Author: Emmy – Loyola University Chicago

As a native Minnesotan, the frigid cold of winter is nothing new to me. And while the snow might be pretty sometimes, dry skin and hair never is. Keeping your hair moisturized in the winter can be difficult, but this College Candy girl has worked at a hair salon for three years and is going to share her knowledge on the best products to help your hair weather out the winter on a college budget. (And that’s the end of my talking in third person…)

To have your best hair in the winter, experts say you have to start with the basics.

Starting with a moisturizing shampoo is crucial. And there are plenty of them out there that won’t cost you a fortune. My favorites:

Pantene has a great line called Winter Rescue Pro-V Moisture Renewal. Their shampoos and conditioners are cheap and great for all kinds of hair. And the deep conditioning treatment is on par with the kind you’d pay one month’s rent on in a salon, but costs mere dollars.

Herbal Essences also has a great moisturizing line called ‘Hydralicious’ and it has a variety of moisturizing formulas for all different kinds of hair. Whether you have crazy dry hair like I do, or fairly thin hair that needs to be conditioned but not weighed down, this line has you covered and moisturized.

Another great resource is the Moroccan Oil Restorative Hair Mask. It’s definitely on the pricier side, but works wonders, even on my crazy curls that tend to go uber dry in the wintertime. I put this on my hair and leave it on for ten minutes or so while in the shower, and then my hair regains all that coveted moisture it lost in the frozen tundra cold.

If  the winter has taken the shine and luster out of your hair, you may want to invest in John Freida’s Color Glazes. They can help keep hair looking shiny and healthy between colors. And if you’re one of those lucky gals that has a beautiful natural color (I hate you), John Frieda also makes a clear shine formula that will give you hair-commercial hair in no time.

Now, protecting your hair doesn’t stop in the shower. It’s what you do once you get out that really counts. Especially when it comes to drying that mop. And you must dry it. I repeat: you must dry your hair! Going outside with wet hair means frozen hair, which is a one-way ticket to Split-Endsville, no matter how many hair masks you use.

And since you’ll be using a hair dryer/flat iron daily (assuming you shower that often), you are going to need to protect those tresses from the heat. You definitely want to do this year round, but it’s especially important during the winter when everyone’s hair is generally drier. There are many different (and expensive) options for heat protectant products, but I really love TRESemme’s Heat Tamer spray that you can use before blow drying, flat ironing, or curling! It gets the job done and leaves your hair smelling deeeelish.

Regardless of which exact products you use, the important thing is to give your hair a bit of extra care and conditioning during the winter. Conditioned locks are not only healthier, but they’ll keep you looking classy, even on nights when you might not be acting so classy yourself!

Know of any great winter hair tips or products? Share with us!

When I broke up with my high school boyfriend I knew it would take some time to adjust to being single. I knew I would miss the big things about having a boyfriend, like, you know, having someone to celebrate Valentine’s Day with, but I had no idea that it would the dumb little things that I would miss the most.

So in honor of this little moment of nostalgia, here are the top five silly little things I miss about being in a relationship:

1. Having someone to stay in with. Okay, do you ever have those Friday nights where you are so exhausted that you feel like a living zombie? Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for partying it up on the weekends. Just every once in a while, it is nice to have a boy toy to stay in with so you don’t feel quite as lame when you aren’t feeling up to hitting the town with your girls.

2. Having a hand to hold. You know when your guy is driving you in a car, and you’re sitting in the passenger seat and you’re holding hands? It is such a safe, comfortable feeling. You don’t have to talk about anything particular; it’s just so cozy.

3. Having someone to split meals with. This might just be me, but a lot of times when I go out to eat I like to split things. My old boyfriend would always take me to fun new restaurants, and we would split things so we could get to try lots of different options. Plus, I have, like, zero decision making skills when it comes to small daily decisions (last night I debated which brand of chocolate ice cream we should get for ten minutes until my roommate jut got fed up and grabbed one) so it was nice just have him order for me if I didn’t feel like it.

4. Having someone there for you when everything goes wrong. On days when life becomes a sh*tshow, (let’s face it, mine always is…) having someone reliable around to be your support system is so crazy amazing. When my sister got sick and was in the hospital, I was so hysterical that my old boyfriend had to drive me to the hospital in my own car. I was a wreck the whole time she was there, and he took care of everything for me. He covered everything, from getting my homework to bringing me chocolate to getting my sister the most giant stuffed gorilla known to mankind as a get well present.

5. Having some comfy clothes. There’s something about wearing his giant sweatshirt and oversized sweatpants that just makes me feel safe and loved.

So I met this guy right before break. We hit it off immediately, joking in the library’s coffee shop line despite the fact that I dropped my huge Econ textbook on his toe. He seemed to be nice enough, and funny too. We even had a few mutual friends, so I ran into him in the cafeteria for lunch one day.

He texted me every once in a while, and sometimes we would chat on Facebook; you know the drill. I saw him again at the bank; he offered to proofread my paper, invited me to a party, yadda, yadda, yadda. (Insert obnoxious movie montage of cute bonding scenes here.) We even kept in touch over winter break.

It wasn’t a head-over-heels situation, but the boy was nice enough. I enjoyed talking to him, I looked forward to seeing him when I got back to school, and it was just nice to have a guy pursuing me. Every girl loves that.

But then, as soon as I got back to school, he just disappeared. Like completely. He stopped texting me and chatting online with me. I never even ran into him on campus anymore. No matter how hard I suddenly started to try.

And then I began obsessing. I’d log onto Facebook 20 times a day (as opposed to my usual 10) and check to see if he’d been on. Or added new photos. Or had some new girl writing on his wall. I’d keep my cell phone on uber loud and jump across the room when it blared, feeling my heart sink when it was just a text from my mom. I even went back to that same coffee shop in the library on the same day of the week when we met, hoping he might be there. And he was not.

Saying these things out loud (or typing them for the world to see) is embarrassing, because I am generally a (somewhat) rational person. But I just got too caught up in the whole situation to pull back and look at it rationally. If I had, maybe I would have noticed that I didn’t really like this kid. What I liked was being pursued and now that it was no longer happening, it stung.

It is one of the more confusing aspects of being a single girl; the moment that a guy starts being unavailable, we find ourselves convinced that he is our soul mate and become frantic to talk to him again. We confuse our feelings, letting our pride get in the way. We want so badly to be liked that we muddle our desire to be pursued and loved, and the desire to be with that person. Soon we’re planning a wedding to a kid who won’t even Facebook chat us when we’re both online. The same kid that we weren’t totally into just a few weeks before.

Eventually we stop. Some of us get so worked up, have a mini breakdown, call him 17 times and give up. Others, like myself, wake up one day (after walking past his dorm to see if he’s home and putting on makeup to go to the library to “study”) and realize that we had gotten so caught up in wondering if he liked us that we had forgotten to ask the most important question of all: Do we like him?

Because our opinion matters too! Dating is a two-way street and we can’t forget that our feelings count. We can’t let our pride get the best of us and dictate our actions. In order to lead a happier (and saner) single girl life, we have to stop, evaluate, and separate our feelings for him from our feelings for our shattered ego.

Easier said than done, right?