As some of you know, every Wednesday we feature new favorite products on Open Sky. Today we’ve added a shampoo and conditioner set from Acure Organics. Siobhan reviewed this line back in November, so we thought we’d repost. Have you tried it?
I’m going to do a Q&A with myself about this new shampoo and conditioner from Acure Organics, because that seems, in this moment, to be a funny and easy break from form, since I’ve reviewed a bunch of shampoos and conditioners lately. Also, easy to read for you guys, right? Heh.
Does the shampoo get your hair clean?
LOL! What? Yes! Obviously.
Is there residue left over?
No, actually. The shampoo has a nice lather—hard to get in naturals—and rinses out pretty easily. Ditto the conditioner, which I typically leave on my hair for a couple of minutes as I shave my legs or sing or something.
Does it smell nice?
I’ve only smelled the argan oil shampoo and conditioner—there are three different kinds, with three different smells and oils, by hair type—and I love the smell so much! Spirit Demerson sent me the duo to sample to try and review (she sells them on her site), and I BBMed her after I first tried it freaking out about how nice is smells. Like almonds, kind of, with a citrusy smell that cuts the sweetness of the almond extract. I love how the smell lingers on my hair too. It makes me feel good about hugging people. (Does everyone think about how their hair smells during hugs?)
Does the conditioner weight down your hair?
Only if it’s opposite day. Which is to say, no, not at all. My hair has a nice bounce to it, no residue (see above) and it’s SHINY, probably thanks to all the oils in there.
Do you like it enough to use it—and only it—every day?
Yes.
Which means it’s probably prohibitively expensive right? Like all the other stuff you like?
Hey! That’s not true! OK, it’s sometimes true, but no, this one’s totally affordable! 12 oz. for $10.99.
I’m new to Acure. Do you like the rest of the line?
We’re new to it too! I haven’t tried anything else from them, but their price points are amazing, and the ingredients are clean, so I’m thinking this might be the beginning of a love affair.
Finally, is it…clean?
See for yourself:
Shampoo ingredients: Organic Euterpe oleracea (Acai) Berry, Organic Rubus fruticosus (Blackberry), Organic Rosa canina (Rosehips), Organic Punica granatum (Pomegranate), Organic Fair Trade CertifiedTM Rooibos, Organic Aloe Barbadensis Vera Leaf Juice, Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate (from Coconut), 100% Naturally-derived Betaine (from Sugar Beets), Vegetable Glycerin, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate (from Coconut + Amino Acids), Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate (from Coconut + Amino Acids), Cocoglucosides Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride (Sugar Conditioner), Sodium Levulinate (from Corn), Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride (Guar gum conditioner), Potassium Sorbate (food grade preservative), Organic Argania Spinosa (Argan) Oil, Organic Fair- Trade CertifiedTM Olea Europea (Olive) Oil, D-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (vitamin E), Hippophae rhamnoides (sea buckthorn) seed oil, Organic Curcubita pepo (Pumpkin) seed oil, Ubiquinone (CoQ10), Argania spinosa (Argan) Stem Cells, glycerophosphoinositol lysine (from sunflower), Almond Extract, Cinnamomum aromaticum (Cassia Bark) Oil
Conditioner ingredients: Organic Euterpe oleracea (Acai) Berry, Organic Rubus fruticosus (Blackberry), Organic Rosa canina (Rosehips), Organic Punica granatum (Pomegranate), Organic Fair Trade Certified™ Rooibos, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Stearylkonium Chloride, Vegetable Glycerin, Glucono Delta Lactone (fermented sugar), Organic Argania Spinosa (Argan) Oil, Cetearyl Glucoside (from corn and glucose), Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride (guar gum conditioner), Glyceryl Stearate (vegetable-derived), L-Arginine (amino acid), Organic Fair Trade Certified™ Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Sorbitan Olivate (from olives + sugar), Panthenol (Pro-vitamin B5), Cellulose (plant derived), D-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (vitamin. E), Lactic Acid (vegetable derived), Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea Buckthorn) seed oil, Organic Curcubita pepo (Pumpkin) seed oil, Ubiquinone (CoQ10), Argania spinosa (Argan) Stem Cells, glycerophosphoinositol lysine (from sunflower), Prunus dulcis (Almond) Extract, Cinnamomum aromaticum (Cassia Bark) Oil
Have you guys tried this stuff? Or anything else from Acure?
