Review - Phillip Kingsley Elasticizer hair treatment

Disclosure: This product was given to us free of charge for review purposes.

Unlike most intensive hair treatments, Phillip Kingsley's Elasticizer is applied before you wash your hair. How does that work? I don't know, but work it certainly does.

Its chief active ingredients are olive and castor oils and hydrolysed elastin, which together improve the look of the hair and also its strength and resilience to breakage. It claims to actually improve the condition of the hair with repeated use - i.e. it's actually a treatment, rather than a temporary fix.

The mode of use is ideally suited to those of us (i.e. both of us at this here blog) who like to luxuriate for long periods of time in the bath. The drill is: Wet hair, apply Elasticizer, put on silly shower cap, and then leave to work before washing out and conditioning as normal. The advice on the box says you can leave it for up to 20 minutes in the case of damaged hair, so there's plenty of time to get stuck into that magazine or novel while it does its thing.

I gave it 10 minutes at first try. My hair isn't coloured or especially hard done by, but does have a few split ends. (Really I should have them cut off.)

Elazticizer comes in a no-fuss plastic jar with white lid. It's a dig-your-fingers-in-and-grab-a-dollop sort of product, and it's of a medium, non-sticky consistency. It has no particular smell. Applying to the hair is easy enough, and it spreads well. It doesn't have the tell-tale silicone slip of many deep conditioners with similar packaging and purposes.

It washes out easily, with no marked difference in the hair texture during the rest of the washing and conditioning process. I used Lush's Cynthia Sylvia Stout shampoo followed by Aussie Mega Conditioner, a combination that generally gives me a nice shine and doesn't weigh my hair down. (Side note - Aussie, your website navigation is APPALLING, do love your conditioner though.)

After blow-drying, the results are noticeably smoothier, shinier hair with plenty of bounce. The hair texture is gorgeous, and I notice that my split ends have been tamed considerably. (It hasn't gotten rid of them, it's not a miracle worker.)

150ml of Elasticizer costs £23.50 from Phillip Kingsley's official UK stockist, HQ Hair, although you can get it several pounds cheaper if you shop around online. There's also an extra-strength version called Elasticizer Extreme, for hair that's (to be blunt) totally FUBAR.

It's not cheap, but if you used it once a week it could last you a good long time, especially as you don't need to pile tons of it on to get results. Actually fortifying and improving the hair long-term seems a good investment too, especially for those whose hair is quite damaged. It's also a great asset to have on hand if you need to pull out all the stops and create stunning good-hair-day-hair for a special occasion.