I recently had a chance to try 4 products from the J.F. Lazartigue haircare line. Lazartigue has several lines to choose from, including everyday, dry hair, oily hair, frizzy hair, volumizing, styling, and special treatments. I tried products from the everyday, dry hair, volumizing and styling lines.

Rapid Drying Shampoo ($17 for 5 oz.)
Yes, you read right - $17 for 5 ounces, but hey, if it dries your hair faster, I'm in... I was so excited to try this product, because my hair is thick and long and takes forever and a day to dry. The product claims to "enable you to cut your drying time by up to 30%" (either naturally or with a hair dryer) depending on length and type of hair. Well, it did not work for me. It took me the same amount of time to dry and sometimes even felt a like a longer amount of time to dry. I did everything - no product in the hair, air dry, towel dry than blow dry, but nothing seemed to speed up the total drying time. This is a nice shampoo, however, and I did like the way my hair looked and felt after using it. Again, it did say drying time depended on the hair type and maybe this kind of shampoo just won't click with my hair.

Hair Volume Tonic ($32 for 3.4 oz.)
This is a leave in product which is supposed to help you style and maintain volume and body to your hair. I did like this product. My hair had lots of life to it and shine after using it. It lifted at my roots a bit and held the curls towards my ends when I used a hair dryer. The drawback is the price. It is a bit steep and I have tried several other products like Paul Mitchell's "Heat" or Matrix's "Volume", for much less money and they held my hair just the same.

Pre Shampoo Cream With Shea Butter ($51 for 6.8 oz.)
Well, my hair is as dry as can be, especially with this Chicago winter. I was excited to try this and was not disappointed. The directions say to "apply the cream to the most damaged part of the hair and leave on for at least 2 hours, rinse and follow the recommended shampoo." I put it on right before bed and slept with it in my hair. I loved this stuff. On the days that I used it I noticed a difference in my hair, it was looked less dry, softer and shinier and felt full and healthy. I noticed an extreme difference between the nights I used it and nights that I did not. The hard thing was working it into my nightly routine. I don't know about you, but I do not have 2 hours to kill before washing my hair in the morning, so I had to do it at night. I was skeptical about this product, because I thought after I used it there would be no change, and it would all wash out. I was wrong. It did make a great deal of difference in my hair, for the better. The price might just be worth it for this.