Right now I’m in the process of transitioning my relaxed hair to it’s natural state, and my head now currently holds two majorly different textures of hair. The majority of my hair is stick straight while the roots are wavy, curly, and kinky. My relaxed hair is dry because of the chemicals I’ve used on it, and my roots are dry because my hair is so tightly wound. So both textures need extra moisture to reduce breakage and make the transition to natural hair easier for me.
A few weeks ago I decided to purchase a product that would help to nurture and moisturize both textures at the same times. I figured I would give Carol’s Daughter a shot since the line, which gets great reviews, uses natural ingredients and the owner and creator of the Carol’s Daughter line, Lisa Price, wears her hair natural and swears by her hair products.
I chose the Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner even though there were several versions of leave-in conditioners that Carol’s Daughter offered. I would like to say that I chose the Black Vanilla kind because it’s made specifically for dry hair but I would be lying, I actually chose it because of the awesome vanilla and almond scent, which had me at hello.
Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner comes in an 8 oz. plastic bottle for $13. It features the usual beige brown Carol’s Daughter label and a brown pump, the packaging is earthy and straight-forward. Inside the leave-in conditioner is a cognac brown shade and it contains lavender, rosemary, nettles, rose, calendula, and sage-leaf extract, as well as vodka and a couple of chemical ingredients that I can’t pronounce.
I have to say that when I first bought this leave-in conditioner, I thought that I was going to regret not leaving it on the shelf at Sephora, because it looked so watered down. When I first used it a couple of days later on my wet hair I totally regretted buying it like I thought I would.
I found the Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In to be very light and watery and it really didn’t help to detangle my hair like most leave-in conditioners do. I also was expecting the leave-in conditioner to give my hair tons of moisture but that didn’t happen. I was going to return it to Sephora as soon as I could, until that vanilla and almond scent wafted to my nose. I decided that even though it wasn’t the greatest leave-in conditioner in the world the pleasure that the vanilla scent gave me as I styled my hair was worth the extra 13 bucks.
So I kept it and the following week after my hair got wet in the shower I noticed that it was softer and more moisturized than it had been before I used the Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner. I used more of the leave-in to style my wet locks and surprisingly it worked better. My hair, especially the roots, immediately responded to it and became softer and more manageable, and I could smell the vanilla and almond scent whenever I moved my head for four days afterwards.
The first two times that I used the Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner I let my hair air-dry but on the third week, I decided to straighten my hair with my blow dryer and flat-iron. Normally when I have four weeks of new growth at the roots I struggle to brush my kinks out, but at this month I had about 10 weeks of new growth at the roots and I assumed they’d be hard to straighten because of tangles and dryness.
But after spraying the Black Vanilla Leave-In on my roots, my brush was able to straighten them without a lot of effort. For the most part the brush glided through my hair, it was so easy and painless because it got rid of the tangles. After blow-drying my relaxed ends and my kinky roots were left feeling super soft, silky, and moisturized, I couldn’t keep my hands out of it.
Overall, the Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner is a really good product. The best thing about it is how soft and manageable it will leave your hair, and of course it’s heavenly vanilla scent. The worst thing about it is that it’s so watery. I wish more came in the bottle or that it was thicker because I’ve already used nearly half of it already since I have really thick hair.
Regardless I’d recommend Carol’s Daughter Black Vanilla to anyone with dry hair, and I think it’s a must try for African-American women with relaxed hair, natural hair, or for those who are transitioning. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
