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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 conditioner
work 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!
