Loreal EverPure VoxBox from Influenster

I've been an "Influenster" for a few years now and I absolutely love the company and what they do. Pretty much what Influenster is, is a site that you join to connect with other Influensters, to write and share product reviews. Then suddenly you'll get an email from them telling you to fill out a survey to determine if you're the right pick for their upcoming VoxBox. I've participating in a few, I love them.  A VoxBox is a box of one or many products that you get to try out for FREE in exchange for reviewing the product or products with your HONEST feedback and sharing your experience with others. They also have VirtualVox campaigns where you don't actually receive physical products, but you get to interact with other people about the products in that campaign.

The very exciting email that I received informing me that I scored a spot!

I was so extremely happy when I was accepted to participate in the Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend VoxBox. I had filled out the survey, but I didn't get my hopes up until I got that second email confirming that I claimed a spot for that campaign. I received the EverPure VoxBox before I bleached my hair, so the VoxBox couldn't have arrived at a better time, I was in desperate need of repairing hair products!

The EverPure VoxBox

What's inside the box

First off let's start with this line. This is a product line that claims to protect your hair from fading after coloring it. It also helps to repair damage that takes place while you dye your hair. More often than not you have to use a developer in your hair dye, unless you're using henna or unnatural looking colors, like manic panic, you'll most likely be using a developer. That developer contains chemicals that can damage your hair and so this line repairs damage and protects your color from fading and heat damage hence being called Repair And Defend. 

I was skeptical about the lines claims at first, I'm either overly skeptical or way too trusting, there is no in between. I have used the line called EverCurl by Loreal and I liked it, it wasn't my favorite line, but I did like it alot. The EverPure line is much much better.  I had written a post about my experience with bleaching my hair and I honestly think that some of the products in the line helped repair the damage that was done to my hair.

Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend Shampoo

The EverPure Sulfate-free Color Care System Repair and Defend Shampoo obviously is sulfate free, since I discovered the curly girl method I stopped using shampoo that contains sulfate (I do use Clairol purple shampoo which contains sulfates maybe once a month to keep brassiness at bae) and so I wouldn't have been able to even use this product religiously if it had contained sulfates. The shampoo and conditioner specifies the following...

Deeply strengthens
Protect From Color Aggressors
 Natural Botanicals

When I first put the shampoo in my hair the first thing that I noticed was how well it lathered, which is rare for a good sulfate free shampoo, lathering is the one thing that I miss about shampoos that contain sulfates. The shampoo has an awesome scent, it really is a perfect scent, it's very soothing. I would probably purchase a perfume or body spray that had a similar scent, that's how much I enjoyed the scent of the shampoo. After I washed the shampoo out, my sculpt felt clean and free of build up. Even though it is just a shampoo, it leaves my hair feeling conditioned and soft to the touch. I'm giving this Shampoo an A.

Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend Conditioner 

The EverPure Sulfate-Free Color Care System Repair And Defend Conditioner is AMAZING. It has the same lovely scent that the shampoo has, but added is the scent of peppermint and you can feel the peppermint when you put the conditioner in your hair, your scalp has a cooling feel once the conditioner touches your hair which indicates to me that it really is a repairing line because peppermint helps to stimulate your scalp. Besides the scent and cool feeling the conditioner makes your hair feel like silk, it really is just amazing and has nice slip. I leave it in my hair for about 2-3 minutes before I wash it out. I had wrote in a blog post that I had used this conditioner after I had bleached my hair and before using the product my hair felt so matted that I couldn't get my fingers through it, but when I applied the conditioner, my hair immediately became manageable and smooth to the touch. I am not exaggerating at all. This stuff is the real deal. I've been using the shampoo and conditioner every time that I wash my hair since I got this VoxBox and that's saying something because I own a zillion different hair products. I give the conditioner an A+.

