Hair and I have a relationship like Roseanne and Dan Connor. I clearly love it, but the majority of the time we communicate, there’s sarcasm and yelling involved. BeautyBrands.com sent me some of their new Wella releases to see if they could help me be a person who does things to their hair.
In the game of genetic roulette, I got my Dad’s hair, and I have no idea which of our mutt-mix of heritages are responsible for it but it’s kind of amazing. It’s thick and curly with tons of body, tons of texture, and it comes in mass quantities. I am frequently the subject of hair envy, and I take it all for granted by doing literally nothing with it outside of my daily top knot.
Thanks to the joy of internet communities, I’m constantly surrounded by gorgeous women who have this amazing hair – candy-colored unicorn hair girls, stunning silver-haired girls, beyond perfect ombrés… And here I am with hair that hasn’t been touched by a professional or seen new color in over 6 years. Feelin’ a little drab, not gonna lie.
But every time I get down on my own inability to doll up, I remember the secret weapon to end all secret weapons: YouTube.
Thanks to Wella’s extensive YouTube resources (more on that later), I was able to smash some new Wella products together and wipe them on my hair in order to create this really soft, but really stable bouffant-updo-half-side-braided-hair-thing.
YEAH. MY HAIR! IT’S DID.
This novice-ass hairstyle is a pretty pleasing outcome of my attempt to actually make my hair look cool. Ultimately, I was going for something… like this, and I’ve tried to get this kind of volume into my hair before, but what usually results is an epically frizzy mess of hair and several lost bobby pins and hair ties. My hair just eats them.
Let me brag to you, whether it’s appropriate to brag about or not, that the other side of my head looks completely different than this one! Yeah, screw symmetry!
There was all of this hair on the side so I braided it! Is this how you hair?
What’s hilarious is that a total hair beginner (if there’s something below beginner, I am actually that) was handed these incredible, professional hair products from a hugely reputable company and I managed to… make two braids. Ta-da! You’re welcome, Wella!
The unique and unusual hair tie I’m using is called invisibobble, and while curly-haired girls might run screaming, let me ease your fears: these are awesome. Not only are they super good at staying put and gathering even the wildest of hair into a tidy… blob, but they don’t pull hair out of my head, nor does my very curly hair wrap around it, turning it into a self-sabotage attack on my scalp. More in this in the future, but check out invisibobble now until I can get my crap together and write a proper feature!
Wella EIMI Hair Products
The four products I used were a combination of standards and new-ish releases from the Wella EIMI line.
- Wella EIMI Perfect Me Lightweight BB Lotion
- Wella EIMI Root Shoot Precise Mousse
- Wella EIMI Sugar Lift Texturizing Spray
- Wella EIMI Dry Me Dry Shampoo
The EIMI line is beautifully packaged in warm brown containers with colorful logos, varying depending on your product. The logos are actually color coded based on their primary function. Volume, shine, texture, smooth, and fixing hairsprays are the five color categories to choose from. Wondering about the hold? A super-convenient set of dots above each logo will tell you the holding ability by filling in one to four dots. Super smart, and really easy to check with just a glance!
“Ego Eimi” is ancient Greek for “I Exist,” which is a pretty dramatic and alluring name for a line of excellent styling products. If they’re alluding to the way people definitely notice your presence when your hair is four inches off the top of your head, they’re spot on.
The four products I received were all from the smoothing and texture categories. Since I very graciously used every single product on my hair in one single style, I’ll go through them one by one.
Before I dive in, though, one of the coolest things about these products is that they can be used on wet or dry hair! Each product has a slightly different effect on wet hair versus dry, so it really maximizes the amount of functionality in these little cans.
Now, onto the proper-terminology-free descriptions of these products!
Wella EIMI Perfect Me Lightweight BB Lotion
This is the only smoothing product in my set. If it’s the first time you’ve seen a BB Cream for hair, you’re not alone.
I used this when I was fresh out of the shower as a styling lotion to prepare my hair for ultimate manipulation. I used all of two pumps for my gigantic head of hair. Once my hair was dry and styled, I ran a smaller amount from the middle of my hair to the tips of anything that would be hanging down (like the hair in my braid). Once everything was set and in place, I used a tiny bit more on the ends of my fingertips to smooth any crazy frizz that had occurred. It did a fabulous job and didn’t leave me feeling heavy or sticky at all.
Wella EIMI Perfect Me on Beauty Brands
Wella EIMI Root Shoot Precise Mousse
Even as a Pacific Northwestern girl, I’ve always loved Texas hair. Volume is one of the sexiest ways to pump up hair, and Root Shoot made it super easy to apply mousse – a product I’ve been terrified of since the early 90s.
First of all, typical mousse involves your entire hands, leaving them sticky and tacky throughout the rest of your styling. Root Shoot has a precision nozzle that requires you to, well, shoot the roots! Spray it directly onto the roots of the hair you want to become volumized, then massage it in with your fingertips. I used this when my hair was wet, and it was definitely responsible for some lift! This worked really well with the dry shampoo.
Wella EIMI Root Shoot on Beauty Brands
Wella EIMI Sugar Lift Texturizing Spray
Sugar Lift might be my favorite product in the Wella EIMI line. As it states, there’s sugar in this formula (yes, real sugar!) which helps to texturize, lift, and prepare the hair for styles that need to stay in place for hours. It has a pretty sturdy hold, and when that’s combined with its ability to create pretty much any look, it’s kind of the winner of the group. It also smells phenomenal.
If you’re a spray-and-scruncher, this is absolutely the product that you want to buy. It does the job of a sea salt spray, hair spray, volumizer, and texturizer all in one little can.
Wella EIMI Sugar Lift Texturizing Spray at Beauty Brands
Wella EIMI Dry Me Dry Shampoo
Dry Me is a residue-free dry shampoo that does way more than just refresh your greasy roots. I used this as a dry shampoo several times before I really did any research on it, and now I think that I’ll probably use it way more for mattifying my hairstyles, as well as giving my hair a really good primer before back-combing. Dry Me is definitely half of the reason that I had any kind of extreme lift on my hair at all!
I gathered pieces at the crown of my head, spritzed them with Dry Me, then back-combed a few times (it only needed 2-3 swipes!), then I grabbed another section of hair just below the first and repeated the process. This kind of helped each back-combed piece mesh together, creating a nicely layered wad of volume. Cute!
Wella EIMI Dry Me Dry Shampoo at Beauty Brands
Wella EIMI Resources
I was truly amazed at the amount of Wella resources online. Truly! Not only does Wella have a professional-focused YouTube channel with tons of content, but they also have a specifically education-focused channel with tons of content! If that’s not enough to impress you, or perhaps you only speak French or Dutch, no worries – Wella has YouTube channels based all over the world, so you can tap into Wella Amsterdam to see what’s new and exciting on that part of the world.
WellaProfessionals on YouTube
WellaEducation on YouTube
Have you used Wella products before? Which ones, and how did you like them?