I’m probably the only person in the world who doesn’t like Dove soap. Despite the fact that it’s undeniably creamy, it’s also got a very specific scent reminds me of a particularly dreadful ex-flatmate. (I once came home to discover she’d painted my white, wooden ‘beach house’-inspired bathroom decor a hideous shade of khaki ‘because she was bored’. She didn’t think it would be necessary to ask…)

Anyway, being petty and pathetic, I was determined to despise Dove’s new hair care line but – surprise, surprise – it’s pretty darn awesome. Drat.

The first of their hair care goodies that crossed my path is their Damage Therapy Intensive Repair daily treatment conditioner, R56.

Essentially a ‘conditioner with a mask-effect’, Dove says it’ll help reduce the appearance of hair damage with a ‘dual-action’ formula works in two ways; ‘TREATING’ your hair with deeply penetrating restorative ‘fibre actives’ and ‘CONDITIONING’ via a ‘micro-moisture serum’ that seals your hair’s cuticle.

Having scanned the ingredients list, I have no clue what the ‘fibre actives’ are, but hey! I’m also not sure which of its ingredients make up the serum but can see it contains a whackload of silicone* which is pretty much the standard when it comes to ‘sealing’.

So. Having given it a good test drive, these are my thoughts: First up, it doesn’t smell like Dove soap, so there’s no flashbacks to me rocking and crying on the bathroom floor while cradling a mini ‘khakified’ towel rack. Yay! It also works likes a charm in that I can apply a generous amount to my super fine, oil-prone hair (from roots to tips, nogal), let it ‘marinate’ for a just a minute and the result is beautifully conditioned, easy to de-tangle locks that still feel light and bouncy. In fact, I’d be very happy to spend my own money on another tube of this product. Not that I have to…

Due to some admin issue, I had TWELVE of these babies delivered to my door (woo hoo!) so I started handing them out to friends. All of them essentially had the same feedback as mine and my make-up artist friend Tam says she’s now ‘converted for life’. I’ve still got a few tubes left and I totally planned to hand them out but now I’m going to keep them all to myself ‘cos a) I’m a selfish cow and b) it’s really that good.

Otherwise, I’ve also been given Dove’s Oil Nourishing Oil Care line which also includes a treatment conditioner so I’m very interested to see how it compares to Damage Therapy and will be sure to let you know my thoughts.

Love, love

Leigh

*For the record, silicone gets a bit of negative press but it’s not bad for your hair. In fact, it’s probably in a zillion products you have in your shower right now listed as dimethicone or another type of –cone in the ingredients list. Still, if you use silicone products without a good clarifier every once in a while they can build up on your hair. If your hair shafts end up getting too coated, any moisturising ‘nourishing’ ingredients won’t be able to get in. So, by all means, enjoy your silicone hair goodies (Moroccan Oil, for example, is pretty much 99% silicone, 1% Argan oil), just use a clarifier on the weekend to avoid build up.