conditioner

Last week, I mentioned that coconut scented things are a great love of mine, and indeed, this week I'm bringing you a review of yet another coconut scented conditioner. Sorry about that, I'm weak willed.

I'd heard good things about Inecto's Coconut Oil conditioner; many of these things centred around the fact that it's rather cheap (about £2 for 500ml), silicone free, and effective. And it is pretty effective - in a light, non-heavy kind of way. In the form of a fairly thin cream, this conditioner has a lot of slip to it, and is easy to distribute through the hair. However, I needed rather a lot of it to adequately coat my fairly thick hair, which negates the cheapness slightly, as I think I'll work my way through the bottle quite quickly.

The effects are pretty good; shiny, light hair which doesn't feel weighed down. For me, it doesn't offer enough moisturisation for my dry mid-lengths and ends. It makes a fabulous conditioner for a co-wash, if you've sworn off the shampoo, and if you have normal hair, I imagine it would be a good all-round conditioner.

Now, I have one slight gripe with this product, and that's the scent. Despite containing pure coconut oil, I find the coconut scent a little bit too sweet, and a bit artificial. It's not so nose-wrinklingly artificial smelling that I wouldn't repurchase, but this isn't the nicest coconut scented thing I own.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can find Inecto products at Superdrug, where it will cost you around £2 (not stocked online, unfortunately).

I love the smell of coconut in the morning. Or in the evening, which is generally when I wash my hair. Such is my love of coconut-scented things that I'm 87% more likely to purchase a hair product if it smells of coconut (that's a scientific fact). And this was the case for this Superdrug Naturals intensive conditioner, which I picked up at the weekend.

Firstly, this product is cheap. Priced at just £1.85 for 400ml, this is definitely a bit of a bargain. Don't think that you're getting an inferior quality product though, oh no. This is one of the nicest intensive conditioners I've tried in a while. Gently scented with a sweet but not excessively sweet, very mildly coconutty scent, this is a very thick and rich product. Think butter at room temperature thick.

A good scoop distributed through the ends of the hair, and left on for a few minutes, left my hair feeling very soft, shiny, and well moisturised. Despite being silicone free, this product has that extra bit of 'slip' that I've been missing, and really feels like it's making a difference to my hair.

The only downside is that because of it's thickness, it can take a little longer than usual to rinse out of the hair. But that's a fairly minor point, and something I'm more than willing to do for such a lovely - and budget friendly - product.

If you'd like to try it yourself, you can get it at Superdrug.com for £1.85.

This was a product that was sent to us free of charge to review.

On the deck today is the Amazonia Preciosa Cupuacu Revitalizing Hair Mask by Surya. (What is it with me and really long product names lately?)

This is a seriously eco-focused product. It's ECOCERT accredited. It's made of sustainably sourced Brazilian rainforest native plants and housed in recyclable PET packaging. The company are heavily invested in sustainable production policies and employ local people to harvest their ingredients. I'm not kidding. This mask? It positively gleams with virtue.

The question is - did my hair gleam, virtuously or otherwise, after using it?

Well, it's definitely a luxurious experience using this cream conditioner, which applies to the hair and is worn for 20 minutes under a hot towel before rinsing. With my hair wrapped up and a facemask on at the same time I felt quite decadent.

However, and this is a wholly personal thing, this product smells quite powerfully of almonds. I guess that the Cupuacu nut is a relative of the almond, going by the marizipan-like smell. The trouble is that I don't like almonds, and this marred the experience for me.

It took quite a lot of product for my hair to feel "covered" - there's not much "slip" to it, probably due to its being silicone free - it's almost like moisturiser or body lotion in texture. I guess I used up about 1/4 of the 120g tube.

After 20 minutes I had no trouble rinsing it out and my hair felt quite nice, tangle-free and generally happy. After drying though, I didn't feel that there was much difference to my hair. Usually when I use a leave-in conditioner I notice a marked improvement in the look and feel of my hair afterwards.

It's a shame, because the way the company seem to approach their business really does appeal to me (although I'm a little confused as to how shipping or air-freighting products all the way from Brazil can be carbon-friendly - nitpicking maybe). It's often (though not always!) sadly true that products with low impact on the environment also have low impact in terms of what they were designed to do.

I will say that I maybe should have used the mask designed for curly hair, since although I often wear my hair straight it is naturally curly and therefore probably more dry by nature. I could have chosen, in fact, from 5 masks in the range - Buriti, for dyed and damaged hair, Murumuru for oily hair, Brazil Nut for dry and fragile hair, or Ucuuba for curly hair. The one I had is for normal hair. Each mask also has a shampoo and conditioner in the same "flavour".

