Komaza Shea Butter Hair Lotion

Okay ladies, I am a woman on a mission here! As you already know I am trying to find a natural moisturizing product to counter my dry, brittle ends. I know I could easily go out and get some HE LTR or many other suggested hair lotions I have heard about because they seem to be working absolute miracles for some ladies. But if you've already read my rant about hair products, then you know I am trying to find more natural products. It may hinder my progress, it may not, but I need to find out on my terms. So, on my hunt I came across this line called Komaza at Honey Fig.

Komaza has quite a few products to select from, but what caught my attention was the Shea Butter Lotion. Despite this company's claim to use all natural ingredients, there are a few that have chemical--mild versions of these chemical, but chemicals none the less. Again, I have no issue with using chemicals on the hair (I'm not a chemical hair Nazi ). My issue is don't tote your product as "all natural" with the price tag to match, and it's not. I digress.

Promises:

This Shea Butter Leave-In Conditioner contain no mineral oil or  petroleum which clog hair 
follicles causing slow hair growth. It contains vitamins and proteins needed to maintain 
healthy hair and promote growth. It also contains lecithin which absorbs moisture from the 
air and locks it into the hair shaft for 24 hour moisture protection without a heavy greasy 
build up. 

Ingredients:

Purified water, Dipalmitoylethyldimonium Chloride, Shea Butter,  Shea nut oil, Coconut Oil, 
Aloe Vera, Soybein oil, Nettles, Horsetail, Rosemary, Peppermint, Marshmallow,  
Behenetrimonium, Quaternium 87, Jojoba Protein, Silk Amino Acid, Cellulose,  
Panthenol,Vitamin A, C, & E,  Vitamin B3, B5, B6,  Jojoba oil Infused with Hibiscus, 
with Horsetail, Rosemary, Lavender, and Coltsfoot, Allantoin, Citric acid, Fragrance, 
Polysorbate 20, Potassium Sorbate, Cinnamom Cassia.

So after reviewing some of the ingredients on the back I decided to give this a try. The 
chemicals were minimal (e.g Polysorbate 20--- please read edits below made March 2010), 
so it's all good. Needless to say I found out later what Dipalmitoylethyldimonium 
Chloride was. It is a derivative of Palm Oil, which isn't harmful for the hair, but doesn't 
really benefit it or enhance its potential in any way. I do know that red palm oil is has 
several health benefits for the body--but this particular product has used a process 
version of red palm oil. Anyway, let's just say its a cheap filler because actually using 
more shea nut butter would be costly. But would it really? I mean I bought a tub of 
organic, unrefined shea butter, which was as big as the Komaza container for only $16--
a retail mark up. You can't tell me that if a company bought shea butter in bulk at wholesale, 
paired it with coconut oil--another beneficial, yet inexpensive oil that they couldn't still 
save overhead cost. It's just being plain cheap! You would think that at the price they are 
selling it for that it would contain more beneficial ingredients--geeze why did I buy this again?

My experience: 

Well let's just say when I opened the tester I wanted to eat this stuff straight out of the bottle! 
It smelled like absolute heaven. Ladies, your man will be all up in your frizzness with this stuff. 
I can still smell it in my hair and it's been three days now. Now, as for the other promises, it 
did leave my hair soft, so that was nice. It wasn't as moisturized as I would have liked and 
I found it a little greasy, so a LITTLE does go a long way. I am soooo heavy handed (I need 
to work on that), so it's hard for me to tell if it is actually greasy due to the palm oil (yeah 
I said it), or I am just putting too much of this stuff on my hair. Overall, I like it enough to 
keep using it until I find something that trumps this stuff. Unfortunately, because of the 
price and the main ingredient, I have to give it a !

ETA: (March 25,2010) I recently went to the the Komaza site and I was a little disappointed 
by what I saw. They recently made changes to their website, which included adding 
the complete list of their ingredients for their products namely the Shea Butter Lotion. Let's 
just say this is still not all "natural", which clears up a lot of questions I've had regarding the 
smell. The company now lists all of the ingredients on the products they sell, but my lotion 
surely did not have this information. I am disappointed by this largely because 1) they should 
be disclosing all of their ingredients and 2) rather than having one questionable ingredient at 
the bottom of the list (which indicates there is less of this substance in the product) there are 
three questionable ingredients, one items is much higher up on the list. It goes without 
saying I will not be repurchasing. It is way too expensive for what is actually in it. That's total 
BS in my opinion. It is is still a good product overall, but if you are like me hoping to use a 
100% natural products on your hair, then I would suggest you pass on this item.
            

HHG!

- = not worth the money, don't waste your time.

- = neither hit or miss; just okay

- = good product; really worth trying.

= amazing product!