I think we can all agree on at least one thing, a good hair cut, color or style can boost ones self confidence. Each of these begins with a good foundation. You start with the shampoo and conditioner that suit your hair type best and then a product that works as a barrier between your wet hair and your blow dryer. Then the blow dry itself. This could make or break the final step of your hair style.

The truth is, I hate blow drying my hair. My hair is thick and it grows so fast that I have to keep it long. The longer it gets the longer it takes. Up until now there is a rarely a day during the work week that I actually take the time to go through the process unless I have something important to do,  you know, since my work week is usually spent at home anyway. My blow dryer was a nice, professional blow dryer, but it was 8 years old. It was built with a coil heating element. It dried my hair out, took forever, and there was something wrong with the fuse that required me to shake the cord a little to get it going each time I used it. My husband was sure I’d walk out of the bathroom completely fried one of these days.

I have known what needed to be done for a long time. I was just waiting for the right moment and was having a hard time saying good bye to my trusty blow dryer that went through Cosmetology with me. It is necessary for me to keep up with the times though if I want this mane of mine to remain healthy. I needed to start using a ceramic blow dryer. This is where Barbar steps in and saves the life of my soon to be split ends.

You can click on each of these to view them larger. The picture to the far left is my hair after blow drying with a blow dryer that uses a coil heating element. The picture in the center is using the Barbar Eco 8000 Ceramic Blow Dryer and the picture on the far right is using the flat iron for less than 2 minutes after using the ceramic blow dryer. Not only is the Barbar Eco 8000 Blow Dryer a healthier option for my hair but it is better for the environment.

A few reason why I love this blow dryer:

• After following the same steps as usual in my blow drying process: air drying for 10 minutes, applying a barrier (CHI Iron Guard) and using a paddle brush (Aveda wooden paddle brush); my hair dried 12 minutes faster using the Barbar Eco 8000.
• I’m using less energy.
• The heat from the blow dryer is not as hot, yet still dries quicker.
• My hair is about 20 times smoother after blow drying, before flat ironing or curling.
• The blow dryer itself is pretty.

From Barbar:

“The difference is use of electricity & output of radiation. The ECO 8000 has 5.0 mG (milligauss) output radiation. A standard 1,800 WATT dryer has over 200.0 mG! This amount of mG is comparable to the radiation output of a microwave. The ceramic heating element lasts 5x longer than a coil heating element. The ceramic heating element uses 90% electricity, turning it into heat. No energy is wasted, but saved. The coil heating element wastes electricity because it doesn’t use it, thus turning it into radiation. Unused electricity turns into radiation!”

To Buy:

You can find the Barbar Eco 8000 Ceramic blow dryer among many other necessary hair tools at Barbarhair.com.

The Giveaway:

Barbar has offered the opportunity for one Through Hazel Eyes reader to win their very own Barbar Eco 8000 Ceramic Blow Dryer at a value of $150.00.

To Enter:

Visit BarbarHair.com and tell me what you absolutely would love to own yourself or something new you have learned.

Additional Entries:

-Subscribe to Through Hazel Eyes via reader or email

-Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this (up to 2 times/day)

-Follow me on Google Friends Connect

Contest will end February 1st. I will draw a winner via random.org an announce here after.

Some or all of the material used in this post have been provided to me by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. Opinions stated are my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation.

2. 130
   Damla says:

   January 23, 2010 at 11:29 am (Edit)

   Follow you on twitter and tweeted: http://twitter.com/sweepstakelover/status/8115513476

Congratulations!! Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter!

I have always been a lover of a good smoothie. No doubt about it. I hesitate though when it comes to actually making them at home. Sure they’re tasty and nutritious, but if you’ve ever made one at home you know how messy it can get. Not to mention the amount of ingredients you have to put together to make it just right.

With much thanks to Yoplait I can now concoct smoothies for two (or more) in less than 2 minutes and using only the package they sell in the freezer aisle and a cup of milk. Each Yoplait smoothie contains a full serving of fruit and the frozen yogurt pieces already in the package contain your live and active cultures. Let’s not forget about the calcium and vitamin C each contains as well. The taste is incredibly creamy and fruity at the same time. My favorite flavor has been the Very Berry, but there are others to choose from as well.

Each member in our family loved these for different reasons. Personally, I am horrible about eating breakfast. This smoothie is a perfect solution for me opposed to the cup (or 3) of coffee I normally consume for breakfast. For the kids this has been a great solution for afternoon snack. Ryan is always starving when he gets home from school, but I never want to give him too much to eat because then he won’t eat his dinner. One package of Yoplait Smoothie after school makes enough for Olivia, Ryan and a little for myself as well. This gets them another serving of their fruit for the day and it fills them up enough until dinner, but not too much.

Again, they are easy to prepare. You can make these in any blender, however I’ve been making mine in a single serve blender that has just enough space to prepare one package of Yoplait smoothie.  This makes 2-3 glasses of smoothie for kid sized portions.  All you do is poor the ingredients from the package into the blender followed by your 1 cup of milk and blend for 1.5 minutes. It’s then ready to serve and any leftovers can be stored in  your refrigerator.

The Giveaway:

Yoplait and My Blog Spark are kindly providing a Yoplait Frozen Smoothie Gift Pack to one Through Hazel Eyes reader. Each gift pack includes a VIP coupon to redeem for a free package of Yoplait Frozen Smoothies as well as a Blender to mix your smoothies with.

To Enter:

Please answer this question as your initial entry: What is your favorite smoothie to make at home?

Additional Entries:

-Follow me via google friends connect

-Subscribe via reader or email

-Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (2 times per day)

Contest will end January 31st. I will draw a winner via random.org and announce here after.

Some or all of the material used in this post have been provided to me by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. In this case, Yoplait and My Blog Spark. Opinions stated are my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation.