Review/Deal: Sally’s Salon Services Herbal Complex Conditioner

After browsing my local Sally’s beauty supply store looking for a decent ‘on the ground protein conditioner’ (didn’t find any by the way), I decided to make a purchase I’ve been putting off for a while. You see I had been eyeing a 5 litre keg of conditioner. 5 litres? Yes 5 litres. 

Like most curly/coily hair ladies, I can never have enough conditioner. So much that I usually prefer to buy my conditioners in litre sizes. Also with Tresseme Naturals 900ml conditioner offers at shops becoming a rarity and gradually increasing in price. It was time to invest in a better solution for Dafro. With 5litres at £11.99. That works out at 1000ml/1litre at approximately £2.40 for a great quality conditioner!! Thankfully I didn’t need to have a Salon Pro card of sorts to make this purchase.

Product Features of Sally’s Salon Services Herbal Complex Conditioner

• To be used after any colouring or bleaching treatment
• Formulated with Vitamin E which is a powerful antioxidant with hydrating properties.

This is probably that ‘treatment’ the stylist says is natural and strengthening for your hair whilst she massages your scalp, you know the one in the nameless bottle that you wonder about? (Off course only at the non- exclusive salon, because the exclusive ones only use branded recognized products *sniffs*)

Nehuuu..With this manufacturer recommending that this was to be used after a colouring or bleaching treatment - processes that are potentially detrimental to the hair shaft due to their bond altering effects. I knew I had to be on the right path.

They did not sell smaller samples of this conditioner, so I couldn’t tell it’s efficacy. There were no reviews online at the time of writing, so not much else to go by apart from my understanding of ingredients.

The ingredients list is relatively simple, but what I love even more is that the MAIN agents are within the top 5. This means that these ingredients exist in a much higher concentration. How many times have you picked up a conditioner purporting itself as argan/aloe/shea/potatoe e.t.c based only to note disappointingly that the supposed main ingredient is actually at the bottom of the ingredients list.

Welll that wasn’t the case with this one. What was the seller for me? The aloe vera gel and henna. 

Yes definitely CG, if you are into that.

Ingredients

Aqua (Water), Cetearyl Alcohol (fatty emulsifying conditioning agent ), Steartrimonium Methosulfate (anti-static smoothing agent (STM)), Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera Gel) Lawsonia Inermis (Henna Extract),Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Parfum (Fragrance) Citric Acid (preservatives) Magnesium Chloride Magnesium Nitrate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone (preservatives)  CI 19140 CI 42090 (colouring)

Texture

Medium-light texture.

 

Smell

I think of lime and greens with this one. I guess they were trying to go for a ‘herby’ smell. Either way I like it.

On my hair

It gave me great slip and allowed me to finger detangle fairly easily. Infact it was surprisingly very slippery and sudsy! Wow! I like very much. It smoothed down my hair quite a fair bit too. Overall it did a good job for me far more than I expected. But the killer for me, was the reduced amount of shedding I got. I got significantly less shedding that I usually do. Despite having not washed my hair in a few days.  Whenever this finishes I will definitely be returning back to Sally’s to stock up.

I doubt I shall be having any cold sweats as a result of conditioner shortage any time soon. Tressemme can move over.

Review: Andrew Barton SOS Help Me! Twice a Week Conditioner

Price: £4 for a 300ml tub or 2 for £6 during ASDA sales.

Availability: Mainly at ASDA! I can pick it up with some soya milk anytime.

Ingredients: Aqua (Water) , Cetearyl Alcohol , Behentrimonium Chloride , Cetyl Esters , Glycerin , Boswellia Serrata (Olibanum) Extract , Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) , Panthenol , Parfum (Fragrance) , Glycereth-26 , Tetrasodium EDTA , Cetrimonium Chloride , Dipropylene Glycol , Isopropyl Alcohol , Citric Acid , Magnesium Nitrate , Magnesium Chloride , Benzyl Alcohol , Methylchloroisothiazolinone , Methylisothiazolinone .

Packaging: Simple black and red jar. With the product name written in bold capital white letters. I actually love the simplicity of the packaging. Plus with red being one of my favourite colours, I can’t help but feel this way.

Smell: Is the only thing I’m a little bit unsure about. I only like it in small doses. For short periods. Any longer and it’s sickening. Notes of gingerbread, vanilla, cookies come to mind when I sniff this from the jar. Though according to the site, it’s supposed to smell like Brazil nuts. (I eat brazil nuts everyday, it’s nothing close to this! lol)

Texture:  Creamy light texture.You see this stuff is so light that I feel they could easily have re-packaged this in a bottle. But I suppose they wanted to go with the ‘mask in jar’ theme so jar it was. Though don’t let the texture deceive you. This stuff is very effective.

