Review: Wen Cleansing Conditioner

Have you seen the Wen cleansing conditioner infomercials late at night and found yourself on the verge of ordering this product so you can look ever so slightly like Alyssa Milano? (Even if it's just because you'd have fabulous hair like her). Nice move, Chaz Dean. I've been curious about this product since I saw Alyssa hawking it, hoping it would miraculously impart me with luscious hair that would make Rapunzel envious.

Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. I'm not entirely sure what I thought Wen would do for my hair that my current routine hadn't accomplished already. After all, I have healthy, shiny, strong hair. It was damaged for a little while, after experimenting with ombre hair, but a good hair cut to get rid of the damage and a keratin treatment had set everything right again. It's growing back healthy and pretty. And I've been really happy with it of late.

So what exactly was I expecting from Wen? Perhaps a miracle -- that it would leave my hair softer, shinier, and healthier than it already was. Call me greedy. It's probably true. But that's what prompted me to go out and purchase the Sweet Almond starter kit at Sephora.

How'd I fare? Check out my video review (below) to find out more:



For the record, I have thick, dry hair (it may not look like it but that's because I deep condition and have my stylist thin my hair down when she cuts it). If you have thin or oily hair, results may vary.

Here are my thoughts:

• You have to use a lot of product! The instructions recommend you start with 10-15 pumps, more if you have long hair. This is not cheap product ($32 for a 16 oz bottle; $39.50 for the starter kit). I imagine you'd go through it really fast. 
• The recommended amount of product on the bottle was too much product for my hair length, leaving it feeling like I had product residue in my hair if I didn't rinse it out well enough. 
• Rinsing the product out seems like it takes a long time. Perhaps not an eternity, but definitely longer than any regular conditioner or hair mask I've used before. 
• It was difficult to find a balance between rinsing too much or too little. Too much and my hair wouldn't feel as soft and conditioned as it regularly does with my normal hair products. Not enough rinsing and I felt like I had product residue in my hair. 
• I'm not sure what the Sweet Almond Mist product is supposed to do, but I didn't really notice any difference when I used it than when I didn't.
• I didn't use the deep conditioning mask because it had to stay in your hair for 22 minutes and I don't have that kind of patience. Twenty-two minutes would require a particularly long shower in my opinion, and I'm not getting out of the shower and waiting around for 22 minutes just to jump back in and rinse it out. 
• Using Wen didn't leave my hair as conditioned, soft, and shiny as I'm used to. It didn't weigh my hair down or make it oily, but it didn't make my hair look better. 

All in all, Wen left me unimpressed. It wasn't a bad product. But it was lackluster. In fact, I'd say my hair was ever so slightly worse off using Wen. I was probably the only person to notice this, because my hair didn't look unhealthy or damaged. But I could feel the texture of my hair was slightly dryer than normal. And, it wasn't nearly as shiny or luminous as when I use my regular hair products. 

Have any of you tried Wen? Was your experience any different?