Decent enough but I've used better (Fructis Fortifying Conditioner - Normal Hair)

Member Name: dippykitty

Product:	Fructis Fortifying Conditioner - Normal Hair
Date:	21/09/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fruity smell is pleasant, fairly easy to wash out, even gave my lank hair a boost

Disadvantages: Doesn't work as well for non-normal hair (as you might expect)

I have rather greasy hair and have stayed away from Fructis products for the most part, as they seem to do nothing but make my hair even worse (and that's really saying something!). Curiously, I used to use Fructis with no problems until my hair hit the greasy stage in my late teens and that's been it as far as my likelihood of choosing the brand goes. Imagine my horror then when I misjudged how much was left of my usual conditioner (Umberto Giannini) and realised that I'd run out, leaving my Mum's conditioner as the only option left in the bathroom cabinet. Yep, you guessed it - it was this one! Seeing as I'd already shampooed my hair, I couldn't skip the conditioning stage or I really would be in a tangled mess!

***The Conditioner***
Like most Fructis products (or at least, the ones that I've used over the years), this conditioner is white and quite thick in terms of consistency. It smells vaguely fruity, although I've never been able to pinpoint the exact smell.

***The Claims***
Using ingredients derived from fruit, this range is intended to improve the strength and condition of your hair and add a glossy shine.

***The Results***
Given that my hair is greasy and this is designed predominantly for normal hair, I probably shouldn't have expected much from this product and indeed I didn't after previous negative experiences.

Having shampooed my hair, I applied this to the bottom half of my hair only and left it on for a couple of minutes to get to work. After washing it out using the shower attachment in the bath (I always have to do this with Fructis as their products never seem to wash out properly unless I do), my hair was literally squeaky clean (I could even hear the 'squeak' when I tested to see if all of the product was out). This isn't something that normally happens to me so I was pleasantly surprised.

After blow-drying, I was quite impressed with the look of my hair, which did have a vaguely glossy sheen to it. As my hair is greasy and normally looks very lank, this was a big improvement on what my hair normally looks like on the now rare occasions that I resort to a Fructis product. This suggests that it was using a Fructis shampoo and conditioner together that contributed to my negative experiences of the brand in the past as I didn't have much of a problem with this particular conditioner. Granted, my hair felt a bit tacky the next day, but that's quite common for me if I use a conditioner that's quite thick and heavy as it's probably a bit too rich for my hair type (it is designed for normal hair, after all).

Overall thoughts? Not great, but not bad either considering that it's not designed for my hair type. For someone who actually has normal hair, I could see it working very well and it did for me before my hair became more greasy than normal. The smell is much nicer than a lot of other shampoos/conditioners, with the subtle fruity smell rather than a chemical type of smell.

Summary: Good for genuinely normal hair; not so good for oily hair!