Borrowed Products: Mini Reviews

While I was on the East Coast, I had to resort to the generosity of the people I was staying with for bath supplies, since I couldn't bring my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and shaving cream on the plane with me (at least, not without paying to check my bag, and I wasn't about to do that!).  The one really nice thing about it, though (besides how nice my housemates were), is that I got to try some products I wouldn't have otherwise.  I'm just going to do all of them in this post, because I'm too lazy to do detailed reviews for each of them, but if you want more deets, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do!

Aussie Moist Shampoo and Conditioner

This is one of those products that is really well liked by huge volumes of people.  It's lightly moisturizing but doesn't weigh hair down, which makes it a good choice for many types of hair.  My hair, however, being fine and curly, goes crazy in humidity, and this shampoo-conditioner combo just didn't cut it.  I found the shampoo didn't lather as much as I like, and I had to use a lot of the conditioner to detangle (that's pretty much always the case, though).  I wish it had more heavy moisturizers, honestly, because my hair tended to grow 3 sizes whenever I stepped outside.  On the upside, it was nice and soft, but still: '80s-style poodle puff isn't my best look.  $3-$5 for 13.5 oz, from drugstores

Suave Captivating Curls Mousse Review and Pictures

I have longish, curly, tangle-prone hair, that manages to be both fine and full-bodied.

Some of the bigger curls, sorry for the blurriness; I couldn't see the back of my head...

It tends to frizz, and because it's so fine, it is easily weighed down by heavy styling products.  In the cold, dry winters in Philadelphia, it would often lose most of its curl, whereas in the humid summers, it was as big and bouncy as could be.  I've tried a lot of mousses, leave-in conditioners, and curl sprays to varying degrees of success, but before going to Germany, none had come close to HG status.  When in Berlin, I tried out some curl mousse from Garnier, Locken und Glanz Power ("curl and shine power").  It was awesome.  I loved it.  Perfect curls, every day, no crunch, no stiffness, no weird film.  Of course, the utopia had to end.  I failed to get a backup canister (or 5) before I left, but figured the Garnier curl mousse here in the States would be the same thing.  Now, what do we always hear about assuming things?  It makes and ass out of you and me and my hair.  The stuff here was not the same; it made my hair crunchy and would flake off if I tried to manipulate my hair in any way.  Gar nicht gut ("so not good").