Although my birthday is in February, I always celebrate the end of winter with much excitement. As many of our readers know, I have an obsession with experimenting with my hair, changing its style, colour and look quite frequently. Yet, I always find it hard to maintain my hair during this season.

Cold weather often results in extra “stress”, not just on hair but your entire body, so as spring rolls around, the only thing I really want to do is nourish myself and recover.

Needless to say, when Dove extended its #HairDare challenge to me, I was a little bit afraid! My hair was in decent shape, but it was mostly because I hadn’t used a hair straightener all winter.

Having said that, I love challenges, so I accepted Dove’s dare to expose my hair to a “hair stressor” and then see how their new Regenerative Nourishment range will come to the rescue. I heard that I would see results after just one use, so let me share with you how it all unfolded.

Part 1 – my hair at the start

To have a fair comparison, let’s start off by describing my hair’s condition before treatment and looking at the photos of what it looked like.

About a year ago, I had my hair professionally bleached, and ended up with beautiful blonde and golden peekaboos. Over time, of course, this made my hair quite dry but I maintained it well. The overall condition was very good.

In terms of my natural hair style, I’ve always had a very slight wave, which I’m not a huge fan of because I prefer either a full wave or pin-straight hair. However, I’ve always been lucky to have a lot of volume.

Prior to the challenge, my hair was also quite soft, except for the coloured ends, which were very dry.

Part 2 – my hair after extreme heat

I decided to go really extreme and spent about an hour-and-half going over my hair, strand by strand, with the hair straightener, at high heat.

Of course, my hair ended up being sleek, shiny and incredibly straight. But, as I suspected, my ends got even drier, and started to look and feel more “over-processed”. I was already starting to see a couple of split ends and it reminded me why I’ve been avoiding hair straighteners for so long.

Naturally, I also lost some of my volume, which was ok but not ideal.

Part 3 – Dove products for the #HairDare challenge

Since I love playing with different hair products, I know that you get ideal results from using a haircare line in unison. This is due to the products being specifically designed to complement each other and achieve collectively strong results.

So needless to say, before trying out Dove’s Regenerative Nourishment line, I knew that I wanted to try all three products in order to fairly assess the results.

This range is formulated with Red Algae + Keratin NutriComplex. While doing some research, I learned that it is a daily program specifically for damaged, over-processed hair. The line aims to make hair smoother and more resistant to breakage.

Step 1 is the Regenerative Nourishment Shampoo. This product replenishes nutrients, making hair stronger and eliminating signs of damage. I loved that this shampoo lathered really, really well. It also had a very pleasant light scent.

Step 2 is the Regenerative Nourishment Conditioner. This product deeply nourishes hair, repairs the internal structure, and instantly leaves it with a healthy look and feel. The conditioner wasn’t as dense as most other similar products I have tried, which was another advantage.

And, finally, Step 3 is the Regenerative Nourishment Serum-in-Oil. This potent blend instantly rescues and restores hair’s healthy appearance. It penetrates and nourishes deep inside the hair shaft, fortifies brittle hair and prevents split ends. Two things I loved about it: 1) it wasn’t “greasy”, and 2) I was able to style my hair quite well as the product removed all frizz.

Part 4 – the final results

I was really impressed with the results. It was truly incredible how healthy my hair looked despite the extreme heat I had recently subjected it to.

What I found especially surprising is that the products even removed some of the problems I had prior to the hair straightening.

A couple of things were immediately obvious: my hair was much softer (including the blonde ends), it was very shiny, and I somehow ended up with more volume and wave than at the very beginning, which was wonderful. The serum was great—it was so easy to style the hair with it.

I truly enjoyed the experience and was inspired to get more adventurous later that day, as I chose to wear a bright green dress and a very red lipstick for the photos.

I love challenges that yield good results and now dare you to take on the #HairDare challenge!

The Regenerative Nourishment range, formulated with Red Algae + Keratin NutriComplex, is a specific daily program for damaged, over-processed hair, making it smoother and stronger against breakage — as if damage never happened. Learn More!

Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Dove Canada via Mode Media Canada. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Dove Canada.