Breaking my conditioning

[strange_complex]

So, I fully appreciate that this post is a bit loser-ish, but here I go anyway.

My last bottle of the conditioner I like (Garner Fructis Sleek 'n' Shine, pictured below left) has just run out. I've been using it for a good ten years, I'd say, but over the last three years it has gradually and steadily been disappearing from every shop where I used to buy it. We're now at the point where the only place I know of that I can reliably get it is a large edge-of-town supermarket (the Asda at Holt Park, for locals), but that isn't where I shop normally, so it means a special journey out there just for this one item. And given past form I wouldn't be surprised to see it disappear from there soon enough too.

So it is time to explore other options. Earlier this week, I popped into my local Superdrug, and bought one each of every one of their little travel-sized conditioners. Or at least, one each of the ones which didn't claim to be completely unsuitable for my hair-type - so I left behind the ones for dyed hair, blond hair, frizzy hair, and the ones which claim to produce 'volume' (or, as I like to call it 'tangles'). These are the results:


I'm now going to work my way through each one sequentially, and - this is the really loser-ish bit - write a quick review of each one here when I get to the end of the bottle. I apologise in advance for becoming The Girl Who Blogs About Conditioners, especially since my findings probably won't be readily applicable to anyone else. I don't think very many of my friends share my very fine fly-away hair-type, which is so ultra-sensitive to any kind of residue left on it - be that conditioner, limescale in the water, or just sweat - that different products can genuinely make a huge difference to its appearance and manageability. But I promise they won't be very long. It is just my way of ensuring that I systematically write down a few notes about each one before I forget and move on to the next, so that I can compare them at the end and choose the best one to stick with.

For the sake of science, I will ensure comparability by continuing to use the same shampoo throughout: the matching Garnier Fructis one, which I get through much more slowly than the conditioner, and therefore still have two and a half bottles of. I also won't take these conditioners with me when I travel anywhere other than Leeds, in spite of their temptingly handy size, so that my observations are not skewed by different water types. (This is what I mean about my hair being ultra-sensitive - I barely need conditioner at all in Birmingham, which is supplied by pure spring water from the Welsh valleys, but need a ton of it and a lot of patience in Oxford, where the water is so hard when it comes out of the tap that you have to break it up with a hammer before you can use it.)

First exciting results on this journal in just a few short days - woo-hoo! Betcha can't wait.

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Comments

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

I will also follow with interest. For years I used to come back from each trip to the UK with another bottle of shampoo, whatever was in a friend's shower and seemed to work wonders there. Back home it would not work. Only after moving here, and becoming encrusted with limescale in Ipswich, did I realize how variable the water hardness factor is.

(Seriously, what is with this water? Even the soap looks like pumice once it's gotten wet and dried. Why is it not centrally filtered or at least tap filtered?)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I guess filtering must be too expensive and / or slow to do on a large scale, as it is a huge problem for loads of areas in the UK which no-one really seems to be trying to solve. I used to use a filter jug in Oxford, but thankfully no longer need to bother in Leeds.