Guess what’s the last thing in the world I want to think about? Correct: Whether or not my beauty products, which I am already very picky about, are gluten-free.
But I’ve been performing a somewhat irresponsible (and unscientific) study on myself in the shower, and the results are in: Shampoo and conditioner that contains gluten totally gives me a rash. Well, sometimes.
This should not surprise me. I am allergic—not intolerant—to gluten,* and have been strictly avoiding that pesky protein for about 6 years now.** This is not a big deal! I avoid wheat-substitute foods for the most part, but I love what I get to eat, I cook a lot, I make it work. You would think that, knowing what I know about transdermal absorption, it might have occurred to me at some point that I should eliminate it from my beauty products too. But it did not.
Problem: It’s everywhere. Another problem: Whether or not I react to it is unpredictable, and probably has to do with particle size, concentration, and how aware I am of my own symptoms. Sometimes I’m totally in tune with these things; sometimes I treat my body like a garbage can and notice nothing. (Rare! But true story, I do it.) Now, some gluten-containing beauty products cause a reaction—specifically, an itchy-rashy back of neck, which drives me bonkers and makes me very self-conscious—and some do not. Complicating things is the fact that other ingredients also cause a neck rash to flare up: Stress, hair dye, SLS and SLES, you name it.
It’s one of those things where I’m inclined to say I don’t really know what to do about it—except I do. I need to eliminate all beauty products that contain the stuff and then pray to the rash gods that the itch stays at bay.
And so, dear readers, I turn to you: What gluten-free shampoo and conditioner do you love? And have you ever noticed a similar reaction to gluten—or some other ingredient in your naturals?
* Gluten, as most of you almost certainly know, is the protein in many grains, including wheat. Wheat is very commonly used in hair products, often in the form of hydrolyzed wheat protein.
** When I eat it by accident—an extremely rare event—terrible, terrible things happen. Not gross, but like, indescribable pain. And then a black cloud of death comes over me, mood-wise, as well.
Image via
If you were to judge me by the current state of my shower caddy you might be inclined to call me a hoarder. Someone even said as much recently. “Aren’t you supposed to have less stuff now, not more?” he asked.
Totally. But I have an issue! I fell a little bit out of love with the shampoo and conditioner I’d been using for the better part of two years and have since been taking others for a whirl. Add to that the fact that sometimes people just send us stuff and you have a very crowded bathroom. You can tell which ones I like by seeing which ones are turned upside down. And the one that’s been turned upside down the longest is on the receiving end of a lot of shaking and slapping every morning as I try to get one more handful out of the bottle.
It’s Andalou Naturals’ Full Volume Conditioner with Lavender and Biotin.
Nothing fancy. A pretty simple ingredient list. Ten bucks at Whole Foods (but it’s on sale right now for $7.99—run!). And it’s totally and completely up my alley right now.
Regulars around here know I take my hair kind of seriously. I have moral crises (yes, plural) about the color thing, I experiment with gross non-naturals (and then freak out when things go awry), I burn it by accident then get heavily invested in my new hairdryer, and yes, I also Brazilianed it that one time.
For years now I’ve splurged on expensive shampoos and conditioners, usually from the same brand—which I’m not knocking; I still love you, John Masters! It’s not you, it’s me! I just needed a change. And of all the things crowding my shower, Andalou’s conditioner is the one I can’t get enough of.
My hair is pretty heavy so I tend to like anything volumizing. I wouldn’t say this is giving me Mad Men volume or anything, but it’s not flat to my head, and has some nice movement and body.
It’s also been very shiny, not at all greasy, and continues to look nice day in day out. In fact, I think my hair is getting nicer with repeated use. Finally, it doesn’t smell like grandma’s lavender. The scent doesn’t linger at all, actually.
