On my last trip to the hairdresser's I picked up a couple of gems of information on what kind of shampoo and conditioner would best suit my hair. She explained each and every product that came into contact with my locks - what it was, what it was doing, thankfully she stopped short of how it was doing what it was doing or else it'd probably have all gone in one ear and straight out of the other.
But when the hairdresser repeatedly mentioned one specific product she was using on my hair, and even flashed the bottle in front of me, my ears pricked up and I made a little mental note (rather than throw money at her and buy bottles of the stuff like I think she might have hoped I would). However, so impressed was I with my hair that I turned to trusty old Google (other search engines are available), who told me that the prodcut I was after was Redken All Soft Soft Ends (I already knew it was Redken). Shopping one day I then noticed the Redken range in a hairdresser's shop and went in and bought Soft Ends.
~ ♥ REDKEN ♥ ~ The Redken Laboratories were founded in 1960 by an American actress called Paula Kent. She teamed up with her hairdresser Jheri Redding (hence the name) when she finally became fed up with the fact that she was extra sensitive to a lot of the hair products that were used on her as an up-and-coming actress. In 1993 Redken was bought by L'Oréal and now it's based in New York. Redken products are now available from professional salons in over 50 countries.
Redken make a huge range of products - from haircare to hair styling, with a range specifically for men. In the haircare section along you'll find 10 sub-ranges, from 'UV Rescue' to 'Body Full' and 'Smooth Down'.
'Soft Ends' the product that I will be reviewing is from the 'All Soft' range. Unfortunately, clicking on this range only four products are available, and Soft Ends is not one of them. This is where the problem of 'availability' arises...and I'm going to be a coward and deal with this later.
~ ♥ THE PRODUCT ♥ ~ First of all - what is Soft Ends? Well, it's a leave-in conditioner - my hairdresser referred to it as a moisturising treatment which would leave my hair soft, shiny and more manageable.
• Packaging • The bottle is an interesting shape, difficult to describe. Needless to say that the base is not circular, but a semi-circle. It's an opaque bottle, pearlised gold in colour with a black flip-open cap. No worries about trouble opening this with wet hands because you don't need to apply this until after your bath/shower. The white writing on the front of the bottle is minimal, we see the name of the product as well as 'leave-in treatment for dry/brittle hair' and the words 'avocado oil'. There's a translation in what I think is Spanish. The bottle contains 150ml of product. On the back there are directions and ingredients, again with a couple of translations. I like the bottle, and this packaging is used throughout the All Soft range.
The ingredients are pretty much all indecipherable to me, but they are fully listed so if you had any worries about allergies or sensitivities then consulting the back of the bottle should help. However, remember that Paula Kent, who founded the company, was herself fed up with hair products which irritated her. So this should (in theory) be a product suitable for almost everybody.
• Real Beauty Lies Within • The product hidden within the opaque bottle is milky-white is colour and a slightly more running consistancy than your average conditioner. I really love the smell of it, you can definitely smell the avocado oil - but it's pleasant and not too strong.
• Use • The fact that only 8 words are used on the back of the bottle under the title 'Directions' really reinforces the fact that this is very easy to use. Just wash your hair as normal and towel-dry your hair. I then add a blob about the size of a 10p coin, maybe slightly smaller, using my fingers to get this through my hair. I then comb through and make sure that it's evenly distributed. And that's it, you're done. No need to rinse, as the 'leave-in' part of the name seems to suggest. I just dry my hair as normal and voilà. Gorgeous, soft, shiny hair is mine.
The only thing I wasn't sure about is how often this product should be used. It doesn't say on the bottle and I can't quite remember what my hairdresser said to me when I asked. I think she said twice a week, but I've made the executive decision to use this once a week, bearing in mind that I wash my hair every other day.
• Results • I'm really impressed with this product. I never considered my hair to be dry, and certainly not 'brittle' but my hairdresser was definitely right in saying that my hair was in need of something to moisturise and nourish it. So I've been incredibly happy since switching to a moisturising shampoo (John Frieda Brilliant Brunette). I remembered the hairdresser telling me that this moisturising treatment would properly soak into the shafts of hair, rather than just staying on the surface like an ordinary conditioner. She also said that it would last for three days. I was a little worried my hair would not be as soft and shiny after these three days passed so I was pleasantly surprised. However I have noticed that over a longer period of time it's just lacking something...so I decided to purchase a bottle of this. And that something has definitely returned.
As for more manageable, well my hair has been more managable since having it cut, and I think this has been maintained by using products with moisturising qualities. My hair used to knot very easily and this is no longer the case.
~ ♥ PRICE AND AVAILABILITY ♥ ~ This is the tricky bit I'm afraid. First of all, if you do a search on 'Soft Ends' you'll find another product in a longer, thinner packaging seems to come up first. I have no idea why, but I suspect that this is a product available in America. 'Soft Ends' is not, to my knowledge, on the Redken website. Secondly, the packaging for 'Soft Ends' and the 'All Soft Conditioner' which are different products look almost identical and you could easily confuse the two.
Now, even if you know exactly what you're looking for you might have a hard time trying to buy it. On the internet I've found a couple of websites selling Redken, but none of these websites sell Soft Ends. However, I did manage to stumble across one website, thanks to Google and Kelkoo.co.uk which does sell Soft Ends.
♥ www.redken.com (An American website so some of the packaging/products may be different).
♥ www.hairloss-hair.co.uk (sells a vast range of Redken products, though not Soft Ends).
I also tried to find out the names of salons which sell Redken products. Unfortunately this was another tricky task and the only one I managed was the one I happened to wander past - Supercuts. There are salons throughout the UK and you'll find a store locator on the website. If I manage to find any other salons stocking this I'll update my review to include them.
♥ www.supercuts-uk.com
I paid £10.50 for mine, and this is the price Soft Ends is retailing at on hqhair.com. However, with once-weekly usage I fully expect this to last to me at least three months if not more and I was quite happy to pay this for a product that I know works.
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
