Small Treats

Louise Galvin Deep Conditioning TreatmentI was given this hair mask for my birthday last year, as was having a particularly bad time with my straw-like locks. As my hair is pretty heavily bleached and dyed, it can grow through spells of feeling and looking pretty sorry for itself. Getting a brush through it after washing can be a bit of a nightmare, so I am always on the quest for a good conditioner for everyday use, and a good conditioning treatment. I had high hopes for this baby!Louise Galvin is the daughter of famous salon-owner Daniel Galvin, and has created her own line of natural, environmentally friendly haircare products for coloured hair. Now I'm not particularly dogmatic about the haircare products I choose or use; yes it is nice to use organic and/or environmentally friendly products but I must admit I am not particularly drawn to them. So when I was given this as a gift (from my Mum who is into saving the planet a lot more than I) I thought it would be nice to try something that not only is good for my hair, but also for the environment. The deep conditioning treatment is labelled as 'carbon neutral beauty' and claims to hold no SLS, PEGS, Parabens, Silicone, Petrochemicals, Polymers or Synthetic fragrance. I recognize a few of these words, but not all. All I know is that is it meant to be good!Anyway, I have tested this treatment about 3 times now. The tub says you should apply it to towel-dried hair and leave on for at least ten minutes before combing through and rinsing out with cold water. There are a couple of things about this which I find irritating - towel drying my hair mid bath/shower is not practical and I could not rinse my whole head with cold water. I thought this was meant to be a pleasant experience?!But, on I go. After leaving it on for about 12 minutes, comb through and rinse it off with lukewarm water and then a blast of cold - this is the best I can do! I pop my hair up in a towel as usual and leave for about 10 minutes before brushing through and blowdrying. First, I notice that my hair is still pretty hard to brush. Still plenty of knots and tangles which aren't easy to get a brush through. But I power through, and blowdry as usual with images of celebrity-esque sleek hair running through my mind. I have to say, unfortunately this product did not achieve such results. My hair did not feel or look any more conditioned/healthy than any other day when I use a bog-standard conditioner and leave in for about a minute. I have tried using it again for a longer amount of time; I left it in for about 25 minutes which did seem to have slightly better results. I don't know about you, but I don't have 25+ minutes to condition my hair, so unfortunately this product does not get a thumbs up from me. Although I like that it is organic and environmentally friendly,  I have to say I will stick to possibly more chemical based products which have a better effect in a shorter time. Have you tried any Louise Galvin products? What did you think?