Here are the ingredients:
Aloe Barbadensis Juice*, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Oil*, Stearylkonium Chloride, Hydrolyzed Barley Protein, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba), Linum Usitatissimum (Flax) and Vaccinium Macrocarpon (Cranberry) Oils*, Lavandula Officinalis (Lavender) Extract*, Cetyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Glycine Soja (Soy) Protein, Camelina Sativa and Vitis Vinifera (Grapeseed) Oils, Vitamin B Complex (Biotin, Thiamine, Pyridoxine, Niacin, Riboflavin & Panthenol), Malus Domestica (Apple), Solar Vitis (Grape) and Vaccinium Myrtillus (Bilberry) Fruit Stem Cell Cultures and BioActive 8 Berry Complex*, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Camellia Sinensis (White Tea) and Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis Extracts *†, Sodium Benzoate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Lavandula Officinalis (Lavender) Oil*
If I’m being totally honest with myself (and with y’all) I’m not sure I buy that any of these ingredients are especially magical. There’s biotin in there so, in theory… Anyway, aloe works wonders on my hair, and that’s there at the top of the list, followed by oil and a chemical that sounds scary but isn’t. Next you have some more oils, some barley protein, and near the end we have our old nemesis ethylhexylglycerin, which I’m happy to make an exception about in this case.
Between the price, wide availability of the product and, yup, results, makes this totally worth it for me. I like the shampoo a lot, too.
Have you found another affordable conditioner you love? Because there’s still a little room left in my bathroom….
So how’s this for irony: The weekend I decide to do the Summer Hair Challenge for my picture is also the weekend I go upstate with friends and dutifully pack my toiletries, not forgetting my toothbrush for once and even remembering to bring my Hope Gillerman Muscle Relief and my Lotus Wei Infinite Love Elixir. What’s the one thing I forget, though? My clean shampoo and conditioner, naturally.
Ugh!
Especially ugh because before hopping in the car, I took a sweaty yoga class—which meant showering and hair washing was going to have to happen at some point. Another problem? We’d planned a scary-hard day hike and after that, indulgent massages at the lovely (and, I’m happy to report, ALL-CLEAN) Mohonk Mountain spa, which, incidentally, carries Lotus Wei—but not shampoo and conditioner. En tout cas, a massage meant someone was probably going to rub oil into my sweaty-from-hiking scalp, necessitating more hair washing.
Maybe you’re thinking, “What on earth is wrong with this chick—can’t she live with a little dirty hair for a weekend?” I mean… Greasy hair is bad enough, but when it’s greasy and sweaty and the air is damp but also hot, it’s a recipe for feeling completely revolting. Plus, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was a little curious about the Aveeno and the Pantene in the bathroom…
Would my hair be all silicone-sleek and easy to manage? Would I maybe even love the smell? Would it dry quicker with the blowdryer? Would I discover volume I hadn’t seen in ages?
Uhhhhh, ahhhhhhh! Here’s what happened.
Shampoo, day one. Yup, I totally used the Pantene. I read the ingredients while I lathered it into my scalp, trying not to remember what Dr. Mitchell Kline told me while we were writing the book (refresher: Sulfates go right into your scalp!) and banishing thoughts of the inevitable rash to come. I took a deep breath and holy fragrance, batman. Here’s the thing: Alexandra used to use fistfuls of this stuff and hugging her was always a delight because I adore her but also because her hair always smelled so delicious. We’ve talked about this before but it’s always surprising when it hits you again: When you abandon synthetic fragrance and then come upon it again (in an elevator, say, or at Sephora), it kind of makes you want to die. Anyway, I washed my hair with those gigantic Pantene bubbles, slicked on some silicone-filled conditioner, rinsed it and found that my hair felt very slimy even after a long hard rinse. Next up, the blow dry.
Once done, my hair looked, in a word, sick. It was super-shiny from the ‘cones, but not in a pretty way. The ends were going every which way, and it was limp at the top. The smell got to me, too. Better luck next time?
Shampoo, day two: This time I tried the Aveeno. Aveeno’s marketing always irks me (I find it to be greenwashy) and it’s not at all gluten-free, but I did notice it lathered a lot less than the Pantene (though still way more than, say, Rahua or C Tonics) and the fragrance was further down on the ingredient list, making the scent far less pungent. I used a tiny amount on my scalp to rinse the massage grease from me, and then decided to forgo conditioner altogether. There was still oil left over from the spa, and silicones don’t typically wash off in a day. Lo and behold, I could draw a comb through my hair no problem without conditioner. But…
Once dry, I was afflicted with the same gross-shiny mane. Only difference: Lots of volume at the roots, and a less lingering scent.