Amazonia Preciosa products are available at Liberty. The mask I tried retails at £10. Learn more at the Surya website.

Naked produce a range of "97% natural" products which are free from petrochemicals, harsh surfectants, and parabens. As a result, their range of conditioners are suitable for my silicone free, shampoo free hair routine, so I picked up a tube of their Rescue intensive conditioner from Boots.

This fresh-scented intensive conditioner contains shea nut butter and olive oil extracts, and is targeted at damaged, frizzy hair. While it is quite rich, the texture of the conditioner is actually quite light; it distributes through the hair evenly, and produces an odd light frothing effect as it mingles with the water in the hair.

The effects are somewhat different from what you usually get from a silicone-heavy intensive conditioner - that feeling of slip and extreme smoothness when you rinse the conditioner out is not there. That's not to say that the hair doesn't feel more moisturised and much smoother - it definitely does. It also doesn't weigh the hair down, leaving it soft and light.

If you're interested, you can try it for the very wallet-friendly price of £3.91 for 250ml at Boots.com.

I seem to be a on a bit of an Original Source kick at the moment! This is probably because their conditioners are silicone free, and I'm currently giving up silicone. This light, fresh conditioner totally blew me away with it's strong, minty scent and the amazing tingly sensation upon my scalp (which I'm not yet sure whether I actually like - VERY tingly). Seriously, if you wash your hair in the morning (and if you do, I envy you - 4 hours airdry time means I wash always in the evening) and need something that'll wake you up a little bit, go for this. It'll wake you up a LOT. Also, if you have a cold, I suspect this will get you breathing through your nose again pronto.

Performance wise, this is a lighter conditioner than the White Pear and Avocado conditioner I tried last week, which makes it ideal for conditioner washing (if you're giving up shampoo) or for imparting light conditioning to normal/greasy hair. Nothing special, but does precisely what it says it will.

The reason I tried this, incidentally, was down to my husband. Thank you, husband, for telling me my hair looked skanky just before we went out, when the Batiste was upstairs. Thank you, for otherwise I would be using a more heavy conditioner for co-washing, and would still look skanky now.

I'm not bitter, honest.

Anyway, if you'd like to try out this very minty, refreshing, tingly conditioner, you can get it for £1.99 for 250ml at Boots.com.

I admit it, I'm a bit of a haircare snob. Kerastase, Redken, Alterna - all these used to be firm favourites in my household; in fact, it had been years since anything high street had touched my tresses, dahling.

In a bid to go silicone free (more on that later), I picked up a bottle of Original Source White Pear & Avocado conditioner for the wallet-friendly price of £1.99 for 250ml. I used it for the first time yesterday, and I'm finding myself very pleasantly surprised by the results - my hair is soft and shiny; just as soft and shiny as with one of my higher-end conditioners with silicone in them. Plus, the Original Source conditioner smells absolutely gorgeous - fruity, but not overly so, and slightly fresh with it. Yummy.

Original Source make a range of conditioners, all of which are silicone free, including a Mint and Tea Tree variety (sounds refreshing) and an Almond and Coconut variation, which is ultra-hydrating. The White Pear & Avocado supposedly protects hair against damage, and was plenty hydrating enough for my excessively coloured, dry hair.

I'd highly recommend these. I'll definitely be picking some more up in the future! Selected conditioners are available at Boots, and Superdrug stocks the whole range (although it doesn't seem to show up on their website).

A recent trip to Lush led me to pick up their Coolaulin conditioner, a coconut conditioner for dry, processed or curly hair - and coincidentally, my hair is all three!

The most striking thing about this conditioner is the scent. I absolutely love the smell of coconut, and I was expecting this to smell very strongly of it. I was surprised, and also pleased, to discover that the coconut scent is rather subtle, and has slightly woody undertones - smelling to me like a more natural scent than that in products I've used before.

While the instructions don't call for it to be left in the hair, as with most conditioners, I left it in my hair for 15 minutes to get maximum effect. I wasn't disappointed! My hair was left soft and much shinier than usual, with a slight scent that didn't linger for long. While not an intensive conditioner, it'll make a good regular use conditioner for dry hair.

The only reservation I have about this is the inclusion of SLS, or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, which is a surfactant used to lift oil from the hair, or to thicken or add lather to a product. Lush say they use it as a thickener. This seems odd to me, given that this product is marketed for curls, despite SLS often being thought of as damaging to curly hair.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can get it from Lush, £6.30 for 240ml (and available in other sizes too).

Disclosure - PR sample. We also received goody bags and jewellery as a gift from Pantene.

