This month I splurged on some rather extravagant Larry King shampoo & conditioner. It’s the most I’ve ever spent on 180ml of hair washing products, that’s for sure. It did make me hover over the ‘confirm order’ button for a little while! But, I could hear that little voice in my head saying, “Heidi – Treat Yo’ Self”… So I did.
My hair has been in need of some serious TLC for a while. Picture lacklustre hair that’s dead, brittle, and completely exempt of any life or movement. To be honest, It highly resembled what you would find in the middle of a field on a scarecrow.
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My hair type
I have 1988, Mariah Carey hair, which, unfortunately isn’t the most desirable in 2022. Meaning I have to blow dry or straighten it as much as possible. All in the hopes of removing the ridiculous amount of frizz that my parents blessed me with. Trouble is, straight hair really doesn’t suit me, so I then get my curling wand on it to create lose curls/waves. Once it’s finished, all I have to do is avoid the rain along with any humid situations. Otherwise we get Monica in Barbados vibes in a matter of seconds.
My hair is a weird one. The strands of my hair are very fine, with a few coarse ones dotted about. I have rather a lot of hair though, so on the whole, it’s quite thick, Frizzy; curly and unruly! What a fantastic combo I hear you say.
Obviously all the heat styling doesn’t help my dry hair situation, and I have to complete that tedious ritual 1-2 times a week. But until I’ve put enough moolah aside to buy the mighty Dyson Airwrap (I see there is a new one out now!) that isn’t going to change anytime soon!
Price
The full size (300ml) bottles of Larry King shampoo’s & conditioners are around £40 each. Which to me, is an extravagant amount of money to spend on such items. It’s also a lot to spend/waste if you end up not liking how it works with your hair type.
Luckily though, they have smaller 180ml refill tubes for £21.00. Which is exactly what I bought as a good way to test out Larry King’s products before possibly committing to a full size bottle.
Overall, I was intrigued to see if better quality shampoo & conditioner would actually improve the straw like appearance of my hair, or if you’re just paying extra for the brand…
Larry King conditioner
There is only one conditioner in the range which has a brilliant name; ‘Liquid hairbrush’. Love that, and it suits the product to a T. Usually, I plaster my hair with conditioner in the shower, and it still takes a lot of tugging to get a hair brush through it afterwards. The liquid hairbrush made it much easier to brush through and detangled my long hair in rapid time. It also made my hair feel really soft, even when it was wet I could tell the difference.
Larry King shampoo options
For shampoo choices, there are 3 to pick from. City Life, Social Life & Good Life.
City life; helps detoxify your hair from city pollution, and remove product build up without stripping your natural oils. It’s packed full of ingredients which help remove hard water and heavy mineral salts, including iron and copper which can wreak havoc on your hair.
Social life; provides voluptuous body & gorgeous glossy shine. The perfect choice for when you want big glamorous hair as it has a little extra grip to help with holding styles.
Good life; is the one you want for a hair pick me up as it’s packed with vitamin and mineral goodness. All working to nourish and moisturise your hair, leaving it feeling renewed and refreshed. Clearly, this is the one I opted for.
Packaging
Larry King want to do everything they can to reduce the use of plastic. The large bottles are made of glass, and the refills come in squeezy aluminium tubes. A material which is widely recyclable.
The tubes arrived creased thanks to all the shaking during transit, and the nature of the material. That didn’t bother me at all, I actually think they look really pretty and rustic. As soon as you use it, it’ll have a dent anyway, plus they are technically refills and would be getting decanted into the big glass bottles.
The screw lid is a smidge fiddly when you’ve got wet hands in the shower, but again – it’s not it’s purpose to be used in this way.
Their branding is spot on. The font, the colours, the vessels. It’s really simplistic and swish.
Scent
I really like the scent of the Liquid Hairbrush & Good Life shampoo. It doesn’t smell artificial like a lot of drugstore shampoos can. It’s quite subtle rather than walking out the shower with hair that smells of strawberries or mangos – nothing wrong with that. But this is much more of a natural, delicate clean scent.
How I use the Good Life shampoo
As I only wash my hair 1-2 times a week, I always do a double shampoo/cleanse. I find this doesn’t lather up much on the first wash (I get this with most shampoo’s) but the second shampoo bubbles up beautifully. It also doesn’t make my hands feel weird. Not sure if this is just me, but I find some shampoo’s make my hands feel stripped dry or like they have a film over them?!
Once rinsed out my hair feels surprisingly nourished for a shampoo. Some shampoos make my hair feel so parched, and desperate to drown it in conditioner lickety-split. I didn’t get that urgency with the Good Life shampoo. Having said that, I wouldn’t be able to skip conditioner altogether. Is that even a thing? Do people with long hair do that?! Anyway, I then add a squeeze of liquid hairbrush conditioner from my mid-lengths down, leaving it on for 3-4 minutes before rinsing.
Results
After drying and styling, my hair feels so soft and supple compared to before. It also seems to stay looking sleek and healthy until it’s next wash. Before, the ends of my hair would be all stiff, bushy and lifeless one day after washing. The condition of my hair definitely improves when i use these products together.
Maybe there is some wizardry magic inside premium shampoo & conditioners after all.
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