When I got home last night I decided to wash my hair with my clean stuff and air dry it, then I went to sleep. The resulting photo is my Summer Hair Challenge picture. I emailed it to Alexandra this morning with the subject line “Where’d my waves go?” and in the body of the email: “Let’s discuss.”
Consider this post that discussion. After a weekend of using gross products, my hair isn’t what it would have been otherwise. I’m not mad at how it looks today, but it isn’t exactly representative of how it normally looks when I airdry, and I think it might be a week or so before it’s back to normal.
Lesson learned.
Anyone else have a cheating-with-conventional-products horror story they want to share? Please?
UPDATE BELOW!
Remember those Dare cookies that you were always bummed to find in the pantry when you were a kid because they had currants in them instead of chocolate chips? But you might as well have one anyway, you’d reason, because you could lick off that really good white icing that tasted kind of like sugary coconuts? Anyway, if you do remember those cookies, and you remember how good they smelled, then you’ll have an idea what my hair smells like right now.
Last night I whipped out the brand-new Glossy Locks shampoo and conditioner—a new line from none other than 100% Pure, whose face sunscreen I love—and stuck it in my friend’s face. “Is this…too much?” I hadn’t tried it yet but the smell was overwhelming in an I-can’t-tell-if-this-is-good-or-bad way. “No way,” he said. “It smells like those cookies.” I’m fairly sure we were talking about different cookies—he’s a New Yorker and I think those currant cookies are a Canadian thing—but the cookie consensus was in. This shampoo and conditioner smells super sweet.
The even better news? While intensely smelly coconut things are usually artificial mélanges cooked up in a lab in New Jersey, this stuff is completely synthetics free, and it doesn’t linger on your hair and make you smell like a teenager.
But enough about the smell. What’s it like to use?
The shampoo is more of a cleansing milk: Few to no bubbles, and you need very little. It’s thin and watery, like a rinse, but applied to my roots and massaged in it was definitely cleaning my hair. The conditioner, meanwhile, is super rich—almost as rich as the Rare Elements Alexandra and I looooove (ahem, and you may have noticed their logo just went up on our site… you know what that means!). So I melted about a tablespoon worth by rubbing my palms together, then ran it through my hair. The whole experience was really rather pleasing.
Now, whenever I try a new hair line, I put it to the airdry test. When you own a good hairdryer, it’s impossible to tell what’s a miracle of heat styling and what’s product. Well, you’re in for it, Glossy Locks, because it’s set to hit 92 degrees in New York (ew) and humid: The perfect day to road test a new regimen.
The result so far? Since I’ve been up for HOURS I think it’s fair to assess: Bouncy, shiny, contained waves and basically zero frizz. Not bad, I’d say. Not bad. (And if something goes terribly wrong by lunchtime, I’ll update this post, promise!)
UPDATE: I was a greaseball by 8pm :( Like, total greaseball. Couple things: It was really hot yesterday, and I might have used too much. Today I used it again and used way less conditioner and didn’t put it on my roots. So far, so good. Stay tuned.
Here are the ingredients below. Japanese honeysuckle abstainers won’t like that in there as a preservative, but the rest of the list is clean as a whistle. And as for the “coconut flavor,” since the company promises it’s synthetics free with no artificial smells, too, I’m guessing they’re using food grade 100% natural flavoring to boost the smell a little.
Shampoo Ingredients: Honey, Concentrates of Green Tea, Burdock, Nettle, Rosemary, Peppermint, Rose Petals, Calendula and Hibiscus, Aloe Juice, Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), Coconut Milk Powder, Saponified Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Wheat Protein, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Colloidal Oatmeal, Neem Oil, Citric Acid, Extracts of Japanese Honeysuckle, Grapefruit Seed, Thyme, Oregano, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Lavender and Goldenseal, Coconut Flavor.