Loreal EverPure Repair Remedy Mask

As for the EverPure Repair Remedy Mask, gosh.. I'd buy this stuff by the gallon! It's an OUTSTANDING hair mask. I'm a big hair mask junkie and I own too many to store. This is honestly my second favorite hair mask ever. It's a fantastic product. The mask smells mostly mentholish and when you apply it to your hair your scalp starts to tingle like the conditioner, but even more so. The consistency of the mask is much thicker than the conditioner, which helps keep your hair coated longer, it has the same good slip that the conditioner has. I like to apply the mask to my hair after I've taken a t-shirt and I've squeezed out a bit of that water that was in my hair after washing the conditioner out. I'll apply the mask and leave it in for at least 5 minutes. Once I wash the mask out of my hair, my hair honestly feels like silk. I wear my hair naturally curly 98% of the time and I noticed that this mask made my curls spiral more than usual and my hair just feels super soft after using the mask. I give this mask an A++.

Everpure Repair and Defend Lotion 

So the EverPure Sulfate-free Color Care System Repair and Defend Lotion was a bit tricky to figure out. The first time that I used it, I loved it, it made my curls spiral like whoa. Then after that I think that it made my curls look a tad frizzy at the ends. BUT THEN I bleached my hair and now the lotion has been working for me. It's helping to construct my fragile curls. The bleach damaged my hair, but it didn't destroy my hair and it's already starting to bounce back. For some reason I think that the hair lotion is helping more with my damaged curls than my healthy curls because it's a repairing lotion and there must be some components in the product that make it work that way? The instructions suggest that you use 2 pumps of the lotion in your hair, but I actually use at least 3, 2 pumps isn't enough for the consistency that I like. The lotion definitely doesn't feel like a leave in conditioner, it feels more like a sculpting product if anything. The product doesn't have the best slip, but for what it does, it doesn't need to. I use the lotion with my favorite leave in conditioner, and my favorite gels. Before I bleached my hair I would have given this lotion a C, but after bleaching my hair I give this lotion a B+.

Before I started using the Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend products. Before I bleached my hair.

After I started using the Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend Products for about 2 weeks. After I bleached my hair.

I received all of the products in the EverPure VoxBox for free to test and share my honest feedback. If you aren't an Influenster already, I strongly suggest that you join! You will not regret it!! You may even thank me :)

Turn back Sarah, turn back before it's too late.

So I am going to break a HUGE curly girl method rule, I am going to bleach my hair....

And of course after I bleach my hair I am going to complain about my damaged hair and curse myself for bleaching it.

After one overall bleaching and another bleaching to touch up some roots that I missed. I had about 5 different colors in my hair before I bleached them all out and almost an inch of root. I had to bleach my roots twice.

Well, that was then and this is now, and I'm kinda only half cursing myself for bleaching it, maybe even one fourth cursing myself, because I did manage to keep my hair from getting completely destroyed. I didn't even have to cut a few inches off after the dye, I'm that good, I have no idea how or why, but I am.

Let's start with the few days prior to bleaching. I had gone without washing my hair a day, which turned into a few days because they say that you shouldn't wash your hair before you dye your hair, the more natural oils in your hair before dying, the better, that is what they say and so I had dirty greasy hair leading up to the dye. I had also done deep conditioning masks before the big dye and I was putting castor oil in my hair for about a month prior as well. I had also ordered a product called Bond Angel which is suppose to act like a wicked expensive product called Olaplex. Olaplex is suppose to protect your hair during bleaching and dying, it's like insurance for your hair. I couldn't afford to try the olaplex out and so I decided to try out a product that was suppose to work similarly. I got the product half off, In exchange for my review of the product which was a huge gamble. The system retails for $55.

Bond Angel

The last time that I had bleached my hair with real bleach was almost 10 yrs ago and I was, and am not super familiar with bleach. At the time of the bleaching in question I was straightening my hair almost daily and I was dying my whole head with 40 volume developers, not just my roots, why? I have no idea. My hair was definitely not in any condition to bleach, but I had no clue and so I bleached my hair a week after I decided to dye my hair a purple red. (Red is the hardest color to get out of your hair) My hair turned orange which is completely normal (which I had no idea about, because I didn't know what I was doing!) So I bleached my hair again to try to remove the orange and my hair was still orange and so I dyed my hair with a blonde color that I purchased at Sally's with more 40 volume developer, little did I know that all I had to do was tone my hair to get rid of the orange and save my hair from melting right off of my head. The remainder of my hair was a slimey ball of cotton candy. I swore I would never bleach my hair ever again. Years later and here we are.

