R+Co Haircare Samples
I got these when buying a full-size product from R+Co via the Swedish website Hudoteket in December. I’ve so far only tried two of their products, their hair mousse Chiffon (review here) and Aircraft. The latter one I haven’t brought myself to write a review of just yet, even though I’ve been loving it for a year and repurchased it twice! So I’ve been wanting to try more from the brand for sure.
R+Co is a cruelty-free brand, and most of their products are vegan. A few are vegetarian, so be sure to double check! I bought their new hair paste Control for my boyfriend thinking it was vegan, as they mentioned it briefly in a video. But no, it actually contains lanolin! It’s so damn hard finding a hair paste for my boyfriend that’s vegan and does not contain palm oil. If any of you have any tips, I would be very grateful if you shared! He likes mud-based paste/waxes. All the samples I got are vegan though.
THIS SITE USES AFFILIATE LINKS
High Dive Moisture + Shine Créme
This styling cream is one of R+Co’s best selling products. It’s supposed to smooth out the hair and keep frizz at bay, leaving your hair silky and glossy. It doubles as a leave-in conditioner and is for those who favor moisture instead of hold. It can be applied to both towel-dry or dry hair.
High Dive has the scent Serious Gaze – A bright oriental composition with notes of Juniper Berries, Blood Orange, Rhubarb, Leather Accord, Violet, Dark Woods. I really like it, and as with all their products, the fragrance is mild and non-bothersome.
Experience
I usually shy away from anything that says moisture. My hair gets weighed down easily, and I’ve mentioned it many times before that I don’t even use a conditioner because of how my hairs react to it. I thought about giving this product away, but of course I had to give it a try first. And you know what? I got pleasantly surprised by it!
This cream is not so much for definition as it is for softness and shine. And boy does it deliver it in a nice lightweight texture! I’m able to layer this product without it weighing my hair down or make it look greasy. High Dive makes your hair look and feel more healthy, and as soft as when you leave the hairdresser. It will make you want to run your fingers through your hair amazed at how soft and shiny it is.
I’ve used it on both damp and dry hair and I like both application methods. But I believe you get more out of the humidity-binding formula if you use it in damp hair, and either add some more afterward. I also feel like the softness it gives protects the hair strands from breakage when combing.
When it comes to the claim of taming frizz, I think it’s okay. But I believe there are probably better products out there, as this hasn’t really been great at reducing static from the cold winter air. High Dive is focused more on lightweight moisture, softness, and shine. I don’t suffer from frizz as much as when I was a teen, and boy do I wish the types of products that are available now existed back then! But I’ve heard great things about R+Co FOIL Frizz + Static Control Spray, which may be more suited if frizz is your main concern. For softness and shine, turn to High Dive!
Conclusion
I am super surprised that I liked it so much that of all the products I’m considering this a solid repurchase. Like yes, I truly want this and I’m already sad that I only got about two uses out of this little sample while I’m writing this. I didn’t even realize I needed a product like it until I tried it!
This is a silicone-based formula though. So if silicones do not work for you I can highly recommend R+Co’s Aircraft which is a moisturizing and defining mousse without silicones and gives shine too, it has served as my leave-in conditioner and styler for over a year. I like Aircraft very much, but I find High Dive to be more lightweight and to add an overall feeling of smoothness and health. It layers nicely with other products too.
Just as I’ve been avoiding silicones in skincare for some time only to introduce them back again and be a total convert, I feel the same with haircare. This was one of the first heavy-filled silicone hair product to be tested for a while, and now I wonder why I’ve waited so long? The number of bad hair days I’ve suffered through… It’s like this is exactly the type of formula my hair has been needing. I’ve tried several silicone-free conditioners and leave-on products and all of them has made my hair greasy, sometimes even dry(!), flat, and unattractive. But whenever I’ve tried conditioners with silicones, my hair has gotten bounce and volume. Silicones deliver lightweight moisture and protect the follicles from damage too.
I’ve tested out High Dive for about two months and always reached for it whenever I’ve washed my hair and in-between, counts as about 8-10 times. I haven’t noticed any silicone build-up or dryness, or whatever concerns that revolve around silicones.
My only complaint would be the price, so I will wait for at least 20% discount before repurchasing. A similar product (though even more expensive) to this one that I would also love to try is the Oribe Supershine Light Moisturizing Crème. They are also a cruelty-free brand and a majority of their products are also vegan.