Conditioner Ingredients: Infusion of Green Tea, Burdock, Nettle, Rosemary, Peppermint, Rose Petals, Calendula and Hibiscus, Aloe Juice, Honey, Rapeseed Oil, Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), Avocado Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, Cetyl Babassuate Oil, Rice Protein, Wheat Protein, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Colloidal Oatmeal, Neem Oil, Vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate), Coconut Milk Powder, Citric Acid, Extracts of Japanese Honeysuckle, Grapefruit Seed, Oregano, Thyme, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Lavender and Goldenseal, Coconut Flavor.
At $9-18 for the shampoo and for the conditioner—$18 for EIGHT OUNCES—and considering how little of each product you need, this seems like a good deal to me.
Friends! If you’ve read the book or hung out here for a while you know we’re fond of oils, and coconut oil in particular because it’s an amazing and cost-saving multitasker that has lots of qualities to recommend it.
It’s a rich moisturizer, it’s cheap, it’s versatile, it’s antimicrobial, antifungal, and antibacterial, has a decent amount of antioxidants, and it smells like baked goods. What’s not to love? Well, some stuff.
You can get it at any good health food store in the cooking oil section, just be sure to spend the extra buck or two to get raw, organic, virgin coconut oil. Now, without further ado: Here are the 10 specific things I’ve tried it for, with honest assessments of how that worked for me:
1. For cooking at high heat. Coconut oil has earned itself a bone fide health halo, which you can read about here. Because some oils are not safe at high temperatures, I’ve swapped in coconut for a lot of my roasting, and some frying. I have tried and liked it in the oven for potatoes, sweet potatoes, Brussell’s sprouts, carrots, asparagus, broccoli rabe, red onions and other veggies, too. I’m not fond of how it tastes with eggs or mild-tasting white fish—but it’s great with salmon.
2. As a cheekbone highlighter. Sweep a little on top of makeup (sounds weird, go with it) and leave it alone. It looks like your skin but glowier, which is why Rosemarie Swift, of RMS Beauty, uses it in her amazing Living Luminizer, “Un” Cover Up, and Lip-2-Cheek pots.
3. To shave my legs. So good! You get a real close shave and don’t have to worry about moisturizing after.
4. As a deep-conditioning hair treatment for my totally wrecked ends. There’s a reason lots of conditioners use coconut oil: According to this study, coconut oil is better able to penetrate the hair than is mineral oil (shocking!) and sunflower oil—which is good news because I’ve been dealing with a little heat damage over here. Because I don’t want to cut off the damage—I’m liking my hair long right now—I’ve been trying to get the ends looking OK as I grow it out. Knowing full well there is no way to physically repair fried ends (I even confirmed this with a cosmetic scientist named Colin, who isn’t a clean guy, but he’s nice and he’s smart) I’ve been loving this method: once a week, I sleep with a handful of coconut oil in my hair. I rub it in, comb it, pile it in a loose bun on the top of my head, and call it a night. In the morning I shampoo and it seems to make a big difference in the look and feel of my ends.
5. To take off my eye makeup. Put a little on a cotton ball or a piece of toilet paper and sweep it over your eyes gently. It even works on waterproof mascara.
6. As a personal lubricant. Saucy! Let’s be brief: It totally works by yourself or with a buddy, but it’s not compatible with condoms (oil + latex = babies).
7. As a face moisturizer. I do not like this. I’ve read about acne-prone women who have used it to great effect because it’s naturally antibacterial, calming, and moisturizing, but I won’t put coconut oil—or any product that contains it—anywhere near the part of my face that breaks out (hi, chin). I tried the oil-cleansing method when we were writing the book and I got the absolute worst cystic acne ever which, yeah, yeah, might not have been the oil’s fault, but did I want to wait another month to find out? Hells no.
8. As a body moisturizer. See above (shaving). I recently met my friend Jessica at yoga and before class started she yanked up her pant leg and told me she’d been using coconut oil on her whole body. How’d they feel? So soft. So! Soft! And the smell doesn’t linger, for the record.
9. As a day-time hair tamer. Cute on your ends but I wouldn’t put this on the top of your head, especially if you’re blonde, because it looks really, really greasy.
10. Gluten-free and vegan baking. It’s a staple. It tastes really good and, it seems to me, is the only thing that can mask the chalky taste you get with most gluten-free baking. (Mmmmm Babycakes.)
