Do I smell like a goddess to you? (Lush Suan Wen Hua Hair Moisturiser)

Name: Sarccyslayer

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Product:	Lush Suan Wen Hua Hair Moisturiser
Date:	20.05.08 (174 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It works wonders, creates amazing hair and does exactly what it is meant to

Disadvantages: It stinks

Living in a hard water area is always going to play havoc with your skin, hair and scalp and much of the time, despite changing shampoo and conditioner in the hope that my hair will become soft and sleek. Every now and again I like to treat myself to a hair mask or a conditioning treatment which I leave in for a certain amount of time to give my hair and scalp an extra conditioning. A hair mask or conditioning treatment is a bit like a face mask in that you hope to get rid of the impurities and product build up that could be causing unnecessary problems such as a dry scalp or greasy roots. My own stylist at my local salon told me that I should actually use a conditioning treatment regularly; either once a week or at least twice a month given that I live on a main road in a very busy city and that alone can lead to minor hair issues.

So, here I am in Lush again with a friend who had never been into a Lush shop because she found them to be too smelly. After constant whinging at her to come into the shop with me on a promise that once you are in the shop you cannot actually get the same smell inside as you do outside and it is true, within the Lush store that I go to, it doesn't actually smell of anything until you stick your nose onto a product to smell it.

Anyway, I wanted something that would give me a deep condition whilst protecting my blonde locks whilst at the same time eradicating the frizzy mess which was dry in parts and greasy in others and on the whole just generally looks tired and feels a bit of a mess. So the Lush assistant suggested I try H`Suan Wen Hua which is a bit of a mouthful to pronounce and it simply means The God of Hair in Cantonese. This product is a pre-wash conditioner that is designed to give your hair extra nourishment and as Lush sell it using the following statement "It's Lush salad dressing` for the hair, a nutritious treat which makes hair more healthy and pleased to be alive". Lush currently stock three differing types of pre-conditioners for the hair and all are available online.

So with my tub of conditioner I am a very happy person because I had been in and out of a Lush shop in 20 minutes and usually it is three times as long. My friend was also armed with a nice selection of goods to try for the first time, so that's another Lush Virgin cracked ha. The product itself arrives in a large black pot with a pull off lid which retails at £6.95 for a 225g tub and for that £6.95 you get approximately 10-15 uses of the product depending on how often you use it and how much you use at any one time. The last product of this kind that I used was Retread which was more of a conditioner than a treatment and the price doesn't vary too much so I am more than happy to pay to use it.

Armed with H`Suan Wen Hua I get home and immediately read the instructions I have been given. When removing the lip the first thing you notice is the oddly coloured cream inside the tub which isn't quite yellow but it isn't bright white either, although with a name like H`Suan Wen Hua I would have thought it would have been quite an exotic colour, however the best colour to describe it is off-white and it is quite a thick textured cream which means a little goes a long way and it should last longer. Like most Lush products upon the tub there is a date sticker to tell you that this particular product has a shelf life of three months and that it had been made in store on that very day by 'Michelle' and the name of the person obviously differ per store.

The ingredients within this H`Suan Wen Hua conditioner are quite wide and varied and as Lush cleverly described it as a salad dressing for hair it is no surprise to learn that amongst the ingredients are Watercress, Fresh Free Range Eggs , Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil to name but a few. However, these ingredients have been cleverly put together to give your hair that extra nourishment because the first ingredient that you come across is Fresh Watercress Infusion which is packed full of vitamins which are needed to give your hair strength added to that is Balsamic Vinegar which is used to give your hair a natural shine, a lot of people I know actually use vinegar as a hair treatment because it works so well with your natural oils and when used in this way helps to stimulate circulation and open up the pores encouraging a glossy shine and soft texture. Fresh Bay Infusion again is another ingredient which works with the Balsamic Vinegar and it is used to stimulate and tone the scalp and this is especially beneficial to those people who have greasy hair, a dry scalp and need help clearing dandruff. Fresh bananas are used not only for their high vitamin content but also for their moisture properties because they help to soften the surface of the your scalp and skin to help it absorbing moisture and finally we have fresh avocado who's natural oil has a perfectly balanced Ph and are rich in minerals but also naturally rich in a fine oil, which hydrates, nourishes and moisturises the skin which means they are excellent for ageing, chapped, peeling or drying skin. As always there are also many other ingredients that can be found on the Lush website.

Putting all of these ingredients together doesn't actually give you one of those over-powering Lush smells which linger throughout your household once you have used it. The best description of the smell I can give is that although it wasn't unpleasant it didn't make me go "oooh now that smells amazing" but no one ingredient dominated the smell which is just as well because I didn't want to be walking around smelling like I worked in a fish and chip shop stinking of vinegar.

So I lathered my hair in this pre-wash conditioner, because you are supposed to use it before you shampoo and condition your hair in the normal manner and whilst in the Lush shop I was told to take a handful and plaster it all over my head ensuring that I covered my hair from root to tip and it must be applied to dry hair, not wet hair and as you apply it massage it into your head as you would with your conditioner to allow the ingredients to interact with your hairs natural oils. The most important thing however is not to wash it off after a few minutes, you can leave it on for up to 20 minutes because the longer you leave it on your head the more time it has to work its magic. So, after those magical 20 minutes I head straight for the shower, hoping that not only did I have the hair of a goddess as I had been promised, but that the smell didn't linger because the longer I left it on my head the more I disliked it. When it comes to washing this stuff off your hair it is really easy, thankfully it doesn't dry upon your head so you don't have to spend hours picking it off and manically rubbing your scalp to remove any excess cream, and you simply use warm water and rinse it all away. From here you shampoo your hair following your normal routine. After my hair had part dried, I always like to finish it off with the hairdryer and the first thing to strike me was the shine which had appeared on my hair, not something I had been used to seeing for sometime.

My hair once completely dry was not only soft and smooth, there wasn't a frizzy hair in sight and my natural shine was definitely back, it was almost like someone had given me a new head of hair. Straightening my hair was also a new challenge completely because running my GHD's over my hair which I always section up into bits was a doddle, not having to go back over it with straighteners, it went poker straight with no fuss. The only problem is that I can still smell the blooming stuff on my hair, not quite a potent as it was before but it was still there, even after I had shampooed and conditioned my hair and that smell remains there for a good few hours after you have styled your hair to perfection, but given that my hair is near perfect it is a problem I am willing to put up with.

I have now used H`Suan Wen Hua once a week for three months and my pot is almost empty, there is about an inch worth of product in the bottom which isn't enough to cover my entire head of hair so I have to invest in a new tub if I am happy enough with it. Will I invest in a new tub, well despite the horrid smell I definitely will purchase more H`Suan Wen Hua and hope that it continues to re-create my lovely shiny head of hair which is frizz free, tangle free, whiffs a bit but on the whole looks and feels amazing. The only thing I would change is the smell, because whilst I usually buy things I like the smell of, I bought this product without smelling it because it sounded like a god send and had I smelt it first I wouldn't have bought it.

Summary: A smelly pre-wash conditioner from Lush