Repurchase? HUGE YES!
Cactus Texturizing Shampoo
I’ve been loving the Rasul shampoo from Urtekram for a year and a half now. You probably know it from me raving about it on Instagram. I never did a proper review as I already did a segment on my top 3 favorite shampoos for greasy hair (check it out here), and it’s quite similar to their Aloe Vera shampoo, just better for volume.
To have actual clay in a shampoo felt very innovative and worked surprisingly well with my hair. To quickly go through what kind of hair I have: I have medium to thin hair mass that used to be very wavy-curly, but which has now become more wavy-straight with a tendency of greasy roots because I have a quite active lifestyle.
When I first heard about Cactus I didn’t really get the deal. Who wants to wash their hair with something that will make it feel gritty again? Second-day hair right out of the shower? Won’t this make me want to wash my hair again the next day? No conditioner? Will this dry out my hair?
My thought pattern was really skeptic towards this shampoo. But I couldn’t have been more wrong about it!
What Is it?
The Cactus shampoo is an SLS and even SLES-free shampoo, similar to Urtekram’s Rasul as it also uses clay in the formula, Diatomaceous earth to be exact. It builds texture and adds grip while absorbing excess oil on the hair and scalp, yet it is made with ingredients that nourish and hydrates your locks. It’s an interesting mix of a styling product and a shampoo.
There’s no conditioner attached to this as it’s supposed to work best on its own. I haven’t been using a conditioner with the Rasul shampoo other than Argan oil, so for me, it wasn’t weird. But if that thought freaks your bleached or dry hair out, you can always begin applying your conditioner first, or start with a pre-shampoo like R+Co’s Palm Springs. Nonetheless, you can couple it with any of your favorite conditioner suited for your hair type, just know the texture will be somewhat less. I personally have coupled it with High Dive as a leave-in conditioner.
Who is it for?
Anyone who wants more thickness, volume, and textured waves straight out of the shower.
But by default, I see it working best on thin to medium hair with wavy to curly hair and oily scalp.
Experience
Like I said, I’ve stuck to my Rasul for some time and never thought I’d even be interested in a new shampoo. But venturing into more expensive shampoos has me thinking that spending some extra cash may be well worth it in the end.
A little goes a long way, which surprised me. Well, my latest experiences with natural (not that this one is purely natural) and sulfate-free shampoos have been quite the opposite. Not have the shampoos been more expensive than your regular drugstore, but more than once I’ve had to use quite a lot and up to three times to get the shampoo to foam and get my hair clean. Note that I don’t even use a lot of styling products – if any – most of the time! And with Urtekram’s Rasul shampoo, I do use quite a hefty amount, but at least it’s cheap.
So when I first tried Cactus shampoo, I sort of got caught off guard – and so did my boyfriend! It foamed up quickly and I realized that I could’ve taken half of what I applied. I can’t speak for the rest of R+Co shampoos, but with this one, a little goes truly a long way, which made me start justifying the price. And this sample has lasted me almost 10 washes, and it’s smaller than the regular travel size! (I wash my hair, on an average, 2 times a week.)
The foam feels very luxurious, but the scent resembles that of Rahua’s original shampoo and conditioner. Which, if you remember, I seriously didn’t like. But there are some different notes in this one that doesn’t make me want to gag. I actually find it more pleasant! It’s overall quite mild of a fragrance. The scent is called Rosy Eyes – Bergamot, Wild Fig, Cyclamen, Lotus Flower, Cedarwood, Tonka Beans.
Texture
The feeling I get from this shampoo is that it’s supposed to give you those nice beach waves straight out of the shower. It gives texture but, surprisingly, also some shine and health to the hair!
I’ve tried a few different ways: air-dry, diffuser, twist and braided. All of them works really well. However, I am not so fond of the grit this shampoo gives to the hair when not coupled with a conditioning agent. It gets less manageable, especially if you got long hair, and it can at times feel drying to the ends. While some of the texture might be lost when used with a conditioner, I like the feeling of my hair better with at least something on my ends, it’s softer but still got some definition.
Additional Experience
I told you I’m a quite active gal, right? Well, what’s more impressing about this shampoo is that it makes me not having to wash my hair for up to 6-7 days! I thought this was just a one-time thing, but no. Every wash with this shampoo has resulted in my hair staying grease-free for longer than usual! It’s almost like it gets reactivated every time I sweat or something?!
