Renee's Shea Soufflé Hair Balm

I should probably state that I have suffered with a ‘bad hair day’ for the entirety of my thirty two years on this planet. When I was younger, my thick, frizzy locks were untameable: you could brush my hair free of tangles, only for me to sneeze a second later and gather a hundred more. As I’ve gotten older, my hair has slowly begun to thin thankfully, but the curls and wispy bits have remained as stubborn as ever - perhaps even more so. 

Forever searching for hair care that makes a difference, I will latch myself upon anything that proves its worth. While only three days into using Renee’s Shea Soufflé Hair Balm, I can honestly say that this is product that should be made a permanent member of Lush’s in-store range. It has not only made a huge difference to my hair in such a short space of time, but it’s super value for money and smells equally as wonderful to boot.

The idea behind this exclusive hair balm is to tame hair without losing the beautiful natural shape of that person’s locks. While I obviously don’t have the Afro they suggest it works best for, I do have enough shape and frizz to give this product a run for its money. And while I was initially convinced that this product wasn't going to do much at all, I was very quickly made to eat my words.

In all fairness, this hair balm does seem a little daunting at first. In the tub, the product looks like an oversized pot of lip balm, and the idea of putting something so thick and oily on my hair worried me a little. Although my locks are notoriously bad for being thin and wispy, I still worried that this would be too heavy and greasy. 

Massaging my hand across the surface of the tub however, revealed that this hair balm is not as thick as you would expect. While Renee’s Shea Soufflé appears as solid as a lip balm to begin with, the butters and oils actually melt really well with little stimulation, and the residue to find on your hands is much lighter and seemingly less oily as well. The format of this balm means that it’s super easy to transfer a small amount of the product onto my fingers rather than having to scoop into the balm itself. This means that you’ll never overindulge or get excess product on your hands that you don’t need. 

Once on the tips of your fingers, you then massage it into your hair and leave it to work its magic. While Lush state that it can used on both wet and dry hair, I’ve found that dry hair works far better - as with wet hair it is far more difficult to monitor how much product you've used each time. 

If you want to give your whole hair a deep condition, you can massage the balm from root to tip, if you have straight hair - or work it into your curls/afro/dreads if you’re hair is a little more segregated. Those who don’t wish to apply the product to their whole head can use the desired amount on the ends, to help counteract dryness or help to seal up split ends. 

After only my first application, I found that my hair looked immediately more shiny and vibrant. The balm quite literally gave some life back into my locks, and this only served to bring out the natural highlights that I’m usually blessed with, when I'm having a good hair day. My hair also felt far fuller to run my hand through, and the dry ends didn’t appear as broken as they had done the day before. I noticed a huge difference in the condition of my hair: it felt a little weightier and less frizzy, and while I applied more each morning before work, I really feel as if I could use this twice a week and reap the benefits for days. 

What I will say is that my hair lacks moisture quite severely, so anything that will give it some much needed oils is gladly accepted. However, I could really see how someone with much oiler hair might find this a little heavy, or may cause their hair to appear greasier as the intensity of the butters and oils in this product is rather heavy.

Scent wise, this beauty contains both vanilla and tonka, so what you get is a rather basic but equally enjoyable sweet, musky scent. While nothing to write home about, it is the effective nature of this hair balm that is far more important, which is why Lush haven't bothered to create anything particularly strong or original. Having said that, the scent does stay on your hair for a good while after you've applied it and I found that I could detect whiffs of the aroma every time the wind brushed my hair against my face.

The only negative aspect about this hair balm is that I found it didn't do anything to alleviate my wispy tuffs of hair at the front of my head. Like the devil horns that they are, they remained regiment in their quest for world domination, no matter how much balm I smothered all over them. 

Each application saw me use so little: probably the size of my smallest finger nail, and yet I found that I got so much out of the littlest of amounts. This large tub then will easily see me through for the next twelve months, making the price tag seem a little less scary than it might have done in the beginning, and I one that I truly hope comes out as permanent before I run out.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Shea Butter, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Almond Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Castor Oil, Perfume, Vanilla Absolute, Tonka Absolute, Anise Alcohol, Coumarin. 

Vegan?: Yes.

2018 Price: £30 for 240g.
2019 Price: £12.95 for 100g, £25.12 for 250g, £47.95 for 400g.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.