This Time, It’s For Real

Yes, I’m writing about hair care products again.  It’s a sickness – DON’T JUDGE ME.

Tip Of The Day:  The newest, best, cheapest shampoo and conditioner on the market.  Buy it now before it’s discontinued or sold out or something equally cruel and unfair.

Also, two other tiny bits of randomness – “what’s really in your breakfast bar” and the introduction of my new Monday feature – “Eye Candy Mondays.”  Okay, that title needs work, but you get the point.

Tip For Tomorrow:  If you like attending sporting events live – and yes, The Cheap Chick enjoys sports, so deal – but you hate the ticket prices, check out these three events the whole family can enjoy.  As an added bonus, one them is FREE.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal:  You have to understand something; my hair is a big deal to me.  It’s the one thing on my entire body I can control fully.  My butt won’t shrink, my stomach pooch won’t flatten, the brown spots on my face won’t fade no matter what cream/serum/goo I slap on them… but my hair?  If I want it curly, it’s curly.  I want it blonde, break out the dye.  My hair will actually bend to my will, and I like to reward it with lovely hair care products.

That being said, I also refuse to spend real money on shampoo and conditioner.  Why waste a ton of dough on something you literally rinse down the drain?  So I was thrilled to discover a new offering by my go-to line of shampoos and conditioners – Suave.

Suave’s latest knock-off Professionals brand is Damage Care, in the gorgeous blue bottles.  These products say they will prevent or cure or do something to promote 86% less breakage – just as well as Redken.  Best of all, Target carries the brand, and even had it on sale last week for $1.74 a bottle.  Which means you can wash and condition your head for less than $4.

How does it work?  Let’s review, shall we?

1.  The shampoo.  This smells really nice, kind of sweet and tangy, like a fruit not actually found in nature.  It suds up well (thanks to the Sodium Laureth Sulfate), but has a creamy lather that doesn’t feel like it’s stripping every last ounce of natural oil from your scalp.  It rinses clean, and doesn’t leave hair feeling brittle, or sticky, or weird.  Two thumbs up!

2.  The condition.  Yeah, this stuff smells like a grandma’s bedroom – musty and flowery and shut up for days.  But the consistency of the product is good – thick, but not so thick you can’t get it out of the bottle.  A little goes a long way, and a teaspoon covered my whole head.  After applying, I waited the 3 minutes recommend on the bottle, and rinsed it off.

And rinsed.  And rinsed again, because BOY HOWDY, this is strong juju, people.  It really-most-sincerely conditioned my hair.  That $1.74 bottle of Damage Care is better than any deep conditioning treatment I’ve ever wasted my money on.  And once I finally got it out (it took probably 1 minute longer than usual)?  Nirvana on my head – we’re talking soft, ready to style, happy strands of hair.  Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

After I shower, I usually eat my breakfast (I know, this makes for fascinating reading.  Moving on.).  And lately, I’ve been chowing down on the Target version of Fiber One’s breakfast bars, which have 35% of your daily allowance of fiber.  Plus chocolate, an important part of any breakfast.  However, I’ve been noticing an unpleasant side effect of the bars.  How do I put this delicately?  Well, I can’t, so here you go – they make me fart ALL THE TIME.

At first I thought it was a reaction to all that fiber, until it dawned on me – I ALWAYS eat a lot of fiber, without the gaseous outcome.  So I called my BFF HaC (health coach and Knower Of Things) to ask why the bars were making me toot more than a bucket of beans.

According to HaC, fiber bars have chicory root extract in them (sure enough, it’s the first ingredient listed), and chicory root extract is used as a natural laxative.  The side effect of said laxative (beside the obvious, and yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of THAT lately, too) is to pass a great deal of gas.  HaC actually had to stop eating them, because they were upsetting her tummy from all the gas pressure.

So my advice?  Eat at your own risk – and the risk of the people sitting around you.  If you like to live life on the edge, you can find the Target brand of fiber bars in the ‘School Lunch’ section of the grocery department.  They go on sale often – $1.75 for a box of 5.

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Eye Candy Monday!  Alright, if you have a better name for this segment, leave it in the Comments.  Anyway, today’s piece of ass gorgeousness is Jeffrey Dean Morgan, one my buddy Georgie’s Five (see, The Greatest Party Game In The World).

I chose this particular photo because it combines two of my favorite things: 1. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and 2. Movies based on comic books.  March 6th The Watchmen hits theaters – and you can bet your sweet patootey I’ll be in the front row, watching JDM hotly hot his hot self as The Comedian.  Best $10 I’ll ever spend.