I'm in good hands.  Going into the appointment, I pictured myself needing to chop off my hair to my shoulders.  This I can deal with.  Glaze was then applied and she brought me over to a dryer.  I sat under the dryer for 30 minutes...  The stylist then shampooed the glaze out of my hair.  Awkward.  Lots of squeezing the water out of my hair.  I get it.

Back in the manager's chair and after her tools were laid out on the table in front of her by an assistant, she gets started.  "I'm not going to take anymore off your length, it's just going to seem like I am.  I'm going to first cut your hair wet and then again dry."  An hour later she is done.  That's how long it took to fix all of the mistakes.  While she cut, she did point out some techniques to the stylist who stood in front of me,  not behind me where the cutting was happening.  Lots of checking and cross checking and pulling.  She was meticulous.

Then she took a section from the top of my head, pulled it up and it was discovered that an entire section was not cut.  She looks at me and says, "What's this?"  I look up at her and say, "What?"  She looks at the stylist, and she stammers, "She told me not to take any off the length."  The manager explains to me that this section of hair needs to be cut so that the angles in the front lay correctly.  "This piece here will lay just underneath your chin."  I told her that I had asked for chin length layers to start with.

Wet hair cut is done, stylist walks away to retrieve something.  I tell the manager, "The way you just cut my hair now, the technique that you used, is how I have gotten my hair cut in the past. That is not how my hair was cut on Saturday."  Silence.  She doesn't even respond.

The blow out begins.  My first real blowout I might add.  It's painful!  Lots of pulling.  My neck is a little sore trying to keep my head straight.  lol  However the results were fantastic.  She then dry cut my hair, again, very meticulous.  So thankful for her precision, her expertise!  All the pulling and blowing and hair spraying...  I looked like a model.  I truly did.  I felt amazing as well.

The color is perfect.  I'm assuming the glaze will fade but hopefully not to the bleached blonde that it is covering up.  I do use sulfate free shampoos so I will try to preserve the color as long as I can.  The manager also wants me to come back every 6 weeks.  I really can't afford that schedule but I do need to go into a salon more than my usual 2 times a year.  lol

She also mixed up a sample in a little cup that my son promptly dumped out all over the kitchen table.  It was a serum to run through my ends when my hair is wet.  Oh well...  I will continue using my coconut and argan oils.

If you made it this far...  :)

Lessons learned from this experience:

Big #1:  Don't let yourself get talked into highlights!!!  If you don't want them, don't get them!!!
#2:  Be very specific about your hair cuts.  Never say long layers and assume they will actually be long.  Long is a relative term.
#3:  Don't leave the salon unless you are perfectly happy with the cut.

Am I happy with the outcome?

Yes and no.  The manager saved the length of my hair and fixed an absolute disastrous mess.  My hair had been processed 3 times in 6 days.  Very damaging.   The distress it caused me and my family was just ridiculous.  It sounds dramatic but I've learned how important a hair cut is to your well being.  I've never experienced a butchering before.  It was horrible.

Additionally, I am left with a very high maintenance, layered haircut.  First of all, I do not have the tools or products to recreate the manager's magic nor do I have the 30 minutes to blowout my hair every morning for it to look decent.

Will I try?  Yes of course.

Will I ever step foot in an Ulta again.  I'm not sure to be honest.  I know I won't be ready in 6 weeks...

Have you ever had a bad hair cut?  Do share!  I can certainly emphasize now that I have experienced it!

Quick Eye of the Day and hair color woes...

I didn't take a picture of the products/swatches today but they are all things I have used before.  This is my go to purple eye look.  I used a Physician's Formula gel liner trio, the purple shade, for a cream base and then used a purple matte Revlon shade in my crease and to smudge out a little black liner by mark.  I also used a some WnW kitten all over the lid on top of the gel liner that I used as a cream shadow base. 

My cumbly WnW Brulee went in my inner corner as well as under my brow for a highlight.  Brulee promptly went into the bin.  I wish I saved it as soon as it cracked.  Why I waited until it was unsaveable is beyond me!

Oh I also used the WnW Kitten under my eye as well and the matte Revlon purple to smudge out my top lid that I lined in the same black mark liner.  I just took my eye makeup off, a mere 11 hours after application.  It didn't budge. 

I did use the last of a small tube of UD primer potion, but it wasn't the primer potion that held up my shadow, it was the PF as a cream base.  It doesn't crease on me.  It's the only eyeshadow/cream base that I have tried that does not crease.  It's no joke.  I need to swatch them out.

So from the pics, I'm noticing that my hair is super light now!  I had to "fix" what happened at the salon.  My hair gets really brassy.  I mean really brassy.  The best hair color I have ever had done were when my hair was actually double processed, bleached white basically and then the color that I wanted was then dyed on top of that.  It's the only way not to get the red/orange/brass.  I have also had color done and then tonor applied.  That helps tremendously.

