With heat and humidity creeping back into our weather, I had hoped to do a little something with my hair that didn’t involve cutting or perpetual ponytails.

My poor hair is a freak-show. Up until I had kids, it was super-straight, and could not hold a curl to save its’ life. Back in the 80’s, my mom even had my hair permed, only to have the curl fall out not three days later. However, after I had the heathens, a few sections of my hair developed these bizarre, errant waves that can’t even truly be classified as waves…I’d describe them more as a spastic bend here and there. As a result, I have to style my hair (when I’m ambitious enough to do so) with either a flat iron or a large-barrel curling iron. Otherwise, I look like a scruffy, wreck of a woman.

I saw this product at my local Target and snatched it up:

And let’s just say, DANG!! I wish I had read the reviews on Amazon first!!!!! Not only does this stuff smell like the worst chemical spill you could ever imagine, that gosh-awful smell stuck around for days. Every time my hair got wet, I smelled noxious, and our poor bathroom still seems toxic. I swear, people around me probably thought I had fallen into a tub of flea-dip. Even using this product, I still (as per the instructions) had to flat-iron my hair, which made me wonder why I suffered through a chemical nightmare if I was still stuck with all the work of styling anyway. If anything, my hair felt drier, messier and more unruly than ever. It certainly was not smoother, shinier or faster to style, as the product advertised.

So, in my humble opinion, avoid Garnier’s Blow Dry Perfector. Unless you are really ready for a drastic hair-cut, that is.