Product: "Proof in a Bottle"

On my last trip to the salon, the stylist (not the one I regularly go to) hawked products, as expected. They always get you at your most vulnerable-- your hair never looked better, so you think it had to be the stuff they used.

I typically buy one or two of the bottles of whatever miraculous products that the stylist just applied to transform my limp locks to a shiny, voluminous, fresh and frizz free mane. Then, I bring it home, use it for a day or two, and stick it in the drawer with all of the other products I rarely take the time to use. Just a little hairspray, and I'm good to go.

Like all the other times, this trip to the salon resulted the purchase of a couple of new products. The stylist convinced me that I needed Living Proof's restore line,which claims to be"damage reversing, strand healing, bliss creating". And it's free of all of the harmful chemicals- - Parabens, sulfates, synthetic dyes, petrochemicals, phthalates, GMOs triclosan. (Ironic that matters after I'd just spent two hours plus having a two process dye/highlight job...)

I picked up the travel sizes (2 oz.) of straightening cream, restore shampoo and restore conditioner, with the instructions that I should use them everyday-- the more I used, the longer I used it, the more my hair would improve. The marketing material states that after five washes, hair is nine times stronger (How do they calculate these stats??? Gotta trust it though. MIT researchers came up with this stuff!) 

The price was pretty steep for the 2 oz. bottles, but I've since checked out Sephora. The 8 oz. bottles of shampoo and conditioner are $26 each, and, of course, those free samples that come with your purchase from Sephora are priceless! Fun little surprises! 

So, the verdict: It works. My hair is not nearly as brittle and is softer to the touch. I have fewer tangles and knots after washing. And the smell is divine- kind of citrus-y and earth-y. Check out all of the awards it's won. 

The downside is the price. The shampoo lathers well, so a little bit goes a long way though. I've also found that I can wash my hair every other day with Living Proof, and it doesn't get greasy or unmanageable. That helps the bottles last longer. 

Living Proof has lots of new styling products- styling spray, styling cream, style extender. Their first to hit the market was No-Frizz, which received rave reviews. Read on to learn about the R&D and science behind Living Proof!

Oprah Magazine's Kate Sandoval on Living Proof's R&D history and the birth of No Frizz: 

"With VC backing, chemical engineer Robert Langer and his team set out to find a better option for treating frizz. Till now, products for taming frizzy hair have relied on silicone, a water-resistant ingredient that blocks moisture. Its drawback: If you apply too little, your hair still reacts to the humidity; apply too much and hair looks greasy. In 2006, when Langer's team tested a molecule that was used as a protective coating for medical devices, they discovered it resisted humidity and friction. Since it's smaller than silicone, it feels lighter on your hair. Almost two years later, the scientists had formulated the molecule (PolyfluoroEster) into a line of hair products, called Living Proof."

Elle's Maggie Bullock on Living Proof's Full Discovery Volumizing Products:

"While traditional "hold" products employ brittle resins, which create space between each strand but break when, say, your date runs his fingers through your waves, Living Proof's new Full Thickening Cream features an innovative molecular structure called poly beta amino ester-1. When applied to wet hair before styling, the cream coats each hair shaft with thousands of invisible dots, or "thickening points," which work a bit like Post-it notes: They grab at one another, leaving pockets of space between hairs, but they also separate and re-grab easily. One ELLE editor who tried it reported that her Bardot-worthy, driving-with-the-top-down bounce lasted a miraculous 36 hours—with zero crunch."