Are you getting enough fibre? L'Oreal Elvive Fibrology Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner...

I've been washing my hair several times a week using L'Oreal's new Fibrology shampoo and conditioner, and haven't been using anything else on my hair product-wise to get an honest look at the results of the Fibrology shampoo and conditioner alone. As I've now used up my bottles [just over a month], I thought I'd go over the before and after photos and share my overall opinion....

I could begin to both see and feel the improvement to my hair the first week after starting to use the products; my coarse hair has become fuller, smother, less tangle prone, and there is less breakage. It has more life and bounce, and even seems a bit easier to style too. 

My hair feels clean and refreshed after washing and this feeling lasts for a good few days, which is the biggest plus point for me. I haven't noticed any product build-up, and my hair hasn't become greasier any faster than it normally does either.

I do recommend the Fibrology shampoo and conditioner, and if you have normal to coarse hair already I don't think there would be any need to buy any of the other products in the Fibrology range.

The only issue I had was that the conditioner is best used with the Fibrology shampoo, as when I tried using i along side a different shampoo I didn't feel as though my hair was sufficiently moisturized. Also: using the shampoo or conditioner alone lessens the results of your hair's body/thickness levels.

Before and after

I dried my air the same way in both photos [wait until my air is mostly dry naturally, then run through it using a BaByliss Big Hair Rotating Styler], I'd just had the ends of my air trimmed after my ombre dye experiment.

Review: L'Oreal Full Restore 5 shampoo and conditioner

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The claim
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According to the adverts L'Oreal developed this formula to target and treat the top 5 hair care problems we struggle with in the UK.

1) Weak hair
2) Limp hair
3) Lifeless looking hair
4) Dull hair
5) Dry hair



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The bottle
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All of L'Oreal Elvive shampoos and conditioners use the same shape bottle. The FULL RESTORE 5 range has the bottle coloured white with a red cap.

The cap on the conditioner is on the base of the bottle so you can tell it apart from the shampoo bottle instantly, which is good for when the bottle is nearly empty.

The texture of the recyclable plastic bottle is easy to grip in a slippy shower.

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First impressions
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The creamy consistency and pearlessence appearance of the shampoo is very similar to Elvive's Nutri-gloss and Re-nutrition ranges - both of which I love - so I felt confident that this product would give similar results. However once applied to wet hair the comparison ends - This product feels so runny and slippy that I was reminded of the slime thingy in Noel Edmunds House Party. Not nice.

The floral fragrance is very fresh and clean smelling, but is quite strong. This doesn't bother me, but it could be strong enough to irritate some people. Once the hair has been dried the smell dissipates, though I still got the occasional whiff when my hair blew in my face.

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After 2 months of use
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I'll start by stating that I gave this range a fair chance by completely using up to full bottles of the 400ml shampoo and conditioner (during a buy-one-get-one-free I picked up two shampoos instead of one of each, so ended up going back for two conditioners as well. I'm a clever girl).


Did I see the promised results of hair that looked stronger, fuller, revitalised, shiny and silky?

The only thing I noticed was the shine - and that shine was due to my hair becoming greasy on the SAME day I washed it. I would wash it in the morning and by the evening it would be heavy and shiny with grease. My scalp also seemed to itch. As mentioned above I didn't have the conditioner at first, so the heaviness, grease and itchiness wasn't caused by a conditioner build-up. honestly it felt so grubby by the next day that I'd need to shampoo at least twice and I'd stay under the shower rinsing the product out for up to 10 minutes.


** Shampoo **

Using the shampoo on it's own also left my hair knotty, full of frizz and I noticed that there was a increase in strands of broken hair in my combs [no matter how wide toothed] and brushes. Hmmm - I suppose frizz might count as "fuller" hair.


** Conditioner **

The conditioner did solve the above problems - the FULL RESTORE 5 conditioner is good for detangling and it reduced the frizz caused by using the shampoo alone.

I finished the shampoo bottles before the conditioner, so I keep using the conditioner with the Elvive Re-Nutrition shampoo and it seemed like I didn't use a conditioner at all. The limited results I experienced with the conditioner are the same as using the Re-Nutrition shampoo alone.


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My opinion
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I've loved every other Elvive product I've ever used, so it pains me to say that their FULL RESTORE 5 range is pretty much useless. Liking the fragrance means nothing when the results vary from limited to non-existent.

I also felt cheated by L'Oreal when I learnt that the range's spokes-model [Cheryl Cole] wore acrylic hair extensions in the ads (I'm well aware that she has used extensions for years, but L'Oreal lead everyone to believe she was using ones made from human hair by adding a disclaimer stating she was using 'natural' extensions).

If you do decide to try this range then the matching conditioner is something I'd really advise using; That did seem to work somewhat.


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RRP
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250ml: £2.55
400ml: £3.59

There is also a 300ml hair mask and a 200ml conditioning replenishing spray available.