Lush big shampoo and mermaid hair | Beauty

 I have this love/hate relationship with my hair. It's kind of like I love my hair but it hates me. It's stubborn and rarely does as I wish. I used to have super-long-down-to-my-ass-mermaid hair. That was until I cut it super short for charity. Cutting off all those locks felt refreshing. Terrifying but refreshing. But no matter how long or short my hair is, it's still a nightmare to manage. Well, that was until I found solace in a shampoo.

For a while, I toyed with the idea of purchasing Lush Big shampoo. My hair is naturally oily and never takes well to products. As a result, I'm always cautious when it comes to buying new hair products. It's normally money straight down the plug hole (pun 100% intended). I'd heard mixed reviews about Big which made me feel even more nervous about splurging £12.25 on shampoo.  Yet those mixed reviews just left me feeling even more intrigued. I felt as though this shampoo could be The One.

Luckily, the people at Lush are super lovely and when I went in to stock up on bath bombs (hello intergalactic!) I politely asked for a sample of Big and the girl serving enthusiastically obliged. I wish more places were sweet enough to let you sample products before diving in and making a huge skincare/beauty/haircare commitment. What works for one person, may not for another and visa-versa so samples are a great way to figure out what's good for you before handing over all your cash. After sampling the product, I decided to take the plunge and buy a full-size tub.

Big shampoo boasts about it's hair-lifting, volumizing powers.  With naturally limp and lifeless hair, it sounded just like something that I need. Big is jam-packed with coarse sea salt. The sea salt feels strange at first, but it's a texture I've grown to love. The salt has a deep cleansing effect, which is perfect for my hair. With most shampoo I lather it up between my hands before applying it to my hair. But I've found that Big works best when applied directly to the roots of my hair. It allows the sea salt to get to work straight away and means I reap maximum benefits. It lathers insanely and you only need a small amount.

As well as sea salt, Big also contains extra virgin coconut oil, seaweed, lemon and lime. Coconut oil is nourishing for the hair, which perfectly counteracts the potential drying effects of the sea-salt. Coconut oil is also claimed to remove sebum build-up, bonus points for those with naturally oily hair. Toothed wrack seaweed is full of vitamins, minerals and moisturising properties. It helps to strengthen, revitalize and protect the hair. Lemon and lime are astringent, this causes hair follicles to lie flat. In turn, this results in super-shiny, sparkly hair. Honestly, my hair reflects the sun and glistens. For a girl whose hair is usually dull in colour, this is pretty exciting.

All in all, it's fair to say that Big is my new holy grail. My hair is healthy, shiny, oil-free and it has life for the first time in a very, very long time. If, like me, you have to battle daily with weighed down, oily hair then I 100% recommend Big. On the flipside, even if you don't suffer with oily hair, I'd still recommend Big. Maybe not as a daily shampoo, but it'd work amazing as a cleansing shampoo every once in a while.

Whilst I'm on such a high about beauty products, I feel it would be perfect to share a couple of my skincare secrets. Lily recently posted about some of her skincare secrets, then tagged me on Twitter asking me to share my own. I'm no skincare or beauty guru. But in recent, I've been trying to show my skin a little bit of TLC. So, here goes my top 3 skincare tips:

1. Drink water. Honestly, it sounds simple but drinking enough water will keep your body and skin hydrated. Your skin will be growing as a result.

2. Cleanse, tone and moisturise. Wiping off your make-up with a face wipe isn't doing your skin any favours. Cleansing, toning and moisturizing is a good habit to get into. It really doesn't take that long- I'm sure you can set 10 minutes aside at night to go through these 3 steps to get healthy, glorious skin.

3. Find something that works and stick with it. There's been so many times I've found a product, thought it was amazing, but then decided to move on to the next big hype. Usually, the hyped-up prroduct is just too hyped up. When you find something that works, just stick with it. There's no point fixing something that isn't broken. I've discovered that Big works wonders for my hair so it's definitely a shampoo that I'll be sticking with for the long-run.