Shea Moisture Hair Products Review...Part 1
Disclaimer: This is my personal unpaid review of Shea Moisture hair products that I have used. It's all over the internet! Shea Moisture hair products are the best - they are economical, smell great (for the most part), are ethically produced, give back to the community and do WONDERS for all types of natural hair, from Type 2A right down to 4C. Maybe it's even great for Type 1A hair!
Either way, as a fairly new natural (my big chop was September 2014), I always wanted to try their products. My first purchase was the Raw Shea Butter Extra-Moisture Detangler w/ Sea Kelp & Argan Oil. P R O D U C T R E V I E W #1 Pause.
OH MY GOODNESS! This product was AWESOME! Okay, so here are the details.
Product Name: Raw Shea Butter Extra-Moisture Detangler w/ Sea Kelp & Argan Oil Targeted Hair Condition: Dry, Damaged Hair Active Ingredients: Shea Butter, Argan Oil and Sea Kelp
Recommended Application (by Shea Moisture): After shampooing, apply from root to ends. Comb through for even distribution. Do not rinse out. Style as desired.
As you can see in the picture, this product has a thick, creamy consistency. When full, it is easy to squeeze out of the bottle, but once you begin using it, and there's some air space at the top, you literally have to shake the bottle very firmly upside-down to let it come down to the tip (kinda what you would do for a typical conditioner). To me, the texture is similar to that of old-fashioned grease (pomade), but without the heavy residual greasy feel. If you use a small amount, you may find that you can simply rub the residue off on your skin and it's fine. However, if you use a lot, you will find that the greasy feel remains, and you will need to wash your hands. The smell is very light, almost has no smell, but it does. It's just very light. No particular fragrance comes to mind. How I Applied it: On Damp Hair After Shampooing I washed my hair with Shea Moisture Yucca & Plantain Anti-Breakage Strengthening Shampoo w/ Baobab Oil & Cilantro Extract. This was okay, I guess, since the Detangler product did not specify that I should use any particular shampoo. I did an ACV (apple cider vinegar) rinse and patted my hair until damp with my towel.
I squeezed a generous amount of the Detangler into my palm, and rubbed it all throughout my hair. I did this about 3 times. At that point, I was satisfied that I had enough to moisturize and detangle my hair. I parted my hair into small sections, around 3 " x 4 " sections, and combed out with a wide-toothed comb.
Prior to washing, my hair was not at all detangled, and I did not detangle in the shower, so my success at detangling was all because of the Raw Shea Butter Extra-Moisture Detangler.
This product worked wonders on my hair. Of course, there were times when I had to finger detangle, like when I found knots, but I just took my time with my hair and patiently combed from root to ends (tutorial coming! I know many of you are taught to detangle from ends and go up to the roots). My hair loss was minimal (I wanted to, but did not take a picture of my shed hair). You can see from the picture below how soft my hair looks. The comb was able to comb through my hair rather well.
I styled my hair in one (an updo) held in place with a scrunchy. I also used another scrunchy on my ends as a stretching technique as well as to protect the ends. I then wrapped a hair band around my hair and held it in place with a hair clip. The final step was to wrap my hair with my trusted scarf, and let it air dry. That's all!
During the drying process, when I took off my scarf and touched my hair, it was silky smooth.
On Dry Hair
Actually, the first time I used this product, I applied it to DRY hair, and the effects were amazing as well. My hair felt pillowy-soft and it gave me the most beautiful puff. I even boasted about it to a classmate of mine (I'm an undergraduate student) and she could have felt the softness as well. It is not recommended by Shea Moisture to use of dry hair, but it worked for me that time. I must say that a follow-up application on dry hair didn't work so well, not sure why, but I still give it 5 out of 5 stars!
P R O D U C T R E V I E W #2 My second Shea Moisture purchase did not get such a good review from me. Product Name: Coconut & Hibiscus Frizz-Free Curl Mousse w/ Silk Protein & Neem Oil Targeted Hair Condition: Thick, Curly Hair Active Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Silk Protein & Neem Oil
Recommended Application (by Shea Moisture): Divide damp hair into sections. Apply 2 to 3 pumps to each section and comb through. Style as desired. Now, I bought this because I was searching for a styler to make those fancy twists outs (lol) like I see on my natural sistas. I did see the Curl Enhancing Smoothie product, but at the time, I didn't want to cash out to buy it. It may be only about US $13.99 / 11.99 or less in the United States (depending on where you get it), but in the Caribbean, it get pricey (with shipping charges, taxes and so on). So, I decided to start off with the mousse. As is shown in the picture, it pumps out rather easily out of the bottle in a foamy state. The texture, however is very much like water because essentially, it is a liquid. It has absolutely no slip (no greasy-like feel) to it. The smell is very delicious though, again, I can't think what it smells like, but it smells really good.
I have used mousse before when my hair was chemically straightened and it was fantastic, but I didn't expect a watery product to have great results on my natural hair WHICH EXPANDS WITH MOISTURE. Anyway, I applied it as recommended, even sealed it in with coconut oil, but I was not pleased with the results after my hair air-dried. I do not have any pictures to show the results, maybe will do in a future re-review of this product. Although this product did not do anything particularly great for me, it did say it was for thick, curly hair. Maybe my kinkier hair was not the best canvas for it to do its magic. :) I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Do you agree with my reviews on these products?