Heaven or Hell? (Charles Worthington Heavenly Hairwash Outrageously Rich Shampoo)

Member Name: missbrowneyedgirl

Product:	Charles Worthington Heavenly Hairwash Outrageously Rich Shampoo
Date:	17/02/04 (950 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice bottle, It's pink

Disadvantages: The smell, The build-up

Well, the answer is somewhere in between but before we get there, let me tell you a story...;)

Mrblueyedboyfriendssister (my that was a long one!) bought me a little Charles Worthington gift set for Christmas and I can see exactly why! It appears to be the perfect gift for me... It came in a little pink toiletries bag, my favourite colour! To top it off not only was the shampoo and conditioner pink and gold, but it came with sparkly gold stylish products! Lavish, lovely and very very me! At least until I took it into the bathroom...

I'll leave the other products alone as the grilling I'm going to give the shampoo should be plenty enough for one day...;)

So I'll start with the bottle. Now my bottle is a different shape to the one on the category picture and indeed, this is quite a saving grace as those small flat bottles would take up a lot of room on the side of my bath whereas my bottles are taller and thinner - about the size of a normal Coke can - and they fit nicely in your hand. Maybe they are different bottles because they came in a gift set.

The top has one of those circular lids that you depress at one side which in turn raises the dispenser bit at the other. I like these lids, they are a good idea as they are one-piece and easy to open and close thus preventing clumsy old me dropping the lid, spilling the shampoo as I try to pick it up, slipping on the mess... (you get the idea?)

So Charles was doing pretty well so far but was about to hit the first hurdle: As I poured some 'heavenly hair wash' into my hand the texture worried me a little. It was very creamy and swirly looking, a bit like when you see bottle of nail varnish poured out in the glossy magazines. It's a nice look but not what I'd expect from a shampoo. A conditioner maybe, but not a shampoo. I usually like a clear one (Neutrogena Clean & Clear is my current favourite). However, I wouldn't have let a
silly thing like appearance put me of so I lifted the product towards my head, and then it hit me.... the smell!

Charles' Heaven smells like strong old fashioned perfume that ladies of a certain age would wear. Maybe it's Estee Lauder's Youth Dew. It's definitely the sort of perfume that is dark brown in colour. Now, at first this is quite a glamorous scent but after only a few seconds it's a bit heady and too much!

Finally I got down to the nitty gritty of actually washing my hair, and this help the biggest disappointment. In Charles' defence, it lathered well and the scent disappeared almost straight away, however, it didn't really clean my hair! Even after shampooing twice (I only ever usually shampoo once but I thought I would give it the benefit of the doubt) my hair didn't have that squeaky clean quality I achieve with Neutrogena.

I did persevere for a few more days with the product but it really began to feel as though it was creating quite a build-up in my hair. For those that don't understand build-up here's a brief (and unscientific) explanation courtesy of my old hairdresser Katie formerly of the The Mark Hill salon, Kirk Ella:-

Several shampoos on the market (Pantene being the prime offender) claim to improve the condition of your hair, and in the short term they do. They do this by coating your hair with a layer of silicone* so as your hair feels smooth and lovely. It's a similar effect to varnishing a wooden table. Now imagine that you keep applying layers of varnish to that table, and leaving it outside in all conditions. Pretty soon they layers will begin to split and peel, often damaging the wood beneath as it strips the natural oils away. Well, that's exactly what build-up does to your hair and that's why it's important to use a build-up remover shampoo once a week if your regular shampoo is silicone* based.

In summary I'm
afraid the answer is far closer to hell than the bottle would lead you to believe and therefore Charles Worthington's Heavenly Hair Wash gets a big thumbs down from me! Far from creating Dream Hair, it gave me a minor nightmare! It seems that too good to be true sales pitch about 'smart' cleansing is indeed too good to be true!

* I did say this was an unscientific explanation, so forgive me if it isn't actually silicone. I think itis a silicone-based derivative in truth, but the manufacturers don't really advertise that fact much so it's hard to find out! Please comment if you know more!

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