Monday, April 6, 2015

Good, But With An Unfortunate Defect, Suave Professionals Black Raspberry + White Tea Shampoo Is Okay!


The Good: Inexpensive, Good cleaning power, Good ingredients, Wonderful scent
The Bad: Causes build-up on hair faster than other Suave Professionals shampoos
The Basics: A decent, inexpensive, shampoo, Suave Professionals Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo is one of the few that should be regularly alternated with another to prevent waxy build-up!


Suave Professionals is an interesting permutation on the inexpensive Suave hair care brand. Suave Professionals is the "higher end" premium shampoo product line from Suave and perhaps what is most impressive about it is that the "premium" Suave product is still usually less expensive than most other brands of hair care products. The latest in the line that I have tried is the Suave Professionals Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo. And it is all right, but more than any of the other Suave Professionals products I have tried, the Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo causes a build-up on hair when it is used for more than a week straight.

My monthly haircare experiment for the last month has been using the Suave professionals Black Raspberry + White Tea Shampoo and that experiment was successful enough that I learned all the effects of this shampoo on one's hair. As my life has become more active with work and walks with my Siberian Huskey, Suave Professionals' Black Raspberry + White Tea Shampoo has come through to keep my hair clean, manageable and smelling great, but with continued use, I've found it weighs the hair down and gives it a bit of a greasy appearance.

After a week of use, the Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo stopped cleaning well and made my hair heavy and greasy-looking. Two days of using a non-Suave shampoo sufficiently dried my hair back out/removed the heavy residue from the Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo. The Suave Professionals Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo otherwise managed to impress me with its cleaning power and its scent. This shampoo is inexpensive, and before it builds up from frequent use, it leaves hair feeling clean and light, while bestowing a nice aroma on one's hair.

Suave has been expanding its line of inexpensive shampoos and conditioners and has been entering new shampoos to the market in their "Suave Professionals" line, which is intended to compete with higher priced shampoos that use all-natural ingredients. In most markets in the United States, Suave Professionals shampoos and conditioners may be found on sale for $3.49 for a 25 fl. oz. bottle. Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo is one of the newer scents in the Suave Professionals line which explicitly tries to compete with Aveda. The 25 fl. oz. bottle is a flattened tube bottle with a pump dispenser that makes it easy to dispense the shampoo with one hand. Because it is not contoured extensively, the bottle gets slippery when wet. So, not having to pick up the bottle is a smart way for Suave to make this shampoo!

Inside the bottle is the Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo and it is a pale white, opaque gel. This shampoo has good leg and is more viscous than watery. The scent is vague and it smells strongly of raspberrys. I'm not sure what the difference in scent for raspberries and black rasberries is, but this is a pretty bold raspberry scented product. When in the shower and one's nostrils are opened by the steam (I tend to like very hot showers) this shampoo's scent fills the shower fast and it endures there. As a result, it is a strong smell that is enough to overwhelm the scent left on the hair by virtually any activity! In addition to cleaning, it deodorizes hair well.

When it comes to use, this is a simple shampoo and one need only squirt a dollop of the shampoo into one's hand before applying it to the hair. The Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo requires only about a quarter-sized dollop to clean a full head of hair. This lathered up remarkably well, which meant I could get away with using less of it. I have long hair and as a result, shampoo can be an annoying expense when the shampoo I am using does not lather up and clean well.

In the case of the Black Raspberry + White Tea, it lathers up wonderfully, such that a nickle to quarter-sized dollop can easily stretch to coat a very full head of hair, like mine. Used judiciously thus, the 25 oz. bottle lasted my wife and I more than a month, especially once I started alternating it with other shampoos.

For the most part, the Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo works. Hair comes out looking and feeling cleaner after its use than before. I think the most objective test for a shampoo is to see if hair is cleaner using the shampoo vs. rinsing your hair with water alone and for the basic functioning of a shampoo the Black Raspberry + White Tea shampoo lived up to that basic litmus test. Only after prolonged use did this shampoo stop cleaning adequately. Regardless of how it is cleaning, it always leaves a decent, fruity scent in the hair.

Black Raspberry + White Tea Shampoo has no discernible conditioning properties. There is a separate conditioner that has the same scent. As it stands, Black Raspberry + White Tea works fine, but its overall value is reduced by the fact that one has to use a separate shampoo every few days to cut through the residue that this one leaves.

For other Suave shampoo reviews, please visit my takes on:
Mango Mandarin
Professionals Sleek
Suave Professionals Rosemary Mint

6/10

For other haircare products, please check out my Health And Beauty Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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