AuNaturale’s HPO Spa Treatment Product Review

Spa Hair Conditioner:

http://www.hpospatreatments.com/products/spa_hair_conditioner.php

Ingredients: Honey, avocado, wheat protein, distilled water, vitamin A & E, ginger herb, organic lactic acid, and HPO essential oil blend.

Review: I absolutely LOVE this conditioner!!! First, it has a wonderful lemony-citrus type of smell. Not only does the conditioner smell great, but the ingredients are amazing. Overall, I found that this conditioner really penetrates the hair shaft, providing great slip, shine, and moisture that lasts long after rinsing it out. As it was drying, my hair felt like it was covered with a thick moisturizing coat. For me, no other conditioner ever made my hair feel that moisturized.

Twisty Locs:

http://www.hpospatreatments.com/products/twisty_locs.php

Ingredients: Shea butter, jojoba oil, honey, vitamins, and HPO essential oil blend.

Review: I love using shea butter on my hair. But, in the past, I have only used SheaMoisture Shea Butter Leave-In, which is whipped. Twisty Locs is the hard kind of shea butter that you have to dig out of the container and emulsify in between your fingers. For me, that took some real getting used to since I had never used that kind of shea butter before. Through trial and error (which I’ll discuss below), I finally got the hang of it. I’ll just say a little goes a long way! The big drawback is that Twisty Locs can leave your hair really greasy if you use too much, which isn’t hard to do. It took me a few tries to figure out how much is enough for my hair and how to avoid the greasy side effect. Aside from that, Twisty locs provides excellent moisture and curl definition. It’s also an excellent sealant. Lately, I’ve been applying it to the length of my hair when I do twist outs and I use it to seal my ends. When I take out the twists, my hair feels really soft and it has sheen. As an end sealant, Twisty Locs really enhances the curl at the ends of my twists. It also has a wonderful smell! In my opinion, it smells like SweetTarts. That might bother some people, but I love SweetTarts, so I liked getting an occasional whiff of my hair smelling like candy throughout the day!

Trial and Error: Here are my failed and successful attempts in using the Spa Hair Conditioner and the Twisty Locs.

Attempt #1 Failed T-n-C:

The first time I tried to do the T-n-C using these products, it was an absolute disaster! Here’s what I did:

• Shampooed with my usual Aubrey Organics J.A.Y. Desert Herb

• Conditioned and detangled using AO Honeysuckle Rose.

• After rinsing out the conditioner, I got out the shower, put my hair in 4 sections, and raked some of the HPO Spa Hair Conditioner through each section until completely saturated.

• The directions on the back of the container say for “normal treatment” to only leave the conditioner on for 5 minutes. After combing the conditioner through, I waited 5 minutes, then washed it out. My hair felt wonderful with the thick moisturizing coat I talked about earlier.

• When I got out of the shower, I sectioned off my hair again. I let my hair air dry a little and then applied a small amount of Hello Hydration to each section.

• Then I twisted my hair using the Twisty Locs. Again, I wasn’t used to using hard shea butter. Most hair products come in a whipped or cream type form, and when you put it on your hair, your hair initially feels heavy and wet until it starts to dry. The hard shea butter was the exact opposite. When it melts in your hands or between your fingers, it looks and feels like actual butter. It goes on very light. When I used Twisty Locs in this attempt, I kept piling it on my hair before twising because I was waiting for the wet, saturated feeling. The hard shea butter doesn’t do that…and it really wasn’t going to do it that time since my hair was still damp and I already put the Hello Hydration on it.

• Anyway, I finished the T-n-C as usual.

The next day, when I took my hair down, it looked terrible. My curls were limp and stretched out. On top of that my hair was heavy and SUPER greasy. All I could do with it at that point was pull my hair back in a ponytail or bun. My hair looked so bad that I didn’t even bother taking pictures of it.

Attempt #2 Wash n’ Go:

So after about three days, I couldn’t take my hair anymore. Not only was it greasy and lacking curl, but (and I hate to admit this) the SweetTart smell was starting to get a bit overwhelming for me. The smell was really heavy and prominent. I could literally smell my hair every time I turned my head. At first, it was cool, but after awhile it got to be annoying. So, it was clear to me that I used way too much of the Twisty Locs…but I was determined not to give up on these products. I decided to start all over and try again with just a simple wash n’ go.

