American Crew Daily Moisturizing Shampoo

Hello and welcome to my 25th review on Ciao.

American Crew is part of the many Carter and Bond range of products. The product range is quite select and also more expensive than your usual brand of say Head and Shoulders or Elvive, but the question has to be asked in the best L'Oreal fashion… is it worth it?

Let's have some fun and travel with me on a journey of discovery and find out shall we….

---The Company---

Until recently, when I was given a bottle of American Crew as a Christmas present, I never had a 'Scooby' as to who they were as I had never heard of them at all. Shame on me!!

Carter and Bond are a relatively new company as they were only established 5 years ago. With the more recent upward trend in male grooming the company boasts a number of ranges not only for men who moisturise but also caters for women with an extensive range.

---The Product---

The product comes in a light brown slightly opaque standard shaped shampoo container, slightly reminiscent in colour of 1970's Dunhill aftershave bottle because of the shade. 250ml is not that big really for what you pay and to be honest for the money I expected a bit more. Thankfully a normal flip cap on the top which means an easy application is achievable. From the style and fashion of the branding it is easily identifiable as American Crew. This is for two reasons, most notably no one else has such a design, so one that side it is original and also the shades of brown are quite eye catching, and when seen it is immediately identifiable as American Crew.

---Availability---

The American Crew product range is not available through your local corner shop at all, and is not available in such places as Tesco's or Sainsbury's. In fact it can only be purchased through specialist's salons and barbers. What I have started doing is to purchase direct from the Carter and Bond website. One thing that has surprised me is that the company allows orders to be picked up from their London site and welcomes this as a way of the customer saving postage and packaging, not something that is really advertised by other companies and in today's ' Be Green' climate is something that could be questioned as non-ethical. Okay I suppose if you work local then it does make a lot of sense.

At £6.45 for 250ml and £9.95 for 450ml it is on the expensive side, but compared to some of the other shampoos that are in the range this can be considered a slightly cheaper buy from the range.

---Quality---

When the shampoo is poured into one's hand and used, not only is the texture a nice sensation of the silky smooth lotion, but also the quite strong but not over powering fragrance of the shampoo itself.

Daily Moisturizing comes in a fragrance of what as a bloke I call blossom as the fragrance reminded of quite literally blossom. In reality it is extracts of Rosemary and Sage. This had the really quite wonderful effect of not only making my entire bathroom smell like a country garden but also the desired effect of leaving my head tingling, which at 6.30 am is a very pleasant way to start the day. This was mainly down to the oils and wheat germ the shampoo contains. As long as your hair is wet when applied, it foams up perfectly and most importantly quickly and doesn't sting compared to Head and Shoulders when it is mistakenly allowed into any available eye socket going.

After I dried my hair, I found it was really was in a different and a lot better condition than before. It didn't feel dry; there was absolutely no frizyness at all. This really surprised me as I expected something at completely the other end of the spectrum when towel drying my hair to what I was going through at the time.

The big advantage for me was that my hair was in a perfect condition to be manipulated into the style I wanted. I used less wax than before to obtain the desired effect and as a further bonus was able to style quicker as well. Even dry it had sheen to it and as I have relatively short hair this was a bonus.

--Overall---

From the size of the bottle I was at first a bit apprehensive about the value it added, using it once a day I managed to get about 3 weeks worth of hair washing. The best thing being that a little quite literally does go a long way with this stuff and you don't need much more than a blob the size of a 10p piece being rubbed in your scalp to start the party off. Not bad really but considering by the end I was literally squeezing the bottle for all I was worth as I wanted so badly to get every single drop out to use. That says a lot.

Yes it is dearer than other brands, but overall I would say that the quality and effect that this could have on your hair by far outweighs the price if used in small amounts.

Without sounding like an advert as someone who has to look the part for his job, I need to be presentable and look fresh every day. With this it not helps you wake up in the morning but also makes your hair look great and as hair seems to be one of the first things that people can judge you on, it's not a bad start at all.

So the shampoo has been tested, now let's make way for the hair paste and also the skin care line. I think that it's safe to say that I have been converted to a new line… why? Simple because to quote L'Oreal, it's because I'm worth it!

---Suppliers---

I hae updated this review to show a list of suppliers that American Crew can be purchased from.

Jack's of London is a barbers chain with barber shops based in Wimbledon, Kingston, Guildford and Birmingham. There website is useful as it shows new stores opening up.

Trade Secrets is a nationwide chain of shops that sell over 150 different hair products. Not only do they sell American Crew products but also the American Crew Mint range as well.

As mentioned above the products can be ordered direct as well.

Until next time, thanks for reading and take care.

Tim