VO5 Conditioners Review- All hair textures!

I’ve been using the VO5 conditioners for a bout 2 years, trying different ones since I started doing cowashes in 2010. I’m no hair expert, but these are perfect for quick cowashes because they’re cheap ($4-5BDS), easy to find and most are relatively thick and most are very moisturising.

The first of the VO5 conditioners I used was the Tea Therapy in Vanilla Mint Tea which is a clarifying formula. I used this while my hair was texturised in 2010 and I was transitioning to natural. It really made both textures easy to manage and they blended well. I didn’t experience excessive dryness as I would after a shampoo and my hair felt clean. Even after I chopped off my hair and started a fresh texturiser, I continued to cowash with this conditioner and my hair really loved it. (I also used it as a deep conditioner, don’t judge me hahaha).

After I grew out my hair from the texturiser in 2010, I continued to use the VO5 conditioners on my natural hair and it was still awesome. My hair wasn’t too frizzy after, I was able to detangle with the conditioner in my hair and sometimes I’d only partially rinse out the VO5 so a bit was left in to condition.  It definitely left my hair feeling great.

I had tried the clarifying versions of the VO5 conditioner  Herbal Escapes (Kiwi Lime), however only once or twice.  It was ok for clarifying, but not a big woop for me. I really like their moisture formulas because my hair absolutely loves moisture, so I also tried the Silk Experiences Champagne Kiss but quite frankly I don’t like scent, so that turned me off from it. I also used the Moisture Milk in Passion fruit Smoothie occasionally for moisture, I’d leave it in as a cheap alternative to a deep conditioner, which worked well for my hair. 

The most recent of the VO5 line that I had used was the Blackberry Sage Tea Revitalising Conditioner around the texlax in January of this year. It worked well for diluting the relaxer base and my hair felt good after also. I had also done a mix of it with coconut oil, which my hair seemed to like for some time, and generally the conditioner was good. It was not as thick or moisturising as the moisture formulas, and definitely did not have as much slip. The scent was amazing though, I definitely liked it. Had it been more moisturising I would have loved it. My hair definitely ate this one up.

I found that after conditioning with any of the VO5 conditioners my curls were well defined, until my hair dried and frizz started to take over. But that’s another story, the job of a good leave-in/ moisturiser, hahaha.
I recently picked up a new VO5 conditioner, well actually a repurchase of an old one I had liked, the Moisture Milks in Passion Fruit Smoothie. I wonder how my new texture will like it.

The VERDICT:
Pros:

• Cheap
• Easy to find
• Good at moisturising
• Good slip for detangling
• Good for transitioning
• Worked well with processed and natural hair
• Defines curls

Cons:

• Some formulas absorb faster than others, and hence you may need more product
• Some scents are overpowering and very artificial
• Costs can add up when you use a lot of product

The Raw Sugar:
Overall , they’re good for the price, especially if you’re going to be cowashing weekly. You’ll get a good few using out of them depending on your hair length. I hope you enjoyed this short review on the VO5 conditioners I’ve tried. Until next post…

XOXO

Disclaimer: I was in no way compensated for this review. Images are not my own.

Hair Update #4

Hey all! As you know, I’ve been a bit challenged with keeping my hair in its natural state, as I said in one of my previous hair updates. Check them out here #1, #2, #3.

I love my curls, my hair density is very thick and my strands though fine are very unruly. I’m very prone to frizzing and many times because of failed braid-outs and twist-outs I just tuck my hair back into a hair tie or a headband. It’s a very boring look for me, and whenever I leave my hair open, I usually get comments from my family about how untidy it looks, usually my parents. It’s rather frustrating especially since I am trying something I’ve never tried before with the small amount of products that are available to me.

Since 2012 has started I did a texlax to hopefully lighten my texture, which I talk about in my first texlax update. I still had my curls but some how the hair did not feel as heavy and compact. My braid-outs and such came out with more success however, it still looked somewhat unruly. Maybe I’m just lazy…

I don’t know what it is, but no matter what I do, gel or whatever, my natural or texlax hair NEVER stays in a tidy state. And I’m not just saying this because my parents complain a lot about it, but I genuinely feel like it is too much of a messy look for me. I don’t like many natural styles on me, I just find many atrocious, it looks as if I haven’t combed my hair because of my texture. Although I love finding the random curls in my hair or getting great definition after a  twist-out, sadly it’s not enough to make me want to stay in the natural community.

Let’s face it, the au naturel look is not for everyone, and as long as I know I was able to embrace my curls and struggle through with them for this long, I am happy that I tried. It happened by accident that I stumbled across the natural scene and became natural for about a year, and it was an interesting journey. I’ve had tremendous hair growth (despite my hair hardly ever showing it), and I got to enjoy the life of being kinky curly. I learned that my hair adores water and moisture in general, while it would shrink to 50% or more of its length after drying, along with a number of other useful things.

In my texlax updates #2 & #3, I mentioned wanting back some of the versatility I had with my texturised hair. So I may actually be returning to something which was not only more convenient for me at this point in my life, but also offered options which I preferred more. We’ll see how it goes by Wednesday. I should have some pictures or even video.

I did enjoy my natural journey, and I’d advise anyone to at least try it because you learn not only about your hair, but about yourself also. I learnt that I have a fixation for neat tidy hair at all times haha. The knowledge of ingredients and products to use, will go along with me as I change pace into a different journey.

XOXO

Texlax Update! HAIR UPDATE #3

Hey all! I honestly got so busy I forgot I was to write about flat ironing my texlaxed hair in … February. Yea I know, really late, but better late than never right? I actually should be studying right now, finals are in 2 weeks, but I really just needed a bit of a break.