I shampooed as usual, but instead of conditioning with the HSR, I just used the Spa Conditioner. After I got out the shower, I put my hair in four sections again, and applied the Twisty Locs to each section using the raking/shingling method. I paid more attention to how much shea butter I used this time. Because my hair wasn’t already coated with other conditioners, I was better able to gauge how much shea butter was enough for my hair…it was much less. I was really pleased with the results and my hair wasn’t greasy:

Attempt #3 Successful T-n-C:

After the successful wash n’ go, I left my hair alone for about a week. During that time, I thought about the mistakes I made in the last T-n-C attempt. I realized that my hair was limp & greasy because it was over conditioned and supersaturated. First, I used way too many conditioners. The HPO Spa Conditioner already leaves the hair more moisturized than the average conditioner…then I went and used two more conditioners on top of that! With respect to the Twisty Locs, it dawned on me that even though the hard shea butter went on very light, when it dries, it can leave the hair very heavy. With those mistakes in mind, I decided to give it one more try.

Here’s what I did the second time:

• Shampooed with AO JAY Desert Herb

• Conditioned and detangled with AO HSR

• After rinsing, I sectioned my hair and applied the Spa Conditioner

• Put a plastic cap over my hair and sat under the dryer for about 30 minutes for a deep treatment (Keep in mind, the directions on the back of the conditioner say the following: “FOR A DEEPER TREATMENT: Wrap hair in a warm towel and place plastic cap over towel, leave in hair for 8 minutes. Rinse with tepid water. No dryer needed.” Clearly, I’m hard-headed. I decided to do the complete opposite of the directions just see how it would turn out.)

• I did this on the spur of the moment really late one night, so 30 minutes under the dyer started to put me to sleep. So I decided to go to bed. I didn’t rinse the conditioner out and left the plastic cap over my head.

• The next morning, I rinsed out the conditioner, sectioned my hair and then twisted using the Twisty Locs. I finished my hair doing the usual T-n-C procedure.

• In any other T-n-C, I always let my hair dry overnight. But since I was doing this the following morning, I didn’t have time to wait for my hair to air dry. So I decided to sit under the dryer again. I sat under the dryer for about an hour and 30 minutes.

I just knew I was going to have the same disastrous results as before because I left the Spa Conditioner in my hair over night and completely disregarded the directions for deep treatment. But I was pleasantly surprised with the results:

I noticed that by sitting under the dryer the second time, the heat dried my hair such that it got rid of the greasiness, but still locked in the moisture from the Twisty Locs shea butter.

So, to recap, here are my final thoughts:

HPO Spa Conditioner:

Pros:

• Wonderful ingredients

• Great smell

• Excellent slip

• Detangles well

• Most moisturizing conditioner I’ve ever used

Cons

• Price—As much as I love this stuff, I don’t know if it’s worth paying $22 for 8 oz.

Twisty Locs:

Pros:

• Very moisturizing

• Leaves the hair soft and adds sheen

• Provides great curl definition

• Love the candy smell

• Good as a sealant

• Even though it only comes in 4 oz., you don’t have to use much and it lasts a long time

• Truly lives up to its name in that it’s a good product for twisting

Cons:

• Comes as a hard shea butter (can be hard to get used to if you’re accustomed to using the whipped kind)

• Can leave the hair with a greasy film

• Smell can be over bearing if you use too much

Post Spa Hair:

Just thought I’d share one last story. The same day I did the second T-n-C, I had an appointment to go to the spa that afternoon. It was my first time going to the spa, and I was going to get a massage and a facial. Little did I know that scalp massages were a part of the package. During the entire massage, I had been so careful about how I was laying so I wouldn’t crush my curls. So as I’m relaxing and the masseuse is massaging my neck, he slowly starts moving his hands (which are covered in oils and lotions) into the depths of my scalp! As he’s massaging, he’s pulling my curls…I was NOT happy! I wish someone could have taken a picture of the shock on my face. After the massage was over, I went to the next room for my facial. I asked the woman who was going to do my facial if she wanted me to put my hair up so it would be out of her way. Her response was, “No, that’s okay. I’m going to give you a scalp massage at the end anyway.” WTF?!!! Once again, someone should have taken a picture of my face. While the facial was heavenly, I just knew that my hair was going to look a hot mess. As this woman had her hands in my hair, all I could think was “all my hard work, down the drain.” But when I got up and looked in the mirror at the end of the facial, I was really surprised. My hair didn’t look too bad. Actually, the scalp massages fluffed my hair out more.

While my hair looked better than I expected, I still don’t like the fact that these people put their hands in my hair. If I ever get a massage or facial in the future, I’ll be sure to make sure there are no scalp massages.

***If you have a product review that you’d like to share with us, submit it to nikki@curlynikki.com.