Freaking out the night before, after watching bleach disaster videos on YouTube and having several second thoughts.

The night before I had bleached my hair I made the mistake of drinking some coffee at 8pm. (My caffeine cut off is usually in the early afternoon) So I couldn't get to sleep and I started doing more research about the whole bleach process, I wanted to be prepared. I watched more youtube videos, and read up about it on random blogs. Then I stumbled upon YouTube videos with titles such as "How Bleach Ruined My Hair" or "I had to shave my head after bleaching my hair". Now, there was a time that I would have totally shaved my head because I would love to start over fresh with brand new virgin hair, but I'm not prepared at the moment for that. The more disaster warning videos that I watched, the more frightened I became to bleach my hair. I probably only got 3 hrs of sleep the night prior to bleaching my hair, which was probably not the smartest move.

Before the big bleach, I had mega bags under my eyes, my hair was a billion colors and I had almost an inch of root.

The morning of the bleach I was prepared, and most of all I was ready to wash my grimy hair! First I did a strand test with the bleach because if the bleach was going to melt my hair, this was one way to determine if that would happen. I took a piece of hair and put some bleach in it, I waited 30 minutes and washed it out. I had no issues and so I set my bleaching station up and I was ready to go.

I had a mirror on a table so that I could see the back of my head and a towel for spillage, probably should have used a white towel, oh well.

I had the powder bleach, 20 volume cream developer, bond angel and Wella T18 toner ready for after I bleached.

My strand test, you can see how bleach turns your hair orange.

I mixed up the bleach, I used Clairol basic white, a giant tub of it was on sale for $14.99 at Sally's and I've heard it is one of the best bleaching powders. I poured in the generic 20 volume developer. I didn't measure the developer out like I do with hair dye, I watched tons of videos and no one measured it out, they just poured enough to make a consistency that they were happy with. I then added the bond angel no. 1 that I measured out before hand. The consistency was what I thought was ok, so I started to apply the bleach to my hair. I sectioned my hair into 4 parts and worked from the back of my head to the front. I realized immediately that I didn't add enough developer. The bleach became so thick and chalky, it was terrible. 

The measured out bleach powder and bond angel no 1.

What I thought was a good consistency for the bleach. I was wrong.

Half way through getting the bleach in my hair and already I was thinking about all of the mistakes that I made. First off, I should have measured 2 parts developer to one part bleach. I should have put the mixture into one of my coloring bottles, but because no one in the videos or tutorials measured their developer or put the bleach in a color bottle, I didn't. Using the bowl of bleach and the brush alone is insane, I had no control, but again, that's how everyone does it! I could hardly move my hair to get to parts of my hair that hadn't been bleached yet because the sections of my hair that I put bleach in were just hard and crusted and wouldn't move. It was a disaster.

 So I had finally gotten all of the bleach in my hair and I was looking at my hair and was thinking, there goes an entire year of getting my hair healthy. I thought that my hair was dying right in front of me, I could have cried. Then at one moment I thought that my hair was falling out and I was only 10 minutes into my 40 minute wait to let the bleach stay in my hair before I could wash it out. So I contemplated washing the bleach out, but I didn't. I only had a little bit of an anxiety attack and I occupied my mind until the bleach was ready to wash out to prevent a full blown panic attack.

So I started to wash the bleach out of my hair. After I washed the bleach out it was then time to use the 2nd step to my bond angel kit, no.2. The bond angel no. 2 has the  same consistency of conditioner, but in no way is it conditioner, the no.2 is suppose to finish the "bonding process". I put some of the no. 2 in my hair and my hair honestly felt like matted up dog hair, I couldn't even get the no.2 in my hair at first, not until I added a liberal amount. Then the instructions told me to comb the product through my hair with a wide tooth comb from the bottom of my hair to the root, there was no way. I had to add even more of the product to attempt to get anything through my hair. After I got the product in my hair I had to leave it in for 15-20 minutes and then wash out. So I let it sit and then washed it out, my hair still felt pretty matted, dry and brittle.

