Is Bondi Boost Worth It?

I have always had thin, short hair that is very dry and breaks easily. Sick of this, I decided to see if I could change my hair with products.
After trying a few drug store products (I used a lot of masks by Hask, which I really liked for their price tag), I wanted to see if a more expensive product would do more than the cheaper ones. Plus, Bondi Boost is an Australian made product, and I’m all for that.

I kept seeing ads for Bondi Boost all over my social media but didn’t know anyone in real life who had used it. The reviews all seemed positive, but sometimes reviews are unreliable because often only those who have very positive or very negative reviews are bothered to leave one. And who knows if people were just faking positivity about the product on social media. So I figured I’d investigate for myself.

I ordered the Intense Growth Spray 125ml ($29.95), The Miracle Growth Mask 250ml ($39.95), and the Elixir Oil ($29.95). For me, a perpetual cheapskate, this hurt me to order.

Bondi Boost promises:

• You will reach your ‘#hairgoals’
• Cleanses and fortifies
• Creates an ‘A+ scalp environment’
• Reduces hair loss
• Grows hair longer
• Reduces breakage
• Repairs split ends

I went into using Bondi Boost with a dry, flaking scalp, a LOT of split ends, dry hair and a lot of short patches of hair that would not seem to grow longer than a couple inches.

 

This is all my hair at the time pulled forward over my shoulders. It was short, thinned out, and dry.

Of course, dying my hair blonde probably didn’t help my hair health. After this picture, I stopped going blonde and let my naturally light brown hair grow out. However, I did leave it brown for a few years before this and it stayed short and dry.

The Intensive Growth Serum is a daily treatment that made my hair softer immediately. I sprayed it in to the roots, massaged the scalp and then spread it down to the lengths. It made my whole head feel softer and lighter. I was sufferng from dermatillomania and had just started to get over it (dermatillomania is an obsessive compulsive need to scratch your scalp) and the Intensive Growth Serum did not agitate my raw scalp. It helped those very stubborn patches of short hair grow past two inches in length and helped the raw spots of skin heal.

Apparently my hair was lighter during the healing process… But as you can see, there is no scar and the hair has grown back.

Now that my hair has grown out to its maximum length (as I have genetically fine hair it will not grow much longer now) the Intensive Growth Spray does not have as much effect. I still have a bottle that I use every night to keep the lengths soft and my scalp healthy, but it’s impact has been cut by a lot. I also like to use it to tame any frizziness when I wear my hair out, as smoothing the hair with this spray instead of with heat is much better for it. I have been using the spray now for 2 years.

Pros: 

• Softer, silkier, smoother
• Less breakage and fewer split ends
• Doesn’t look greasy so you can use it during the day
• Lasts a good amount of time given the amount

Cons:

• Stops improving the hair length after a while, but this is most likely due to your genetics. Not really a con but I wanted to make sure people understood that they can’t grow their hair to the length of the hair of the Bondi Boost models on social media just by using their products – you need the genetics for that.

I use it so frequently I just leave it on my bathroom sink. I even tossed the cap out because I was sick of putting the lid back on. Lazyness!

The Growth Miracle Mask is a weekly treatment mask you use after shampooing. It makes my hair feel very soft afterwards. The mask instructs you to leave it on for at least 15 minutes and it means it. The couple of times I used the mask for only 5-10 minutes it didn’t really do anything for my hair. Instead of standing around in the shower for 15+ minutes, you can stop the water and get out, then get back in when you want to wash it out. I make sure I use it when I don’t have to be somewhere so I have time for the process.

I found it helpful to squeeze the water from my hair before appying the mask – this  let the mask sink in to the hair better.

The mask is good for dry ends and I even spread it up to my roots when I was growing out those shorter patches of hair. My hair no longer has that crispy feeling to it. When I began using hair products for growth, my split ends were MANY. I could sit down and go through a section of hair and find that almost every hair was split. Now I have to really search through my hair to find one, and they are usually small ones right at the ends of the hair. I do reccomend chopping your split ends first though – products help prevent more split ends, they do not fuse the split hair back into one.

Pros:

• Softer, smoother hair
• Fewer split ends
• Smells great
• Weekly use (I prefer weekly to daily)
• Spreads well

Cons:

• Expensive
• If you have thicker hair, you may not get as many weekly treatments out of one tub. I get about 6 weeks or 6-7 uses.
• Will not make an impact if left on for a shorter amount of time

 

Elixir Oil

This is a pre-shampoo treatment you use once a week. Leave on for 15 minutes and then wash out. Unfortunately, my hair is too fine for this product. It makes my hair appear very greasy even after washing. I have to wait until the next shampoo for it to be completely washed out. It smells a lot like the after-wax oil I use on my legs, though this isn’t really its fault of course!

It promises to leave hair softer but I could not really feel a difference. I prefer the growth mask. It’s possible that this product is better for thicker, coarser hair. It may work better on curly or kinky hair. It could be great for you if you hair is parched, but for my thin, straight, (now) hydrated hair, it was a waste of money.

