Red head? (Trevor Sorbie Colour+ Brunette Shampoo)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	Trevor Sorbie Colour+ Brunette Shampoo
Date:	29/12/08 (319 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Leaves hair in great condition

Disadvantages: Poor packaging, questionable scent, doesn't really enhance colour

I've often toyed with the idea of colouring my hair but never really had the guts to do so and don't like the idea that, once I start, I have to carry on. I've got naturally glossy brown hair that does have some reddish hues hidden amongst the darker hair (not forgetting the odd spattering of "distinguished" hair). It therefore struck me as entirely possible that the new-ish range of colour-enhancing shampoos might just offer me the little bit of variety that I craved.

I've been quite impressed by Trevor Sorbie products in the past and, upon seeing his colour-enhancing range I decided to take my chances.

The shampoo is designed for natural and colour-treated hair and aims to enhance the colour of the hair as you wash. It won't actually colour your hair and certainly won't cover the distinguished strands.

As expected, the shampoo was a reddish brown, not dissimilar to other colour-enhancing or chestnut and henna shampoos. The shampoo is a nice consistency, runny rather than creamy but not so loose as to be a problem. The shampoo lathers quite well, even in a relatively hard water area. The feel was quite plain though without that rich, bubbly lather of a type associated with an expensive shampoo. The shampoo was quite easy to distribute through the hair though (unlike the glosser in the same range but that's another opinion entirely). The rinse was good and my hair left feeling clean.

The smell is quite different from other similar products which tend to have a cocoa-like (or even sweet chestnut) smell. This, in contrast is quite an earthy scent. It's not a prettily scented shampoo and, to be honest, I'm not that sure I like it. Although earthy, it lacks warmth in the scent. The scent also lingers after the wash and, throughout the day I'll catch a whiff of the shampoo. On a couple of occasions this has really thrown me and I've wondered what I can smell!

I guess, the test for this shampoo is whether the colour of my hair was actually enhanced or not, as well as how well it washes. Although I'd say that it passes the wash test I'm really not convinced about the colour test.

My hair was clean and shiny looking after drying but no more so than with any decent shampoo. Certainly a single wash was not enough to tell of any difference. Daily use over a week didn't show much difference either. In certain lights I might have said that the red tones in my hair were slightly enhanced but it certainly wasn't obvious. My hair was in great condition though.

The shampoo claims that it won't dehydrate hair. Whilst measuring the moisture content of hair is beyond my capabilities I can say that my hair was certainly not dried out by this product.

I do have an issue with the product (aside from the smell!), however, and that's the packaging. The issues are two-fold. The first is the distinctive shape of the cap. The top of the bottle unscrews and the top of the cap is angled at a slant meaning you can't put the cap down upside-down. This means that you have to stand the cap on the bath or shower as it came off the bottle. As the product contains colour and there are warnings that it might stain (although I've not had an issue so far) this doesn't seem too sensible. The other issue is that the product just doesn't dispense that well. The bottle is rigid and after you're half-way or so down the bottle expect to wait a wee while for the product to actually come out. You can't remedy this by storing the bottle upside-down due to the aforementioned slanted cap. Poor design!

The shampoo is priced in line with other premium shampoos at around the £5 mark for a reasonable sized bottle. You'll often find it on offer in major retailers though so I wouldn't pay full price if you can avoid it!

Would I recommend it? Um, probably not. The poor packaging design and the questionable scent probably put me off enough to prevent me seeking this out again. My hair was left in good condition but then there are other more convenient and better smelling products that will achieve this too. The colour enhancement was not apparent enough to make up for the deficiencies. If you fancy trying something like this then I'd go for Umberto Gianinni or John Frieda's versions of the colour-enhancing shampoo. They're about the same price but smell a lot better. Both still suffer dispensing issues but for different reasons though! Style over functionality, clearly.

Summary: No better than an average shampoo