A few months ago, the good folks at Unilever sent me the Dove Split End Test kit. I thought it’s great—at least somebody finally knows how bad hair can get at that time of the year! Summer was a merciless season, but that on top of all the styling my hair goes through? You’re not welcome here, frizz.
Now that Dove actually came up with a targeted solution for damaged hair, it was time to see if it worked.
The kit came with three products: the Intense Repair shampoo, the Intense Repair conditioner, and the Intense Repair Daily Treatment conditioner. There were bonus two brushes, one roughed up and another’s a smooth e.l.f. complexion brush.
It’s a cool, visual way to convince (or scare) you to start treating your hair right. Others suggest rubbing hair on the cheek to see which of these brushes resemble our hair’s texture the most. To be honest, I don’t think hair can ever get that bad but kudos to you, Dove, you’ve just terrified us with the worst possible scenarios.
On to the shampoo: It’s packed with micromoisture serum and fiber actives that supposedly help repair damaged hair. I can’t lie: Dove packs in on the formula to guarantee you of smooth, silky hair. Then again, it might only work on those with naturally straight hair that dries out on certain days. Packed with a delicate, sweet fragrance, this creamy shampoo flattened my hair, at least taming it more than before.
But the conditioner smoothened out the hair better. It added sheen, and when my hair was blow dried, I can see a subtle change in volume. Just a warning, though: Because it packs on so much smoothing ingredients, hair that’s prone to grease might get too oily later in the day.
The Daily Treatment conditioner has a dual-colored, thicker cream. Using it alternately with the other conditioner, the results weren’t as apparent and different. However, it did what it needed to do: made my hair soft and lessened my hairfall within three weeks.
While my hair needs more than just a kit to spare its sheen, this Dove trio delivers its promise but doesn’t exactly go beyond it.
