A blog about hair, written by hair junkies at Folica.com

I’ve been wondering about hair at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics but with all the hats and helmets, it’s not exactly prime for style. Today though, we’ve got a story:

Snowboarder Shaun White (23, wow) took home another gold medal last week. (His first was in 2006 in Torino, Italy – which makes me regret whatever I was doing with myself at age 20.)

Known secondarily for his hair (it’s kind of beautiful, right?), he used to run the nickname “Flying Tomato” (poor guy) but now apparently prefers “Monster” (the Muppet character, yes).

Read White’s hair how-to compliments of People mag’s tongue-in-cheek report (“Shaun White’s Hair Secrets Revealed!”):

“My secret is an awesome new product – called water.” … “[My hair is] pretty curly on its own. I just use the hotel shampoo and conditioner and wash it every other day, because otherwise it gets huge. Two days of snowboarding in a helmet helps — it looks better dirtier.”

FUN FACT: Approximately 1% to 2% of the human population has red hair. {Wikipedia}

Folica Hair Junkies recommend the following alternatives to a helmet for a dirty-chic look:

Today I discovered shine spray. And I intend to use it every day, for the rest of my life.

I’ve always been a fan of natural hair – letting mine air-dry more often than blow-drying, owning only a couple of carefully-selected products, and maxing out at ten-minutes of styling a day. But at Folica, I’m surrounded by new products and tools and people with fabulous hair (our designer Jan does something completely different every day; I’ll do a little photo feature on her here in a bit – it’s kind of amazing). I can’t help but want to try everything. So, last week I filled up my shopping cart with new products to test. (Also: it was cheap. I’d always thought hair products were expensive, but I bought all of the following for $50.)

• bumble and bumble Does It All Styling Spray
• Sedu Moisturzing Heat Protectant Boost
• CHI Shine Infusion Thermal Polishing Spray
• John Frieda Frizz-Ease Daily Nourishment Leave-in Fortifying Spray

I used Ratings and Member Reviews to choose the products and I picked items I’d never tried before. I opted for sprays instead of creams or serums for a couple of reasons: 1. I don’t wash my hair often, so am usually applying products to dry hair on the 2nd, 3rd and yes, even 4th day and 2. sprays are easier to distribute evenly through dry (and curly) hair. (Brushing or combing = BIGger hair than I want to rock on a daily basis.)

Haven’t tried all of the goodies yet but the shine spray changed my life. Not sure why I never used it before. Swear it’s the secret to “salon” hair. Little bit goes a long way – but in a good way. It isn’t too heavy for my hair (nearly nothing is). And #1 reason I love: For a hair minimalists who’d rather go out with a less-done ‘do than spend the time perfecting (not that we don’t envy your chignons), shine spray = instant finish, healthy-looking hair, polish, I swear it’s magic.

Note: Cover face when applying. Shiny hair is hot, a shiny forehead is not.