Conclusion
If you are using Urtekram’s Rasul shampoo and love it, the R+Co Cactus texturizing shampoo is a more luxurious and hydrating version of it.
This shampoo surely surprised me. I didn’t want to like it because of the price. But considering how long I can go between washes and how little I need to use it to foam and get my hair clean, it feels worth it. However, it does have a somewhat drying effect. I say that mildly because it does at the same time feel surprisingly hydrating? It’s confusing, I know. But I don’t know how to explain it! I simply get the feeling that I would like to rotate this shampoo with a more moisturizing one occasionally. Or like I said, invest in a pre-shampoo or hair mask to use in-between. I don’t know how I feel about it but would love to explore their other shampoos first before I reorder it.
Nonetheless, my boyfriend liked it too as he’s always trying to dirty-fy his hair the moment he washes it. He’s all about that second-day hair. And Cactus gives him that grip and texture right from the shower.
Another similar shampoo I’d like to try, but that’s only available in the states at the moment, is the IGK 1995 2-in-1 shampoo and texturizer. That’s the third shampoo that I know of that also experiments with clay powder to bring texture and density to the hair. Super interesting!
Repurchase? Yes, I surely would.
Badlands Dry Shampoo Paste
Badlands is described as a mix between a dry shampoo and a styling paste for days when you want to add texture and hold to slept-on hair. But I think the “dry shampoo”-part confuses a lot of people, including myself. When you hear that word you automatically believe the product will refresh your hair, getting rid of greasy strands, and give volume.
But this product is quite the opposite of a dry shampoo, or it’s slightly best described as amphibolous. Its main use is to create second hair texture, but also relieve you from it – Like, what’s it gonna be? You can’t have both. And that’s why this product is a love or hate, depending on how a person finds it best to use according to their hair type and preference. This confusion might explain why R+Co offers THREE products with the name dry shampoo! One of which, Skyline, I’d like to try next!
Experience
What I like about it is that the product is easy to scoop out and disappears into your hands and with easy friction, it melts right in. It’s quite easy to distribute into the hair.
What I don’t like about it is that it gives a gritty and matte textured feeling. I’m not a big fan of that. This product also doesn’t really add volume that lasts; you have to constantly massage your scalp to activate it again. But my biggest complaint of them all is that it does not make your hair look less greasy, if anything, it might even add to it!
Conclusion
I think the idea of a dry shampoo paste is genius. Sprays are known to be allergy-triggers and whatnot. However, my feelings about this product get mixed by the experience that it starts off good but then it starts to act counterproductively. Like, even though Badlands deliver an overall end result that doesn’t keep up all the way through, there are things with it that benefit my hair in some strange way that makes me indecisive. One part of me thinks it’s no good, while another part of me feels that it might be good to have around. Like, if I came across another sample size, I would probably get it. It has some sort of hold on me, thinking, “next time will be different”.
I guess, by writing this, I’m realizing that this relationship is not going anywhere and I should end it before I get more disappointed. I think it probably works better as a styling paste than an actual dry shampoo, and I was really looking forward to the latter. Nonetheless, I do see a lot of reviews saying it’s “the best dry shampoo”, so I don’t know. It doesn’t work for my hair is all that I can conclude.
Repurchase? No, but wouldn’t mind getting another sample.
On my wishlist
There’s a lot of R+Co products I’d like to try further, and they just keep launching new interesting products! Like the Television Perfect Hair shampoo and conditioner. Did someone say perfect? Of course it’s a must-try!
I have a long list and we’ll see how many I’ll manage to ply through considering the price:
- FREEWAY – A defining spray gel to give curls a lift and texture. Want to check to see how this one differes from Aircraft.
- JACKPOT – From looking at the R+Co demo video, this product is all about volume, and I want some!
- DALLAS Shampoo & Conditioner – My hair is fine to medium, so I’m always looking for shampoos that will give it both body and oumph. I’ll be definitely getting the sample size to test out!
- ANALOG – A cleansing foam conditioner. Don’t know how well it will work with my hair, but I just have to give it a try.
- SAIL – A soft wave spray. I’m not fond of the usual crunchy and gritty texture salt sprays give, so this one sounds right my alley!
