A woman with enviable straight hair, model Georgina Wilson is the endorser of a new product called Perfection by Cream Silk, which boasts of a Keratinology formula that keeps salon-straightened hair shiny and healthy months after treatment. That's host of the night RJ Ledesma with her. Photo by Peter C. Marquez, InterAksyon.com.
There are a lot of beautiful women out there who carry their hair short, but we Filipinas always have had an eager fascination towards long gorgeous hair. I am just one of those girls, who wear it that way. After all, it is easier to maintain. On good days, I could just feel the wind against my face as strands are blown gently. Sometimes, I can curl it, you know do an overnight magic with the rollers. If I’m in a rush, and can’t seem to do anything with my tresses, I just tie it with a scrunchie.
Since time immemorial, we Filipinas have always carried our hair long and straight. Imagine Maria Clara, you don’t see her in a round up white wig. You probably imagine her the same way that I do in a baro’t saya with long, flowing hair or tied up in a bun. I don’t know if it’s in the simplicity of the style, but Pinays with hair that falls perfectly behind our backs always outnumber those with short bobs and even curly hair.
A model shows off her long tresses at the Perfection by Cream Silk launch. Photo by Peter C. Marquez, InterAksyon.com.
How many of us have talikod twins in the office? (You know the person people often mistook to be you because of the same body type, and unmistakable relaxed hair style.) Plus, come on, almost every sikat na artista there is wears her hair long and straight—Anne Curtis, Bea Alonzo, Kim Chiu, Alex Gonzaga, I could go on.
Binibining Pilipinas beauty queens Luzelle Felipe, May Fortes, April Tanhueco, Jelyn Lao Santos, and Jennifer Barrientos at the Perfection by Cream Silk launch held recently in a bar in Taguig City. Photo by Peter C. Marquez, InterAksyon.com.
DJ Nina Saputil got guests to let their hair down with her party music. Photo by Peter C. Marquez, InterAksyon.com.
I wasn’t really keen on eternally sporting my hair long. In fact I am inspired by the hair goddess herself, Jennifer Aniston. Everybody would just adore how it was always sleek, as if blow-dried to perfection whether she be on the red carpet but more so on the TV show Friends. What I really loved was her first cut, the Rachel. If you are a Friends fan, like I am, then you would know what this is. I have long wanted to cut my hair to Jennifer Aniston’s famous layered squarish cut!
I wanted to do so badly, that two years ago, I went to this well known salon franchise. But the hairstylist wouldn’t even cut my hair to the Rachel. He didn’t even know it! He refused to cut it and was deaf to my descriptions. (I don’t know why, he gave me a gazillion excuse.) He cut my hair two to three inches, which was somewhere mid back and it wasn’t anything that looked like the Rachel. If you are familiar with the term “nagtampo ang buhok“, well yes, my hair did just do that. From the gorgeously straight hair, a few days later, my hair was an awful mess. It got dry with spilt ends.
I have known friends who have had their hair rebonded for years now. One of my friends, Khay, who has been regularly getting her hair rebonded since college, is even coaxing me to have my hair re-rebonded. (Well, it has been a long time since my crowning glory has undergone any treatment.) The whole reason behind it is for about P1,500, the treatment could easily restore smoothness from root to tips and you could wear your hair like that for about a year.
The first time that I had my hair rebonded, about four, maybe five years ago, was because everybody in the office was doing it. The hairdresser who did my hair was so eager to do my hair because of my “virgin hair.”
It was after my rebond that I grew conscious of how my tresses looked like. I have had long hair since college, but I wouldn’t care about how frizzy it would get. After getting it rebonded, I made sure to follow the hairdresser’s advice: make sure not to tuck it behind my ears, no to use shampoo that often, and if I did that it wasn’t anti dandruff shampoo, and to always, always use conditioner. This of course included using the right conditioner. Hey, I made an investment, and I had to protect that investment.
A model shows off her long tresses at the A Night of Perfection party to launch Cream Silk's latest products. Photo by Peter C. Marquez, InterAksyon.com.
That reminds me of a certain trip my friend, Joba and I once planned. We just wanted to go swimming. But unfortunately, swimming is a no-no for someone who has had her hair rebonded (this was by my second rebond and Joba too had also had her hair treated).
Anyway, we just wanted to swim and go on a trip for the Holy Week, so we then decided to try the 88 Hotspring resort in Laguna. At first, the idea was not to get our hair all wet, but then we couldn’t enjoy the water now, could we? So we took out a bottle of conditioner and generously lathered some moisturizer on to our hair. We grew ever so conscious of the minutes we were spending on the water. We took the conditioner by the pool.
We were swimming with a bottle of conditioner! We would put on a retouch of conditioner to our wet tresses every 20 minutes or so. Thankfully, the other guests in the resort didn’t get annoyed at these two vain little imps.
Cream Silk marketing manager Ana Mangilin, Cream Silk assistant brand manager Sarah Lim; Cream Silk Icons of Perfection designer Amina Aranaz-Alunan, eco-ethical fashion advocate Reese Fernandez, and TV personality Patty Laurel; Cream Silk senior brand manager Vic Gutierrez, and Unilever PR and events manager Nikki Abella at the Perfection by Cream Silk launch. Photo by Peter C. Marquez, InterAksyon.com.
My friends have had their hair treated, but I have been holding back in having my hair rebonded cause I am quite unsure on whether I should have it cut short or to have it permed. I’ve been asking people around me on what hairstyle they think would suit me be best. Most of them agree to framing my face with a long hair style. Even after a year or two of having hair treatments, using a conditioner became somewhat a force of habit. The hairdresser did not specify any brand. But I did stick to using Cream Silk. I was a bit price conscious, and for the affordable brands Cream Silk did deliver. You would see the big difference when you don’t use conditioner and how your hair strands would react, all mad and frazzled, if you don’t try to moisturize it.
Cream Silk assistant brand manager Sarah Lim, Cream Silk senior brand manager Vic Gutierrez and Cream Silk marketing manager Ana Mangilin. Photo by Peter C. Marquez, InterAksyon.com.
At a certain interview, I got the chance to ask Dra. Vicki Belo, who sculpts stars and makes people beautiful for a living, once what she considers beautiful in women. You know what she said, it wasn’t about the pointy nose or the prominent cheekbones, it was all about having beautiful hair and clear skin. It is as simple as that. So whatever way you have your hair styled—long or short, straight or curled, the most important thing is we keep it healthy.
Perfection by Cream Silk comes in a range of products—Daily Treatment Conditioner, Intensive Treatment Mask, Instant Frizz Control Leave On, and Detangling Spray—for full-bodied straight hair.
