If you’re anything like me, traveling can have a way of forcing you into packing just the bare-bone beauty essentials needed for your trip. But what to choose? Your regular size beauty weapons or the mini versions of your must-have products?

Let’s talk logistics

Take hair products for example – a 1 oz mini bottle of shampoo isn’t going to last you two weeks in Paris, now is it? What’s a girl to do? A mini toothpaste, however, can go the distance.

When you’re checking luggage, it’s easy – just throw everything in and call it a day. But when you’re confined to a carry-on, things can get tricky. Even though we think we are familiar with TSA Guidelines we still get in trouble at security – Ever had all your favourite products thrown into the garbage right in front of you? (Is there anything more tragic than trying to make your 4:30am flight and having your YSL perfume chucked out before your very eyes?)

There is the option, at many airports, to store your products for, a fee, until you get back from vacationing in Bermuda, but if you don’t want to part with your essentials, here’s what you need to know.

Opt for sprays vs. liquids

I’d much rather have liquid than dry shampoo, but when you’ve only got a carry-on, what can you do? There are benefits to skipping the suds anyways, like creating volume and reducing the heat you use on your hair (hello, no more blow dryers). Yes, the dry version does the trick but if you’re really in need of a liquid shampoo the world famous, Philip Kingsley makes great travel size Jet Sets that contain a fantastic shampoo, conditioner and Philip’s award winning hair mask, Elasticizer, that are substantial enough to get you through at least 10 days.

Pack travel size makeup

Even though most makeup is travel friendly there are some brands that create everything in perfectly travel-size packages. There’s a brand that I know, love, and use called Stowaway, based in New York City, that makes all of their beauty products in exactly the right sizes. You’ll never have to worry about your foundation being over the limit again! Another plus to having your beauty products in smaller packages is that you’re able to actually finish a tube of lipstick before it expires. How often does that happen?

Bring a reusable water bottle

This isn’t something that comes to mind straight away when thinking of essential beauty products but water is an incredibly important part of your beauty routine – especially in flight. Water helps you stay hydrated and in return, makes you look and feel more beautiful – win, win! But don’t bring your own water because there are plenty of hydration stations around the airport to fill up on-the-fly.

Stash away a couple products for the plane

Beautifying yourself shouldn’t start when you land. It actually begins during the flight. With all that recycled air and drying temperatures, it’s essential to begin taking care of your skin while your seatbelt is still fastened. Apply a light face mask halfway through your flight. Heaven Skincare Silver Bee Venom Mask is my go to. You can apply it directly over your moisturizer and leave it on, it seeps right in with a dose of hydration. Don’t worry about getting strange glances from fellow passengers when applying your mask; they’re just envious of your well-packed travel kit. It is also essential to keep your lips moisturized. I’m partial to B. Kamins Lip Balm SPF 20. It can be applied right over lipstick or gloss and contains UV protection in case you are sitting in a window seat. You can actually get burned through the windows of an airplane.

Remember that less is more

All you super light packets out there, this beauty product is for you. Introducing the one and only water spritz you’ll need to pack in your carry-on: Vine Minus Ion Care Water. This high-tech water, from Japan, does it all – seriously. It can be used for a quick refreshing spritz while in flight and on the go, but it’s also a hair volumizer & skin moisturizer, a makeup remover and setter and can substitute for toothpaste in a jam. So while this product is only one small bottle, it can take the place of so many others.

If you’re really missing your full-sized beauty routine and need to work in an extra beauty boost, check out the many airport beauty services you can find in most airports.

Enjoy flying in style!

How seldom you wash your hair has become a bragging right among women. (E.g., “My blowouts last 5 days!”) Those of us who wash our hair every day are called crazy, foolish and misguided, among other things. Whether to shampoo hair daily is one of the longest-standing, most heated debates in beauty.

Are you in the scant shampoo camp?

Perhaps a dry shampoo devotee? Or maybe a cleansing conditioner practitioner? Since I’ve learned the hard way that trying to get a once or twice a week hair washer to switch to washing every day is about as easy as getting a staunch republican to vote for Hillary, I won’t bore you with the benefits of a super-clean scalp. I will ask you, though: Since you’re only washing your hair once or twice a week, don’t you want every washing your hair gets to be as effective as possible? Then what you want—what you need—is the S-HEART-S Scalp Brush.

Haven’t heard of a scalp or shampoo brush?

That’s ok. Though this brush won over Japan a decade ago, and though Ishi brought the brush to the U.S. a few years after that, it has remained a relatively unknown beauty tool to most of the world. This recently started to change, however, when the brush landed in France and caused a complete sensation with hair stylists and beauty editors alike. Team Travel Beauty totally gets it. Almost everyone who tries this magical brush, Refinery 29 included, is an instant convert, wondering how they ever cared for their hair without it. This is because this brush elevates the simple act of washing your hair into a deep cleansing ritual.

