How to Use Ellerand
Three steps. Wash, mask, serum. It replaces your shampoo and conditioner rather than adding to them, and it does not need a flat iron, a blow dryer or any heat at all to do its job.
Everything below is about the outside of the hair, because that is where Ellerand works. There is nothing to set, nothing to seal in with heat and nothing to wait out.
The three steps
Step one. Shampoo
Get your hair properly wet first. Water alone does a lot of the work, and shampoo on half wet hair drags.
How much. About a coin sized amount for short or fine hair, and roughly two of those for long or thick hair. Work it in at the roots with your fingertips, not your nails, and let the lather run down the lengths as you rinse. You do not need to scrub the ends, they get cleaned on the way past.
How often. As often as you already wash your hair. Ellerand does not ask you to change your schedule. If you wash twice a week, wash twice a week.
Rinse. Longer than feels necessary. Leftover shampoo is one of the more common reasons hair feels rough after a wash.
Step two. Mask
Squeeze the excess water out of your hair before the mask goes on, so it is damp rather than dripping. Product that lands on running water ends up in the drain.
How much. Enough to coat the mid lengths and ends. Start there, then work whatever is left on your hands upward. Roots need much less than you think, and tighter or coarser textures can comfortably take more than fine hair does.
How long. Leave it on while you finish the rest of your shower, then rinse it out. You do not need to time it with a clock.
How often. Every wash. If your hair is fine or gets weighed down easily, use it every other wash instead.
Step three. Leave in serum
This one stays in. Apply it to damp hair, not soaking and not fully dry.
How much. Start small, about a pea sized amount, and add more only if the ends still feel dry. Warm it between your palms first, then press it through the mid lengths and ends. Whatever is left on your hands is the right amount for the top layer.
How often. After every wash. Between washes you can smooth a very small amount over dry ends if you want to, but that is optional and it is easy to overdo.
Do not rinse. The serum is the sealing step. Rinsing it out removes the part that closes the cuticle.
What to expect while you use it
The mask will make your hair feel slippery in the shower. That is the slip doing its job, and it is the easiest moment to detangle.
The serum should sink into damp hair rather than sit on top of it. If it feels like a coating on your palms after you have applied it, you used more than you needed.
Once your hair is dry, the change is on the surface. Run a hand down the length and it should feel smoother and catch less. Your curl pattern will still be your curl pattern, because nothing here reaches the part of the hair that decides it. If you are used to what a salon keratin treatment feels like, this will not feel like that. It is not doing what that does, and that is the point.
If your hair feels heavy
Almost always the serum, and almost always too much of it. Adjust in this order.
- Cut the amount in half. Then cut it again if you need to. It is far easier to add a little more than to take it off.
- Keep it on the mid lengths and the ends. The roots and the crown do not need it, and that is where weight shows first.
- Apply to damp hair, not dry. Damp hair spreads a small amount much further.
- If your hair is fine, drop the mask to every other wash and keep the shampoo and serum as normal.
Heaviness is a dosing problem, not a formula problem. Fine hair and dense coily hair simply want different amounts of the same three products.
Using it alongside heat styling
You do not need heat to get the result. That is one of the real differences between this and a salon treatment, which only works because of the flat iron.
If you blow dry or use hot tools anyway, apply the serum to damp hair before you dry, and use the lowest heat setting that gets the job done. Nothing here needs to be baked in and nothing needs to be set.
We do not present the serum as a heat protectant. If you already use one, keep using it, and apply it the way that product tells you to.
Using it alongside your other products
The shampoo and mask replace the ones you were using. The serum layers with most things. A few general rules.
- Serum first on damp hair, then gel, cream, mousse or whatever you use to hold a style. Sealing before styling, not after.
- Do not stack two heavy leave in products. Pick one to do the sealing, and let the other one hold.
- Oils, if you use them, go on last and sparingly. Once the surface is already sealed you may find you do not want one at all.
- If you use a clarifying shampoo now and then, that is fine. Just follow it with the mask and the serum, because clarifying strips the surface back.
- Diffusers, plopping, scrunching and any drying method you like all work as normal. None of it interferes with what the serum is doing.
Getting the most out of it
- Detangle while the mask is in, with your fingers or a wide tooth comb. Hair is at its most cooperative right then.
- Rinse the mask out properly. Half rinsed conditioner is a common reason hair feels limp when the product gets the blame.
- Squeeze water out with a towel or an old cotton shirt. Do not scrub the hair dry, because rubbing lifts the cuticle straight back up.
- Less serum more often beats a lot in one go.
- Use all three. The shampoo and mask prepare the surface, the serum seals it. Skipping the serum is skipping the part that closes the cuticle.
- Keep the routine steady. Ellerand works while it is on your hair, so it rewards consistency rather than intensity.
Questions
If something here does not match your hair or your routine, write to us at support@ellerand.com and we will give you a straight answer for your situation. You can also call us at +1 205 287 9987.
If it is not working for you, you have 30 days from the day your order is delivered. Email us first so we can authorize the return and send you the instructions and the return address. The details are on our refund policy.