John Frieda Root Awakening Conditioner and Strength Boosting Spray

I love the premise of hair products that refresh and "invigorate" at the roots... Oh I love that word... "Invigorate". Its a word that sounds like it should feel... I'm sure I'm only making sense to myself right now.  But never mind. You should all really be used to that by now.

So anyway, I picked the Strength Boosting Spray up a few weeks ago and I've been using it somewhat sporadically ever since - largely because I am very haphazard with any kind of hair routine.

This is meant to be sprayed into the roots (it recommends 2-3 pumps), and massaged through the roots and then combed through - I use this on damp hair before blow drying, although the bottle doesn't specify whether this is for dry or wet hair, which leads me to assume it can be used on both!

The first thing I noticed about this spray is the scent - it's very minty/eucalyptus-y (that'll be the eucalyptus and peppermint oil in it then... I'm clever me!) but has a sweetness to it that prevents it from getting too medicated or toothpaste like - I really like it, and it's a nice fresh and refreshing smell.

I do find that I need to use more than 2-3 pumps though - I have fine hair but lots of it, so three pumps of this doesn't really go very far. It distributes easily through the hair too, which is good - often I have  issues getting products distibuted to best effect. The pump spray is well designed packaging wise too - It has a long nozzle so enabling you to get the product into the roots where it's meant to be. And I prefer these "pump" type sprays to aerosols any day of the week as I find them a lot more controllable.

This feels refreshing and cooling on the scalp - the line boasts of promoting tingling sensations, which in my case it didn't, but I'm not sure I'd really enjoy that - I don't fancy the thought of an equivalent of a lip plumper on my scalp if that makes sense...I find those things bloody painful!

This has a "Thermo-Protectant" in it too - so although not designed as a heat protector per se, I like using this prior to blow drying just to protect my hair a bit.

I was also sent the conditioner from the range for review recently and I've been using it for a couple of weeks now. I was sent the version for dry hair, as I have really dry damaged ends. It is also available in a formula for normal hair too.

This shares the same lovely scent as the spray - it fades pretty quickly from the hair though, so if you prefer scent free hair don't let that put you off.

Texture wise this is a lot lighter that I was expecting - when I think of conditioners for dry hair, I usually expect them to be thicker formulations. This a really loose cream formula - it almost has a water based feel to it. This makes it really easy to spread through the hair - I apply it to the ends and then kind of work it up towards the scalp. I don't work it too much into the scalp as I prefer to leave my roots not overly conditioned - they get oily too quickly otherwise.

The texture is a little deceptive however - this may be light in texture but it does condition the hair really well - I can see a difference in the way my hair acts in humidity etc. And by that I mean it stays in reasonably good shape and doesn't puff up like a frizzball the moment an atom of moisture happens upon it.
It also rinses out of the hair really really easily to, which means that you don't have to overwork your hair for ages  under running water, which I never like to do. Once dry hair stays tangle free really well too. So this is a great all rounder.

I'm impressed enough with this conditioner that I will probably at some point pick up the matching shampoo for it. I may not always wear matching pants and bra (tooooo much information!), but I do love it when I have a matching shampoo and  conditioner.

The only downside? I have a feeling that the range is not free of SLS and parabens - I haven't noticed any sensitivity in my scalp since I started using it.

This gets a definite thumbs up from me - it's one of the nicest and most effective drugstore conditioners I've tried in a long time. Have you tried this or the shampoo? I'd love to know your thoughts.