Pantene have stormed the blogosphere with their latest release - Aqua Light. You'll have seen it on pretty much every UK blog, thanks to a wide-reaching social and online media campaign. Pantene are talking to bloggers, and bloggers are talking about Pantene.

Last week Gemma went to meet the new Pantene ambassador, Cat Deeley, who embodies the "hair you can swish!" concept of the campaign with her shiny honey locks. Apparently she was extremely lovely and likeable, and excited about her new mission of getting women to "Swish!" their hair.

Trust us though, readers. We won't be swayed by charismatic Cat, brand attention, or gifts and goody bags. We'll tell you the truth about this new product from Pantene. The hard fact of the matter is...

... it's very good stuff.

Anticlimactic as that might be, this product range definitely does what it says on the tin.

Aqua Light's purpose is to address the needs of the startlingly large percentage of women who do not use conditioner when washing their hair. Apparently many people prefer to skip the conditioning step as they feel that their hair stays cleaner and less weighed down for longer.

At LBR, where some of us use nothing *BUT* conditioner, this way of thinking is totally unfamiliar. Surely conditioner is the best part of a hair wash?

Pantene's answer to this frankly disturbing behaviour is to create products so lightweight that they leave even the finest, limpest hair "virtually weightless" ("virtually weightless" is a key line for Aqua Light and appears at least 3 times on each bottle).

The "science bit" is threefold - firstly, Pantene have minimised the amount of silicone in their conditioner (ask Gemma, silicone is terrible for building up on hair, that's one of the reasons she's given it up altogether). Secondly, they've formulated the products to rinse very clean, choosing ingredients that group together in a loose, layered arrangement that is easily disrupted by water and doesn't cling to the hair. And thirdly, they've implemented "liquid conditioning" - choosing ingredients that are liquid at room temperature and won't turn into solid "gunk" on the hair once it's dried.

So you've thought it through Pantene, we'll give you that. You've also explained your technology in a way that actually makes sense and keeps the PR fluff to a (relative) minimum. But what are the products like to use?



There are four products in the line. Shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner and a leave-in spray. They come in fairly typical drugstore bottles, not a massive departure from the rest of the Pantene range. They won't wow your guests or give you that high-end smug feeling, but they're usable, robust and gender neutral (good for the fine-haired man in your life). The shampoo is clear, the conditioner translucent and typically conditioner-y (likewise the deep conditioner), while the spray is an interesting two-phase liquid in a clear bottle.

Scent-wise, the familiar parfum-de-Pantene is in evidence. It reminds me of high school. Aaahhh. Nostalgic, but not especially unusual or luxe.

The shampoo lathers readily (it contains SLS) and does rinse very clean. The conditioner spreads easily through the hair and does a fine job of detangling. I leave it on for around 10 minutes, and it also rinses very easily, leaving hair feeling soft and smooth.

A few squirts of the leave-in treatment has taken the place of my usual Bed Head serum while I've been testing this out. It doesn't leave the ends of my hair as silky as the Bed Head does, but since my hair's in such desperate need of a cut I won't judge it too harshly for that.

Once dry, hair is bouncy, shiny and has even attracted compliments at work. I was skeptical at first, expecting that I'd experience silicone build-up after a few days' repeated washing. However it seems that Pantene's formula tweaking has paid off (at least in my case), and these products are fine for repeated use. I haven't noticed any dullness, scalp irritation or loss of volume.

Verdict - a great drugstore staple and well worth trying if you don't like to splash out on haircare. If you prefer a more indulgent experience, stick to the high end brands, but for a functional and effective budget haircare range, this certainly succeeds.

Pantene is owned by Proctor & Gamble, who carry out a small percentage of their testing on animals. Read their animal welfare policy here.

As unbelievable as it may seem to anyone who knows me as an adult, I spent my tween and teen years convinced that my hair was the ugliest thing about me. My hair is extremely thick, dense, unruly and carries the visible proof of the diverse nationalities that were incorporated into the genetic material of East European Jews. If you look closely you'll see that some of my hair is very dark brown and curly. Other parts are wavy-to-straight and range in color from auburn to light red. For someone who grew up in the 1970s and 80s, this hair was not a good thing, as there were no products in the known universe that could make it soft, shiny and un-crazy.

I only learned to like my hair and allowed it to grow back from its 80s spiky cut when leave-in conditioners and anti-frizz creams became efficient and available. Hair goop became my friend and I used these products heavily and religiously. Nowadays I rely on good shampoo and conditioners and only supplement with styling products when the weather or my hair demand it.

