Queen Helene Royal Curl Conditioner Review

I don't know why I do it. I always wait until the very last second before buying conditioner. I stall until I'm desperate enough to hold the bottle under the shower and shake it up to unstick the last bits of product. When it's clear that I've used up every last particle in the bottle, I have to make a special trip to Whole Foods to get more. Half the time I get to the hair care aisle and am so dazzled by the vast display products and don't even buy the conditioner I came for. You might think that because I can recognize the pattern, I could stop it, but I just can't seem to.

That's exactly what happened last time I needed conditioner. While my family waited in the car, I ran in to get some Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose, but came out with Queen Helene Royal Curl Conditioner. Queen Helene products have been around for 75 years or so, but the Royal Curl line is pretty recent. I chose it because at $8 per 12oz bottle, it was less expensive than my usual conditioner and the ingredients looked promising.

Royal Curl Conditioner contains aqua (water), cetearyl alcohol, behentrimonium methosulfate, polyquaternium-7, glycerin, polysorbate-60, camellia sinensis leaf extract, olea europaea (olive) fruit extract, royal jelly extract, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed extract, disodium EDTA, phenoxyethanol, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, benzyl benzoate, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, fragrance (parfum). The scent is fruity/floral and very light. The conditioner feels slippery and medium weight.

It was the first few ingredients that caught my eye and persuaded me to try this. Water and fatty alcohols are necessary components of conditioner and we've always had good luck when behentrimonium methosulfate (BTMS) is high in the ingredient listing. Polyquaternium is a polymer with anti-static properties that forms a film on the hair that inhibits moisture absorption; it is useful in detangling and also helps limit frizz. I've been wanting to try a product with polyquaternium-7 for some time. No, really, I have.

I tried the product on all three of us as a rinse-out conditioner and as a detangler. It had a strange feel in the hair, slippery and not-quite-light but not-quite-heavy. I found myself reaching for the bottle again even after the hair was coated, just to be sure I used enough. It rinsed well and couldn't be felt on the hair as we added other products like leave-in or styling creams. Our hair was very dry during the entire time we experimented with this product. No amount of leave-in corrected that. Instead, adding any extra leave-in made our hair feel limp and kind of greasy. I wonder if that is due to the polyquaternium-7.

As a detangler, it was a totally different story. I think the combination of polyquaternium and BTMS creates a detangler that is on par with Kinky Curly Knot Today. The catch is that I wouldn't want to leave Royal Curl Conditioner in the hair because it doesn't provide enough moisture for us and and using it as rinse-out leaves our hair very dry, so I have no convenient way to use it as detangler.

It was interesting to try something new, but overall I was not impressed. After using this for a few weeks, we all needed a deep conditioning treatment to set our hair right. I'm trying to break myself of my terrible conditioner buying habits by ordering two bottles of one of my favorite conditioners at one time. They should be here any day now.

Saturday Spotlight: Hair Gymnastics/Gymnastics Hair

Hey Everyone, today I'm pleased to share a Saturday Spotlight that is a unique kind of special occasion style, it's a style for an athlete to wear during her very first competition. As if that isn't adorable enough, it's made extra sweet because it the style's creator and the wearer are sisters. Dominique-Alexis, the creator of the style shares her process.

My younger sister Bunny wanted to do a really exciting mohawk hairstyle for her first gymnastics competition and this is what I came up with. She got SOOOOO many compliments on it and the style lasted a lot longer than I thought it would - which is always appreciated.

To begin this style, I parted my little sisters hair down the middle of her head, not focusing on how straight it was because I knew it would be completely covered, clipped the left side out of the way for now, then parted the right section in half. I wanted there to be lots and LOTS of twists so I made the middle section very thick.

The Mohawk is pretty straight forward - cornrows on the sides, either going up and being sectioned off with rubber bands when I ran out of room to cornrow or going down on either side of her face.

For style, I used:

• homemade moisturizer (a mixture of olive oil, conditioner, and aloe vera)
• peanut oil (to seal her hair)
• a rat tail comb
• a wide tooth comb
• rubber bands

Many thanks to both Dominique-Alexis and Bunny for sharing this style; you can see more of Dominique-Alexis' styling work here. I think this style is so appropriate to the event it was created for - it twists, it turns, it goes up, it goes down and most of all, it's lots of fun. I'd like to offer a big congratulations to Bunny on her first gymnastics competition!

