#NaturalHair UK: Review: Shea Moisture Smooth & Repair Shampoo and Conditioner

I used the products that I am about to write about 2 days ago and got my ENTIRE life when I did so. Yes.

I used:

TAHITIAN NONI & MONOI SMOOTH & REPAIR CONDITIONING SHAMPOO

followed by

TAHITIAN NONI & MONOI SMOOTH & REPAIR NOURISHING HAIR MASQUE

Curlfriends, when I tell you that one use of these two product has already made a huge difference to the condition of my hair, I kid you not. I seldom review products after one use but I was really impressed by the almost instant results.

For a little background:

I deep conditioned my hair FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR (YES, 2015) last week when I was in Lagos. I Popped into KLs Naturals Salon (review coming soon) to wash and steam (deep condition) my hair. I'm telling you this to provide some context for the current state of my hair. It is so dry and damaged and generally jacked up that I had to cut about 2 inches off :(

I bought a new Babyliss hooded dryer (review also coming soon) on Saturday and decided that it's time for me to start taking proper care of my hair again. So in the spirit of all things good and natural, I chose Saturday to also wash and steam (deep condition) my hair.

The only reason I opted for Shea Moisture at all is because I found the products abandoned in Lagos and decided to bring them back to London with me. I'd kind of gone off the products. I think this is partly because I only really started and continued using Shea Moisture because everyone else was (I will dedicate a whole post to this follow-follow mentality soon too).

Anyway, yes, I found myself with a load of Shea Moisture products, and some crispy, nasty looking/feeling hair, and enough was enough!

Wash Process and Method

What you need to do things my way:

• Shampoo Shea Moisture Tahitian Noni & Monoi Smooth and Repair Conditioning Shampoo
• Conditioner Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner
• Deep Conditioner Shea Moisture Tahitian Noni & Monoi Smooth and Repair Conditioning Shampoo
• Denman brush
• Oil of your choice
• Plastic Cap

I did not pre-poo ( because I couldn't be bothered). I didn't pre-detangle either (in hindsight this decision was a questionable one).

1. So I hopped in the shower with my dry, tangled, mangled hair and wet it all over. I didn't part it into sections as I usually do, but chose to just shampoo it the normal way ( squeeze blobs into my hands and dig straight in). Once I'd built up a good lather, I focused on my scalp rubbing in circular motions using my fingers - not nails, rinsed and repeated this once more.
2. Once my hair felt clean I section it, first in half, then into maybe 3 section on each side, and began applying conditioner. I used about 3-4 pumps per section and smoothed the product on work from my roots and smoothing it down to the tips.
3. I then used the denman brush to gently detangle the hair working from the tips to the roots (from the bottom up) before twisting the hair out of the way and moving on to the next section.
4. One I had conditioned and detangled all of my hair, unravelled it section by section, scooped up some of the deep conditioner and smoothed that over the hair as well.
5. I then poured a coin-size amount of almond oil into my hand and smoothed that over the products before loosely twisting my hair again and moving on to the next section. Once I had repeated this step for every section I pinned my hair up (still in twists) and covered it with a plastic cap.

I put my hooded dryer on medium heat and sat underneath it for about 30 minutes.

Once my hair was adequately steamed I rinsed out the conditioner used cool water. [NB: I take my twists out for this normally and go through the sections with my denman brush again ensuring that I brush down in the same direction as the running water and re-twist afterwards.]

I do not towel or t-shirt dry my hair anymore. Towels frizz my hair and so do t-shirts. I think I also find the whole t-shirt drying thing a bit pretentious. I don't know why. After all the pomp and ceremony I guess it's a bit ironic that that's the part I find funny but well, it is what it is. So I let my hair dry by itself.

First Impression of the products

Gurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl, my hair felt SO SOFT! It was soft, and shiny and smooth, and definitely less frizzy. I know I cheated a bit by using almond oil as well, but it's quite amazing what a huge difference a good deep conditioner makes. The products smell really nice, they did help smooth my hair and reduce frizz, although that may have happened just because I was putting some moisture back into it after this long drought. The shampoo was not drying and I wasn't worried about the second lather and rinse leaving my hair stripped and brittle. The shampoo and conditioner(s) work pretty well together.

I didn't have to use obscene amounts of the products to get the results I wanted. It has been a few days and my hair is still feeling nice and soft and much better than it has felt in months. I will use the line a few more times to confirm that it is indeed magic, but the first impression was great. I'm very happy with the results.

Styling

I decided to do something different ( the success of the deep condition session made me cocky). I wanted to do a bantu knot out on twisted hair. This went horribly (mostly because my hair took FOREVER to dry even after two separate sessions under the hooded dryer) but I do have pictures of what my hair looked like (a shine indicator and nothing more).

So to moisturise I used my Allways natural leave in conditioner.

Followed by some Shea butter whipped with olive oil and coconut oil to seal.

I used the Curls Cashmere Curl Jelly for hold.

And then twisted may hair before putting the twists into Bantu knots.

I left them in overnight, then did about a zillion hours under the dryer.

And then took them down.

All was well when I started separating the curls...

But I did too much.

Anyway, styling mishap aside, it was a fairly pleasant wash day and I am looking forward to using these products again.

My Verdict 

★★★★☆

I've rambled on long enough to make up for the blog post droughts, no?

Until next time,

Stay healthy, stay happy, stay blessed

xxx