What am I missing? Or what have you tried and loved—or hated?
Regular readers will know I’m a JMO devotee. I’ve sung the praises of the very expensive Honey and Hibiscus Hair Reconstructor, and because I don’t wear perfume, I’ve called the Avocado and Lavender conditioner my signature scent. One of the things I love about JMO conditioners is how great they smell without using any synthetic fragrances.
If nature smells this good why would we ever need the stinkbombs on the shelves of CVS and Sephora, am I right? Because of this, I was curious about some new products. Sexily called Bare, the new line—which includes a shampoo, conditioner, body lotion and wash—is unscented. There are no fragrance or dyes to speak of here—not even natural ones. This is a smart move, Mr. Masters.
One of the things mainstream formulators love talking about is how just because something’s natural doesn’t mean it’s good for you—and then they cite stuff like botulism. K, so I’m not going to go there, but as someone who is very sensitive to pretty much everything in skin and haircare, I can commend the creation of a dye and smell-free line. Also, it’s more affordable than some other products. The shampoo is $14.50, and the detangler, which is really just a conditioner, is too.
But how does it hold up?
The shampoo is another low-foam one, similar in feel to the daily shampoo I’ve used on and off for a couple years. While it did a bang-up job cleaning but not stripping my hair, I did kind of miss the sensory pleasure I get with a nice smell in the tub. But for me, the real test was the conditioner. It’s weird how much we associate smell with something working. It’s like if we can smell it then we know it’s there—and therefore it must be doing something (and something good, one hopes).
So I approached the bottle with a touch of apprehension. Will smell-free hair end up reeking of whatever I make for breakfast? To find out, I used it regularly until it ran out, which it did this morning. After two months of regular use, here’s my take: It’s great! It seems to do the exact same thing the Honey and Hibiscus does, and feels similar on application. They are different, though. The ingredients aren’t the same, and this morning I squeezed a little of both into my palm and noticed that the consistencies were markedly different. The H and H was creamier; the Bare more viscous. But the performance? Totally on par!
I’m delighted to have another JMO product in my shower caddy. Like! Like!
We want to know: Do you have any fragrance sensitivity, even to naturals? And would you be up for trying a conditioner that may not intoxicate people with every hug?
Every time someone new comes over, I wonder if they’ll be alarmed by the magnum of apple cider vinegar that sits next to my tub. The salad-dressing staple, most of us know, is amazing for use on our hair, in part because its pH is similar to that of most conditioners—making it an easy nontoxic way to get smooth strands without forking over the big bucks for a fancy conditioner.
(Not that I don’t love forking over for fancy conditioner. Because I do.)
What’s fun about ACV is that there seems to be no end to the different ways people will use it. I’ve tried it as a stand-alone conditioner, and as a treatment—heck I also used to drink the stuff every night before bed—but here’s what works best for me:
About once a week, after I shampoo (with shampoo, not ACV), I pour a little of the stuff on the top of my head. Then I put conditioner on my ends, and wait a few minutes. Maybe I shave my legs, or exfoliate with a washcloth or something. After a few minutes, I rinse it all off, and voila! Silky shiny tresses. Mmmmm. Well, sort of.
There’s a slight issue of smell.
A couple of months ago, Virginia from Beauty Schooled and I met for a glass of wine at Eataly and she relayed a very funny story about going for a hair cut and having her stylist catch a whiff of vinegar on her still-damp hair. (Read her laugh-out-loud post about it here.) I’ve had this problem too, and I’m big on smell, so it bugs me.
So the other day, when Tricia from Yourjoyologist.com tweeted at us about using ACV as her shampoo, I had to ask her: What do you do about the smell??
Well, Tricia wrote us a letter:
I have been washing my hair with just the water and Apple Cider Vinegar for almost a month now and loving it. I was wary at first, but since none of the shampoos I have been trying lately have been to my liking I figured why not?
I am quite active and sweat a lot. I did notice that in some of the hot yoga classes I take I can smell vinegar, but its not too bad. One time, my sweat went into my eyes, and stung a bit, but that only happened once.
I have been putting Argan oil on the ends while it is still damp and that is it. I have not needed any styling products at all.
