Review! Living Proof Restore Recovery Regimen AND Aphogee Two Step Protein Treatment AND Aussie Three Minute Miracle Conditioner

Living Proof Restore Recovery Regimen:
After bleaching my hair to death, I was getting pretty desperate for something to fix it.  Now, I know enough about hair to know that you can't really heal damaged hair... the most you can hope for is something to bind to it well enough to keep it on your head while the damage grows out.  So, I started with somewhat expensive treatment - Living Proof Restore Recovery Regimen.

I bought mine at Sephora, and it comes with some pretty lofty claims:

What it is:
A nourishing, anti-damage, four-week regimen formulated to repair hair that is frequently colored, chemically processed, heat styled, or over-stressed.

What it does:
This regimen restores straw-like, extremely damaged hair to optimal health by increasing strength, shine, softness, and manageability. Its concentrated formula penetrates the cortex to infuse it with keratin protein while patented ingredients recondition and smooth the cuticles. The result: superior strength with enhanced softness and shine and a return to optimal hair health. Experience instant improvements after your first dose. 

It says it is a four week regimen, but it comes with 5 tubes of product.  They include the extra tube so people with very thick or very long hair will have enough, and if you don't have very thick or very long hair, then you get a bonus week.

Here is my hair before.  It is washed and blow-dried straight.  It looks ok in the picture, but in real life it was very stiff, coarse, poofy and poodled.  It was both gratifying and frustrating that the damage wasn't showing up on camera very well.

After the 5 weeks, it looked the exact same when blow dried.  So, my after picture is of my hair air dried.  The point I want to get across with the "after" is that it became much softer with the treatment.  What had felt very straw-like before was now silkier.

So, here it is after:

Visually, it didn't change much.  I think my hair is just too damaged for this.  It did soften my hair, so it wasn't so coarse.

Overall, I think my hair was too damaged for this product to be enough to really help much.  I won't use it again.

Aphogee Two Step Protein Treatment:
Immediately after the "after" picture, I applied Aphogee Two Step Protein Treatment.  I felt like this product really helped my hair.  I bought mine at Sally's, and because I have long hair, I purchased the large bottle of the protein treatment, and the large bottle of the balancing moisturizer.

To use, apply to shampooed, towel-dried hair.  You saturate the hair with the solution, and then comb it through.  After that, you are supposed to use a hooded drier to dry the hair.  I don't have one, so I used a blow drier.  Let me tell you, that took FOREVER!  And, be sure you comb the solution through, so that your hair clumps into smaller groups, and not just 4 or four large clumps of hair.  If you let it stay in a big clump, then it will take even longer to dry!  So make sure you comb it to get the strands as separated as possible.  Once it starts to dry, it is very important that you don't manipulate the hair.  They warn that your hair could break off because the solution hardens so much.  If you have long hair, whatever your hair is touching, it is going to stick to.  I recommend wearing a tank top or other light weight shirt that you can get in the shower and wear it while you rinse your hair out.  It is very uncomfortable to have that solution dripping, and your hair sticking to you.  Ugh.  If it didn't work so well, I'd tell you to forget about it just because it is such a pain in the rear.

Ok, so after it's all dried and rock-hard, you get in the shower and let warm water run over it for 2 minutes, and then gently rinse your hair.  After you have it all rinsed out, you apply the moisturizer, wait for 5 minutes, and then rinse it out.

Here is my hair after:

It is a lot shinier, and feels a lot better.  I will definitely use this again, but I plan to get a hood drier before doing so.

Finally, I have been trying all sorts of conditioners, trying to find something to really moisturize my hair.  So far, the best one has been Aussie Three Minute Miracle Conditioner.  It gives my hair enough slip to be able to easily comb through, and that has helped lead to far less stretching and breakage.  So that's a short review on the conditioner, but if you have really dry hair, you might want to check it out.  It's less than $5 at Wal-Mart.  I still use deep treatment masks and oils, but this has become my everyday conditioner.