You can only shampoo and condition your hair after you use step 1 and 2 of bond angel, so I was anxious to condition my hair. I decided not to shampoo it, I didn't want to make it any dryer than it already was. I used Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend conditioner and I left that in my hair for about 3 minutes and then I used the EverPure Repair And Defend hair mask and left that in for about 5 minutes. To my surprise my hair didn't feel completely destroyed after I conditioned. It no longer felt matted, it felt somewhat smooth now. I could run my hands through my hair, it still felt somewhat damaged but it didn't feel like wet noodles, it didn't feel like elastic and all of my ends weren't completely fried. So I call that success!

Pretty impressed that my hair wasn't completely fried!

When my hair was still damp I put some Kinky Curly Knot Today in my hair along with some Ouidad gel. Then I let my hair air dry. I was going to tone my hair that same day but I noticed that I had missed a few spots towards the back of my head and also my roots didn't lift enough and so I had to apply more bleach to the patchy areas and I had to apply more bleach to my roots. I decided to give my hair a break and bleach those spots the next day and enjoy the very Hollywood bleach blonde hair that I had!

                      

The next day I had my mother who actually went to school for cosmetology help me out with the roots and she did an awesome job, I was so paranoid about getting bleach on my hair that had already been bleached and frying it. Before I bleached again I put tons of castor oil in my hair to make my hair more manageable when it came to sectioning my roots, and I wanted that added protection.

Missed roots

This time around when I was mixing the bleach, I measured out the developer with the little scoop that came with the bleach. I did 2 parts developer to one part bleach and the consistency was perfect. I was even able to pour it into one of my coloring bottles which totally helped control where the bleach was going.

Roots take two

Finally no more roots

Freshly washed and conditioned after the second bleaching

It's gold Jerry! Gold!

I mean, can you even tell that a curly girly JUST bleached her hair? Mystic Devine is heaven in a jar.

 After I washed the bleach out of my hair for the second time and I repeated the bond angel no. 1 and 2 steps again. I conditioned again and I decided to do an Argan oil mask from this company called Mystic Devine. It was one of those masks that they have at the counter when you check out at Sally's. Usually those masks do absolutely nothing for my hair and if anything they make my hair feel like straw, but I decided to try the mask out because I really wanted to do a repairing mask. So I cut open the package and I applied the mask to my hair, I couldn't believe how instantly my hair felt like silk after putting the stuff in my hair! I left the mask on for an hr and when I washed it out my hair didn't even feel like it had just been bleached not just once but twice! I am in love with the stuff, next time there's a Sally's trip Mystic Devine is the first product that I am going to put in the cart, it's biblically good. 

Applying the toner

Toner has been applied to my entire head

After leaving the toner in my hair for about 10 minutes, my hair appears to be purple, that's what gets rid of orange and brassiness

After all of the bleaching my hair was pretty orange and I really wanted to get it toned with the Wella Color Charm T18 toner and I had read that most everyone tones their hair the same day that they bleached their hair and so I decided to tone my damp hair following the Mystic Devine hair mask that I had just done. I was able to get away with using one bottle of the toner, I even had a little extra to spare. I had used the bond angel in the toner as well because it contained more 20 developer. I used a clear developer in the toner instead of the cream. I had no issues applying the toner to my entire head. I left the toner on for about 20-30 minutes, however long the box said to leave it in for. 

Right after washing the toner out

Before toning and after

I dried the front of my hair with my hot air brush just to see what my silver hair would look like semi straight

When I washed the toner out my hair actually felt more damaged than it did when I had bleached it, that's when I could see a lot of fried dead ends. I definitely should have given my hair a break, but I didn't and it is what it is. My hair looked really cool after I toned it, it looked silver. I was just relieved that I was finally done dying it for a little while!

