Product Review Shea Moisture Products

This is a product review of Shea Moisture Curl and Style Coconut and Hibiscus Shampoo, Hair Milk, Shine and Hold Spray and Curl enhancing Smoothie. I was drawn to these products as, being a former product junkie, I still "cruise" the shampoo isle. Now a days I mostly just pick up "natural" shampoos to check their ingredient list and shake my head at the blatant false advertising. I thought that would be the case with Shea Moisture, but alas, it was not. This label boast no parabens, phthalates, paraffin, gluten, propylene glycol, mineral oils, synthetic fragrances, PABA, synthetic colors, nor sulfates. This brand is also made sans animal ingredients and byproduct and is not tested on animals. WOW.

I was able to pick up a sample pack of all 4 of their products at walgreens so I figured I would give it a shot. The smell is divine, not too sweet, definite coconut oil aroma but with out the pina colada smell that I loathe in some shampoos.

Step One: Shampoo

The Coconut Milk and Hibiscus Curl and Style Shampoo.

A nice, thick shampoo. The scent was very delicate. I diluted this in my spray bottle 1:1 and hit my scalp first then the body of my locks. Washed away clean and did not leave my locks feeling stripped or crunchy. I did rinse a bit longer to be sure all the shampoo was out since it was thick.

Ingredients: 

Step Two: Condition

Coconut Milk and Hibiscus Curl and Style Milk

A water based, creamy leave in conditioner/styling cream. Concerned with build up, I only applied a half dollar amount of this product to my towel dried hair. It wasn't sticky and was the consistency of a thick body lotion. I am doing a braid out so we will see the condition of my hair when its all dry.

Ingredients: Deionized water, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Sugar Starch, Silk Protein, essential oil blend, Neem seed oil, capryly glycol, sorbitol esters, algae extract, arvenese extract, carrot seed oil, honeysuckle flower and vitamin e.

Step Two B: Condition

Coconut Milk and Hibiscus Curl Smoothie

This is a bit of a thicker cream, so thick in fact, that I used a dime sized amount. I don't think this will be something I use often.

Ingredients: Deionized water, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Macadamia Seed Oil, Mango Seed Butter, Avocado Oil, Vegetable Glycerine, Aloe Barbendenis leaf extract, Silk Protein ammonium salt, Neem seed oil, carrot seed oil, sorbitol esters, panthenol,  caprly glycol, essential oil blend, honeysuckle flower and vitamin e.

Over all, I LUV these products. My hair is soft, has a nice sheen and no build up. I also like the fact that I can just run to Walgreens when I need shampoo and not wait for the postman to come.

Lanza Loves Locks

As I mentioned in my prior post. I had a few double dragons from waiting too long in between reti appointments. At first, I was somewhat upset that I had let my hair get so bad, BUT those things came in handy. I was able to clip them and have test strands for some color experimentation. I had an insane amount of grey streaking my locks :(.

I originally wanted my grey covered and some funky colored streaks in fuchsia and teal, so Ms Gina (who you all may remember from my nail escapades) decolorized the one clipped locks, cut it in two and applied the semi permanent color. Well, the fuchsia came out red and the teal green, That wasn't the look we were going for, but it gave her a point of reference in which to work her magic from. She tried another test strand using a dif formulation and the fuchsia came out perfect, the teal, still green so we decided to go all fuchsia, which was fine by me. Once we got all that color game planing squared away off to the shampoo bowl I went.

Gina started off saturating my locks and then using L'Anza Healing Pure Clarifying Shampoo to remove mineral and product buildup and then applied L'Anza Healing Pure Keratin Infusion to, as she says "Infuse the hair with vitamin C encapsulated Keratin molecules that fill in the holes left behind once the build-up was removed."

After ma locs was all "infused n stuffs," she applied the decolorizer and color. Since my hair pulls red when colored, Ms Gina used a formula that combats the extra warmth in one step. After processing for about 45 min, I was rinsed. My hair had highlighted to a beautiful caramel color that I did not have the heart to dye pink so we left it.  Grey covered, some caramel colored streaks, I'm too much :D

I do now use some lanza products in my locks. Their noni fruit leave in conditioner helps my crunchy winter hair, neem plant silk serum smells yums and helps protect my color and their trauma treatment is awesome after a lock clarifying (baking soda/ACV etc.)

Guess Who's Back

Forgive my lack of makeup

Side View

The Back look how long!!

Ohhh emmmm geee, its been ages i KNOW I have been slacking on my blog and I'm so sorry blog family. This year has been stupid crazy but while I was looking at my hair and noticing the changes I realized I had yet to share them with you all. So, here are some pics pre wash, deep conditioning and setting tonight.

Long Time, no Chat

Hello blog family~

Sorry its been so long, a lot has been going on in my world. I changed careers and went to manicuring school and am now doing nails full time and I actually love it quite a bit. Unfortunately for me, beauty school ran the same hours as my locticians schedule so I went *gasp* 8 months with out a reti.  I was a DIY for a while thanks to Kalia-Dewdrop. This kept my hair from looking like a lukewarm mess instead of a hot one. I didn't purchased the nappyloc tool she uses in her video. I fashioned my own with the assistance of NubianLockedPrincess from a yarn needle purchased at Wal Mart. Now my reti was in no way as professional as Ms Shannon my loctician but it did help it look not so frumpy.

When I FINALLY got in for my retightening, it only took about an hour and a half longer than usual. I didn't have much breakage at all, but she did have to marry a total of 4 locks so I now have a few double dragons, which came in handy, but I will explain that later.

I will say that I did have a LOT more folicles produced waiting so long to have my hair tightened up but other than that, it was not so bad..Granted I am now back on my 6-8 week schedule because I don't want to lose any locks just because I'm being lazy.

I know this post was rather short and sweet but MORE info to come shortly re professional coloring and a professional line of products that is lock friendly as well as a video. 

Progress Month 3 vs month 10

Month 10

Here are some updated pics of length and texture at month 10. This is my first time blogging from my iPhone using an app called blogwriter. Whoo hoo no excuses nows.

Slide show of my progress

Here is a slide show of my hair progression thus far...Not seeing to much change actually, or am i just being picky?

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