Today's hair

I put my hair in three braids to use for buns for the next days. It's funny how difficult it is to split it accurately?

Ears and down adds up pretty precisely to one third of my total hair volume, so that was easy.

But splitting the rest in two of equal thickness was a lot harder! The very crown part of my scalp grows the thickest/coarsest and densest hair, so it took me a lot of tries to get it close enough for my liking.

I ended up "cutting" the back end of the parting short for the top braid, and then "combing over" the hair. Does that make sense?

The middle braid still got noticeably thinner though...

It's funny how big colour difference there is in my hair!
I haven't done any cassia/henna in a very long time (I think like half a year?) and yet my hair looks unusually red. Today it showed up as being very ginger and the last conditioning/wash I did was with Shea Butter for Natural Hair Deep Treatment Masque that I got some weeks back, which shouldn't affect my colour in any way?

One thing I really find amusing is spotting my braid showing between my legs.

And yes, I just realized how much I need to clean the mirror!

Product smackdown

  

Time for another hair product comparison!

I was impressed enough with the OGX conditioners I tried a while back to immediately order more of most of them. And since they also have leave in-conditioners, I had to try those as well.

I picked out three of them: 

OGX Argan Oil Ex Strength Tame & Shine Cream

OGX Coconut Miracle Oil Air Dry Cream

OGX Bonding Plex Cream

  

I'm going to compare them on a few different factors:

First impressions
Effect: Shine and manageability
Ingredient analysis and interesting ingredients such as "actives": Oils, keratin, sunscreen etc.

First impressions 

OGX Argan Oil Ex Strength Tame & Shine Cream

My first reaction was to be mildly annoyed because this leave in-conditioner has another design than the other two. I missed that from the website when I ordered it. This has a sports bottle-opening instead of the pump bottle-opening. I would have liked to have three more identical products, so I'm not sure if this isn't the same line as the other two?

It's a pearly, slightly thin cream. It smells very sweet and a little fruity.

OGX Coconut Miracle Oil Air Dry Cream

This one is a bit thicker in texture. It's a little more matte, but still white and pearly. It smells very sweet and a little like coconut.

OGX Bonding Plex Cream

This one is also a bit thicker in texture. It's a matte white cream. It smells very sweet and with a hint of something I can't really place.

Why is this one called "Bonding plex"? Because of the polyquaterniums? The coconut one also contains a few of those, so why is it specified for this one? Because of the name, I expected it to contain Bis-Aminopropyl Diglycol Dimaleate like Olaplex does, but no. So it's the quads? Those aren't really special or exclusive enough that they should name the product though? 

Effect

OGX Argan Oil Ex Strength Tame & Shine Cream

This one was surprisingly thicker to work with than it appeared from the first look at it. It was almost difficult to distribute evenly because of the texture. But once it was in, it felt pretty smooth and good to work with. The hold was pretty good for a leave in product. It didn't do a whole lot for shine though, despite being part of the name. It has a sweet smell that lingers in the hair once it's dry.

When I rinsed my hair out the next day, it felt a little... funny. Like, dunno, it's hard to describe. Like a little crispy, I guess? It was weird. Usually leave in products turn into a slippery goo and just slip off my hair and down the drain when exposed to water like this. But this was a little odd.

OGX Coconut Miracle Oil Air Dry Cream

I could write pretty much the same about this one: The leave in product has a weird texture that made it a little difficult to distribute, but once it was in, it had pretty good hold. It overall just felt a little "Neutral", as in that it didn't really impress me with anything. Hold was ok, shine was ok, manageability was ok. I liked the scent in this one a little better though. It has that artificial coconut smell that doesn't smell like real coconuts, but is pleasant enough as it is, so I don't really mind.

OGX Bonding Plex Cream

I was pleasantly surprised that the sweet smell of this one disappeared after a while. It wasn't unpleasant as such, I just prefer my hair to not really smell like anything. 

This one was also sort of "Meh" to work with too, but it did leave my hair a little more shiny than the other too. It was way easier to distribute in my hair than the argan oil one though. The hold and manageability it offered was really nice too. 

