London Fashion Week Diary A/W 2013 Collections: Ashley Isham

This season Ashley Isham produced a collection of hard edged military inspired jackets and sharp shouldered shift dresses. Models were dressed in intriguing headwear: glossy black visors tilted over their eyes and tied at the back with delicate ribbon under a towering top knot. The effect was one of high octane glamour infused with an attitude of powerful defiance.

Standout garments included a sumptuous brocade coat decorated in exotic red and orange flowers and a bright red double breasted jacket worn over a pencil skirt with an interesting circular detail in yellow piping and an all over tropical print on loungewear that appeared a bit out of place for winter. 

 

 

London Fashion Week Diary A/W 2013 Collections: Bernard Chandran

Bernard Chandran is a designer already well-known in his homeland of Malaysia and is the chief designer of the television show Project Runway Malaysia. He is known as the darling designer of the royal family, and from seeing his collection, I can see why. 

The collection was elegant, and was my favourite of the three collections I saw that day. Bernard gave us leek block coloured silk dresses mixed with patent leather, beautiful beading on silks and leathers, sky like prints on fabrics bringing together the blue and orange tones.

London Fashion Week Diary A/W 2013 Collections: Zeynup Tosum

I was lucky in receiving tickets for a few shows for Saturday’s line up of the A/W 2013 collections and today I went to see the collection from Zeynup Tosum.

Zeynep Tosun is an Instituto de Marangoni graduate from Istanbul. Previously she worked for Alberta Ferretti before moving back to starting her own label in 2008.

We saw an opulent collection filled with strong shapes, big bold collars and sleeves, bright coloured leather in yellow and orange tones along with bold graphic prints. Everything that is so very on trend but mixed with fabrics of lush velvet and ruffled collars of a renaissance era, and oddly, with a twist of cowgirl elements.

Product Review Mediceuticals scalp and hair therapy

Review 1: hair therapy treatment

Firstly I am going to tell you about the problem that has been bugging me for many years now, it is my hairs’ lacking ability to grow past my shoulders and its lack in volume and thickness. As a result I suffer from serious hair envy of those lucky women and girls with luscious lengths of locks on their head. And then there’s me, left confused as to why my hair just won’t grow.

After scouring the internet for quite sometime to find a cause I have convinced myself for a while now that I suffer from Short Anagen Syndrome. There isn’t much scope on the condition purely because of its unrecognised status. But in its simplest form it involves the hairs inability to grow to a long length that is usually no further than the shoulders due to an unusually short durations of active hair growth, (the anagen phase) it is more common in girls than boys and sufferers are most likely to have blonde hair.

With the fear that my doctor would find it difficult to take my ‘problem’ seriously, I have no real diagnosis, so from various readings over the internet I’m just going to self diagnose myself with my…

 

Short Anagen Syndrome check list:

Your hair doesn’t grow past the length of your shoulders - Tick

Do you rarely need to have your hair cut? - Tick

Do you have blonde hair? - Tick, Tick (Double threat)

Are you female? - Tick 

 

 

(NB: For more serious health conditions I do not recommend self diagnosis)

On the grounds of my tick list, I think I definitely qualify. So I discussed my ‘concerns’ with my hairdresser and she has recommended a product to me by a company called Mediceuticals who has produced a range of hair therapy shampoos, conditioners and treatments for those who suffer with similar symptoms to what I am experiencing in a bid to hopefully get my hair growing.

The brand is American and is not commonly known over in the UK and there are very little reviews written about these products. The products are quite expensive so I am going to write this product review to enlighten any of you who may be considering trying this product before you decide to splurge or for those who are experiencing the same symptoms as I am.

 

I have only just started using this product so in this first review I will be writing about how I got on with the products, in terms of smells and how they make my hair feel as it takes around 6 months of using the product to see drastic results. Now, I’m not expecting my hair to be down to the floor or nor will I have hair like the models on the Pantene adverts. I just want to see a little growth and a little more thickness.

Although, my hairdresser informed me the product is used in hospitals for patience with cancer experiencing hair loss due to chemotherapy, so I’m hoping it will deliver promising results.

 

I have chosen to try the Scalp Therapy pack which is designed to encourage hair growth and stop general hair loss. My hair dresser recommended I start off with the starter a pack which is miniature versions of the products which cost £35 just in case I don’t like the products or after 6 months I don’t see any results. The pack contains the Scalp & Hair Cleansing shampoo, conditioner and Follicle stimulating spray.

