Charles Worthington Relax and Unwind Blow-dry Straightening Balm

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Satisfactory
Long Lasting?	No effect
Smoothing?	no
Conditioning?	no

Advantages:	none
Disadvantages:	just read the opinion !

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I bought my bottle of Charles Worthington Results Straightening Balm last year (sorry! Had previously written a couple of years ago, and hadn't realised - this is actually wrong, thanks to Lolette for pointing it out!) in a 3 for 2 offer at Boots. I think it cost me about £6 for 3 bottles of stuff, including the straightening shampoo and conditioner, which I thought was quite a good deal, as they were all large bottles containing 200ml of product in each. The ‘Takeaways’ version is about £1.50 for 15ml.

The shampoo and conditioner were marvellous; not only did they reduce the frizziness of my hair, but the smell was very similar to Issey Miyake perfume (however you spell it!) and was gorgeous to have wafting from your hair all day long. The straightening balm however, is a different story…

After buying the Balm stuff all those years ago, I couldn’t remember why or when I stopped using it, so the other day, when I found it in my bits and bobs drawer after my shower, I thought, ‘ooh, I’ll try that.’ So after towel drying my hair, I read the back of the bottle to follow the directions. ‘Squeeze a small amount into palm, rub hands together and run fingers through hair from root to tip. Comb through thoroughly, style as normal.’ Right, few problems before I’d even started - how wet/dry should your hair be before you apply this stuff? The back yielded no advice on this point, so I left my hair as it was and applied the stuff through my hair…

The top is quite difficult to press down and actually get some of the stuff into your hand, and it was difficult to spread evenly through my hair, but even though it was wet, it appeared a bit smoother and shaped to look at. However, my hair felt thick, even thicker than usual, and sticky. Hmmm, it wasn’t looking good. However, I brushed it through, and started to dry my hair.

I’m not the best person at styling my hair, I tend to just roughly blow-dry it, then straighten it afterwards. I was hoping that this product would mean that I wouldn’t have to straighten it afterwards, as the front blurb had promised me that it ‘de-frizzes as it smoothes, controls and shapes your hair.’ Well, I think the marketing and packaging people must have had minimal communication with the manufacturers, because it honestly does not work.

My hair after drying felt rough, thicker than usual, and rather than being less frizzy it was actually more so. The stuff smelt awful- very chemically and plastic-like. When I actually tried to straighten my hair, it was very, very coarse and it actually made my eyes water to put the straighteners through. I quickly remembered why I stopped using this stuff before. My hair wouldn’t straighten as easily and took me longer to do. I had to go through each layer very carefully only doing little bits of hair to make it all feel smooth.

By the end of the day, my hair was more frizzy than usual. It smelt awful and felt even worse, like I’d got some sandpaper and wiped it across the back. It was also beginning to feel quite greasy. It was no good, so I gave in and washed my hair again. And, no way was I putting this on it again.

I would seriously recommend that you avoid this straightening balm at all costs. It is a fairly attractive bottle; light pink and vaguely translucent with the Charles Worthington logo on the front, so you might be very tempted by it when it glistens at you from the Boots shelf. However, it is far from attractive when your hair frizzes up and you have to spend ages sorting it out. It is available in Boots if you’re still insistent on trying it and from other chemists and shops. I do know that Bodycare sell it – at a cheaper price – so if you are going to try it anyway, at least get it from there so you don’t waste too much money.

The manufacturers address is Charles Worthington ltd, PO Box 2207, London, W1A 5TY.

It is also available in the US at Charles Worthington (USA) Ltd, PO Box 8544, New York, NY 10150.

You can also contact them at www.cwlondon.com and on 800 519 8121.