**REVIEW** 2 Products from the African Pride Shea Miracle Moisture Intense Line

The change in locations is doing a number on my hair. When I visited Northern Iowa a couple of years ago and stayed in a town just over 20 miles from where I now live, my hair loved the fall season humidity. I didn't even have to use moisturizing products.

Here in this little town where I'm just over 3 blocks from a lake, my hair has been in a different mood. I moved here in summer and between the natural heat and some mildly moisturizing products, my hair did okay. But this winter... Right now, I am struggling to keep my hair moisturized and soft without weighing it down. When I heard about the Shea Miracle line from African Pride, I was impressed, first, by the prices, then by the descriptions.

SHEA MIRACLE BUTTERY CREME

The Moisture Intense Buttery Creme (at $2.93 for a 6oz jar) is touted to:

Nourish & Soften Curls, Coils and Waves

Stretch & Elongate Curls and Kinky- Coils

Smooth and Tame Frizz

Sounds good to me. So let's talk about this Buttery Creme.

The first time I used it, I just put some on my hair without washing it or otherwise preparing it. It felt good going on. It was creamy and felt like it had good slip. I pulled it gently through from root to tip and let it dry. The hair that I applied it to looked good. It had curl and definition and it felt moisturized. Until it dried. The curl and definition were still there but the hair felt dry and slightly hard - or crunchy.

Ingredients sound good

If that had been the end of it, I would have just sprayed in some of my other moisturizers - maybe some Sta-Sof-Fro or Hawaiin Silky -  but that was not the end of it.

When I went to bed, it got warm during the night and I could tell my hair was sweating out a little bit. I figured that was okay, just more moisture. Wrong.

The struggle is the realest

Of course, when you wake up after a night like that, your hair will eventually dry. When mine did, it was SO dry. Not only was it dried out like tumbleweed, it had lost all the curl definition where I'd applied the Buttery Creme.

I wasn't going to totally give up on the product. I decided to give it another go by doing a co-wash first and then using the Shea Miracle Leave-In. I'll get to Leave-In in a moment.

looks/feels good on the fingers

So, I co-washed (using my Aussie Moist), then I applied some of the Shea Miracle Leave-In. After letting my hair air dry to a slight dampness, I applied the Buttery Creme to sections of my hair. Once again, the curl definition was nice. I then let it dry while I did some cleaning and blogging. After about an hour, the curls still looked good but the hair felt dried out.

I went to bed without twisting my hair. I usually twist it for styling about once or twice a week. Since I had the curl definition from the Creme and I felt it was too dried out to be manipulating it, I skipped twisting.

This morning, my hair had no curl definition and it was drier than ever. I had to leave for a medical appointment and didn't have time to do anything but spray apply a little bit of Hawaiin Silky. I thought that might alleviate the crunchy bush that was my hair. It did but only a little.

So, the Buttery Creme is something of a disappointment. I got 2 jars because of the price. Now I will have to try to add some other kind of oil to it just to use it up. It gives the curl that I like but that drying and matting are ridiculous! I'm going to have to rinse my hair in a few days and do a heat-cap treatment with some Aussie Moist to rectify this situation. I hope that works.




SHEA MIRACLE LEAVE-IN

As far as the Leave-In, it's only slightly better.

It's pricier at $9.50 for 16 ounces. This is the hype:

Intensely Moisturize and Instantly Detangle

Turn frizz to Smooth Curls, Coils and Waves

Nourish for Greater Shine and Softness

You've already heard my opinion of the product. The more I think of the price, the more I think of sending it back for a refund. If not,  I guess that it could work as a co-washing treatment. I can use it to loosen the dirt and oil from my hair, then use a touch of my Aussie Moist for softening. The Shea Miracle Leave-In is not as softening as I expected. I could tell from the way my hair felt prior to using the Buttery Creme.

Because I don't want to further dry out my hair, I will wait to rinse it free of these products. As of tonight, I am going to dampen my hair and twist style it using this product from the original Shea Moisture line.

The cap is all taped up because I brought it with me from Alaska. I try never to waste a product! I can't even remember how this worked on my hair before or if I just tried it on someone else's hair. There is barely any gone from the bottle. I figure it cannot make my hair feel any worse than it does right now.

I really wanted to like these African Pride products. I have used some other A.P. products and have liked them all but these two. Anyway, live and learn.

Peace
--Free