AfroCurls: New Products to try!! Always awesome!! :)

Good or bad, I LOVE having new products to test. And I have my little haul from Walmart last night. Right now I'm sitting here with Suave Captivating Curls conditioner in my hair, letting it work it's magic with my shower cap on it.. So far, it's OK. It's no Aussie Moist, but it's pretty good for under $2. It has great slip, but not as good as the Aussie. (I FINALLY got my huge bottle with the pump. SO happy right now.)

The hype:

Suave Professionals NEW Captivating Curls Conditioner

Salon proven to define curls as well as Redken

For curly or Wavy Hair

Salon quality hair care system proven to moisturize, control, and define curls as well as Redken Fresh Curls shampoo and conditoner. (I'mma have to stop them there, there is no way in HELL I'm using that sulfate shampoo on my hair.. Well, maybe.. But not on a regular basis. IF I used it, it would be 2-4 times a year.)

Moisturizing conditoner enriched with an anti-frizz complex nourishes and softens curls for frizz control and shine. Apply, rinse.

Up to 2X more curl definition! (Shampoo & Conditioner vs. non conditioning shampoo alone. Which is just stupid. I always hate this with systems. Saying the whole system works better than just a non conditioning shampoo ALONE just seems like you think your customers are idiots- or your product isn't any better than anyone elses.. But you think we won't read the fine print. What sucks is it's on most conditoners and shampoos that boast to be better.. Just plain... STOP it..)

OK, this is part one. The application. As I said, the conditioner has good slip. I had a bit of shedding, but it may not be due to this product. It may be just shedding, as I only detangle once a week.. Plus it wasn't THAT much shedding.. You know we naturals are paranoid about maintaining length and just making sure we nurture or strands PERIOD. My hair seemed to actually soak up this stuff like NOTHING! So it's good it's cheap. I mean I was SLATHERING it on, and it was just disappearing into my hair. I don't know if that's good or bad. My hair isn't very porous, so I don't know what to tell ya. The bottle still has a lot of conditioner in it. It's 14.5 oz (428 mL), and I feel it will last a month with weekly use.. Maybe even longer. All in all so far so good. I'd say at this point, it's worth the $1.78 I paid for it.. Or $1.97.. something like that.

The smell, is typical Suave Professionals. It's not the Naturals smell. No coconut, no strawberry, no sunshine and farts (Not even sure if THAT'S a good thing. LoL!) .. It's just Suave smell. I really don't have an issue with it, but I can't say it smells "luxurious". Just smells like conditioner... By Suave.. OK.. It's thick. Thicker than the Suave Naturals, more like lotion. And there is dimethicone in it.. LOTS of dimethicone. It's the 3rd ingredient in here, so if you don't like cones, keep walking cause this stuff is FULL of it!! I didnt' see that when I bought it, and I actually JUST read how far up on the list it is as I'm writing this! So that's a fail for me right there, as I exclusively co-wash. Dimethicone has to be shampooed out once it builds up, and I really don't like to shampoo.. this stuff is like cowashing with Aveeno LOTION! It rinses away (eventually) with water from your hands, but it takes a bit of working.

Here's your ingredient list:

Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Behentrimonium Chloride, Fragrance, Dipropylene Glycol, Lactic Acid, Potassium Chloride, Amodimethicone, Disodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, PEG-150 Disterate, PEG-7 Propylheptyl Ether, Cetrimonium Chloride, Hydrolyzed Silk, Silk Amino Acids, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Niacinamide.

I'm deep conditioning with it right now and I'm about to rinse it out and see what I'm left with. Normally I leave it in for hours.. But the smell of this is kinda getting to me. Making me a bit nauseous, so I guess 2 hours will do! LoL!!
*******************************

OK. Now I'm all rinsed out and styled. I'm pretty happy with the results, BUT I can't say if it's the conditioner OR that I'm getting better with applying my stylers.. BUT, I did notice more curls defined before adding product than normal. So I guess it did define curls. Then again, so does Aussie. LoL! It's really not a bad product, I will use it up and may buy it again. I am a fan of Suave. All in all, it's nothing to write home about, but it is good. I'd recommend it to another curly gal out there.

The other product is the Olive Miracle Moisturizing Lotion by African Pride.

I like the smell of this product, but you can use it on we hair. I found that out JUST now. I tried to use it like hair milk on wet hair, expecting it to just maybe leave a little with haze that will dry clear... NOTHING DOIN'!! It started running back out of my hair and down my face, so I had to rinse that out. Too many oils I guess. I guess this is a damp hair product at best. Mostly made for use on dry hair. So I guess it fall in the catagory of "finisher" products. I was able to towel dry my hair a little and add a LITTLE bit under my Long Aid. It seems to be working and my hair is really soft. I'm actually thinking this may be a good idea for ALL my products. My hair won't absorb products wet. They just seem to bead up and sit on top. Especially in the front. But even with the little bit I was able to put in my hair damp, it smell really good. :)

here are those ingredients: (I think I listed them in another post.. I THINK I've pasted that here already. LoL! It gets confusing, all that copying and pasting from days past..)

Water, Soybean Oil, Propylene Glycol, Olive Oil, Shea butter, coconut oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, Panax Ginseng root Extract, Rosemary Extract, Horsetail extract, Tea Tree Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Steareth-2, Steareth-20, Polyquaternium-37, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, PPG-1, Dimethicone, DMDM Hydantoin, TBHQ, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, CI19140 (FD&C Yellow #5), Fragrance

This list is looking pretty good to me. I'm no chemist, so I really don't know what those last ingredients are or what they are for, but the first ingredients sound edible! LoL! Like I can take this stuff and cook with it. There does seem to be a learning curve to using it though. I mean, I KNEW how to use lotions and such, i mean we use to SCRAMBLE to get that Pink Lotion.. But now we know about curl definition and all that crap and I'm still nervous about disturbing my curl pattern and all that. But I don't know why, cause I'm not a 2b or anything. A catagory 5 HURICANE couldn't disturb my curl pattern!! It is pretty much set in stone. Still, you know how new naturals are, they want to be as delicate as possible instead of getting all up in there. This hair I don't really KNOW yet. I mean, I had my last perm April 30, 2005. So I've been on the natural path for 6 years.. BUT all those years have been in locs. So I don't know what to do with my natural CURLS just yet. I'll get it. Anyway, all in all... I am loving this product so far. Long as I use it on hair AFTER it's dried. LoL!

Anyway, what else? I'm getting use to the fact that these little things on my head ARE curls and my patch is really growing out and looking more normal... but I have a really big HEAD! LoL! I take pictures of my patch and my hairline is like the size of a football field!! It looks so funny in pictures. That has ALWAYS been a problem of mine. I feel weird about my hairline. It is just so MUCH of it.. I guess I should be happy. I'm not bald.. I have hair to spare.. LoL!