Like most women, I could write a long novel made up of all the insults I’ve ever received, but ask me to list any compliments I’ve gotten in the past year, and it would be a serious challenge to remember any of them.
One of the all-time biggest insults that I still think about regularly happened in seventh grade (because, there is absolutely no debating that the worst beauty fouls and biggest digs are earned during the junior high years). Some boy pointed to the frayed rope hanging in the gymnasium and proudly declared that it looked like my hair.
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In retrospect, the comment doesn’t even make much sense, and, considering we were all 13 and wearing shorts and a T-shirt, it could have been much, much worse. But it’s something that, when proclaimed to a group of teenagers, was mortifying—and has stuck with me all these years.
Since that day, I’ve literally been drawn like a magnet to anything that promises “silky” strands—the ultimate cure for my “rope-like,” dry and frizzed-out hair. And, considering my hair (besides the color), hasn’t changed all that much since the junior high days, I have tried a bunch. Some of them work for a bit; some of them don’t, but one thing that pretty much all of them share is that even if they successfully smooth hair, they also come with the unwanted side effect of making my ’do flat and greasy before long.
Enter the three-step Iles Formula. The packaging is gorgeous—luxe and modern and in a really cool square shape—but what is inside is even better. It’s three products meant to be used in succession, including a shampoo, conditioner and finishing serum. It’s simple to use and creator and celeb hairstylist Wendy Iles developed it specifically as a solution for instant hair repair with visible results (think the kind of results that get her clients red-carpet ready). The shampoo is gentle, smells fresh and is free from detergents, parabens and sulfates, yet filled with antioxidants and silk proteins; the conditioner is soft and gives you that untangled feel that you see instantly; the final step—the serum—is the perfect non-greasy finisher that works on wet or dry hair to make everything look smoother, bouncier and all-around healthier.
Seriously, this works-right-away system will make over even the most stressed-out of strands. And, as an added bonus, if you don’t have a serious complex about having “straw-like” hair, you can test it out via one of the company’s “Discover Packs” before you start buying it up in batches.