                   

After a few washes my color was a very pretty pale whitish color. I've done countess hair masks to try to repair my hair from the bleaching and it's only been 2 weeks and my hair is already bouncing back. I am really impressed. I'm not sure if it's because of Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend products that I'm using or the bond angel or the hair treatments, but I'm happy that my hair isn't completely fried and I didn't even have to cut a few inches of hair off, which I was totally prepared to do. My curls are starting to come back too! Now it's time to start playing around with some powder pinks!

Finally getting my curls back! Here I'm using Kinky Curly Knot Today, Loreal EverPure Repair and Defend hair lotion, Curl Keeper and Ouidad. I did a lot of a scrunching and only a few finger curls.

So I didn't turn back. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I had fought my way to have platinum hair. Bleach, you have no power over me!

Embrace.

So I'm the only person in my family who has curly hair and who knows how to handle curly hair. It wasn't until just the past year that I really learned how to properly care for my curly hair. The reason why I'm sharing that I am the only one in my family who has curly hair is because people who don't have experience with curly hair don't understand how to style it.

Awkward teenage hair.

It wasn't until I actually did some online research that I realized that I wasn't the only one who had some issues trying to figure out their hair. There is even a quiz that you can take to determine which curl type that you have! I'm either 2c or 3a..maybe a mix of both. You can take the test for yourself here.

Growing up I wanted to have straight hair like everyone in my family. I wanted to be able to wash my hair, brush it, blow-dry or air dry my hair and wear it down and have it be shiny and smooth. That was not the case, if I apply direct heat to my hair, my hair puffs up like a frizzy nightmare. So I never attempted to do anything special with my hair. I would throw my hair up in a ponytail or put some gel in it and let it naturally dry, resulting in hard and crunchy curls that stuck to my head. That was until I discovered what I thought was the best invention ever... a ceramic hair straightener!

I can still remember the first time that I swiped a section of my curly hair through the plates of a hair straightener, it was a Sunday, Superbowl Sunday to be exact, 2005. My mother had purchased a ceramic hair straightener and I never bothered attempting to use it because I thought at the time nothing could smooth my hair out, a few friends of mine who also have curly hair had said that it really worked, so I gave it a try. I could have cried, I may have cried... My hair felt like silk, my hair felt "normal"! I fell in love and I was obsessed! I just couldn't believe that I had straight hair! 

The beginning of killing my hair!

So as you can imagine, I started to straighten my hair daily because my hair isn't thick like most people who have curly hair, a lot of people can get away with straightening their hair every other day and only washing their hair once or twice a week. I was washing my hair daily and straightening it daily because my hair would get oily and dirty pretty quickly. I noticed over time that my hair had started to thin out a bit and when I tried to wear my hair natural my curls weren't as defined, they were frizzy and damaged looking. So I just continued to straighten my hair or throw my hair up in a tie if I let it dry natural. I started to dye my hair with high level developers to really lift my natural dark blonde color to a light blonde color and that's when the real damage started to develop.

Awesome color, but super damaged.

Since I started damaging my hair I started doing short hair cuts every year or so to cut off the most damaged parts of my hair that looked like straight up hay. Then I would go through phases of just growing my natural color out and avoiding the hair straightener. I would dye my hair a color closest to my natural color, which looked most like my roots and go about 3 months without coloring it and then I'd get bored and want super blonde and straight hair, so I'd dye it again and start applying more high lift colors.

 Cut and dyed, curling iron curls because my hair was damaged from flat ironing.

 You can see the damage here and the color fading out of my hair.

Super chop (my 2nd professional haircut) I had dyed my hair with Wella Color Charm 1001 with 40 volume developer a day before I got it cut. My hair was so damaged and melted that I put my hair up in a ponytail to hide the ends and when the stylist went to wash my hair before the cut, she could barely run her fingers through my hair and she underestimated my hair texture and had to charge me extra for my hair thickness and curl pattern, it was too difficult for her to style. 

  Getting ready to straighten and growing my hair out.

Another big chop and dye.

Another big chop and dye.

Straightening and dying again. 

My actually awesome color and style, this was like a month or so before I decided to start taking care of my hair. I had used a hot air brush to dry my hair and then I kinda straightened it with an instyler 2 in 1 straightener and curler.

