Product Review: Shea Moisture Raw Shea Deep Treatment Masque

Another product gifted to me to review by Nature and I is the Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque/Mask.
This product is aptly named - yes - just its label tells you what it mainly contains as well as what it is for and what it will do. My hair found it to be true.

I thought I would include the ingredients just to show all the goodness contained in this tub:
Deionized water, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*, Argan Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Emulsifying Wax, Sea Kelp Extract, Panthenol (Vitamin B-5),Essential Oil Blend, Avacado Oil, Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) Flower (and) Lonicera Japonica (Japanese honeysuckle) Flower Extract, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Hyssopus Officinalis Extract, Salvia Officinalis (sage) Leaf and Equisetum Arvense Extract, Soybean Oil, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Seed Oil

The Hair Loves: first and foremost the scent. Talk about sheer luxury. Think frankincense or some really expensive perfume, not too overpowering and yet takes your mind to thoughts of a lovely spring day in a palace somewhere. Yes, the hair loves the smell. The texture is creamy and easy enough to apply. I find the best way is on clean, DETANGLED hair - I would not advise on applying this product to hair that is not already detangled. Then section the hair into about 4-6 or more sections and apply the masque from root to tip, always smoothing to the ends - ensuring the ends which need the most love are fully covered and saturated with the masque.
The masque does not leave alot of residue like one might expect in terms of it being a masque and I will try using it as a leave-in one day. I cover with a plastic or plastic shower cap and go about my other tasks for about 30mins - 1 hour or so and then rinse. The hair also loves that this product can be kept on for about 5 minutes, which I have done, and then thoroughly rinsed out - using masques does not have to take forever. Once rinsed, the hair does immediately feel strengthened. Feel free to use a leave-in conditioner afterwards as strengthening masques do not make the hair very soft but rather enforce strength into the hair strands - the hair was not hard but toughened so to speak and certainly moisturised. I did notice reduced breakage and/or shedding so know it works. The hair which is colour treated about twice a year and was last done in January and did not appear to have its colour faded or stripped which is a definite bonus.

The Hair Wanted More or Less of:  the hair felt this product to be fine as is. I will try it with added Extra Virgin Olive Oil as recommended on the tub, otherwise it is definitely a keeper.

The Hair Did Not Take Well To: again, the hair felt this product to be fine as is. Some may complain about the price but it is an imported product therefore it will cost more than the average hair masque. I cannot attest to the growth properties of the product but if its helps the strands to remain on the head and not break off - Hair Retention - then it certainly will appear to promote growth. I will monitor this over time. (I did get a chance to try it with Extra Virgin Olive Oil just before publishing this post and the hair did not like it all. It made it slightly harder to rinse out and made the hair feel like there was still a substance on it and seemed to toughen the hair even more. Maybe I put too much or maybe because I put it after applying the mask instead of mixing it in the mask and then applying - I will try it again)

 Hair with the masque applied

Overall would I use it again - a definite yes, especially for my colour treated hair which needs as much love and extra care as it can get - and the benefits are obvious. For me, I shall be keeping this masque in rotation right through winter.

Shea Moisture have a wide range of products all packed with natural ingredients. They are based in the states but South Africa does have a few locally based suppliers like http://www.naturendi.com/ who sell this line of products online. (see my post about my order I placed with Nature and I  HERE)
If you have used this product, let me know what you thought about it. There are also various tutorials and other reviews out there so do your research and if like me you are willing to try new things then by all means go for it and as always LISTEN TO YOUR HAIR.