Review Of The Curls Unleashed Line Of Products On 4a Natural Hair
“Slap the words butter, smoothie, pudding, souffle, and most of all CURL on a product and its almost guaranteed to fly off the shelf.” This comment was by EbonyCPrincess of Longing4length on one of my articles a while ago.
It made me giggle at the time because it’s an accurate observation and cringe inducingly true in my case. In fact just a few days prior to this comment I was at my local BSS perusing their usual mineral oil* laden shelves and secretly wanting to slip my business card to the women buying this stuff, when I came across the Curls Unleashed product line by Organic Root Stimulator.
I don’t often find much in my little BSS worth buying but looking at the ingredients of these products and the tag line ‘Nature Got It Right The First Time!’ (obviously a nod to natural hair), I was fascinated.
They have a decent range of products with wonderful names like ‘Take Command Curl Defining Creme’, ‘Let It Flow Shine & Define Mousse’ & ‘Second Chance Curl Refresher’ so I knew I had to try a few.
When I do product reviews I tend to go for conditioners every time but I have learnt that there are very few conditioners that my hair does not like so to broaden my horizons, I opted to leave their wonderfully named ‘No Restrictions Moisturizing Conditioner’ out of this review. I may of course revise this review in the future to include more products in the line.
I settled for ‘Set It Off Curl Boosting Jelly’, ‘Lavish in Lather Sulfate Free Shampoo*’ & ‘No Boundaries Leave-in Conditioner*’.
Curls Unleashed Lavish in Lather Sulfate Free Shampoo
 Looking at the ingredient list of this unassuming bottle I was a little bit taken aback to notice that it contained Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate which I recently found to be just as drying as sulfates depending on the context.In this particular formulation that ORS have put together however, this is hands down the best sulfate free shampoo* that I have ever used! I seriously cannot rave about this product enough.The shampoo has a very light fragrnace and it is transparent putting me in mind of a mild baby shampoo but it lathers beautifully. After 2 throrough washes and even allowing the product to sit in my hair for a few minutes, my hair was still left soft and smooth after rinsing.Of course I wouldn’t use it before a protein treatment, for that you need a hard core clean, but before a moisturizing deep conditioner*, this shampoo would be fab.Buy in the USBuy in the UK
Curls Unleashed Set It Off Curl Boosting Jelly
Curls Unleashed No Boundaries Leave-in Conditioner
ConclusionWhile I understand why they have chosen the simple monochrome styled packaging, it does come across like a ‘no frills’ supermarket chain product line which is probably not what they had in mind. Also, since the shampoo and leave in conditioner look so similar, take care that you don’t grab the wrong bottle when you want to moisturize your hair! My own hair is 4a natural but there is no reason why the shampoo and the leave in conditioner* won’t work great on relaxed hair too. If you are a purist and prefer all natural ingredients, I don’t think this line of products is for you but if you are just looking for stuff that works then you should give some of these products, particularly the shampoo a try.
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In my experience I have found that thicker gels work better for defining kinky* curly hair, particularly 4 type. As such I have always been of the opinion that the thicker the product the better it works. Not so in this case.Like the name suggests, the texture of this product is like a thick jello. It smells pleasant enough but I found that the thickness of the product also made it difficult to apply it evenly on the hair without using too much.I used it to smooth down a curly puff on my 3 year old daughter and she spent the entire day scratching her scalp (something she never does) and we had to wash the product off that same evening.I have also recently developed a sensitivity to gluten so I was not crazy about the hydrolyzed wheat protein among the ingredients.Other curlies may like this gel but unfortunately I did not.Buy in the US
This is a pleasant smelling creamy leave in conditioner*. It does what it says on the bottle and reliably softened and detangled my curls to help with my finger detangling sessions.The only red flag in the ingredient list as far as I can see is PEG 20 hydrogenated lanolin*.I still find it incredibly annoying that manufacturers insist on using hydrogenated oils in hair products when there are so many other natural oils and fats to choose from.However with the use of shea butter* and olive oil* as the primary fats, showing near the top of the list of ingredient list, plus the addition of coconut oil* in the formulation, I am willing to give this leave in conditioner a free pass (just this once)!A word of warning, although it smells quite pleasant, the scent can be a bit strong sometimes and if you plan to use it as a daily moisturizer, go easy because along with the scent, you don’t want excessive build up.Buy in the US
