altairastar's Full Review: Redken All Soft Conditioner
I finally did it. One day I walked out of my favorite treat shop, Sally Beauty Supply and went directly to Trade Secret where I bought my first salon conditioner: Redken All Soft. You see, during the last year I've become something of an amateur trichologist. Through research, reading and haphazardous experimentation, I've learned a heck of a lot about haircare products and what all those methyl-octyl-quaternium words in the ingredient list mean. And I've found that if you go to a beauty supply store, you'll find nearly identical products as you will in a high-end salon. You just have to know how to read the ingredient lists.
But still, I'd heard and read so many rave reviews of Redken All Soft I had to try it, even though it has absolutely no special ingredients (more on that later.)
The Claim
redken.com says: Softness to slip your fingers through. All Soft delivers Avocado Oil to moisturize hair above and beyond what you expect. Use All Soft daily for long-term softness, even if your hair is dry, or wiry, frizzy, brittle and rough to the touch. Smoothes, shines in seconds and helps hair stand the heat of blow dryers or irons.
The Packaging
I hate to admit it, but packaging is somehow very important to me. If a bottle is shaped like a hot air balloon or some other bizarre design, I don't like trying to fit it in with my other hair supplies in the shower--or trying to hold onto it with sudsy shower hands. Fortunately, Redken All Soft conditioner comes in the signature stand-up, flip-top Redken tube: skinny and gold with grips at the top for those slippery hands. For $8.99 I got 8.5 ounces.
Application
That...smell! Mmmm! Gets me all hot and bothered just thinking about it! The All Soft line has what can only be described as a very distinctive aroma. (Not distinctive as in the greasy auto mechanic-like guy that sat behind you in Ecology 100, but nice and memorable.) It smells like a sweet drink or something you'd want to slurp down on a hot Fourth of July. The conditioner is a fairly thick, opaque cream. It will stay on your hair just fine.
The Results
All Soft conditioner goes on easily in the shower. If you have dry, damaged or chemically treated hair, I recommend this: Shampoo, then towel/squeeze dry your hair, generously apply conditioner and let it sit on your hair for as long as possible. (Well don't let it dry to a crusty mess but leave it at least an hour.) If you have a heating cap, wear it for 10-15 minutes and then sleep with conditioner in your hair, if you can. (This makes for an exceptionally romantic surprise when your husband/honey reaches over to play with your hair and gets a handful of goop. He'll just love it.) Conditioners work by coating the hair shaft--they CANNOT repair or penetrate the hair shaft no matter what the bottle claims--so the longer it stays on your hair the better the conditioning agents can cling to the cuticle.
That said, let's see what All Soft will do for you! This is a very good conditioner. And let me tell you, I have tried way too many. At any given time there are at least 5 different conditioners in my bathroom drawer. Why one head of hair needs so many products I'll never know. But I do know this: although All Soft Conditioner left my hair softer, shinier and generally healthier-looking, it is nothing special. You can find comparable, if not more moisturizing products for way less than nine bucks.
Let's look at the ingredient list: The FDA mandates manufacturers list additives starting with the ones in the biggest quantity. The first 4-5 ingredients make up almost the entire product. And most conditioners are three-quarters water. (If this is all new to you, I highly recommend reading Don't Go Shopping for Haircare Products Without Me This book will forever change your buying habits and you will be a well-informed consumer.) So what you are paying for are essentially the first few ingredients listed.
After water comes cetearyl alcohol. Contrary to popular belief, not all alcohols dry out your hair! It's just not true. If it were, you wouldn't see certain alcohols included in virtually every moisturizing conditioner. Cetearyl alcohol is derived from coconut oil and is a mixture of stearyl and cetyl alcohol. It is an emollient, a good moisturizing agent, makes hair shiny and also thickens the product.
Next up is glycerin. Like sorbitol, this relatively inexpensive ingredient is a good moisturizer for skin and hair. It is an alcohol-derived humectant, meaning it is a water-binding agent that attracts and holds in water to the hair.
After that, propylene glycol. Ready for a surprise? It's antifreeze. Yes, it really is. But don't let that scare you off. This ingredient is a good slip agent, meaning it detangles hair and makes it easy to comb.
Ceteth-3 is another alcohol-derived emollient, and cyclomethicone is a silicone derivative that makes hair shiny and clings well to the hair shaft. Behenalkonium chloride is a quaternary compound, meaning it smoothes the hair cuticles and makes them lay flat for a shiny appearance. After that the ingredients are probably in such minute quantities that they make little difference to your hair. So while All Soft Conditioner certainly makes your hair nice and soft, it does it through alcohol-derived emollients and not through avocado oil, which is listed signficantly farther down the list. The same goes for the soy and wheat proteins included on the label.
By now you're probably really bored with reading chemical names and descriptions (or perhaps you're intrigued; if so, please leave me a comment with your email if you'd like a list of ingredients/descriptions I've compiled.) So in the end, this is what I have to say about Redken All Soft Conditioner:
*It smells great and looks chic in the little gold bottle. Appearances do count for something.
*It will make dry hair less frizzy, softer and shinier.
*Other lower-priced products with nearly identical ingredient lists will produce the same results for a lot less money. If you have extremely dry hair, I recommend Professional Prescription Humectin Humidifier by Jheri Redding. I buy it at Sally and it is some heavy duty stuff.
Where to Buy
Trade Secret, Regis, other salons. I've also begun to see this and other salon products in Target, CVS and Rite-Aid, although usually at the same price as the salon.
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