Herbal Essences: Coming Up Roses (Clairol Herbal Essences Protection Conditioner)

Member Name: Ki_caelum

Product:	Clairol Herbal Essences Protection Conditioner
Date:	15/03/06 (301 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smells fantastic, easy to apply, leaves hair shiny and smooth

Disadvantages: Pricier than other brands, using too much at a time can leave hair greasy

Herbal Essences, Clairol's wildly advertised range of shampoos and conditioners, uses its natural ingredients as its main selling point, as well as those ecstatic moaning women who fill our screens in the ad breaks. Seduced by their promises of an organic experience, I threw a bottle into my basket, and voila: this review explicitly chronicles my experiences with their replenishing conditioner including:

Appearance
My Hair – Why this product?
Use – Washing Your Hair
Effects – Drying Your Hair
How long does a bottle last?
Pricing
Summary

Having cleared the house of all nefarious characters – that's everyone I live with – I locked the bathroom door and prepared myself for my hair-washing experience.


- Appearance –

This particular conditioner advertises itself as being for "Coloured / Permed / Dry / Damaged Hair". I can tick of three of those boxes, so it's going to get a pretty thorough trial.

The packaging is quite attractive: Herbal Essences conditioner comes in a small bottle; mostly commonly 250ml: this is roughly an inch thick, seven inches high and two inches wide. This particular range – rose hips, jojoba and vitamin E – is rose-petal pink in an opaque bottle. The lid flips up, but can stick occasionally – however, a lip around the outside gives you some grip, so this isn't a problem.

There's a small picture of a rose on the front, as well as a list of the herbal ingredients – which, it should be noted, are difficult to find among the intimidating list of chemicals on the back, concealed amidst a sea of '-phenyls', '-phanols' and the impressively incomprehensible 'Methylsothiazolinone'. Try and say that after a drink or two.

The back is also occupied by the obligatory product description and standard promises of just how soft and shiny your hair will feel afterwards.

The conditioner is a fairly thick cream in a pale, baby pink colour. Thus far, I haven't been transported into fits of ecstasy, but don't worry – if I am, you'll be the first to hear.


- My Hair – Why this product? -

I have fairly fine, flyaway hair that falls just below my shoulders, which has been repeatedly coloured, layered, and is subjected to a daily routine of straightening and styling. By the time I'm forty, my hair will look like I nipped a few decades into the future and scalped my seventy-year old self, and so I'm doing what I can to protect it now.

Most standard conditioners seem to leave my hair feeling quite dry and brittle, so I thought I'd try something else. I wash my hair daily with both shampoo and conditioner.


- Use - Washing Your Hair -

The smell of the conditioner is quite strong. The rosehips are the predominant scent, and give it a feminine, subtle aroma that really does smell as if you're breathing in over a vase of roses. Beneath that is the faint chemical smell that most shampoos and conditioners have.

Having shampooed my hair and rinsed, I put a blob of conditioner roughly the size of a ten pence piece onto my hand. The conditioner is quite thick and smooth, so it applies easily to my hair. I apply it first to the ends of my hair, then massage the remaining residue into the roots. This is because the ends of my hair take the brunt of the colouring, straightening and styling routine and need more care.

Once on, the conditioner feels very smooth and does its job straight away – when I run my fingers through my hair (wet and with the conditioner still on), any tangles pull through smoothly, and knots dissolve away.

As the conditioner is well-made, you really don't need to use a huge amount of it. So while this may come in a smaller bottle than other comparative brands, that bottle will last quite a long time.

However, because it is quite thick, if you put too much on, it leaves your hair feeling a little lank, so unless you yearn for Snape's greasy locks, a little trial and error is required; start out with a smaller amount than you think you need, and add more if necessary.

It washes off easily, and afterwards, my hair – still wet – definitely feels smoother, and has a fairly strong scent of roses about it.

Alas, at no point do I moan, gasp or shriek. It's good, but it's not quite that good.


- Effects – Drying Your Hair –

A comb goes through my wet hair easily, and as I dry it, it feels smooth and has a nice sheen to it. It dries in shape, without the flyaway ends I get from some other products, and the smell of roses remains, to my delight.

To test how well the scent lasts, I take myself out into the city air for the day, walking along windy streets, plodding into a café for lunch, where the smell of food mutes my hair temporarily.

On my return, my hair still smells of roses, if slightly fainter. I'm impressed. It also retains its shine, and despite being ruffled by a wind which is a gale-in-waiting, untangles easily after a brief run-through with a comb: no knots, no pulling. My hair looks and feels in good condition.

It also passed the 'boyfriend test': "Your hair smells nice," says he that evening, unprompted, before his eyes swing inexorably back to the Liverpool game. I comment that one or two of their players could use a good conditioning for their grimy mops of sweat-laden hair. For some reason, he ignores me.

So, easy to apply, leaves my hair feeling very nice – light, smooth and shiny, and with a lingering scent that isn't too overpowering; provided, of course, you like the smell of roses.


- How long does a bottle last? –

Obviously, this is dependent on the length of your hair, how often you condition, and how much you prefer to use. I have shoulder-length hair which I wash daily, and a bottle of Herbal Essences conditioner lasts me around three weeks to a month.


- Pricing –

This varies from shop to shop. In Tesco's, my bottle was £1.78, which is about an average price. It tends to be around the same in Asda, but slightly more expensive in Boots. It's not as cheap as own brands or more mainstream brands, but is well worth getting on Buy-One-Get-One-Free offers, and even when it isn't on offer, I'll gladly pay the extra pennies to have my hair in good condition.

If you're buying the Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner together, I'll add here that I get through the conditioner faster than the shampoo, so bear that in mind when buying.


- Summary –

This is a great product. It has a wonderful and lasting fragrance, leaves my hair with a good gloss despite my mistreatment of it, detangles very well, is easy to apply and remove, and while it is more expensive than other brands, the quality more than makes up for the slightly higher price.

My only caveat is that using too much of it can leave your hair lank and greasy; it's better to be sparing. This in itself is not a bad thing though, as it means a small bottle can last a good period of time, making it value for money.

And while yes, yes, oh yes, it does smell divine, I'm afraid the only shrieks you'll hear coming from my shower are caused by stepping out of the water and onto a hairbrush.

Highly recommended.

Summary: A high-quality, if slighty pricey product, which lives up to its promises