I'm an impressionable sort, and often when I'm in Boots or wherever, I'll get hypnotised by a product that promises me the world. John Frieda Beach Blonde Ocean Waves Spray did just that. 'Get tousled, surf-chick hair!' it exclaimed. 'Ooooh,' I said. 'Twist hair into ropes and it will try in surfy ringlets!' it promised. 'Oooooh,' I said. By the time I read about the summery coconut fragrance I was clutching it madly and checking how many advantage card points I had left.
The thing with Ocean Waves is that it cost £5, and I was at university. Spending £5 on a hair product that was probably designed more for girls with fine, straight hair was a massive extravagance. But I did, and I was hooked.
I discovered Ocean Waves before I found Sunsilk, so this was back when the only curl-enhancing product I used was VO5's Curl Boost Spray. For crunchy curls you can snap in two.
Ocean Waves was legendary. My hair dried in soft, neat curls, without a hint of crunchyness or stickiness. And it smelt amaaaazing. And it came in this blue, two-toned bottle, which looked like the sea. The main ingredient was saltwater, so it really did recreate how great your hair always looks on holiday. Even MY hair looks good on holiday.
But because I saw it as so expensive, I used it sparingly, and would only buy it when I was occasionally flush, or had saved up my advantage card points to the value of £5. And then suddenly it wasn't there anymore, and I had a dribble in the bottom of my last bottle. So I looked, and looked. And googled. And there was that word again... 'discontinued'.
Surf sprays are trendy again this year and I can't help but hope that John Frieda will see a gap in the market and relaunch Ocean Waves.
AND THEN... while googling for the picture for this post, I stumbled across many a website bemoaning the loss of Ocean Waves, and found that John Frieda had released an alternative, Brilliant Brunette Starlit Waves, in 2006, which from reports was JUST as awesome. Which was then recalled after about a year, with a promise that a new, improved version was on the way. Which has never surfaced.
So there IS hope. I've emailed John Frieda to find out what the current status is. Knowing my luck with awesome products being discontinued, though, it'll probably turn out that v2 has been discontinued permanently too, and I'll have to kick myself forever that I could have replaced My Favourite Lost Product Ever (with a version more catered towards my hair colour!) and didn't know, so it came and went. Wah.
Still! Possible alternatives:
Garnier Surf Spray
I tried this on wet hair, without Sunsilk, and it made hardly any difference. It did not look good. I tried it on wet hair after Sunsilk, and my hair dried nicely. But then, Sunsilk generally makes my hair dry nicely, so I am not sure how much Garnier actually did. Smells nice, though, and it's cheap.
Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray
...is £12, which is kind of expensive for something that may not work. Comes very highly recommended online though, and I'm beginning to suspect that this is the natural predecessor to Ocean Waves.
The thing with Ocean Waves is that it cost £5, and I was at university. Spending £5 on a hair product that was probably designed more for girls with fine, straight hair was a massive extravagance. But I did, and I was hooked.
I discovered Ocean Waves before I found Sunsilk, so this was back when the only curl-enhancing product I used was VO5's Curl Boost Spray. For crunchy curls you can snap in two.
Ocean Waves was legendary. My hair dried in soft, neat curls, without a hint of crunchyness or stickiness. And it smelt amaaaazing. And it came in this blue, two-toned bottle, which looked like the sea. The main ingredient was saltwater, so it really did recreate how great your hair always looks on holiday. Even MY hair looks good on holiday.
But because I saw it as so expensive, I used it sparingly, and would only buy it when I was occasionally flush, or had saved up my advantage card points to the value of £5. And then suddenly it wasn't there anymore, and I had a dribble in the bottom of my last bottle. So I looked, and looked. And googled. And there was that word again... 'discontinued'.
Surf sprays are trendy again this year and I can't help but hope that John Frieda will see a gap in the market and relaunch Ocean Waves.
AND THEN... while googling for the picture for this post, I stumbled across many a website bemoaning the loss of Ocean Waves, and found that John Frieda had released an alternative, Brilliant Brunette Starlit Waves, in 2006, which from reports was JUST as awesome. Which was then recalled after about a year, with a promise that a new, improved version was on the way. Which has never surfaced.
So there IS hope. I've emailed John Frieda to find out what the current status is. Knowing my luck with awesome products being discontinued, though, it'll probably turn out that v2 has been discontinued permanently too, and I'll have to kick myself forever that I could have replaced My Favourite Lost Product Ever (with a version more catered towards my hair colour!) and didn't know, so it came and went. Wah.
Still! Possible alternatives:
Garnier Surf Spray
I tried this on wet hair, without Sunsilk, and it made hardly any difference. It did not look good. I tried it on wet hair after Sunsilk, and my hair dried nicely. But then, Sunsilk generally makes my hair dry nicely, so I am not sure how much Garnier actually did. Smells nice, though, and it's cheap.
Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray
...is £12, which is kind of expensive for something that may not work. Comes very highly recommended online though, and I'm beginning to suspect that this is the natural predecessor to Ocean Waves.