June 4, 2023

Three Game Changers for Me

Hair dryers, lighting and shower caddies - these are the game changers that are up for discussion today.

First up, hair dryers - for the longest time since I quit straightening my hair, I would simply let it air dry (mainly because I was lazy...why do you think I quit straightening my hair in the first place?).  This wasn't as uncomfortable as you would think since my hair is quite fine and generally dries pretty quickly.  But recently, somewhere along the way, I heard that using a hair dryer would give me more volume; particularly on top of my head.  Well, okay then.  So, I pulled out my old hair dryer and started experimenting.  And then the darn thing up and died.

I recalled seeing something on Instagram (I think?) about the Dyson Supersonic and people were raving about it. So I opened a new browser tab, ran a search, and promptly said "Nope!"

Friends, even if I had a gazillion dollars in the bank, there is NO way I will EVER spend nearly $600 dollars for a hair dryer!  I don't care how wonderful it is. There is no justification at all to spend that much.

So I looked at other options that offered the same type of "benefits" as the Dyson and ended up with this one; at a significantly better price point.  And for a brand that I've never heard of, the reviews were all pretty positive.  Although, I do recall seeing one review, which while still very positive, did note that hers caught fire.  If a review like that doesn't catch your attention, I don't know what will.

But since no one else mentioned their dryer catching fire, I figured she must have just gotten a defective one - so I crossed my fingers and hit the buy button.

Y'all.  I love this hair dryer as much as one can love a hair dryer.  I will say that the high speed/heat is extraordinarily HIGH heat.  So I don't use that setting.  But it does have a high speed, cool setting which is perfect for my needs.  It also has a medium heat/speed setting and a cool shot button.
 
I do have to admit, the more I played around with technique, heat settings, etc. it  really does seem to help with volume and because of the high speed it does seem to dry the hair much faster than my old one ever did.  And, overall, I'm pretty happy with the results...although, can anyone explain to me why my hair is consistently not at it's best when I'm at the office? Seriously, those days are usually my bad hair days for some reason.

At any rate, if you are in the market for a hair dryer, I would definitely recommend this one.

Have I ever told you just how bad the lighting is in our kitchen?  No?  Well, it is seriously the worst lighting situation I've ever seen.  Not long after we moved in, The Husband added under the cabinet lighting that used batteries and it helped.  A little.  But the batteries never lasted long and the light, while it helped to see what you were doing still wasn't as bright as I would have liked.

Then I saw a post on Instagram (I think it was @TheFoldingLady) about these rechargeable lights.  I clicked on that link so fast and I am really glad I did.  

Y'all - I love these things - but The Husband loves them even more since the kitchen is his domain.  These lights are bright, the charge holds for a long time, the time it takes to re-charge them is minimal.  They are magnetic, so easy to remove to recharge. 

They are excellent and worth every penny (which, honestly, they aren't that expensive).  

Although I may have never mentioned the awful lighting situation in the kitchen, I'm almost positive I have mentioned how much I despise our narrow, upright, coffin-like structure shower situation a time or two.

Immediately upon moving in, I added a shower caddy that is suspended from the shower head.  Y'all, this was not ideal for many reasons.  The top shelf was too high for me, so all my shower products were relegated to the bottom shelf...where they simply didn't fit.  Particularly, if it was a large bottle of conditioner or if there was a product with a pump.  Not to mention the fact that the hand held shower want wouldn't fit in its notch on the shower head so it was relegated to being shoved into the bottom shelf.  It was a mess.

A few weeks ago, I finally had enough and went in search of a better solution.  My initial thought was there might be a shower caddy out there that had more space in between the shelves.  This shower caddy does not seem to exist - or if it does, I never found it.

And then, I stumbled over these shelves.  Complete and total game changer for my showering experience, let me tell you.  According to The Husband, no caddy has a perfect spot in this particular shower - but let's keep in mind he is quite taller and broader than me.  So his experience does not count.  Although, he does agree this is way better than what we had.

My initial thought was to place them on the wall underneath the shower head - but then I decided they would work best on the back wall.  And not stacked but instead sit along side of each other.

They are perfect.  We haven't had them long - but that tiny, coffin-like structure seemed to have just a few more blissful inches when I showered this morning - and that is saying something.

If you are in need of a game changer in any of these three areas of your life; maybe these will help.  I know they've made my life a little better.


*as always, not a paid advertisement/sponsorship - these links are for your convenience only.

20 comments:

  1. Well, I have a Dyson hairdryer and love it. For my frizzy curly hair it is wonderful, but it isn't cheap. I get that. I like the idea of the lights, but don't need them anywhere. But the caddy is intriguing. I can understand how it could be instantly useful. And I do like useful.

