Granny really does know best! (Wilko Setting Lotion Extra Firm)

Member Name: xxfoxyredxx

Product:	Wilko Setting Lotion Extra Firm
Date:	08/03/09 (468 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works great, smells lovely and once dried is unsticky

Disadvantages: Time consuming to have to use rollers and wait for hair to naturally dry (particularly long, hair)

When it comes to my hair I'm really a bit infatuated with trying to get it to look nice. This is because my hair is naughty and misbehaved and takes a lot of time and effort to get it looking nice and well presented but even then I can style it as well as humanly possible and up pops a cows lick or a kiss curl or something to ruin my fun day out or wild party evening!

My hair is just below shoulder length at the moment. Dyed jet black and always been dyed from about the age of 18 (when it was my choice) till now (I am 34!). My hair suffers greasy roots, frizzy and a bouncy mid section and dry straggly, split ends (all the time!). Overall my hair is a mess and can't decide for itself whether it's curly or straight so gives way to frizzy flyaway and uncontrollable hair more often than not. As I have mentioned in a few of my hair care reviews I choose to straighten my hair due to the fact I can get it to stay that way for a good few hours before kinks and curls pop up unwanted usually. Where as if I have tried products to get my naturally (when washed) curly hair to stay curly without looking frightful I have never achieved that look in my opinion! Till now???

It seems no matter what I use in my hair I can't get curls to stay whether that be natural curls or when I style it that way with the aid of a hot curling tong or my Babyliss rollers or something. I have tried so many things lol.

This type of product crossed my mind one day a couple of weeks ago as I went past a hairdressers with lots of little old ladies sat about in the salon with rollers on their head. I remember my own Grandma sprinkling this on her hair and popping in rollers overnight and the likes. I searched high and low for this type of product for ages and ages. Tried every Boots in Coventry and then when there was no avail there after trying Superdrug and Supermarkets such as Sainsbury's I actually gave up looking till this bottle almost threw itself at me and at 95p I picked up a couple with very high hopes indeed. I wanted it to use when I popped my rollers in of course. If anything may work it would be this was my thinking! Last chance salon...

The Packaging....

Clear plastic cylinder bottle with silver flip top lid situated to the top of it concealing quite a small hole. Around the middle of the bottle there is a lilac and purple sticky label and on that in white writing I'm told it's A Quality Brand, Wilko, With Pro-Vitamin B5 and is Extra Firm Hold. There is like a whitish swirl pattern on the front and that's that. On the back of the bottle I'm told a bit about the product and directions for use, cautions and a cash back promise (if not entirely satisfied with the product for any reason) are given from Wilkinson's, ingredients, size and bar-code are there too. The bottle is somewhat cheap and basic looking but functional and practical to use... it is. I do like being able to see the pale lilac watery looking liquid through the bottle so if I want to replace it I know when to type of thing!

A Bit About The Product According To The Back Of The Bottle....

Wilko Setting Lotion is ideal for difficult to manage hair. It is specially formulated to give body and manageability for a lasting style and hold and contains a conditioner to help leave your hair feeling soft and shiny.

Directions For Use....

Shampoo your hair and rinse thoroughly. Towel dry and sprinkle lotion evenly on your hair, comb through and set. Allow your hair to dry completely before brushing into usual style. Sufficient for 8-10 applications.

Me Using It....

Well the instructions that are on the bottle are on there for a reason! I did shampoo and condition my hair and then used this on towel dried and combed through hair, styled my hair and it didn't work at all. Curls never took! I can only assume that this was because I didn't follow the instructions to the letter and conditioner really stops this being able to 'set' anything as hair is too soft and fluffy to style.

So nowadays I wash my hair with shampoo and allow this to work and grip a little drier hair and allow this to condition my hair itself or I use a two in one shampoo and conditioner. I do like to use a particular kiddies one at the moment which isn't overly hydrating but does soften my hair enough for me and allows this still to work brilliantly. So I shampoo my hair a couple of times, rinse well and then towel dry and gently comb my hair through.

I then either sprinkle some of this through my hair by gently shaking and squeezing the bottle a little and combing it through to give it even distribution or I pour some of the clear (when in hands) liquid and gently tease it through my hair with my fingers and make sure I've covered all of my hair.

The setting lotion is not a lotion at all. It's the same consistency of water with a teeny bit of stickiness to it. The really smallest amount of stickiness though it really is nothing at all. It isn't oily or shiny looking and what happens is as you put it through the hair you can feel where it coats and where you've missed as it gives a slight sticky feeling to hair. You need this though to work with your hair and style it properly!

I then put rollers into my hair as neatly as possible. I would say really you simply want cold rollers or cold rollers and to sit under a hair-drier thing in the old fashioned way! Any kind of rollers you choose! Me, well I don't use tongs with this as it burns my hair and makes it sizzle but I do put in my warm sponge rollers and sit back and let it all dry for an hour or maybe more. Nothing significant happens apart from you look like a Grandma! You could of course use this overnight if you wished.

When done I remove my rollers and I comb through my hair or tease the curls I have created with my fingers.

Does It Work?....

Hell yes! Really brilliantly and for such an old fashioned product it's amazing and much under valued by the modern world! Yes it's a bit of pain putting it in and having to wait till it's dried but 'set' is what it really does! It neatly (if you've put your rollers in nicely) gives curls that are really defined and shapely. Hair is left shiny, bouncy and supple. Frizz is gone and hair looks natural and not set rigid to the head or anything like a helmet. The health of hair is impeccable down to the B5 additive and you can make hair as curly or as wavy as you wish.

Smell wise hair has a really nice smell to it and again not one I was expecting really. It simply has a slight sweet soapy smell that when your using it and when hair is just styled you can smell wonderfully (in a none old fashioned way) and after time that smell fades to nothing so doesn't interfere with your perfumes or anything.

Once hair is set you can of course set your style further if desired with fixing or hair spray, wax...whatever you feel you need. Me I need nothing as hair really is set and stays that way for hours upon hours.

Conclusion....

A really good product that I'm so pleased I found. Even though I have quite long hair a bottle of this actually lasts me about 15 applications making this really economical for me to use as often as I want. My hair is strong with no signs of build up or left over residue and hair even without this on radiates health at the minute. Yes it's time consuming to work with etc but achieves results amazingly well making this worth it's weight in gold!

Only available in Wilkinson's and recommended from me hugely!

Summary: A really excellent product I can't stop raving about!