'Tressed to Kill' (Pantene Smooth & Sleek Shampoo)

Member Name: lamorna

Product:	Pantene Smooth & Sleek Shampoo
Date:	21/08/01 (417 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: smooth , sleek, glossy

Disadvantages: wish I'd had this years ago, probably discontinue it, none at all

I know everything there is to know about hair. I spent sixteen years of my life, six days a week, from 8.30am to 6.00pm, late night Fridays, crimping away and massaging women’s’ follicles in my own Hairdresser’s Salon, called ‘Tresses’ and I won’t tell the numerous stories of the Dorset ladies phoning up for a hair appointment and enquiring if this was ‘Trusses’

I’ve done everything imaginable with my own hair. Taken risks I wouldn’t dream of taking on a paying client’s crowning glory, even in the innocent pre-compensation era. When a top-knot, push-up based hairpiece was a ‘must-have’ in the early seventies, I famously kept mine firmly gripped to the crown of my head for six days and six nights, leading to speculation that there could be mice nesting in it! When I removed it, the grips had gouged channels in my scalp and I such a sore head for weeks.

Name a colour! Go on! Think of one! Beetroot Juice Red? Yes, I’ve been that colour. Mushy Pea Green? Yes, that too. Black as Ink? Canary Yellow? Of course I have! Yes, and sometimes all at the same time!

Permed, straightened, cropped, back-combed, frizzy, sleek, shoulder length, lacquered stiff as an ironing board, split ends, snapping off at the roots, waffled, razored, waxed, gypsy, bobbed, French pleat, highlighted, lowlighted, gelled, moussed, bunches, ringlets, pony tailed, hair pieces, wigs, plaited and extensions, but sadly, even after all these ‘hair raising’ experiences…I’m still lousy at choosing a suitable shampoo and conditioner. I am always on a quest for the perfect combination.

My bathroom is green and white, so as I cruise down the shampoo and conditioner aisle of my local Boots the Chemist, wondering which product to buy for my hair, I determine my choices by the process of eliminating unsuitable packaging. I reduce the immense range offered me by focussing on
any hair product and the packaging that will colour coordinate with my bathroom…green and white. This helps enormously, as I couldn’t possibly have pink or orange bottles ruining the décor could I ? I allow lemon in at a push…am I a marketing nightmare?

I still colour my hair, so from my by now well reduced range of products to choose from, it gets further condensed by my needing a hair range formulated for colour processed hair. Unfortunately, this haphazard method has resulted in dozens of barely used hair products, all matching green and white bottles, stashed away in a bathroom cupboard as totally unsuitable and disappointing.

Just lately my hair has been misbehaving. Frizzy ends poking up all over the place, and only really settling down after a couple of days when the natural oils smooth it, but by then it needs shampooing and conditioning again.

Today though, I’m happy. Using my well practised method of shampoo and conditioner selection, I homed in on a new to me hair product. Pantene PRO-V ‘Smooth and Sleek’. Yes, there they were, the separate shampoo and conditioner, in individual, matt white plastic bottles, with a delightful subtle green ringed top, and written on both were the words ‘Smooth and Sleek’ Could this be true? Would my wayward hair become smooth and sleek using Pantene PRO-V? The products are a resounding success., they really are superb.

Before I tell you the effect on my hair, there’s another feature I have to applaud about my colour coordinated hair products. I shampoo my hair over a hand basin using a spray. The first dousing with water leaves me virtually sightless as the water runs into my eyes, so I grope for the shampoo bottle. To some of you this may seem rather tame, but if I explain I am unable to take a shower because the water in my eyes sends me ballistic, you will perhaps understand the distress it causes me. I’ve told you before, th
at life was full of obstacles I have to overcome didn’t I?

Products that come in pairs and meant to be used as complimentary treatments, are always indistinguishable from each other in shape. Fumbling wildly for the shampoo bottle and then realising I’ve put a large dollop of conditioner on instead of the identically packaged shampoo is intensely annoying. Pantene PRO-V has solved this dilemma, by reversing the flat base on each bottle. This means I utilize my sense of touch, once I can’t see because of the water, and never get it wrong. For someone like me who stumbles through life having one minor crisis after another, this means so much to me…

Of course, these are secondary benefits, compared to the vast improvement to my frizzy, badly behaved hair. Both products have a clean, unobtrusive perfume, were of a creamy consistency and the shampoo lathered well with two applications. The small amount of conditioner made my wet hair feel extremely silky at once. I left it on my hair for the recommended two minutes, then rinsed it off. The comb slid through effortlessly, and I knew this was promising.

I left it to dry naturally while writing this actual opinion, but would imagine the results using a conventional hand drier, or any heated appliance would be equally impressive. There are no sticky-up frizzy bits all over my head, but a smooth, sleek outline. My tresses are bouncy, soft, silky and curling naturally and easily. Pantene PRO-V ‘Smooth and Sleek’ shampoo and conditioner do exactly as the product names claims they will.

In fact I’m ‘Tressed to Kill’

Summary: