Shampoo shame (Herbal Essences 2-in-1 Moisture Balancing Shampoo for Normal Hair)

Member Name: calypte

Product:	Herbal Essences 2-in-1 Moisture Balancing Shampoo for Normal Hair
Date:	22/08/02 (769 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely smell, no residue

Disadvantages: the residue was kinda helping!

I wanted to take a break from book reviews for a bit, so here I am, writing about shampoo. It’s rather nice shampoo, though, so that’s okay :)

Unfortunately, to be able to tell you about this Herbal Essences stuff, I’m going to have to confess to my previous hair-care routine. No, not fairy liquid – the even greater shame of (shhhh!) Wash and Go. There, I’ve said it now. Don’t think too badly of me, will you? I used W&G for years, and it didn’t seem to do my hair any harm. But I’ve been hearing all these tales of ‘build up’ of ‘residue’ that this kind of stuff leaves in your hair, and although it’s Pantene that’s usually held as the main culprit, I thought it was time to change to ‘proper’ shampoo, one that even boasts about leaving no build-up.

Herbal Essences have been about for ages now, but to be honest their ‘orgasm in a bottle’ advertising was always too OTT to impress me in the slightest. However, staying at a friend’s one night, I saw that she used it, and had to sniff – yes, I’m a sniffer too. Grief, this is Dooyoo, not true confessions, y’know! Anyway, turns out this Herbal stuff actually smells… rather lovely, to be honest. Quite strong, but still nice. The final straw was finding that I didn’t have to pay the silly Boots price of almost £2.50, but just over a pound for a bottle. Had to be worth a try!

Going into the shop, I had images of sniffing all the bottles and picking out my favourite. Rather disappointingly, the different scents belong to shampoos for different hair types, so bang went that idea. It didn’t matter too much, though, because the 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner was what I was after (I’m lazy), and it was both purple (nice!) and lovely smelling.


•¤• Sniff sniff… •¤•

I’m going to stick my neck out he
re and say that the scent is quite probably the most important thing about this shampoo. Well, what it does to your hair, obviously, but so many shampoos on the market have more or less the same effect, I find, so it’s the smell of Herbal Essences that really make them stand out. As I’ve said before, the scent is STRONG! I’ve got a new bottle sitting beside me, and having just stuck my nose in it I have to shout that! To be honest, it could be a bit off-puttingly strong, as the sheer strength makes the natural fragrances start to seem a little fake and synthetic.

There are advantages to this, though: for a start, it really fills the shower in the morning, and makes a lovely wake-up call. Also, the first thing I do to my lovely clean hair is smother it in another strong scent – aromatherapy mousse – and although it covers the shampoo fragrance to begin with, I find that in the evening it’s the shampoo scent that lingers. Lovely – clean smelling hair all day!

Oh, I’d better try to describe this particular aroma. Well, the bottle says that it’s “Lavender, Jasmine and Aloe” (in mountain spring water, no less – although fortunately the smell of goat pee doesn’t seem to have lingered!). It smells… floral. Sorry. I suppose it’s vaguely lavender-y, but not strongly. It’s a little sharp in it’s undiluted form, but seems very fresh, too. Oh, go sniff a bottle in the shop! ;)



•¤• Hair care •¤•

Now on to important stuff like what it actually does to your locks. Dyes ‘em purple – no, only joking! Well, the claim is that this is “moisture-balancing for normal hair” (actually, don’t tell, but mine tends ever so slightly towards greasy, but I wash it every day so you wouldn’t notice!). I suppose I’d better mention that my hair is fine, annoyingly wavy, and currently about
halfway down my neck. Um, not actually attached to my neck, though, like werewolf-y or anything. Anyway.

Firstly, as this is shampoo and conditioner, the tangle issue crops up. As I said at the start, I’d been using one of these ‘coat the hair in a plastic-y lair’ suspect-shampoos. My first few uses of Herbal Essences (HE) therefore left my hair feeling more tangled than I was used to – quite a disappointment. However, I now think that this was just a reaction to the residue that was already in my hair, as after a few washes, I was getting very few tangles at all. It probably doesn’t feel quite as soft as it was previously, but it’s still soft enough, and it’s a small price to pay. Overall, I’m very happy.

That there was a build-up in my hair has only become apparent now, as I can really feel the difference in my hair. It feels cleaner, and is less prone to feeling a bit greasy by the end of the day. Biggest difference is in the morning, though, when it’s very definitely less greasy or weighed down – bit of a mixed blessing, actually, as I now wake up with my hair trying to stick up in every direction!

Another thing that the ‘coating’ type shampoos had in their favour was that they did leave your hair very glossy looking. Well, I’m pleased to report that I still have nicely shiny hair, but I’m more confident now that it is healthy rather than just looking it. Unfortunately, the build-up was doing a handy job of weighing down my rather fly-away hair, but that must have been about the only good thing!

Lastly, it’s not just my hair that feels in a better condition these days: don’t forget you’re scalp is getting washed, too. It’s an odd and overlooked area, but mine seems to prefer the newer shampoo – again, it feels less greasy by the end of the day, and I’m not prone to that not-quite-dandruff occasional flakines
s anymore, either.


All in all, the Herbal Essence has been a great success. I’ve finished my first bottle and have no intentions of going back to the Fairy Liquid! ;) Not only that, but I’m being brave and have decided to try one of the separate shampoo and conditioners from the range – now, it has to be good if I’m going to go to the extra effort of taking two bottles into the shower!!



•¤• Price •¤•

Whatever you do, don’t buy this stuff in Boots – although it’s been on offer at 99p this last while, the usual price is something more like £2.30. Extortionate when you consider that Asda sells it for around £1.25, and smaller shops (such as Bodycare) charge about £1.10 – less than half the Boots cost!



•¤• Greenness… •¤•

You’ll be pleased to hear that this really does seem to be a nice organic product: claims on the back of the bottle are that there are no animal by-products, no petrochemicals and no pesticides. Even the bottle is partly from recycled material.



•¤• Verdict •¤•

Smells lovely, no build-up, and both my hair and scalp feel healthy. Try it.

Summary: