Review:
Lee Stafford
Hair Mask
For Hair That Never Grows Past A Certain Length
Treatment
"If the earth's not nourished, you'll never grow beautiful flowers"
Don't you just love everything from Lee Stafford?! The colour scheme and the smell really appeal to my girlish side. I've been using his line sporadically for... gosh nearly ten years (I feel old!) when I used my friend's Lee Stafford Heat Protection Spray and immediately had to go buy myself a bottle.
Background:
I am always on a mission to grow my hair to what I call 'mermaid length'; I want to have my hair grow long enough to cover my chest. However, with eight years of bleaching, straightening, curling, back combing and giving myself bad hair cuts (the BIGGEST hair sins!) I knew that was an unrealistic goal. For the last year I've been trying to do everything right. I stopped bleaching, I only use heat on really special occasions (once a month tops) and I get professional trims every 7-8 weeks. I'm telling you this because I feel like all of the good things I've been doing to my hair have to be accounted for when I tell you that my hair HAS been growing longer than before, a fact that cannot be attributed to any one thing, including the Lee Stafford Hair Mask Treatment in this review.
What it claims it does:
- Vital hair and scalp complex helps to reduce hair loss
- Improves follicle health which in turn increases ability of the hair to anchor to the scalp
- Soothing formulation reduces irritation and moisturises the scalp
- Addresses hair and scalp ageing at a cellular level
- Improvement in tensile strength to give body and texture by penetrating the hair reaching the inner cortex
- Improves volume and feel of the hair
Directions:
The directions state that this treatment should be used in between shampooing and conditioning, massaging into the hair from the roots to the ends, leaving for 5 minutes.
I really can't understand using this product in the recommended order... Using it on the roots after shampooing means that no matter how long I spend washing the product out of my hair, the residue causes my hair to be far too soft at the roots meaning it gets greasy after a day and hangs really limp. It definitely doesn't improve the 'volume' of my hair as claimed!
Stafford states that you should use an egg sized amount every wash 'until hair improves' then once a week to maintain the improvement. Now, this tub contains 200ml. Assuming that Lee isn't referring to quails eggs, this contains about three egg sized amounts. For hair my length (it comes down to an inch below my armpits), I really do need a medium/large egg amount of product to cover my scalp to the ends of my hair. If I was to use this every wash, I'd have to buy a new tub every week!
What it actually does
The Good
- It leaves my hair feelings SO soft and silky. It definitely improves the feel of my hair, and smoother hair means its less likely to split
- As with all Lee Stafford products, it smells amazing. Even using a different conditioner after this treatment, my hair reeks of this when it's dry
The Bad
- I always experience a certain amount of shedding in the shower (is there a bleaker, grimmer chore than fishing out the matted disgusting hair from the plug hole...?!), but whenever I use this I experience a noticeably HIGHER volume of hair loss. I feel like applying a conditioner directly to my scalp (as directed) is lubricating the follicle to facilitate easier hair loss!
Packaging:
I love the pink, but I HATE anything in a tub for the shower. I simply don't have enough hands for this to work. I have to unscrew the lid with one hand, scooping the product out with the other, then quickly, one handedly screw the lid back on trying not to drop the product or get any water into the tub. Did all the hair product retailers have a meeting and conspire to package ALL hair masks in these inconvenient tubs, in order to encourage clumsy showering ladies like me to drop the product and have to repurchase more often? Mr Loreal says "what's wrong with squirty bottles? They work for everything else in the shower...". "You FOOL Loreal, don't you know that makes it considerably easier for application! MWAHAHAHAHA" laughs Lee Stafford.
Consistency:
Very viscous and thick, it feels luxurious.
Price:
£7.99 from Boots isn't too expensive compared to other hair masks, although since you need to use such a HUGE amount for each application, it makes it at least £2 per use! Maybe for ladies with shorter hair, or if it was only used on the ends it might be worth the price?
Over all thoughts:
Whilst my hair is growing longer than before, it's not growing any faster than the average inch every two months. It's one of the nicest hair masks I've used in terms of scent, consistency and resulting silkiness of the hair, although with the imminent post-use lanky greasiness and the ridiculous amount one must use, I don't think it's cost effective. I won't repurchase, although I'm still a big fan of the Lee Stafford range.
What's your favourite Lee Stafford Product?
*Disclaimer* I purchased this product myself. I do not do sponsored posts. All opinions are my own.