This is a great example of styling for a specific athletic event or sport. We've had Saturday Spotlight  that focused on styling for softball and I've talked about styling for soccer, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on sport-specific styling. 

Do you style for practicality? 
To match uniforms?
To achieve a certain look? (I'm thinking of mostly of dance here) 
To meet safety requirements set by coaches? 

Share your sports styling story here or on our FB page.

Progressive Styling

This week I did something a little different with Little R's hair. Rather than sit her down and style in one long session, I chose to style a little bit each day, freshening up and adding to what we did the the day before. On Monday morning we had an appointment with the dentist and didn't have much time, but Little R really needed to have something done with her hair. That morning, I put in two quick flat twists to contain some breakage that is still growing out and put the rest into her favorite side pony. On Tuesday we were appointment-free, so I parted and twisted a second row behind the first. On Wednesday, we saw the eye doctor (Little B is getting the cutest glasses) but I had just enough time in the morning to add a third row of flat twists.

On the second day, I realized that this had the unanticipated result of getting Little R back into a styling routine. She is really out of practice and quite annoyed and resentful when asked to sit for a full styling session. I wouldn't force it, but I know she does love a finished style and there are times when totally loose hair just isn't practical. This was a good way to gradually get back into the swing of things. She enjoyed watching the style develop and grew more accommodating and patient each day.

Monday

Tuesday

Before parting the new rows, I spritzed her hair with plain water and added some leave-in with slip. I used a rat tail comb to part and then added some coconut pomade to each new section. At the end of each flat twist, I clipped the hair with a duck bill clip. I removed the clips when I was ready to gather all the hair into a side pony. None of the twists are individually banded.

Wednesday

It's Thursday morning and I haven't decided if we'll leave it as is or keep going until it is all in flat twists with a side puff. I'd really like to see what a whole head of flat twists but I'll have to see if Little R would too. If we do keep at it, I'll post some photos. 

If your daughter is having a hard time sitting for long or you just don't have a block of time to devote to styling, consider the practical advantages of progressive styling. It works really well with cornrows and flat twists, but the possibilities are endless. Give it a try and have fun!

See You Later, Alligator(s)...

I have this particularly vidid memory from the early days of Happy Girl Hair. It was a beautiful summer afternoon and the girls were riding their tiny training-wheeled bikes back and forth in front of our house. At that time, they were allowed to go only to the end of the street. It was enough space for people so small. While they rode loops, I sat on the front porch with my laptop and wrote Happy Girl posts, completely contented by the ability to do something for myself and watch the kids at the same time.

It's two years later and we've long since ditched the training wheels and the narrow parameters that defined how far the girls can go. In no time at all, they went from being the littlest ones at the playground to the biggest. They are no longer satisfied with running around the slide and the monkey bars. At seven, they can run a mile faster than I can. It's my job to help them surpass me, and guiding them into a larger world filled with bigger experiences takes a lot of organization and forethought. Lately, mothering has become a less physical task and a more cerebral one. The next few years will be filled with huge growth and many challenges. It thrills me. It scares me a little too.

The days when they were happy to play nearby while I wrote for Happy Girl Hair are over. That has left me with a decision to make about this space. I've chosen to let Happy Girl Hair remain here with the very occasional new post when I get inspired or find a little unexpected block of time to sit down and write something. I see this transition a lot like nap time. Eventually, you have to admit that a child's daily nap is a thing of the past and the most you can hope for is the occasional, unscheduled mid-day snooze.

This has been a really happy place for me, and I hope it has been for you too. It has saved my sanity, especially in the early days when it seemed like one more game of Cariboo or another reading of Jamberry would send me right over the edge. It has buoyed my spirits tremendously to be able to connect with so many of you in such a meaningful, reciprocal and personal way. Thank you all for the time you've spent reading this site, for the emails, for the lively debate and for the kind words you've shared over the last two years. Thanks for letting me in to your lives.

You may notice some small changes in the way Happy Girl looks as it shifts from a very active site to an semi-retired one. The style gallery, You Tube channel and Facebook page will remain as they are for the foreseeable future. The Facebook page is still a great way to connect and share with me and the rest of the HGH community. You just might find me sneaking in some micro blogging on Twitter too.

I hope you'll help me celebrate this transition by raising a glass, a mug of coffee, a nearby sippy cup, or whatever you've got. I'm going with a couple fingers of bourbon. Here's to Little B and Little R, we know you won't be little much longer. Here's to growing up, to moving on, to creating the space you need to be who you are, and to finding plenty of room to run.