I have tried different types of shampoos and conditioners in the past, but I do have to keep changing the brand I use as my favourites tend to get less effective after a while. This is incredibly annoying, as I have quite dry hair naturally and it's even dryer since I started colouring it. I'm sick of spending far too much money on moisturising shampoos that don't really do anything special, or even worse, make my roots greasy but leave ends dry and brittle.

I was in Boots looking for a new shampoo and spotted Herbal Essences hello hydration on the shelf. My mum used to buy shampoos from the Herbal Essences range years ago, and I remembered that the smell was pretty good. However, I had previously regarded it as pretty unexceptional and never really gave it much thought. With the launch of their new range, though, I thought it may be worth giving a try. I bought it without its matching conditioner as for some reason I get through conditioners much more slowly than I do shampoo.

Herbal Essences is a brand name used by Clairol, part of Procter & Gamble if anyone's interested. The ingredients that are meant to interest someone in the product are coconut and orchid extracts, which seems an interesting combination to me. Anyway.

Hello (hydration) shampoo
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First impressions are pretty unremarkable for a shampoo. The bottle is big (holds 400ml, though also comes in 200ml size I believe) and perhaps a little bulky if you need to move it around a lot. The bottle is translucent blue, through which you can see slightly swirling, blue stuff. As standard, the lid is pressed down so that the other side opens. This is neat as you're not left with a lid to put somewhere, and less likely to potentially break off.

As soon as the cap is opened, you're greeted warmly by a lovely smell: this really is a lot of the appeal of Herbal Essences as a brand for me. I'm not a fan of coconut but this scent really wasn't obvious; instead I got musk, honey, melon, apple... heavenly.

The consistency was great: thick, rich and creamy. This means that you really don't need to use too much of it: I have really thick, longish hair and found that I needed quite appreciably less than other similarly priced shampoos, which definitely made me happy!

As mentioned above, the colour is a little off-putting. It is very difficult to believe that something of this particular shade of blue could consist of natural ingredients. This is quite off-putting to me, as it doesn't look the way I'd want shampoo to look, or indeed anything I'm putting on my body. I hope they haven't coloured it this way deliberately.

Inviting in hydration
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This shampoo is designed for dry or damaged hair, which is how I would describe mine (at least, before use).
As I said before, it only requires a little because of the creamy thickness of the formula. When massaging into wet hair, a surprising amount of lather is produced, which is really quite impressive. The smell was lovely; much better than just smelling from the bottle.
Rinsing was pretty standard, and took a similar amount of time to usual. I towel-dried my hair without conditioning, as I wanted to get an idea of the shampoo by itself.

My hair was more tangled when I brushed it than when I condition, and possibly more tangled than with other shampoos. For this reason, the next time I washed my hair I used my usual conditioner, and results were considerably better!
My hair smelled lovely and fruity; it was soft, manageable, and moisturised. It also seemed shinier than normal, although the ends were not as soft as the roots and midlengths. I've been using this for a couple of weeks now and have noticed that my hair seems less dry and is less frizzy, and more manageable. Success!

Getting hydration
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It's available in most supermarkets and chemists. It costs around £3.50 for the big 400ml bottle at Boots, but it's often on offer somewhere.

Saying goodbye to hydration
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My lasting impression of this shampoo was overwhelmingly positive. The two main criticisms are the colour and the fact that it leaves my hair pretty tangled. I would recommend this, but with a warning. If you like your shampoos seeming natural, this will not be for you, and if you like your hair detangled, make sure to buy a good conditioner.
7/10.