I wasn't familiar with Tela Beauty Organics until the products were sent to me. After several weeks of use I can say I've found a true love. The Curly shampoo and conditioner are among the best I've ever tried. Both are gentle but effective and are great detanglers without the need to pull and yank. My hair is incredibly soft and manageable and I haven't used a styling product in weeks, even though I have a couple of Tela items waiting to be tested.

It's worth remembering that the weather here in the Northeast has been relentlessly hot and muggy, so it's hard to assess how these Tela shampoo and conditioner fight dryness. Still, not suffering from humidity-induced frizz is a miracle.I love that I can just let my hair be and allow its weight to do all the work of keeping it in place.

Looking at the content of both shampoo and conditioner reveals an unusual amount of natural ingredients and essences, and not just at the tail-end of the list. It seems like there really is a large percent of good-for-you-stuff in there, so maybe that's the secret. Both products have a light lavender scent that lingers close to the scalp even 24 hours later.

Bottom line: I really really like it.

Tela Organic Shampoo and Conditioner ($28, 8.4 oz each) are available at Barneys as well as from select Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus locations. I received them for consideration from the company's PR team.

Photo: myvintagevogue.com

James Brown.  Unless your first thought is of the iconic soul singer, you're probably thinking of him who does Kate Moss' hair.  The product line, which was "inspired by Kate", includes a variety of shampoos, conditioners and styling products in rather nice packaging.  I bought the Richly Moisturising Conditioner for Dry Hair after trying it out at my hairdressers house, when I'd forgotten to take my usual silicone free conditioner along with me.  I was surprised to find that it doesn't contain any silicones and so decided to invest in a full tube to try out.

The conditioner, despite being for dry hair, is actually of a rather thin consistency - much thinner than you'd expect.  Despite this, a palmful distributed through the ends of the hair is very moisturising and has a decent amount of slip to it - you need a lot less than you think you need.  It is in fact so rich that I don't allow it to go anywhere near my roots; it's definitely more suited to dry ends.

The scent is pleasant; light and fresh, and it doesn't linger on the hair after use at all.  The conditioner rinses cleanly from the hair, leaving it feeling moisturised, detangled, and with a little bit of that slip that I've missed from non-silicone products.  The hair also feels soft and looks shiny once dry.

The only gripe I have with this product is with the packaging.  While the tube design ensures that you'll get every last drop out, the way in which you get the tube to dispense product is not the easiest to manage with wet hands.  To get product out, you turn the bottom part of the tube, which opens a hole in the centre.  Twisting with wet slippy hands isn't the easiest thing to do, and when I have my hands full of conditioner, I tend to put the tube back down on the side of the bath without twisting shut.  This leads to some of the conditioner to leak out, which is a tiny bit wasteful.

That small point aside, I really like this conditioner - it feels luxurious, is surprisingly moisturising, and at £5.99 for 250ml, it's reasonably priced too.  Well worth a go.  If you'd like to give it a try, you can get it from Boots.com or in store.

Have you tried any James Brown products?

A few weeks ago, I was at my in-laws for the weekend, and we had a family function to go to.  Me being my clumsy self, I accidentally managed to get facial oil on my fringe the night before the do - not a problem, I thought, I'll just clip my fringe back.  And then my husband gave me one of those looks that told me that not even Batiste would be good enough to solve this greasy-hair problem.  Which is a bit rich coming from a man who didn't bother having his hair cut for 18 months after our wedding.

Anyway.  I had to wash my hair, and I had to get a silicone free conditioner to wash it with, post haste.  I popped out to Boots and immediately went to the Naked section - I love knowing that all the products are silicone free and suitable for co-washing, as I can just pick one up without having to scrutinise the ingredients list.  I happened to pick up Naked Volume Weightless Conditioner, which has now become my joint favourite for co-washing.

As described, this conditioner is very light while still providing plenty of moisture, making it ideal for co-washing my oily roots.  It has a clean, fresh scent which is in no way overpowering, and doesn't linger on the hair.  The texture is pretty light too; this is much more of a liquid conditioner than a thick paste, and it's easy to distribute evenly through the hair.

Once dry, my roots felt clean, and indeed did have a touch more volume than usual - more importantly, I didn't get that over conditioned, heavy feeling which indicates that I'll be needing another wash the next day.  In fact, I got a good three days wear out of my hair before my roots became oily enough to require washing.  All this lightness is fantastic for oily roots, but not so fantastic for dry ends.  I tried to use this throughout my fairly thick hair, but it just didn't have enough moisture and slip to adequately detangle my midlengths and ends. 

