I’ve been enjoying my thick hair’s curls’n’waves lately. Even the Staff’s eased up on her incessant dorky-hair comments, although that may be because I, um, threw a bottle of Herbal Essences Tousle Me Softly spray gel at her. Yeah, yeah, I know violence is not a solution. But Tousle Me Softly is, at least for touchable wavy hair.
The shampoo and conditioner behave like they’re more pricey than a mere $3.99 CAN each. Fragranced with a fresh floral scent, the shampoo leaves hair feeling clean, not stripped squeaky, and the conditioner makes hair soft yet light, without a coated or weighed-down feeling. I thought the Finishing Touch Cream ($7.99) would be my favourite styling aid because it softens coarse hair, but perhaps it’s better for hair with more determined and drier curl than mine — I need more hold to help my hair keep its shape. (The cream can be used in conjunction with the other stylers as an extra conditioning boost, but I find I don’t really need it.) The mousse ($3.99) does the shape-without-frizz trick, but it turns out I’m a bigger fan of the spray gel ($3.99), which the pump delivers in an easy fine mist.
Celeb stylist and Tousle spokesperson Charles Baker Strahan (above, at the Toronto launch), whose clients include Leighton Meester, Scarlett Johansson and Mariah Carey, is all about the unstructured, soft, tousled look. The secret to youthful hair, he says, is “a sensual, lived-in feel that celebrates the woman.” His example is a beachy, effertless look, but with city sophistication — a little breeze-blown, without wind-roughened frizz.
The Tousle Me Softly collection helps to minimize frizzies, but if you’re dealing with a stubborn case, a curling iron is a must-have in your styling arsenal, especially if you have curly hair, says Charles. “A few random curls with a hot iron is an easy way to reduce frizz.” To stroke flyaways lightly into place, he suggests using a little kabuki brush spritzed with Tousle Me Softly flexible hairspray. In the video below, he walks curly-locks Katy through styling her own hair using the spray gel, a diffuser, the cream and a curling iron.
But me, I’m lazy. Er — make that too busy for all that tooling around. I spritz my towel-blotted hair with Tousle Me Softly gel, scrunch a little and go. I get a more textured finish than Katy does, more waves, but still — when my ’do has had time to air dry, people say, “hey, like your hair today!” Except the Staff, who’s still sulky about the bottle-throwing. (Understandable, but don’t tell her I said so. I owe her a present for that, and maybe an apology. I want that bottle of spray gel back.)
Herbal Essences Tousle Me Softly is available at drugstores and mass retailers; shampoo, conditioner and mousse available at Well.ca (free shipping in Canada; no minimum order). Tousle Me Softly Spray Gel image courtesy of Herbal Essences; visit the website for more how-to styling videos.
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Ahh the kabuki brush tip! I forgot about that one!
Charles makes it all look so easy… I swear I’ve never had someone curl my hair so quickly. I think it all happened in under 60 seconds!
We never actually got to doing my hair! We were talking about his time with Mariah, and how broken up she was over Michael Jackson’s death (it happened just before the launch)! and then we took our photo, another time taker-upper… I hope he has hair time next visit.
so i’ve been tying my stick-straight hair into a bun and letting it out to get a little bit of curl going…thinking the spray gel might help my efforts?
Are you using any styling product at all when you do that, lady? I’m inclined to suggest the mousse, actually, which should add and retain texture. The gel should work, too, though. I’m gonna check!
Nora, we’ve got an answer from Charles for you:
“This depends on hair texture: for finer hair use the mousse; for thicker hair try the spray gel. The key to this trick is HEAT! Think of hair as fabric, heat changes the shape and the cool setting sets the hair. Wash your hair with shampoo and conditioner from the Herbal Essences Tousle Collection, while the hair is still wet apply mousse/gel (depending on your hair type which product you will use) to wet hair, blow it out as you normally would but don’t use a brush — it will straighten out your look. Use your fingers as your brush tool till the hair is mostly dry; while the hair is still hot twist it up in the bun. If you want extra oomph twist the hair into 2 buns side by side to really give your hair great movement.”
These products smell really good and I thought his tips were really clever!
I didn’t expect to like the fragrance, Miss Chickie, but I do — it’s lighter than expected, yes? And I agree, clever tips we hadn’t heard before, like adding texture by holding onto a skinny section of hair and pushing up from the ends for a back-combing effect. GREAT for fine hair — did you get that, Nora? *grin*
Where did you get the finishing touch cream? I can’t find it anywhere!!!
Hi Colleen,
Where are you located? Should be at drugstores and mass retailers like Wal-Mart as well as grocery stores. Let me know where you are and I’ll ask some questions!
I live in connecticut in Farfield County. I have checked Big Y and CVS with no luck. Thanks so much!
I’ll see what I can find out for you, Colleen :-)
Hi Colleen — I checked with our Canadian PR team; the thought is that the fastest way to help is to provide this here link to the US Herbal Essences website that should lead either to a local retailer or to online-purchase satisfaction.
Hope it helps!
thanks so much!!! :)
My pleasure — let me know what works out for you, ‘k? :-)
i just wanted to thank you again for all your help! I finaly got the finishing touch cream today at stop and shop and i love it!
Yay! A happy ending! Thanks so much for letting me know!
I bought the whole set two days ago which was surprisingly very cheap. I wanted to get the look of the woman in the commercials(tousle me into rockstar). The look was much easier then I thought. The only problem is my hair doesn’t stay in that style for more then two or three hours. My hair is thick so I use the spray gel and finishing touch cream. My hair is really long(half way down my back). It just doesn’t seem to wanna stay in a style. Any tips that could help the style stay for longer?
Hmmm. My first thought, Robyn Jeanne, is that the weight of the length of your hair is likely interfering with its ability to hold its wave. Is your hair thick and coarse? Or thick and FINE? If you have fine hair but LOTS of it, the length would be a factor in how much wave and curl you’re able to maintain without effort. The Finishing Touch Cream might also be too much for fine hair.
You’re using the shampoo and conditioner to start, right? Maybe after that, try the mousse followed with a little of the spray gel afterward, and use the Finishing Touch Cream just on the ends. Another thing you’ll want to try is the Tousle Me Softly hair spray to help hold the style. Try a few combintations and let me know how they work, ‘k?
You might find these Herbal Essences styling videos helpful too!