Twist-outs from January

I texlaxed my hair back in January to try out a few things, and I haven’t currently redone my hair, but that’s ok because it looks the same way as when it was first textlaxed. I diluted the relaxer mix a lot so the my hair would still look natural, but would be a bit more manageable. One thing I really wanted to try out while texlaxed was the flat ironing ability of my hair.

So I tried it out one week in February, and let’s just say it was a big fail for me. I blowdried my hair, and flat ironed it, hoping for some good results since I changed techniques, but to no avail. My ends were frizzy and it looked terrible. You could not even tell it had been flat ironed. It just looked like my hair was stretched out, which might have been nice had not for the smell of the flat iron.

I don’t know if it’s just my flat iron or my hair texture, but it appears that my hair will not be flat ironed straight any time soon, unless I use a stronger relaxer mix. I’m not really up to that tho, because I still like the versatility of the texlax at current and it’s very hassle-free and looks natural. My twist-outs and braid-outs come off fabulous within one night and it’s easy to wash and go. But I may have to rethink my current hair routine (or lack thereof) if I want to achieve the goals I have for my hair, where styling is concerned.

The thought of weaves and braids have crossed my mind plenty of times, since my hair just does not flat iron like it did when processed, and I think I will consider it further when I can. But until then, I’ll be rocking it natural/texlax!

Twist-outs from January

XOXO

Can you guess what’s different?…Texlaxed! HAIR UPDATE #2

Heyy all, as I had posted about a week ago, I was loving my natural hair, but I was a bit bored and wanted more versatility. I decided to texlax my hair.

Texlaxing gives similar results to texturisers and in my opinion, I had more control over how relaxed my hair would be. To texlax, one usually adds conditioner or oil to their relaxer or leaves in the relaxer for under the recommended time, to intensionally under process the hair. Texlaxing is supposed to keep some of the texture of your natural hair, while allowing you to wear it straight, curly or wavy. So insted of relaxing bone straight where hair may be subject to overprocessing, this method allows the hair to be uncoiled more safely as the relaxer works slower to process the hair.
One can choose how straight their hair would be depending on the time you leave it in and how diluted the relaxer is.

I chose to use the Organic Root Stimulator regular relaxer kit because ulovemegz from YouTube always uses this kit to relax and I love the results she gets on her hair. It was $16.99 for the regular which would have been way cheaper had I found in the beauty supply store, sadly they only had Super.

Also this kit comes with a lot of additional products, a few I was actually hoping to try out at some point. So I was very happy that it came in the kit. They were adequate sample sizes as well, so I was extremely pleased.

The next thing that I got was some cheap conditioner, because I really wasnt about to waste some good bucks on a conditioner that’s gonna get used up so quickly hahah. I love the VO5 conditioners, my favourite line is actually the Tea Therapy ones, they seem to work great for my hair given the price. So I picked up one of those to mix into the relaxer base. It was only $4.50 🙂

For added assurance that texlaxing would turn out the way I wanted, I researched some oils and how people use them in texlaxing. Most use Olive Oil, but that never seems to do much for my hair, save for drying it out. I hate the smell of it too, I’d rather cook with it haha. So I checked out some coconut oil which I happen to love the smell of and it’s not too thick either, which is very good for even everyday styling. I got a bottle at the pharmacy for about $6.50.

Finally, I bought some extra gloves from the pharmacy so both my sister and I would have a pair. I know how terrible it is to have mishaps with chemicals, your nails and hands may never be the same, so I definitely wanted to avoid that.

I mixed about 5 parts of the conditioner with one part coconut oil and mixd the concoction until it stopped separating. I didn’t measure exactly, just eyeballed it, but a good portion of conditioner, maybe 5-7 tablespoons. Then I added about 70% of the activator solution to the relaxer base and used the entire mixture of the conditioner and oil. Finally after stirring well I applied it to my hair from root to tip, back to front. The hair at the back of my hair always seemed to be more resistant, so despite the instructions saying from front to back I did the opposite haha. I left it in for about 7 minutes, omitting the application time. It did take longer to start processing because it was virgin hair, also as the relaxer was diluted.

As for the results, I loved them! While my hair was rinsed out my hair and shampooed my sister kept saying it looks so nice and wavy, I could’t wait to see for myself! And it was exactly that, I was so happy that I chose to texlax instead of just relax my hair.

I didn’t even get burned, which in my opinion is AMAZING! I’ve heard tons of horror stories of how bad relaxer burns and I’ve always kept away from it because of that. I did take some precautions with regards to burning. I washed my hair early in the week, since I knew I wanted to process Sunday. Also I avoided scratching my hair, I wore a satin bonnet, sectioned off my hair the day prior to the texlax and finally my sister based my scalp and hair line really well.

My hair is just as thick as it was natural but it feels weightless and more manageable. It now blows in the wind, I completely missed that feeling. My hair still looks natural and now I can fully rock a wash and go, which I’m stoked about. Before my hair would just clump together and get tangled so easily. Twistouts would be so tiresome I didn’t even bother with them. But now it holds a twist-out well and moisture also! It’s just sooo awesome ^___^. I can’t wait to try out more styles on my hair. This week I’m wearing it flat ironed. But more details on that later.

If you’d like more information on this processing technique,  you can check out this blog which I owe the credit to for their comprehensive post on texlaxing. Thanks Zan & Rob! You do not know how much this has helped me.

Until next post…

XOXO