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    1. So the dryer lives up to the hype. That's great to know! My sensible brain refuses to let me even consider it. The shower caddies are perfect. It's funny how you can live with something that is sub-par for so long and then once you resolve it - you wonder why it took you so long to find a solution.

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  2. I will have to check out the caddy. I never dry my hair with anything and only my hairdresser uses one when I get it cut. :-)

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    1. I do have to admit; I do miss the ten or so extra minutes that I had when I was air drying my hair. The caddy is perfection.

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  3. A good blow dryer is a thing of beauty. I have a nice salon-quality Babyliss one; I recently used a cheaper one on vacation and WOW - I could really notice the difference. My dryer is so much faster and has an extra long cord (important for hairdressers in their salons, I guess?).

    Our kitchen also has horrible lighting...I've clicked the link!

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  4. I'm going to have to check out those lights. Aside from vaulting the ceiling, our kitchen is hopeless. I recessed a cubby into our wall a few years back when I retiled the shower. It holds the basics. Then I ended up getting one similar to yours, but since nothing seems to stick to our tile, I used aquarium glue to glue command hooks to the tile wall above the nook, and hung the caddy from those. Not orthodox at all, but it has worked for years. I think Oldest has my hairdryer at college. He uses it to heat set his paints for his sneakers. HAhahahaha

    My newest LOVE is the moisturizer from cureology. I have loved it before, not greasy, lightweight, doesn't burn my super sensitive skin, or my eyes. It actually diminishes my WTF forehead lines. No lie. It used to be only available through a subscription set with the cleansers and other stuff, but now they sell individual components at Target. LOVE and only $15!!!

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    1. Yeah, these caddies made it perfectly clear that if the surface isn't completely smooth; they would stick. I would have never thought about aquarium glue! Ingenious.

      Thanks for the tip on the moisturizer! I will definitely check that out.

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  5. alas (or good?) I have no need for a hair dryer anymore. ho ho ho

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    1. LOL - I would say that is good, the less maintenance the better in my book.

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  6. That hair dryer sounds amazing, but I prefer a dryer that dries my hair VERY slow - I guess I'm the opposite of most people. My hair is so thin that I prefer a slow drying process and I can't use a dryer without a diffuser. I'm glad you found an option less than $600. Whoa Nelly. Happy you found an option for your shower and your lights. My kitchen has a ton of lights by design. When we did our kitchen, I requested lots of lights. A dim lit room makes me nuts.

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    1. I forgot to mention, this dryer comes with a great diffuser that I can't live without. If we ever re-do our kitchen, I plan to have can lights installed EVERYWHERE. I agree about dim rooms. I'm blind as a bat, so I want there to be light and lots of it.

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  7. I've read about the Dyson and I am intrigued, but not enough to pull the trigger. I have a Conair one that works just fine. My hair would probably be happier if I just let it air dry but oh well!
    We have under cabinet lighting in our kitchen and I never really use it. Then again, it's a south-facing kitchen so light in that area is not a problem. My north facing, tree shaded living room however...that room tends to be dark.

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    1. I know; it IS intriguing...but I guess it will have to stay a mystery for me. One of the best things about the dryer I bought is the Cool High setting; no heat damage.

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  8. Office hair is a Thing--lots of people say that it's because air in office buildings is terribly dry and staticky.

    Charging that kind of cash for a hair dryer is insane. It's more than they charge for their vacuum cleaners.

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    1. I'd never heard of Office Hair before! It makes sense though.

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  9. I would be very upset if a dryer sparked as me too! What stuck with me regarding that review was that despite the dryer catching fire she seemed to really like it; if my dryer caught fire I think my opinion of that dryer would very quickly diminish!

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  10. Gigi, I'm laughing at the description of your shower. SORRY, but it was funny!
    My Lolo has the Dyson curling, drying, whatever. It's an all in one and was given to her as a gift. She loves it. I used it once and loved it, but not enough to dish out that much money!
    Undercounted lightning is a game changer!

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    1. That shower has been the bane of our existence. We should have someone come out and help us figure out how to re-configure this bathroom. You wouldn't think that would be a big deal - but that giant window over the tub is the problem and the fact that this room is in the front of the house.

      If someone gifted me that hair dryer maybe I would discover that it is, indeed, worth the money...but I guess I'll never know.

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  11. I feel the same way about blenders as you do with hair dryers! I looked into it and wondered when did they all get so expensive, and some, like the Vitamix, is like $400+. What!? I finally bought a Ninja on sale at Target for about $100 which was still way more than I had ever spent on a blender (I think my one from college was in the $15-$20 range and it blended some nice mudslides!)

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