In summary, this conditioner is a fantastic co-wash option if you have oily roots, and if your hair is greasy or fine, it would make an ideal light all over conditioner too.  Combined with its low price of just £3.99 for 250ml, and it's wide availability at Boots stores, this is a definite staple for me.  Highly recommended.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can buy direct from Naked Bodycare, or at Boots, at £3.99 for 250ml.

Disclosure - this kit was sent to us free for review by Guthy-Renker's PR

I must admit to never having heard of Guthy-Renker before these items came into our hands. GR operate on a subscription basis, sending out 3-monthly dispatches of product in return for regular payments. They work a lot through informercials in the USA. There have been some reports of the US factions not being very good about processing cancellations to the subscription arrangements. We don't have any experience of this - it's just information that's available online.

Wen by Chaz Dean is one of their key lines, and is the brainchild of LA hairdresser Chaz Dean. The name "Wen" is meant to evoke the words "Zen" and "new" (it's "new" spelled backwards). We were especially interested to try it, as it is one of the first commercial co-washing programmes available on the UK market. Gemma has been co-washing for some time, and I've been toying with the idea of trying it myself. This system seemed like a good place to start.

It's not suitable for Gemma's silicone-free haircare regime, due to the inclusion of Amodimethicone. However, it also contains a wealth of botanical ingredients; plant and flower oils and extracts designed to make hair lustrous, bouncy and generally happy-looking, so I was glad to take it off her hands.



The introductory kit, which retails at £24.95 (+£5.95 postage) consists of a Cleansing Conditioner (350ml), Styling Creme (60ml) and Intensive Hair Treatment (56g). You also get a wide toothed comb and a free (!) 10g Texture Balm with your first order. It comes in two flavours - Sweet Almond Mint, or Cucumber Aloe. We were sent the former (just as well, as I hate cucumber).

The advice on the back of the Cleaning Conditioner bottle suggests using 16-24 pumps of it each time you wash. This sounded like quite a lot of product to us. I think because it doesn't lather, this is how much you need in order to distribute it evenly through the hair. But I found myself wondering whether the number of pumps recommended was in fact just a shallow ploy to make people use up their bottles quicker and buy more.

When using the product, I did find I needed a lot, at least 12 pumps, and I think those with longer and thicker hair will need even more. It has a fairly typical conditioner consistency, medium weight and slippery/creamy. The mint is much more prevalent than the almond (although the complementing styling creme has more of an almond thing happening). You massage and comb it through the hair, pin back, leave for around 5 minutes and then massage once more and rinse. That's it. You can add an extra dose of conditioning power by going a second round with the Intensive Hair Treatment mixed in with the Cleansing Conditioner.

I used Wen exclusively on my hair for 2 weeks. It has not changed my life. In fact I actually found that the mint irritated my scalp a bit, and I ended up being quite glad to go back to my regular shampoo as a result. It definitely does clean the hair thoroughly, which I must admit surprised me even though I've seen how well co-washing works for Gemma. I wasn't expecting it to be able to de-grease as well as it did. But the zingy bouncy shiny free-of-shampoo-and-loving-it effect? Really not happening for me. My hair was pretty much just as it had been before, except with an itchier scalp.

I really hoped to see a dramatic improvement in the condition and health of my hair after foraying into a shampoo-free regime, but I think in this case it was just not meant to be. Maybe I need to explore some different conditioners.

To order Wen, visit www.wenhaircare.co.uk

I recently spotted a few Weleda goodies in the organic haircare section of my local Waitrose. It was on offer, and it's silicone free, so I decided that it'd be rude not to check it out.

Formulated with organic lemon balm and essential oils, it has a fairly subtle smell - citrus-y, but not overpoweringly so. This conditioner is recommended for normal to oily hair, so it's not particularly thick or rich in texture - and despite being silicone free, it still has a decent amount of slip, so you won't need to use a lot of product to coat the hair. In fact, this product doesn't have any of the difference in texture that I've noticed with many other silicone free conditioners - I don't think you'd even notice the difference.

I've been using this as a conditioner wash (since I no longer use shampoo), and was hoping that it would be light enough that I wouldn't need to re-wash my hair every other day. And it is! It leaves my hair feeling soft and shiny, well-conditioned but not weighed down. I don't get greasy roots until 2 days after washing with this.

This isn't the cheapest silicone free product I've found thus far - it retails for £7.95 - but it's in no way as expensive as other brands with organic credentials (and still much cheaper than my previous Kerastase habit). Given that you don't really need a lot of product to get good results, I'll probably repurchase this one. And while I'm at it, check out a few more Weleda products...

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can get it on Weleda's UK website at £7.95 for 250ml.