On my hair: If your hair tends to get dry, knotty and tangled easily.Then I recommend this conditioner to you  My kinky hair is prone to dryness so I always go for the heavy-duty conditioners. I'm so glad I didn't pass this one up. As a deep-conditioner, this product delivers. It leaves my hair very supple and soft. I couldn’t resist trying this as a leave-in conditioner as well. I knew this stuff was going to be my staple after it delivered over a day’s moisture on my wash & go fro. Even after Dafro dried, she was still so soft, right up till the next morning! (This is no easy feat. Many products have failed at this step.)

I fell in love with SOS conditioner for so many reasons

- It’s so easy to acquire.

-  Really smoothes down the hair cuticles.

-  Has crazy slip which helps me finger-detangle with no hassle at all. When Dafro is tripping I just layer the SOS conditioner on her and she immediately conforms. Like seriously. She just calms down. Immediately.

- It delivers lasting moisture as a leave-in conditioner when layered with castor oil. Unlike my recently upstaged EO conditioners it does not irritate my scalp as a leave-in. Yes!

- Serves different purposes effectively for me. Leave-in, co-rinse, deep-conditioner.

HG/Staple worthy. The end.

Staple Hair Products For My Coily, Kinky Type 4 Hair Easily Bought On The Ground (UK)

I was thinking of following up my initial post March favourites, but thought that maybe redundant because most of the products in my March favourites are also in my April Favourites and will most likely be around for the following months. I have a few new additions, so let me know if you would like a more in-depth review if  there isn’t one already on my blog.

 It’s fun to try new products, but it’s important to have those staples you can fall back on when you can’t be bothered to experiment/just don’t have the time, suffered adverse reactions from past product experiments, are just done with product experimenting (a phase I go through from time to time) or simply broke! Lol.

For new naturals, I understand how expensive it can be to find moderately priced products that are easy to get and effective, I've been there. So for that reason, I would like to share my staples that have been chosen for being: 

1. Effective on my hair. (You know the saying, “What works for me and so on”)
2. Possessing moderate - cheap prices.
3. Easy to pick up on the ground. (Yup no shipping, online transactions. Attainable same day!)

So from L-R; 

Schwarzkopf Gliss Oil Nutritive Shampoo Cleans effectively without stripping. Costs £1 and can be found at Poundshop/99p stores.

Tresseme Naturals Silicone Free Conditioner: Crazy Slip, conditions wonderfully leaves my hair soft during and after rinsing. Between £2.50-£5.00. Lowest during BOGOF sales at Superdrug, Boots, ASDA, Sainburys, Tescos.

Andrew Barton SOS Help Me Twice a Week Conditioning Mask: crazy slip. Effective for Dafro as a co-rinse, leave-in (combined with castor oil) and deep-conditioner. Smells like cookies/gingerbread. Found only at ASDA to my current knowledge and some smaller pharmacies with a much smaller range. Buy mine priced 2 for £6/£8 during ASDA offers

Vatika Egg Protein Hair Mask: Does a good job of strengthening my hair, without giving me hard hair. Ok slip. Suds easily so I use as a co-wash and rinse out. Buy from black hair care shops and even spotted at Superdrug. Costs between £3.50 - £4.99.

Ecostyler Pink Gel: Cheap effective styling gel. Clumps, defines, weighs down & holds my coils in place keeping tangles away during WNG styling. Smells like tea-tree oil. Gives me multiple day hair. Gives firm hold, not too hard hold like Olive/Krystal/Argan versions. Can pull back a decent bun with this unlike the Blue Ecostyler. 946ml massive tub costs £2.99 from my local black hair care shop.

Aloe vera Gel: smooths down my cuticles like no other, especially when they are quite bushy. Gives very light soft hold for WNG. Great base staple leave-in when mixed with castor oil. £4.99 from Holland & Barratt. I bag these and stock up during the BOGOF/ Penny sales.

Hawaiian Silky Curl Activator “Dry Look”: always layered with castor oil, makes my coils clump like crazy and keeps my hair moisturised for at least 2 days. Smells like candy. Costs between £3-4 for a 454g tub. Also available at my local black beauty hair shop.

Castor Oil: All round staple for it's Conditioning/Detangling/Sealing properties. I can buy this stuff from the local shop, but since the dude and myself use this from head to toe, I buy it in litres. Can be found at my local hair product shop in 250ml bottles priced at £2.99. Even spotted at some branches of Tescos in Asian food aisle. (I buy my litres off Ebay/Amazon)

Umberto Giannini Scrunching Jelly:  Lovely styling gel for my WNG. Great effective coil clumper. Gives me multiple day hair. Available from boots just under £5 for 200ml tub. A bit pricey so I stock up during 2for1 offers.

Recent additions not in pic: 1/05/2012
*Sally's Salon Services Herbal Complex Conditioner.
*Taliah Waajid's Mist Bodifier Spray as a refresher.