Ingredient analysis

OGX Argan Oil Ex Strength Tame & Shine Cream

Aqua, Isopropyl Myristate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Pvp, Polyacrylamide, Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Ceteareth-20, Laureth-7, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Parfum, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Hexyl Cinnamal, Benzyl Salicylate, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Limonene, Benzyl Benzoate

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Isopropyl Myristate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Pvp, Polyacrylamide, Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil

I'm... not sure I can really say something from the short ingredient list. Or even from the full one. This one has so many strange ingredients. It almost sounds more like some sort of weird fabric to me?

Interesting ingredients

Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it lowers the surface tension between oil and water so it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing

PVP or Polyvinylpyrrolidone also commonly called polyvidone or povidone, is a water-soluble polymer that functions as an anti static

Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil is the feature ingredient of argan oil

OGX Coconut Miracle Oil Air Dry Cream

Aqua, Tapioca Starch, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Polyquaternium-37, Cocos Nucifera Oil, Gardenia Tahitensis Flower Extract, Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract, Caryocar Brasiliense Fruit Oil, Polyquaternium-28, Pvm/Ma Copolymer, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, Ppg-1 Trideceth-6, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Sorbitan Oleate, Acrylates/Stearyl Methacrylate Copolymer, Glycerin, Citric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Tocopherol, Parfum, Linalool, Benzyl Salicylate, Benzyl Alcohol, Coumarin, Limonene

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Tapioca Starch, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Polyquaternium-37, Cocos Nucifera Oil, Gardenia Tahitensis Flower Extract

I'm really confused at these ingredients. First we have a bunch of carbohydrates from the cassava plant, which is often used as a thickening agent in food. It's not even good for protein content or anything like that. Then a I-don't-even-know ingredient. A quaternium, completely normal and expected. The featured coconut oil ingredient. Then finally a pretty flower extract, which is advertised for on the front label.

Interesting ingredients

Polyquaternium-37 is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair

Cocos Nucifera Oil is the feature ingredient coconut oil

Gardenia Tahitensis Flower Extract, Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract and Caryocar Brasiliense Fruit Oil. There are no explanation on what "extract" really means. There is an episode of The Snailcast where Shell of Holysnails talks about how a supplier to her webshop offered her ruby extract to add to her products. Which is completely nonsensical, but explains a lot of what extracts can be. It can be something good, but it can also be a root quickly dipped in a bucket of alcohol. What it takes to extract the extract is never specified.

Polyquaternium-28 is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair

Polymethylsilsesquioxane this is some sort of silicone judging from the -xane suffix?

Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate. This is a preservative made by fermenting radish root. My best guess is that it simply sounds "better" than the names of normal preservative ingredients

OGX Bonding Plex Cream

Aqua, Cetyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Behentrimonium chloride, Steareth-20, Cystine Bis-PG-Propyl Silanetriol, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein PG-Propyl Silanetriol, Polyquaternium-37, Polyquaternium-47, Hydrogenated Castor Oil/Sebacic acid Copolymer, PPG-3 Benzyl ether myristate, Acrylates/Stearyl Methacrylate Copolymer, Amodimethicone, Propylene glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, PPG-1 TRIDECETH-6, Isopropyl Alcohol, Sorbitan Oleate, Citric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Parfum, Linalool

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Cetyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Behentrimonium chloride, Steareth-20, Cystine Bis-PG-Propyl Silanetriol

I thought this would be the product I would find the strangest ingredient list in, since it advertises itself as "Bonding plex" and what have you. But nope, this is the most normal and plain ingredient list. It almost sounds like a regular conditioner, actually.

Interesting ingredients

Cetyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it lowers the surface tension between oil and water so it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing. Strange to see that in a leave in-product.

Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant.

Polyquaternium-37 and Polyquaternium-47 are quaternium ammonium compounds and will bind to the damaged areas of hair

Amodimethicone is a silicone

In conclusion..

Lady Igor says

It's funny: With such different ingredient lists, they products were still more or less the same. Same more or less "Meh" effect. 

The one I liked the best was OGX Bonding Plex Cream, based on the ingredient list, that it felt pretty good to work with and that it made my hair slightly more shiny. 

Not really a massive difference though. I was generally not impressed with any of them. Strange and disappointing since the conditioners were so impressive!

Today's hair

 Today's updo is a Nautilus/Ellingwoman hybrid bun

I used a small seahorse Flexi 8 to hold the top braid and a starfish megaflexi to hold the bulk of the bun to stick with a theme