Two days ago out of laziness, I used my Kiss my Face shampoo and conditioner, which I bought because Alicia Silverstone and her site recommended it, and I had to seriously load on the products after and it still didn’t look as good as it has been with just the ACV and argan oil. Also, I have always battled dry scalp dandruff and using the ACV I have not had any scalp issues. The day I washed with shampoo last week my scalp Immediately started to itch like crazy.
Quite the endorsement! So we want to know: Have you used ACV on your hair? If so, how? Conditioner? Shampoo? And what on earth do you do (or think about) the smell?
Image of vintage French apple cider poster via
OK folks, sorry for not getting to this sooner! Without further ado, I will now review my other favorite conditioner—the one that costs 10 bucks instead of a whopping (and, in my opinion, worthwhile) $28. Drumroll please…
It’s Alaffia’s Virgin Coconut and Shea Daily Conditioner! I’ve tried most of the Alaffia conditioners except the one for curly hair (though I bet it would be great for air-drying my waves), and while I think they’re all good enough, this is the only one I will purchase over and over again when I run out. I think it’s just fantastic.
I also love the company. I met Alaffia’s wonderful founder Olowo-n’djo Tchala last year, thanks to the natural makeup artist Jessa Blades, and knowing what I do about how he runs his business, and how much he gives back to Togo, where the shea is from, I feel great every time I buy one of his products. (I’d also like to give a quick shout out to the insanely rich shea butter cream, too, which soothed my friend’s horrible sunburn this summer after a day at the beach. It even prevented his skin from peeling altogether—and it was quite the sunburn.)
Anyway, I’d put off trying the daily conditioner because I assumed something “daily” would be really light on moisture. Not the case. We can thank the certified-fair-trade shea and the hair-friendly coconut oil for the insanely moisturized, high-shine hair I get when I use this puppy. Moisturized and bouncy. The butters don’t weigh down my rather heavy hair, which is miraculous, as far as I’m concerned.
I also like the smell better than the others. The one that smells like minty coffee is refreshing but the smell kind of went sour on my hair over the course of the day, and the honey conditioner felt a little perfumey for my taste. This one, however, smells juuuuust right to me.
Best of all it seems to work on all hair types. A girlfriend with long, thin, wavy brown hair likes it a lot, and so does an African American guy I know with short extremely tight curls. Could it be that it just works for everyone? Mais oui!
Let us know your favorite natural conditioners in the comments, and if you’ve tried any of Alaffia’s.
A few weeks ago we were discussing seasonal product changes. (We were also, I’m reminded, using old movie posters for our blog posts.) I’ve noticed that for my face, all I had to do was use a little more argan oil and eat some avocados to get it back in balance in this cold New York weather. My hair, though? Not so much. I needed a new conditioner, and I needed it bad, so I booked it to Whole Foods and decided on two new bottles—one high-end and one that cost a third its price. I’ll tell you about the cheaper on next week, but for now, let’s talk about the Cadillac conditioner: John Masters Organics Honey and Hibiscus Hair Reconstructor.
I’ll admit I have a love-hate relationship with this product. I used to use it all the time; it was my go-to. At a certain point, though, I had to try new things (occupational requirement, obvs), which I didn’t mind, because this one costs a grip ($28), the bottle is small (4 oz.) and I have a lot of hair. I go through conditioner like nobody’s business.
And yet there I was in Whole Foods, and that little brown bottle was calling to me. I reread the ingredients to make sure they hadn’t reformulated, and to reassure myself that this would be money well spent: honey, hyaluronic acid, hibiscus, oils, butters, BMS—basically a detangling, moisturizing and moisture-locking extravaganza.
And so I went for it. I’ve been using it several times a week for about a month now and the verdict? My hair feels incredible. I wish it didn’t! I wish I could say the high-end conditioner thing was hooey! But in this case, it’s just not. This conditioner is very hydrating, it doesn’t weigh me down (no small feat with my heavy hair) and it smells lovely. I’ve also found my hair to be shinier than it was, and less tangly.
So blast you—and bless you—John Masters. You make a mean conditioner.
Do you have a high-end conditioner you swear by?
(And don’t worry! Next week I’m going to tell you about my other favorite conditioner, which costs about seven bucks.)
