2024 roundup: favorite products and tools
Hey everyone! Here is my 2024 roundup of my favorite products and tools for your hair! Most of these can be purchased either in my salon or on the salon’s website. The tools I will link for you!
First up are my top favorite brands of this year: Lakme, Aluram, Amika, and DesignMe.
Lakme and Aluram are clean conscious beauty brands which just always steals a piece of my heart and their products work amazingly and there is something for everyone from both of these brands. They also cover different price points depending on what your budget is! (There is always a monthly sale on the salon’s website FYI.)
Lakme’s launch of new and improved styling products was the best thing ever and I am OBSESSED. My favorite products from this line are the Pliable flexible hold hairspray, Top Ten styling balm, Body mist spray for volume of course, Rings for my curly hair gals, Blowout mist for a speedy and super conditioned blow dry and lastly Boost volumizing mousse. I could honestly make a separate post all about their shampoos and conditioners because, wow. I literally recommend all of them, just depending on what you are looking for or need for your hair!
My top products from Aluram are their Dry Texture Spray, and Leave In Conditioner. If you are a client of mine you have most likely purchased either one, if not both, of these products at least once! This brand is super clean and affordably priced which is a nice bonus to have the best of both worlds. Their shampoos and conditioners are also wonderful and something I always recommend. Aluram is a smaller brand which is nice because you aren’t overwhelmed by trying to select and try out different products, they’ve really nailed down a select dozen or so that work great. No need to over complicate things!
Amika is super popular to the consumer as you can find their products in Sephora and Ulta and this is a brand I have loved since I was in hair school. My tried and true products from them are their Perk Up Dry Shampoo and Un Done Dry Texture Spray. This brand has grown so much in recent years that I have not tried all of their products BUT I think they are just a killer brand overall. I’m also obsessed with their Top Gloss shine spray and I’ve heard wonderful things about their Soulfood nourishing mask.
DesignMe is also another popular consumer brand which consists of lots of great styling products and shampoos and conditioners that have been added on recently. I am currently loving their Hold.Me styling stick, which is great for those trendy slicked back styles. That styling stick really helps me slick back my crazy postpartum regrowth when I want to do a slicked back style. They are originally known for their line of volumizing products called Puff.Me which is for sure a must have if you are a fine haired girly like myself.
ONTO TOOLS!
I’m honestly a firm believer in simplicity. I know that the popular styling tools like the Dyson airwrap and similar tools are so widely known and raved about online, but I’m going to disappoint you and say that those are not my favorite. I also don’t think Dyson ever should have gotten into the hair industry to begin with, but I will digress. To each their own!
I personally feel like everyone should have at least three styling tools that are catered to their hair needs, not just what is trendy.
We all need a classic blow dryer and for these I like either a Babyliss or Hot Tools. These are both my favorite styling tool brands as I use products from both behind the chair. Both Babyliss and Hot Tools are pretty affordable as well! They are reliable, last forever, and work super well.
Others you can find at Ulta or the drug store are fine, just be sure to replace them every few years as they aren’t built to last very long like the more professional brands.
You need some sort of heat styling tool whether you like to curl/wave your hair or straighten it. I promise you it is OK to use heat on your hair. Just keep the temperature below 400 degrees and always make sure you are using products that have heat protection (all the Lakme styling products have built in heat protection) or a nice leave in conditioner to act as a heat protectant. A hot tools curling iron is always the way to go in my opinion. Their irons are classic, easy to use, affordable, and come in varying barrel sizes. They also make both Ceramic and Titanium options which I love. The barrel size will depend on two things- how long your hair is and what kind of curl you are looking to achieve. A smaller barrel like a one inch will give you tigher curls that last longer but for longer length hair it will be a pain to wrap around the iron. A larger barrel like a one and a quarter or one and a half inch will give you more of a looser waved curl and works well for longer length hair. Other good brands for a curling iron are the T3, Bio Ionic, Babyliss, Paul Mitchell styling wand, and the Beachwaver.
For a flat iron it’s a little bit easier to find a good one at a decent price, I just recommend a titanium plated one with a digital temperature reading as opposed to a dial. I really love the Paul Mitchell flat iron, it is pretty gentle on the hair and has a digital temperature guage which is very necessary. Way more damage can be done with a flat iron than a curling iron so keeping that temperature controlled is super important!
Lastly, I love a smoothing brush or a thermal brush or having one of each in your cabinet. It’s important to note that this type of tool is NOT to replace a blow dryer or go from wet to dry hair. This is a tool to use when your hair is at least 80% dry or fully dry to smooth and style.
The Revlon blowout brush was a big tool on the market a few years ago and I love this tool. There are plenty of other brands as well with the same style and purpose just not with the Revlon label that are just as good so don’t feel bad if you use or purchase a ‘knock off’. This tool is great for those with a ton of hair and need a nice smoothing tool to help if the coordination of a blow dryer and round brush is too much. Simply dry your hair 80% or more and then do the rest of the work with this blowout brush and you will have that silky smooth look. You can give the ends a little bounce with this tool as well and Revlon has since made a root boost version that is the same style tool but just a smaller barrel. I love it all!
A tool I have been OBSESSED with lately, is the Amika Blowout Babe thermal brush. This is such a great tool to style your hair paired with velcro rollers to really get a bouncy, fresh blowout look. (Stay tuned in to my instagram for a tutorial reel very soon) I have been using this tool for a few months now when I want to wear my hair straight but still have some bounce and shape to it and I couldn’t love it more.
That is it my loves! Let me know if you liked this kind of blog post or what you want to see from me next on here!
Love you lots, thanks for being here,
XOXO
