I don’t normally use Herbal Essences, but I used to when I was a teen. So when I saw that it was on sale at my local store for $2.50 a bottle, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try one of the newest “flavors.”
I settled on the Hydralicious Reconditioning Shampoo and Conditioner for dry and damaged hair. There are also two other Hydralicious “flavors,” Lightweight and Self-Targeting, but the reconditioning formula was the one that seemed right for me. The shampoo itself is bright purple with lavender that is all swirly like a candy cane and matches the bottle, so I’m assuming that the other two are also color coordinated to their respective packaging, but I didn’t check.
The consistency of the shampoo is THICK. I poured some into my palm, the shampoo barely moved and it coated my hair in a really nice, thick lather. A drawback was that it rinsed away very slowly and took me a lot longer than normal to feel like I got it all out, but it didn’t leave my hair feeling coated or in need of a second shampoo.
The conditioner is even thicker and doesn’t run which is great for me as I like to pile all my hair on top of my head and let my conditioner really soak in. Let me tell you, once I had this stuff in my hair it was like a conditioner helmet and it stayed plastered in place until I was ready to wash. It took about as much time to rinse as the shampoo, so that was a little annoying, but it left my hair fairly soft and completely tangle- free.
So, here is why I unfortunately, won’t be buying it again however. I can’t STAND the scent. It was one of those times when I liked it while I was in the store, but once I got it home and was surrounded by it, it became way too much. It’s not a bad scent, really, I just have a problem with really strong scents that don’t fade. In the bottle it smells citrus-y and fresh, on my hair it smells like coconuts and grape Bubblicious. I know I’m in the minority with this but I HATE the smell of coconuts. No offense, it smells nice on others, but … I just can’t stand it and the scent lingered in my hair for almost two days. It was just like when I put mayonnaise in my hair as a teen and it smelled like old mayo for weeks. I ate dry sandwiches for years after that incident.