Well I get my hair colored and while she is blow drying my hair and she is having a tough time getting the brush through my hair.  I"m thinking it's the brush.  Nope.  Whenever I felt my hair after she was done, I about died.   It was straw.  My hair color looked pretty good.  A little brassy but I knew my trusty purple John Frieda shampoo could take care of it.  24 hours later, my hair is orange.  I didn't panic.  No.  I knew to go to Sally Beauty and get some tonor.

I do this all the time.  Go somewhere, get talked out of something or given something completely different.  I figure, they are the pros, listen to them.  Well sure enough, I leave Sally Beauty with more hair dye.  How did that happen?  I thought for sure she handed me tonor.  We talked about it!  So I re-dyed my hair, still a little orange, but it did come out a little more brighter and much softer.  So from now on, I will dye my own hair.  I'm serious this time.  :) 

John Frieda Go Blonder Lightening Spray is my go to root saver.  I hadn't died my hair since April.  I won't wait that long again, I will probably just do 3-4 months.  I used Color Brillance Creme Permanent Hair Color in 10V-10.2 Lightest Cool Blonde and 20 developer.  I went back today and got some Shimmer Lights Blonde and Silver purple shampoo as I don't have any John Frieda left nor coupons :(  This shampoo is a much darker purple and I'm hoping that it will take out the rest of the brass quickly!  Kind of smells like V05.

I also picked up some Organix Argan oil at CVS and smooth it through my wet hair from the shower. It makes my hair feel amazing and really helped to reverse the damage of dying my hair twice in 72 hours. It feels pretty thick in your hands when you are warming it up but it doesn't weigh down my hair at all. Great stuff.

I will let you know how my new shampoo works out!  I have to remember to take pictures.

Hope you had a great weekend!

My solution to tangle free hair

Ever since I was little, I have been plaqued with tangles.  I used to load up on conditioner just to run a comb or a brush through my hair and of course greasy hair ensued.  In college I discovered a product by Pantene that helped.  I forget the name of it.  I think it was a smoother spray to use while blow drying but I used it while my hair was wet.  It still made my hair super greasy the next day and even later in the evening.  Not flattering.  These were the days before dry shampoo mind you.  I'm not super old, but if dry shampoo was available in the mid to late 90's, I didn't know about it and it was unobtainable on a college budget.

My hair is hardly coarse, but it is thick, I have a ton of it.  So I guess you could say it has a fine texture but it is thick in the respect that I have a lot of hair.  Well my daughter now has very similar hair.  It was super fine for her first couple of years and now it still has the fine texture but she has a lot of it.  And thus, the tangles have begun and the tears when I try to get a brush through it. 

Well we have been using Phytum Hair Care Nutrition Replenshing Shampoo and Conditioner for a bit now and we love it.  I ordered it on-sale of course from Yves Rocher.  I bought it for I swear $3.  The original price was $9.  I see now that it is BOGO.  I also shopped through ebates and got 9% back from my order and had a 30% coupon code and free shipping so it was totally worth ordering from the site at that time. 

My daughter had wicked swimmer's hair at the time and getting a brush through her locks was nearly impossible.  After 1 wash, this shampoo and conditioner smoothed out her hair considerably and after 3 washes, her hair was back to normal.  Before using this shampoo, I was considering a drastic hair cut.   I'm glad I found this shampoo. 

I alternate between this shampoo and John Frieda Sheer Blonde Color Renew.  The Phytum Nutrition does have a scent to it.  I have no idea how to describe it.  It's not obnoxious but the first time my husband used it, he mentioned it and wondered where the shampoo came from.  Not exactly a negative, but he never notices things like that.  It contains Jojoba seed oil and carrageenan.  According to wikipedia, carrageenan is a type of seaweed.  After a little research, I found out more from here:

Hand Lotions and Shampoos



It has been known for centuries that fishermen who handle Irish moss tend to have soft skin. This folklore led scientists to discover that carrageenan interacts with human carotene to give soft skin and silky hair. In hand lotions and shampoos, carrageenan not only thickens the product but also promotes healthy skin and hair. In addition, carrageenan is a natural product and can be incorporated into formulations which rely on natural ingredients for their promotion.
 
It's always a good idea to find out what you are lathering on to your body!

I think I found my new look!

I have no idea where I got this picture from!  AHHH!!!  If anyone can help let me know!  This is the cut, style and color I want.  So excited!  I will sit on it until my school break in August.  My hair will be longer by then as well.  Well a quarter of an inch or so in a month.

UPDATE:  Went to the the salon this morning!  Well my hair didn't come out quite as nice.  I'm going to cut my own bangs again so they are a little more thicker like this look.  My hair is a little past my shoulders right now.  But as it grows out, it has potential!