 

Individually the larger shampoo and conditioner is roughly £14-20 each which isn’t too expensive however, the Follicle Stimulator spray is the priciest at around £39. The products all work in conjunction with each other so to see the best results it is worth the while to use all of them together.

* I would like to highlight that my hairdresser does not endorse the product and simply recommended it to me*

 

I have been using the products for about a week now so how do the products work and what are they like?

Scalp & Hair Cleanser Shampoo

 

 

  Provides a healthy environment to promote hair growth to cleanse the hair of product build up from hair sprays, mousses and whatever else we use on our hair on a daily basis which regular shampoos do not do. And secondly the shampoo is designed to treat the scalp. The shampoo works by reducing the formation of DHT a chemical hormone called dihydrotestosterone (in the scalp) when released causes the hair follicles to make thinner and thinner hair and can even eventually cause the hair to pack in completely.

 

After just the first wash using the shampoo my hair felt immensely clean and light than when using regular shampoos that I’ve used over the years. (Aussie, Bed Head, L’oreal, Pantene, Macadamia). There isn’t particularly a smell to the shampoo so it won’t make your hair smell luscious guys. I was also quite surprised at how little of the product I needed to use; I am usually quite generous with amount of shampoo I use when washing my hair, but as the bottle is quite small and It’s going to be a good few months before I see any results I am determined to make it last so I can hopefully see the true benefits. 

 

Conditioner 

 

The conditioner isn’t just your average conditioner it is a high performance conditioner with natural anti-androgen DHT inhibitors (like the shampoo) and is a micro vascular stimulator which helps to prevent hair loss and actively encourages new hair growth, that will help to restore your hair’s density and volume and of course doing the most important thing detangling your hair.

 

Likewise with the shampoo after the first wash I felt a huge difference in the condition of my hair. My hair felt softer, lighter and looked sleeker than normal. Likewise with the shampoo, the conditioner doesn’t really smell of anything. Again, I am overly generous when it comes to conditioner, as my hair is curly it is dry and naturally quite brittle anyway so I like to apply as much conditioner to my hair as possible to avoid breakages. However, I only had to use a tiny amount for the conditioner to work its magic.  

Follicle Stimulator

 

The Follicle Stimulator is a spray that works to stimulate the scalp to increase hair growth by blocking DHT and increase blood circulation to stimulate hair cell metabolism and to promote hair follicle vascularisation.

When using this spray you experience warming, tingling sensation and reddening to scalp. This is a completely normal reaction, however if you have hyper sensitive skin you can dilute the product with distilled water. It is recommended that you use this spray everyday twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.

 

Unfortunately, I found when using the spray on just been washed, clean, wet hair everything was fine. (I usually wash my hair every two days) However, when I applied the product to my hair the same evening or in the morning the product was making my hair appear to be very greasy. The stimulating spray also has a slightly clinical smell to it, but also slightly resembles the smell of Murray Mints – I can’t quite decide if I like it or not? Anyway, I have decided to cut down on how often I use the spray and my hair dresser has confirmed this is fine as I am not experiencing drastic hair loss such as alopecia so I should still see results.

I will keep you posted to let you know how I am still getting on with the product as to whether I have seen any changes to my hair. I realise this is a very long post and its taken me hours to write but I hope it’s been helpful and I hope you have enjoyed my product review. I look forward to updating you all! If you have tried this product yourself or are experiencing the same problem as I am, have any other solutions you recommend I would love to hear from you.

 

 

What's it All About?

Hello I’m Lauren and welcome to Eat, Sleep be Chic. I have just hopped across the pond from Wordpress where I started my blog that was highly dominated by fashion when I first started out as an aspiring fashion journalism student at University. Fast forward three years with a degree under my belt and a slightly different view on life I’ve decided to take a change in direction. Whilst I’m still a lover of fashion and pretty things, I am very much passionate about beauty, lifestyle and healthy living.

I am all for living a happy, healthy lifestyle and find I have a lot to say about it too. I’m obsessed with ‘Googling’ (yes, I’m using it as an adjective) all things fitness and health related.  So this is why I am now here so I can share my interests for any of you who want to join me where I’ll discuss and give tips on variety of topics from diet, to exercise and beauty. Which lends its name; Eat, Sleep be Chic.

Love,