Rhi-Review - Kind Natured Shampoo and Conditioner

Recently, I decided to make the switch to sulphate-free haircare for multiple reasons:

1. Sulphates can really dry out your hair. They do this by stripping away its lovely natural oils, and this can be a bigger problem if your locks ain't natural. Over the years my hair has been bleached & dyed all the colours of the rainbow, meaning that while it has been looking j a z z y, the dye, bleach AND sulphates have been working together to create some kind of hair desert situation.
2. They might become your eczema's evil sidekick. Thankfully, my eczema is mild & primarily contact dermatitis from things like washing up liquid, but sulphates do have the potential to aggravate eczema and encourage it to take over the world piss you off even more. Grrr.
3. They can encourage static. When I used regular haircare with sulphates in, I sometimes thought I would 'give my hair a break' by just using shampoo every other time I washed my hair. Little did I know that this was actually maintaining 'The Floof', a largely static beast on the back of my head. During my nerdy sulphate research times, I re-taught myself some Chemistry: the sulphate ion is SO4(2-). When regular sulphate-filled shampoo is rinsed off, the negative charge of its surfactants (ooh fancy) sticks around. If this isn't neutralised by an anionic (positively charged!) conditioner, it's STATIC TIME. So I was actually making things worse, and sulphate shampoos basically trick you into damaging/drying out your hair more in the long run by using sulphate conditioners. Yikes.

If you don't know/pay attention to whether there are sulphates chilling in your current shampoo, the answer is probably 'yes' because THEY'RE FLIPPING EVERYWHERE. And there's reasoning behind this of course: they are really great foaming agents. Need a good lathering? Sulphates got ya back. And this foaming business of theirs is what we like... or is it just what we're used to?

My first Google search of sulphate-free shampoos was a little daunting. Everything highly rated by websites and magazines was super expensive, and frankly even if I did have plenty of money I wouldn't splurge £25 on a single bottle of stuff to put on my hair. Saying this, I would spend this much on alcohol so maybe I need to reconsider my priorities...

Yet A BEAUTIFUL BEAM OF LIGHT that is Kind Natured shone through the interwebs and, after finding out their products were on offer at Boots, I ran to my nearest store in majestic slow motion and got my hands on these babies:

Kind Natured's Super Shine Argan & Kukui Oil Shampoo and Conditioner, £4.99* each

This shampoo and conditioner smell fresh and wonderful and thanks to their oily ingredients, they did indeed make my hair super shiny. Sadly, they didn't manage to banish 'The Floof' in its entirety.

Score: 3/5

Once I realised I was running out of the above a few weeks ago, I ventured back to Boots and snapped up another combo from the Kind Natured range:

Kind Natured's Love curls Bamboo & Sea Kelp Shampoo and Conditioner, £4.99* each

Let me tell you - this. is. my JAM. Okay it's my shampoo & conditioner but you get my drift. As someone with natural waves as opposed to curls, I wasn't sure if I was qualified to buy this stuff but I went ahead with it anyway (je suis rebelle). In contrast with the Super Shine products, these smell earthy and rich - that's sea kelp for you - and I really like that. The icing on the cake is that these truly have made my hair smoother and less static. I thought switching to a wooden hairbrush earlier this year would do that but, as it turns out, sometimes you need your hairbrush and haircare to join forces.

Score: 4/5

Summary

Kind Natured as a company overall seems to have a really great ethos and approach to haircare which I love. At the moment, Boots only sells 250ml bottles but they have each lasted me much longer than I expected, so I don't mind paying a bit more money than I used to for shampoo and conditioner. As you can see from the bottles, not only do they avoid sulphates but they also leave out nasty petrochemicals and parabens (which act as a preservative but can be dangerous to both you and the environment) - SCORE! I'd love to try out their Colour Care (coconut & shea) and Nourishing (ylang ylang & sage) bottles in the near future.

Although I'm committed to sulphate-free haircare now, I'm still not used to the fact that it doesn't foam up/form a great big lather like regular sulphate-containing products. However, I think the overall benefits of avoiding sulphates (and the rest!) are more important than that lil' aspect. Check out Kind Natured's website for more info and while you're at it, consider OGX's lotions n' potions too (the majority of their products are sulphate-free!).

OGX's Lavender platinum shampoo - lovely stuff

*bought on offer for £3 each in Boots

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