Breaking my conditioning
Saturday, 26 January 2013 17:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strange_complexSo, 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.
Click here if you would like view this entry in light text on a dark background.
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.
Click here if you would like view this entry in light text on a dark background.
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no subject
Date: Saturday, 16 February 2013 06:11 (UTC)I know this will sound odd, but have you tried vinegar?
I ask, because I have been trying to move to using as many non-toxic, environmentally safer products. A little over a year ago, I think, I started ordering shampoo bars online after looking at the safe cosmetics.org site. I've found a few I really like for my hair, and love not having to deal with the empty bottles. At the same time, I started using a vinegar rinse. I occasionally still use a conditioner -- maybe once or twice a month -- usually Alba Botanicals. There are fewer toxic chemicals used in the EU, but there are still some (although if I were buying regular hair care stuff, I have to say that I find Sainsbury's coconut shampoo and conditioner (I think they are no more than a pound each) work really well).
One of the nice things about the vinegar rinse is that it also seems to strip the film from really hard water. It's also cheap, and does smooth the hair shaft.
no subject
Date: Monday, 18 February 2013 10:06 (UTC)