Hair One Hair Cleanser and Conditioner

I've been talking about Hair One for a while now and I finally got around to Sally Beauty with a 20% off coupon of course!  I'm not sure which came first Wen or Hair One but they are both conditioning hair cleansers.  One I can afford, the other, not so much right now...  However, after using Hair One, I almost feel even more compelled to order Wen!

This stuff is great, when you get the hang of using it.  It took me a couple of days.  It might have been an unfair first day test because my hair was super unclean.  I had just colored it.  After coloring I wait a day to wash thinking my color will last longer.  I also had used some dry shampoo in addition to hair spray and my heat protector.  Needless to say, Hair One was going to be challenged on the first run.

So I prepared myself, read the directions thoroughly, not once but twice.  It's reeally not that complicated.  The instructions say to start off with 5-7 pumps for the crown, 5-10 pumps for the midshafts and ends and for me since my hair is a little past my shoulders another 10 pumps.  Your hair is obviously wet while incorporating the cleanser and you need to scrub pretty vigorously and keep adding small amounts of water.  The first couple of days my hair, which can be pretty oily, was looking greasy by noon.

I wasn't about to give up.  I really wanted this product to work!  Well by the end of the week I learned that 30 pumps was enough for my hair.  Which seems like a lot...  Wow 30 pumps, but it is really the same amount as using the normal amout of shampoo and conditioner.  My hair is not course in texture but really thick, I have a ton of hair.  Also by the end of the week I was able to work it up into a semi-lather.  It's sulfate free so it isn't going to lather like your traditional shampoo but it does lather.  The trick is to keep adding bit of water during your scrub.  Which is great for your scalp by the way.  The scalp is often neglected until we go to the salon and the shampooer spends all that time lathering and massaging.

So I really like Hair One.  What I didn't like about it was the smell.  It has a nice clean smell but nothing that wows the senses.  I bought the Jojoba for color treated hair.  Also this one product is really a substitute for four.  It replaces your conditioner for one.  Second, I didn't need hair spray to tame down my flyaways after blow drying because I didn't have any.  And lastly, I didn't use my smoothing serum either.  So it really conditions. 

It retails for $10.99 for 12 fl.oz.  A Sally Beauty card will save you 50 cents.  By looking at how much I used this week, it looks like I have about 3 weeks worth of product left.  So $10.99 for 30 days, sulfate free, and replaces 3 other products.   I also like the ingredient label.  Tons of natural plant extracts and oils. 

It's worth a try!

The latest drugstore haul

So I guess you could say I am health conscious.  I'm not fanatical, but I try my best to eat healthy and cook food from scratch for my family.  When we have soup, it's not from a can, etc.  Also, you'll never find boxed cookies or procsessed food in my pantry.  Cooking is therapeutic for me and the knowledge that I am   providing preservative and corn syrup free food to my family is really important to me.  I have been trying to be as organic as possible as well.  Recently I watched an infomercial on Wen Hair Care System by Chaz Dean.  http://www.wenhaircare.com/  I really wanted to shell out the $29.95, really I did.  But it was right before Christmas and I couldn't spend the money on myself.  Christmas is about giving right?  But the infomercial was talking about Wen being sulfate free, all natural.  Apparently, I learned from a conversation with a friend that sulfates can cause scalp irritation and actually thin out your hair.  I haven't done any research on those two facts yet but I did read an article on wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_Lauryl_Sulfate

I'm not a chemist but the article does mention sulfates are added to shampoos and bubble baths for extra bubbles or a nice lather.  It also mentions that they break down or denature proteins which I guess could in fact thin out individual hair strands.  So when I pulled into Walgreens for vitamins (BOGO free) and saw Organix shampoo on sale I thought of it as an excellent opportunity to make the switch to sulfate free.  I bought shampoo and conditioner for the revitalizing pomegranate green tea, smoothing shea butter and nourishing coconut butter.  The deal was 2 for 1, or 2 for $6.99.  They are 13 fl.oz. bottles.  So kind of pricey even with the sale but the results are worth it.  My hair is shinier than ever and the texture feels great.  A little more about my hair...  I have a lot of hair, it's thick but the strands are not coarse, it's about shoulder length right now.  It is also color treated though I am letting the latest color choice grow/fade out.  After washing, I add a pump of Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine before blowing it out straight, well my hair is straight but I blow dry it with a round brush and then before flat ironing if I want it super straight I use Aveda Smooth Infusion Glossing Straightener.  I have been using those 2 products even before switching to Organix shampoo.  Another benefit to Organix is that my hair isn't greasy the next day so I can actually go two days without washing which is actually healthier for my hair as well.  Very happy right now with Organix!   Wen will have to wait...