Remington has long been a respected name in beauty and personal care appliances. They also have generally been a good source of decent quality, yet affordable, hair dryers and flat irons. That is an area that has seen quite a bit of new technology over recent years, with ionic and ceramic technology becoming the standard. Now the company is bringing out some additional new tricks.
Around the end of February, Remington is releasing the Style and Shine Hair Dryer and Style and Shine Flat Iron Straightener. Both of these products include the ability to infuse the hair with a very fine mist of shine enhancing moisturizers such as avocado oil with vitamins A, E, and D to help tame the frizzies and condition the hair.The idea is wonderful. When the hair is heated, the cuticle expands and will absorb products better. Heat also isn’t the best thing for your hair. So combining treatment with heat styling allows for the best use of the conditioning product, while also helping to protect.
Here is how it works: The dryer comes with a cartridge containing the conditioning and shine enhancing treatment. The cartridge snaps into appliance and a button is used to control when it is applied, and how much. The dryer can also be used without the cartridge in place. It comes with two approximately 30 use cartridges which will also be available for sale in two cartridge packs.
The straightener is a bit different. It has ceramic plates with porous properties that have been infused with a blend of conditioners and avocado oil that evenly emit during styling.
I gave the hair dryer a try and have so far been pretty happy with it. First off, all new tricks aside, the Remington Style and Shine Dryer is a good basic hair dryer. It uses ionic and ceramic technology, and has three separate speed and heat settings. Without using the oil mist, it did a perfectly fine job of quickly drying my hair without causing any serious frizzies.
When the oil most is added, then things get interesting! Before you get worried about an oil slick, rest assured that the mist is very, very fine. In fact, it is nearly impossible to detect unless you spray some on a tissue to verify that it is working. So as long as it is not overused, it won’t leave the hair greasy. With that said, it is possible to overuse it and it takes a bit of experimenting to find the right amount–something the product literature makes note of. I found that if I sprayed it on each strand while round brushing, that my hair got too weighed down. I also decided to keep it away from my roots which can get a bit oily on their own. But when I mist the oil on my ends when my hair is almost dry and run a brush through a few times while misting at that stage, I end up with wonderfully shiny and soft hair. It seems to tame my winter frizzies very well when used that way.
Overall, the Style and Shine Dryer is a product that I recommend. Even as just a basic dryer, it is a good value and if you have dry hair that could use some taming and shine, the oil mist feature is a neat addition.
Remington’s Style and Shine products will be available in February 2008 in select stores and at mass retailers by April. Each appliance retails at $49.99, cartridge refills are $9.99.
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for about a month now. Previously, I was using Redken Extreme, KMS, and/or Schwartzkopf Bonacure. Among those, this is now my favorite everyday conditioner. The conditioner is fairly thick, which I like for detangling. It also seems to provide more overall moisture and silkiness to my hair than the others. I still love Bonacure products and would normally say that Redken Smooth Down is a tie with Bonacure’s Repair Rescue, but Redken wins out because it is cheaper. I bought mine at in the 
