Hair Products (Bought)

An Amazing Duo? – Felicia Leatherwood’s Detangler Brush & Maui Moisture Agave Conditioner

felicia leatherwood brush with the best maui moisture agave conditioner

If you’re one of those TL;DR people, I love this brush and I love this conditioner. But if you’re not, sorry for the spoilers but please do read on to find out more about how MUCH I love Felicia Leatherwood’s Detangler Brush and the Maui Moisture Agave Conditioner for Chemically Damaged Hair.

As you know by now, I’ve been having issues with detangling my children’s hair, especially my eldest, my gorgeous daughter and her beautiful thick mane attached to her tender head. And although detangling my hair is never that arduous, if I can make it easier, I’m doing it. During one of my many attempts to find the perfect detangling routine for the kids, I came across this video by naptural85

At the time, I wasn’t planning on buying the brush Whitney recommended – the Felicia Leatherwood Detangler Brush – because I had my trustee Denman. And if it ain’t broke, then don’t try to fix it. But in my case, you all know that’s a lie, just look at how many product reviews I’ve done! So I sat on my hands for about 2 weeks after I wrote that detangling post and then bought one, in pink, from Antidote Street for £12.99.

My first impression was, well, I was just unsure. The creator, Felicia Leatherwood does have great credentials though.

The other option for a new detangling brush was the Curltastic or EZ detangler. And I liked the idea of them more because of the flex they look like they have as they are being pulled through the hair. I already knew the FL brush was going to be more rigid from videos I’d seen. I was still a little shocked and apprehensive when it came. And that’s coming from someone whose used Tangle Teezers and Denman’s that don’t move at all. The future is clearly flexi brushes but maybe I’d put my money behind the wrong one.

However the brush was very solid feeling, like there was a quality to it even though it is very plasticky. You know this thing isn’t going to break or have bristles snap. You have the grip on the handle that sort of mimics the grooves of your hand. I think I would prefer if the handle was round with grooves for your hand. On the other hand, this would obviously mean more plastic. The grip felt a little awkward the first time I held it but now, a few months on, it just feels so normal. But I will tell you now, regardless of my first impression of the look of the thing, when it comes to detangling – it’s actual purpose – it does it’s job!

You don’t get the clickety-clack I’ve seen some of these flexible brushes get when they are pulled through your hair. This is sturdy like a normal brush. But when that tangle hits, it has a bit of flex to work through it or alert you to the knot so you can pull the brush out, move back down and try the glide through again.

Clearly, I like it but this is why THEY say you need this brush –

“To achieve the best results we recommend you use the brush during conditioning treatments.”

When I got this brush, I was just about to start using the Maui Moisture Strength + Anti-Breakage Agave Conditioner For Chemically Damaged Hair. I bought this conditioner in late 2017, early 2018 and I’ve been really excited about trying it ever since. But as I’m a product junkie, there have been a lot of products to get through before I got to that point. And here we are…in 2020.

The Maui Moisture smells good and gives good slip. Near the top of the ingredient list is Behentrimonium Chloride (Curly Girl approved) which I recently learnt is a soluble ingredient that is a good indicator of a product having slip. The other top ingredients are really good for your hair. Maui Moisture is pretty unique compared to most brands you will come across. Instead of water being the first ingredient you have Aloe Vera Juice. Also up near the top of the list is Cetearyl Alcohol which is classed as moisturising alcohol. Who knew moisturising alcohols were a thing?

The ingredients are pretty legit. It has all those good credentials so many of us are looking for these days – no sulphates, no parabens, vegan, cruelty free, natural etc.

I remember wondering though, Maui Moisture has good slip but I’m pretty sure there are conditioners with more slip. How easy could I get detangling to be? However, I really like how this conditioner makes my hair feel. It’s not all about slip. It’s about cleanliness (I use it as a cowash), it’s about softness and the detangling too.

Now the Maui bottles are cute and being square they fit nicely in your cupboard and are easy to stack. So good that there is even a warning on the bottle about not drinking it. But there are flaws to the design, that square bottle is hard to squeeze. There is very little flexibility. The conditioner is fairly runny and seems to come out with a light squeeze. Then a hard tap as you near the end. But I feel like a lot of product would get left behind.

My hair hadn’t been detangled in about a week. It was in a puff so you’d expect a fair few knots in there. However, my hair felt better moisturised than normal so it was a pretty good base to work with for detangling but not damaging my hair. As per usual, I placed my hair in a few roughly even sections, I think about 5 or 6. That seems to work quite well with my current hair length, 4 just isn’t enough with how thick my hair is. After watching the Naptural85 video mentioned above, as much of the process as I can do in front of the TV/ not in the shower, I will. So I sprayed my sectioned hair with my Flairosol bottle and applied the conditioner liberally to each section.

So after all that preamble, now’s the time for the Brush and and Conditioner to meet.

The first tug did not go well. It felt like there was no way my hair would ever get through this but it only ended up taking a few passes to get the brush through my hair smoothly. I did feel like I lost a lot of hair though. It could be shed hairs from the twists I’d had in that I’d turned into a twist out that I’d turned into a high puff over the previous week. And when I had a nosey through the hairs, they were long and only a few broken hairs so I concluded it was mostly shedding.

I don’t think I need to tell you how to brush your hair but just in case, I started from the ends and slowly moved up the section when it felt like all the knots were gone. Move the brush back down if you encounter significant resistance. You don’t rush detangling because then you cause more damage regardless of how good a tool you’re using. It definitely feels a little rough on the first pass but it quickly eliminates those tangles and it detangled really easily for me.

But as much as I don’t need to tell you how to brush your hair – watch out for the vertical brushing tip here! It will change your life!

I mainly hold the brush horizontal but for my final couple of passes, I love to go vertical. I guess being able to use the brush both ways can help get every single knot out. And there’s something very satisfying on moving the brush vertically through thoroughly detangled hair.

I washed out the conditioner and did a little bit more detangling when I deep conditioned my hair. I lost a little bit more hair but it was negligible.

One worry I had about the brush, was cleaning it after use. There are a lot of hard bristles but I was pleasantly surprised how easily it was done. There was a mix of picking the hairs out with my fingers and rinsing it off under a tap. Seemed to do the trick which was a relief as it meant I didn’t have to go and find a comb and do the 2 comb trick.

I used the same process on all my kids too. We are having significantly less tears on wash day. I don’t think they’ll ever like getting their hair brushed but this brush makes a huge difference. There weren’t any styling products on this day as we mainly concentrate on moisture. The brush then makes it’s last wash day appearance as it is used to evenly distribute the LCO products through the hair. The Creme Of Nature Coconut Leave In Milk, Cioccalitina Lavender and Oats Whipped Shea Butter and Olive Oil.

I tried to take pictures of the boys hair after I’d washed out the conditioner but didn’t get a decent-ish shot until after it had dried. They’d rolled around outside in the sun a bit. I think you can still see some of the definition we got. Boy No.2 on the right seems really frizzy here but there is no gel, you just can’t really truly see his curls from these pics.

An Amazing Duo?

Like I said at the start, this is an amazing duo. I love the Maui Moisture conditioner which is usually around £8.99 from Boots. Sometimes you’ll be lucky to get it down to £5.99. I definitely rate this conditioner and I am adding it to my Holy Grail. This is a big deal to me. And the brush, it lives up to the hype. Enough for me to let go of my Denman that I’ve had since the start of my journey. Okay, when I say let go, it’s still with all my hair tools. But I can’t remember the last time I actually used it.

This feels like great progress in my journey as conditioning and detangling are so important. And it works for the kids too! Bonus!

Let’s keep growing together!

xx Lee xx

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