Since 2004, S-HEART-S has been on a mission

to revolutionize shampooing with its brushes. S-HEART-S invented and engineered its Scalp Brush and Scalp Brush Mini to create beautiful, voluminous hair by deeply cleansing and invigorating the scalp. The Scalp Brush is designed to thoroughly clean and massage your scalp—while you shampoo. How, you ask?

It has 376 round-tipped nylon bristles

specially designed to remove dirt, buildup and excess oil from the 40,000 follicles on the scalp, giving a deeper, more invigorating cleaning of the pores than you’ll ever get with your fingers alone. The bristles’ ball tips also massage and stimulate your scalp (promoting microcirculation) while hair strands slide easily through the brush, allowing an even distribution of shampoo and conditioner along the entire hair shaft of each and every strand of hair. Your hair and scalp are left completely build up-free. The brush also makes applying a hair mask or conditioning treatment easier and more effective, because no strand is left untreated. I’ve also gushed before about the Scalp Brush’s amazing detangling abilities particularly when it comes to kids,—achieved without the creation of static electricity. With regular use, hair looks and feels revitalized from the root to the tip, with an glossy, smooth finish.

As a Scalp Brush devotee,

I can tell you without a doubt that my hair is noticeably cleaner—and stays cleaner longer—when I shampoo with this brush. My blowouts last an extra day at least, and when I finally do wash my hair after a blow out, this brush is unparalleled at removing all the dry shampoo I put on my hair to stop it from shining and smelling. Quite simply, it is a necessity for anyone who tries to keep shampooing to a minimum.

Best brush for kids

Another benfit of this brush is that if you choose to use it while your hair is dry, you will find it painless, even for those with long, thick or course hair. For many parents, brushing their childrens’ hair can be a daily drama. With S-HEART-S Scalp Brush your children will be lining up for hair brush time. The brush is not only painless but massages the scalp. Kids also love the sleek modern shape and gold shimmer. Makes brushing hair more fun!

Intrigued? Watch this how to use the Scalp Brush video:

By: Claire McCormack, Twitter & Instagram

Sometimes it seems there is no end to the list of products that everyone says you simply MUST be using on your hair.

Shampoo
Conditioner
Mask
Leave-in Conditioner
Defrizz Serum
Volumizer
Curl Enhancer
Dry Shampoo
Moisturizing Gel
Protectant

You get the picture.

So what’s the truth? The truth is that everyone’s hair is different, has different needs, and therefore everyone has to discover what is best for his or her own hair.

There are some basic facts that are true of all of us.

Here’s a piece of information that may help your understanding of hair health: every strand of hair on your head is technically dead. That’s right. It’s all dead. By the time hair emerges from the hair follicle on the scalp the cells that make up the hair have completed their life cycle. They’re hardened protein, which gives hair (and nails, incidentally) their durability. But this means hair strands aren’t continuing to receive nutrients or moisture from the body to build them or repair them. Hair continues to grow and hair strands lengthen, true, but because of new hair being created in the follicle and pushing old hair out.

Here’s another bit of data that is generally true about hair:

It grows at a rate of about half an inch per month.

Do the math. A strand of hair that is just 6 inches long is about one year old. If you have a mane that falls below your shoulders and is more than 12 inches long, the hair at the end is more than two years old. And it’s been dead for two years. With your hundreds of shampoos, blow drys, curling irons, and flat irons, together with sun, wind, and dirt, it’s taken a beating.

And that is why hair needs all the support you can give it to keep it looking fresh.

Dryness is the main culprit.

Dryness leads to a rough, scaly cuticle, a brittle texture, and a damaged look. Therefore, products that replace moisture, that protect the hair from drying out, are very important to maintaining healthy looking hair.

Conditioning hair after shampooing is good. Very good. Saturated hair allows the conditioner to penetrate better. But you’re still rinsing most of it out.

Styling products offer some protection, they’re good for supporting the hair and achieving desired looks. But they don’t necessarily add moisture or conditioning.

You need to be using a leave-in-conditioner.

To give your hair the moisture it needs, throughout the day, every day, and help it look it’s best, you need to be using a leave-in conditioner. As the name implies, this product is applied after you get out of the shower and is left in until the next time you wash your hair. Apply to damp hair and style as usual. If you’re fighting frizz or fly-aways you’ll find this step really helps.

Arimino’s Bamboo Moisture Veil and Caretrico’s After Treatment Enrich Milk are proven as a leave-in conditioner, defrizz lotion, and detangler, formulated for all hair types and never too heavy. This may just be the secret you’re missing.

Find Brent Lockhart on Twitter and Instagram @brentlockhart

Three amazing phenomena of hair (and I could name many!) are its electrical properties, insulation potential and ability to change shape with the addition of heat and/or water. Sadly, however, these also mean the occurrence of static flyaways and horrendously frustrating hat hair. No one is immune, but from my many years of experience, both personally and from helping my clients, I have accumulated useful methods of minimizing their occurrence.