I had found a less damaging way to blow out my hair. I started to use a Conair hot air brush that you can purchase here. Conair came out with another model that is way different than the hot air brush that I linked, it looks similar, but it doesn't have the same motor. I don't think that they make the one that I like anymore, but you can purchase it on Amazon. I wouldn't ever go back to blowing my hair out without this amazing device. Using the hot air brush is like styling and drying at the same time. It's an awesome awesome product. Before I started to follow a gentler hair routine, I would always dry my hair with the tool. It's definitely less damaging than blow drying and then going over your hair with a straightener. My hair wasn't as damaged as it was when I was flat ironing it, but it was damaged and my curl pattern was completely lost.

So last year or so I tried to wear my hair in its natural state. So I used the same products that I used when I was younger, when my hair was super curly and had awesome spirals that I didn't really know how to style. I washed my hair and applied gel and some leave in conditioner, as I had done everyday of my life when I was younger. When my hair dried, there  was absolutely no curl pattern. My hair was a frizzy dead end mess. So I did a simple Google search that changed everything. I googled "how to get my curls back". The search resulted in a zillion pages about curly girls, I had no idea there was so many people out there who were discussing their curly hair. One term that kept on popping up was "The Curly Girl Method".

So I read up on this "Curly Girl Method". A lot of people who have had the same issues with their hair as me follow this method. I decided to try it. Most of the stuff is just common sense stuff that I didn't really think of, sulfate free shampoos, no silicones. This is how Google describes the curly girl method.

"The curly girl method was invented by Lorraine Massey and it is a method in which you go SHAMPOO FREE to give your curls some ultra moisture. Instead of shampooing you cowash (wash your scalp with conditioner) and you condition and style your hair with silicone free and sulfate free products."

The super detailed site that I first started reading is here. I started purchasing A LOT of curly girl method approved products and I've discovered some amazing keepers and some not so great products for my hair. Some of the products are very expensive, but awesome, like the devacurl line. You can do the whole method pretty cheap, it just takes a while to figure out what works for you. At first I was cowashing my hair with suave naturals conditioner and then conditioning it with GVP Conditioning Balm and styling it with Kinky Curly Knot Today and Ouidad gel. I've had some trial and error as far as styling. When I first started styling I was "plopping" my hair because most all curly girls do it, I thought this was working out for me, but no haha. Now what I do isn't what most do, but it works for me. I wash my hair with my hair pulled forward on top of my face (if that makes sense) and then I condition and rinse. I squeeze out the excess water and I take a t-shirt and I wrap my hair up with my hair still laying upside down to soak up a bit more water. I then put a leave in conditioner in my hair and I run it through my hair with my fingers. Then I brush my hair back with a tangle free brush and I part my hair and smooth it out. I then add gel, this morning I used curl keeper. Then I twirl sections of my hair with my finger, so I can enhance and define my curls and I let my hair air dry. Once my hair is dry I crunch my hair out and fluff it up a bit and then I'm done. 

This is plopping and I failed at it....

I still have no idea what I'm doing wrong when it comes to plopping. 

I stayed away from hair dye for a while, like it says to and I stopped straightening completely, I've only blown my hair out with that conair hot air brush 3 times in almost a year. It's so much easier to have healthier hair that I don't have to worry about looking dead and frizzy if I let it dry natural. I did start dying my hair blonde again, but I'm learning different ways to prepare for a damaging dye and I often use hair masks, some that I make myself and then a lot that I purchase. I use a hair dryer with a diffuser a lot, which is great if you want to dry your hair quickish, I had purchased one forever ago, but I had no idea how to use it. So I'm getting there. I'm still a long ways from having great hair. I'm trying to embrace my natural hair. 

Yay hair. Everything is curly girl method approved besides the purple shampoo.

What's in my shower.

Products that I currently use. I put the castor oil, which is amazing by the way, in my hair about 10 minutes before I shower and I rub my scalp with the oil. All the other products are leave in and I'll use the Kinky Curly leave in conditioner with one of the gels, but not all of the gels at once. I can wear the curl keeper alone or with a leave in conditioner. I don't usually use gel with the curl keeper.