Note: I used the hair oil during a different time period than when I was using the mask. They were not used in conjunction.

 

Shampoo and Conditoner:

I haven’t used the shampoo or conditoner (I’m too cheap!) so cannot give a personal review, but I did want to mention that after recomending Bondi Boost to a friend, she tried both of them and loved them. She said her hair felt soft instead of like straw. She is now a reguar customer. They will actually be my next BB purchase, and I will update after that.

My hair has gone from just below my shoulders, totally choppy lengths all over, dry and split, fragile and crispy like a used tissue (bad analogy? sorry) to hair that is soft, long (this is the longest my hair has ever been so for me it’s long!) shiny, and uniform in length. I no longer have any patches of short hair. My scalp isn’t dry or itchy.

My hair will never be that of Blake Lively, but it is so much better than it was. If you have the money to spend, go for it!

For the People that Can’t Say Abusive

Words can explain actions, but never excuse them.

From my ex I have received a semi-explanation and an apology (though this wasn’t given under their own volition, and was instead offered when I finally called them out on their past behaviour) but it doesn’t change the fact that while we were together, they made conscious, repeated decisions to refuse to listen to my ‘no’.

Published

I mentioned in a 2014 recap post that I had a short story accepted for publication by a literary magazine. Having been asked by everyone around me, “Are you proud? Because you should be.” I thought that I should let myself really be proud and give it a short post to itself. Preemptive apologies for this festival of self-love.

In Defence of the Teenage Girl

With the burgeoning success of posting videos on Vine, Instagram, Facebook etc, it is likely that you have come across some kind of short video of teenage girls doing something ’embarrassing’. Most likely you will see that these videos are accompanied by comments such as, “dumb sluts” / “would like to see them try that in my house” / “fuck this generation”. And so on because people need to type their own variation of the comment despite the 1000 comments already there.

Favourite Book Covers

This idea came from the wonderfully blog-talented, Wanton Creation / the Other Watson, click the link to check his favourites out.

Shall I open with the perhaps over-used line, you can’t judge a book by its cover? I know this is true for a lot of books (dodgy cover, good plot) and for people, the true subjects of the analogy, (pretty cover, ugly soul) but for whatever reason, I tend to feel more connected to the books whose covers caught my eye first. Picking a preferred cover for a specific books helps the book feel personal. When different books by the same author have covers in a similar style, I like to buy the one that matches what I have.

Brother’s Grimm

I am constantly reminded that the internet is brilliant because it can put you back in touch with things you thought you’d never see, hear or watch again. Remember having to listen to the radio for 3 hours so you could press record on your tape when the one song you wanted finally played? Good times.

When a Goose Meets a Moose

When a goose meets a moose,
At the house of a mouse,
I wonder if all three,
Sit down and drink tea

I wish that I could explain to you what the stories and poems I read turn into in my mind. A collage of emotions and thoughts and pictures, all mixed together. An image isn’t simply an image but has attached to it the emotion of the writing’s tone and circumstance. Imagination is behind all this. The mind’s eye acting out another’s imagination through symbols typed on a page. If you are a person who enjoys reading you know what I am trying to say, don’t you?

Companionable

My very own furry companion is stretched out right next to my laptop.

He’s not as well groomed as the shiny dog in the picture, but he makes me happy dirty coat and all.

How To Spend a Friday Night Alone

It’s Friday night and you are not throwing a dinner party or dancing at a new club or hooking up with a date or seeing a live show. You’re actually in your pajamas, alone, at home. Let me guess, it’s probably cold outside, you haven’t even spoken to any friends today and you’re on the cusp of ordering pizza to at least have some human contact today. Well don’t worry about being bored, being home alone on the weekend isn’t a bad thing! This is for those of us home alone on a Friday night with that restless feeling.

Glorious Sadness! Books With Sad Endings

For the most part, stories end well. That’s kind of how our story-telling works: character gets into conflict, then the conflict is resolved and he’s okay again. In fact, he’s probably better than before.

Sometimes, though, stories don’t follow this formula exactly and that ‘it’s now okay’ sentiment above proves false. Sometimes, characters end up in way worse situations than what they started with. These are the books that give you a downlift over an uplift. These are a sampling of the books that have tugged my heart the most, two of them actually made a tear roll down my cheek. But just one tear, one manly, strong tear. Pfft, I don’t sob over fiction. Whatever.

On Friendship

One of the saddest parts of growing older is that the number of friends you have goes down after highschool. People simply disappear into their own lives and journeys, and it can be a long time before you start building up new friendships. If you’re a shy person, well, you might have to prepare for some tough years of loneliness. Combat some shyness by taking a deep breath, smile, listen to the person, ask questions, just talk politely- it gets easier.

Read What Makes You Happy

There is a certain amount of pressure on people who call themselves writers or literary students / lovers, to read and love particular books. Sometimes though, the best thing to do for these masterpieces is to acknowledge their intelligence, appreciate it, but admit that you just personally didn’t like it.