Traditionally, fine hair and rich, ultra-hydrating conditioners don't mix. And I know this, because I have both super-fine hair that can only handle a whisper of moisture before it gets greasy and lank, AND curly hair that requires all of the moisture possible to keep it from feeling like straw. If this sounds like an impossible dilemma, then hi, welcome to my life.
And then I heard about foam conditioner, a somewhat new innovation in the moisture game that's currently being shepherded into the drugstore world with the launch of Pantene's Prov-V Daily Foam Conditioner, a conditioner that promises 'light moisture' with 'zero weight.' The collection includes six conditioners, each with a different formulation to target individual hair needs, like anti-breakage, volumising, extra-moisturising, colour-enhancing, etc., all of which supposedly absorb into your hair strand without leaving a bunch of heavy ingredients sitting on the surface.
But I being a skeptic, was, well, skeptical. Everything I've ever known about foams is that they're always, always less hydrating than creams, and definitely not top of my list for curly hair. Still, I brought it home (the Moisture Renewal one, which is specifically for dry or damaged hair) and tested it out. And, annoyingly amazingly, I was proven wrong, because by the time my curls air-dried, it had significantly more volume and bounce than I had seen since I last got my hair cut.
Like, this sounds like an infomercial, but I was really, truly, completely blown away, especially because the foam itself—which sprays out of the can exactly like shaving cream—felt way too light on my hair in the shower, since it didn't have the slickness of my usual rich, oil-filled conditioners that I'm used to. But apparently, it doesn't matter, because whatever magic is in the formula (read: a bunch of smoothing, wave-defining polymers) left my hair perfectly moisturised, and, most importantly, ridiculously volumised.
This is definitely not the first 'weightless' conditioner I've tried, but it IS the first one that didn't end up drying my hair out after a few uses. Since the temps have dropped and the air is dry as hell, though, I've had to switch back to my hella-moisturising conditioner, but I'm still keeping it in my shower for days when I blow-out my hair and need absolutely zero weight or oils near my head.
As my friend (who has, in her own words, 'exactly seven strands of hair' on her head) texted me after she tested the volumising foam: 'Holy mother of god. This is magic,' along with a shocked selfie of her amped-up hair. And honestly, that's probably the best tl;dr review of this product: holy mother of god, this is magic.
