Pre-pooing with Wen Sweet Almond Mint

Ingredients:  Water, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol,
Chamomilla Recutia Flower Extract, Wild Cherry Bark Exract,
Rosemary Leaf ExtractSweet Almond Oil, Aloe Vera Juice,
Hydrolyzed Wheat ProteinPanthenol, Butylene Glycol, BTMS,
Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Polysorbate 60, PEG-60
Almond Glycerides, Amodimethicone, Citric Acid, Menthol,
Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinene,
Fragrance, Limonene, Hexyl Cinnamal.

Some time ago I ordered the Wen Sweet Almond Mint cleansing conditioner for my mom.  She had been anxious to try it out.  I had an opportunity to purchase the kit for $9.95 so I ordered it for her. Well, let's just say she did not like it.  She did not like how it made her hair feel, she thought that her hair was not being cleaned, so I took it off her hands. Why not give it a try? Maybe it would work for me.

It turns out
that I don't care for it either.  For one I have a thing about getting a lather when I'm trying to cleanse my hair. I don't know if it's just me, but when there's lather, it's easier for me to get my fingers to my scalp. With this, that wasn't happening. My strands just kind of clump together making it hard to get my fingers through, which is kind of frustrating.  Also, I didn't think may hair felt all that great the couple of times that I used it to wash. AND it left my scalp itchy and flaky! That definitely made it a deal breaker for me. Hence the reason it's been sitting on the shelf for months now.

Well, on my mission to get rid of the many hair products that can be found in every corner of my apartment ~ bit of an exaggeration :) ~ I saw this on the shelf and started to wonder "Hmm could I use it as a prepoo?"  This product does not strip your hair at all and it even suggests to use it as a leave-in to condition your hair.  Since it causes itchiness and flakiness for my scalp I have never used it as a leave in. I wish I could pinpoint what exactly in the ingredients causes this, but I'm not quite sure.

Last night when I started my wash day, I sectioned my hair into four sections, detangled, then massaged coconut oil into my scalp.  I then applied the Wen to the length of my dry hair trying to avoid the scalp.  I didn't use any heat. I just let it sit on my hair for maybe 30 minutes or so.  When I rinsed it out, my hair felt very soft and was easy to detangle. I noticed that it has Behentrimonium Methosulfate and Aloe Vera Juice, which both provide amazing slip.  I was actually starting to like this product. Wow!

I think I will continue to use the Wen cleansing conditioner as a prepoo and then cleanse my scalp after.   That way I can avoid the itchy flaky scalp that results from this product.  It does have a lot of really great ingredients, but for cleansing and leave in purposes it is not for me.  This just goes to show an example of how to make a product you didn't think you liked work for you in a different way.

Has anyone else tried Wen Cleansing Conditioner?

How do/did you use it?

Do you love it or hate it?

Thanks for reading!

   Andrea