Static Hair

Hair is trybo-electric i.e. it generates electricity from rubbing or friction. In this way, strands can accumulate electricity over a period of time and eventually fly away from one another; similar to what happens when you try to push two magnets of the same charge together. The amount of charge your hair generates will depend on how clean your hair is, if it is wet or dry and also the climate around you. For instance, dry air and higher altitudes usually worsen it. The best way to reduce static is to keep your hair clean and to use a leave-in lightweight conditioning styling cream that clings to the hair shaft, reducing friction between the hairs and therefore the build-up of electricity. I in fact formulated both my Preen Cream (for finer hair) and Smooth Cream (for coarser hair) with this in mind, and they reduce fly-aways as well as add shine. Using an anti-static comb or brush will also go a long way in preventing rogue wisps.

Hat Hair

Hats cause your scalp to sweat, and the resulting moisture causes the hair underneath to change shape and then set in place. Depending on the shape and size of your hat, your hair’s natural form, and just how hot your head gets, this dishevelment can range from a few kinks to a full-blown bad hair day. Add static electricity to the mix and you have an even bigger issue. To deal with the fly-aways, use the methods I described above. Sadly, hat hair is never 100% avoidable, but there are some very good products you can use to quickly re-shape you hair into a more pleasing style. Carry around a good quality dry shampoo in your handbag and, when hat hair strikes, economically spray into your roots, leave for a few minutes and then brush through. This will remove excess moisture and will also re-vitalise body. I make one called One More Day that, as well as all the aforementioned benefits, soothes the scalp of itching. You can also use a weatherproof hairspray or froth or Daily Damage Defence before wearing a hat to minimize frizz.

Alternatively, and my daughter likes to do this, go for the Audrey Hepburn look and simply place your hair into a smooth bun, then set and add gloss with a finishing serum, such as Minimizer.

General Advice

In both cases, keeping your hair in good condition will improve how it fares during the winter. Hair that is snapping and damaged will always appear frizzier as the shorter, broken strands will stick out in varying places. Once a week, use a pre-shampoo conditioner, like Elasticizer, and apply a post-shampoo conditioner for your hair texture every time you shampoo.

How seldom you wash your hair has become a bragging right among women. (E.g., “My blowouts last 5 days!”) Those of us who wash our hair every day are called crazy, foolish and misguided, among other things. (I prefer “clean”, but whatever.) Whether to shampoo hair daily is one of the longest-standing, most heated debates in beauty.

Are you in the scant shampoo camp? Perhaps a dry shampoo devotee? Or maybe a cleansing conditioner practitioner? Since I’ve learned the hard way that trying to get a once or twice a week hair washer to switch to washing every day is about as easy as getting a staunch republican to vote for Hillary, I won’t bore you with the benefits of a super-clean scalp. I will ask you, though: Since you’re only washing your hair once or twice a week, don’t you want every washing your hair gets to be as effective as possible? Then what you want—what you need—is the S-HEART-S Scalp Brush.

Haven’t heard of a scalp or shampoo brush? That’s ok. Though this brush won over Japan a decade ago, and though Ishi brought the brush to the U.S. a few years after that, it has remained a relatively unknown beauty tool to most of the world. This recently started to change, however, when the brush landed in France and caused a complete sensation with hair stylists and beauty editors alike. Team Travel Beauty totally gets it. Almost everyone who tries this magical brush is an instant convert, wondering how they ever cared for their hair without it. This is because this brush elevates the simple act of washing your hair into a deep cleansing ritual.

Since 2004, S-HEART-S has been on a mission  to revolutionize shampooing with its brushes. S-HEART-S invented and engineered its Scalp Brush and Scalp Brush Mini to create beautiful, voluminous hair by deeply cleansing and invigorating the scalp. The Scalp Brush is designed to thoroughly clean and massage your scalp—while you shampoo. How, you ask?

It has 376 round-tipped nylon bristles  specially designed to remove dirt, buildup and excess oil from the 40,000 follicles on the scalp, giving a deeper, more invigorating cleaning of the pores than you’ll ever get with your fingers alone. The bristles’ ball tips also massage and stimulate your scalp (promoting microcirculation) while hair strands slide easily through the brush, allowing an even distribution of shampoo and conditioner along the entire hair shaft of each and every strand of hair. Your hair and scalp are left completely build up-free. The brush also makes applying a hair mask or conditioning treatment easier and more effective, because no strand is left untreated. I’ve also gushed before about the Scalp Brush’s amazing detangling abilities—achieved without the creation of static electricity. With regular use, hair looks and feels revitalized from the root to the tip, with an glossy, smooth finish.

As a Scalp Brush devotee,  I can tell you without a doubt that my hair is noticeably cleaner—and stays cleaner longer—when I shampoo with this brush. My blowouts last an extra day at least, and when I finally do wash my hair after a blow out, this brush is unparalleled at removing all the dry shampoo I put on my hair to stop it from shining and smelling. Quite simply, it is a necessity for anyone who tries to keep shampooing to a minimum.

Intrigued? Watch this How to Use the Scalp Brush video:

By: Claire McCormack, Twitter & Instagram: @clairemcmack