Note: I am participating in a Vibrant Influencer #sponsored network campaign for #Cerafill powered by Redken. I am receiving a fee for posting; however, the opinions expressed in this post are my own. I am in no way affiliated with Redken, and I do not earn a commission or percent of sales.
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| Cerafill “Defy” Shampoo & Conditioner |
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| Cerafill Dense FX & Texture Effect |
I have Very fine hair (as does my mom, and her mom before her), and it’s not nearly as thick as I’d like it to be; my fear at the age of 55 is that it will only get thinner… I have also, periodically, seen some hair loss when I shampoo, and when I had a small ball of hair in my hands after a shampoo it totally freaked me out! I have two “whorls” in the back of my head where my hair likes to part so that my scalp shows, and this gives me a LOT of grief! I HATE teasing it, or having to style it carefully over the whorls and then lacquer it into place with a ton of hairspray! To top it off, a year and a half ago I was thrown from a horse (yes, really- a Chilean Rodeo Horse, in Chile, and yes, that humbled me as a horsewoman but good!), and I lost a small clump of hair in the front. Although it eventually grew back, it didn’t grow back terribly thick. As a result of all of the above I am Always looking for, and trying, products that claim to thicken hair, or at least give the Illusion of thicker hair, so I was Really delighted to be chosen to try the new Redken Cerafill “Defy” system for thinning hair. It claims to actually make hair 9% thicker, and that “it’s like gaining up to 9,000 more hairs after one use!”, and that sounded very good to me! I used it for more than two weeks before writing this post, and as the photos below show, I am Really pleased with it and WILL be buying it when it hits the market shortly. I’ve tried Many different hair care products, “systems”, and collections of products, and I have to say that for me, so far, Cerafill works the best. The Redken Cerafill “Defy” system consists of four products: Cerafill “Defy” Shampoo, “Defy” Conditioner, Dense FX leave-in thickening treatment, and Texture Effect, a styling product, and I used them all. And because I really wanted to give this system the best chance possible to work, I used them all according to the instructions, like a good girl! The system is safe for color-treated hair, too, which was Very important to me, as I do get my hair colored.
My hair is naturally wavy-curly, and has a tendency to frizz, especially when it’s damp, or it’s summer, or it’s raining, or it’s winter… or 100 other reasons! My usual method of “styling” my hair is to work some sort of “product” into it- usually a curl styling gel (or several products) after I shampoo it and it’s still damp, scrunch it, go to sleep with it wet, and (hopefully) wake up with a head full of curls! (Yes, I’m lazy!) Although I own both a blow drier and a flatiron, I never learned to wield them like a pro (like most of my girlfriends did), and thus use them infrequently; I basically only get my hair blown and ironed into silky-smooth submission when I go to a salon, which, since I moved from NYC to Extremely Rural Southern West Virginia 12 years ago, happens about twice a year! Getting to the salon out here in the boonies is an-all-day, must-be-planned-for event that’s tantamount to orchestrating an opera! But, being an Upper East Side NYC Gal, I have pretty high expectations, making me a Lazy, But Demanding, DIY Diva of the first stripe, and my feeling is that if I can use a product successfully, truly anyone can!
My favorite product of the whole Cerafill line is the Dense FX spray leave-in treatment,which I use after every shampoo, and between shampoos, as well, and because I use more of it than the other products, that is the one I’ll be buying most of. The Cerafill shampoo and conditionerwork with it, and my hair is both clean looking and feeling after I use them, and yes, my hair seemed somewhat thicker after I used them, even before I sprayed on the Dense FX. They have menthol in them, and this does give a cool “minty”, almost tingly feeling on your scalp, which I find very pleasant- it feels like something’s working- at least I know it’s increasing blood flow! The shampoo and conditioner did not make my hair really soft, however, the way most conditioners do; I often rubbed a small amount of the conditioner on my hands and ran it through my hair and left it in, to make my hair softer and smoother, and easier to comb out the tangles. After I towel dry my hair and it’s about 80% dry I spray in the Dense FX, first on the roots, and then I work it through my hair. Then to style it I usually do one of two things: I either “scrunch” it and sleep on it wet, letting it dry curly, or I brush it smooth when it’s wet and pull it back into a pony tail so it will dry straight. And my hair was significantly thicker looking and feeling both ways. I was especially impressed when I pulled it back to make it straight, as it usually just hangs there, limp, and then starts to frizz the minute it starts to dry; after using the Cerafill system, however, after it dried and I brushed my hair, it was REALLY thicker- and not frizzy! I no longer have the “whorl” issue, and you don’t see ANY scalp! YAY! The best part: my hair loss has STOPPED. I don’t know if this is a result of using the Cerafill system, if my hair was simply breaking and Cerafill strengthened it and made it stop breaking, or it’s just a happy hormonal happenstance, but since I’ve started using the Cerafill system, when I shampoo my hair I get about 2-5 hairs in my hand, not a small handful. And my brush isn’t full of hair any more. I know that losing 100 hairs a day is supposedly “normal”, but when I had a small ball of hair in my hands after I shampooed I flipped out!
Texture Effect is a really interesting styling product, because it’s designed to be used on dry hair between shampoos. You spray it on the roots and then style your hair. It’s not a hairspray, and it has no “hold” power, but it does give more body to your hair, absorbs oil, and adds fullness, with no residue, stickiness, or “crunchiness”. I’ve also used additional styling products, such as “curl gels” and “smoothers”, with the system, and they all work well with it.
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| After using the Cerafill System… |
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| And yes, I am happy! |
A really interesting webpage where you can get Cerafill product information and styling tips, and see “before and after” photos: http://www.vibrantnation.com/wp-content/uploads/U1379900-Cerafill-Consumer-Takeaway1.pdf
And if you’re looking for a Redken Salon, this is the “Salon Finder” page: http://www.redken.com/salon_finder?cerafill=1
This is the Redken webpage with info on the Cerafill System: http://www.redken.com/thinning-hair
Another thing I should note is that I’m also Very gentle with my hair! For the most part I use a wide tooth comb (I really like the one made by Ouidad, which is really big and has a handle so I can hang it on things, making it less likely to lose…) or an “afro pick” to comb it, and when I brush it I’m very gentle. I do not shampoo every day, and as my hair isn’t oily I truly don’t have to. I also try to take Biosil liquid every day (6 drops, 2X day in a glass of juice), because a doctor told me that it’s the ONLY supplement that actually does anything for hair. And even though it is coming in gray, I try to color it only about 2 times a year, because many women I know who color their hair a lot are having hair loss issues… But I’m NOT ready to go gray!!! When I do have my hair colored (and I don’t do it myself…), I often get highlights and lowlights, too, because they camouflage the gray; when it does start to grow in gray it’s a lot less noticeable when there are highlights and lowlights in the mix! (And, of course, I refer to the silver as “highlights”, too: “Wisdom Highlights”. LOL)
Bottom line: I am going to keep using the whole Redken Cerafill system because the products truly work- my hair IS noticeably thicker AND I am not having any hair loss issues! The products are designed to work together, and the shampoo and conditioner do seem to thicken my hair and help the Dense FX work as well as it does. The ingredients in this product line seem to me to be unique, too; I’m not familiar with any other products that contain Arginine, Filloxane, Zinc-PCA, Ceramide, and SP-94. Please comment and let me know how it works for you!
