After 20 years of being natural, I’m still a product junkie. By now, I do know what my hair needs, but I still can’t resist the lure of trying something new. So when I got the opportunity to review LUS Brands hair products, I found it ironic that this line purports its shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in to be all that you need to take care of your waves, curls, or coils. It’ll never be said of me that I don’t like a challenge.
So myself, a coily, and my best mom friend, Cynthia, a curly, put LUS to the test.
The System
There are three steps to the LUS system: cleanse, condition, and leave-in, or what they call the All-in-One. The shampoo and conditioner are good for all curl types, but the All-In-One gives you three choices: wavy, curly, or kinky/coily formulas. They aim to help you eliminate the 50 products in the cabinet under the sink and the inevitable layering on products to get your hair in the zone.
For optimal results, LUS encourages consumers to remember that their products are activated by water and to use half of what they normally use. Half? Even the conditioner? Eek.
Image Source: @lusbrands
Ingredients
Even before I used it, I was impressed by the ingredients. They are free of sulfates, silicones, synthetic dyes, gluten, parabens, and mineral oil. If you have problems with allergies or have any skin sensitivities, these products seem safe to try.
Their flagship ingredients include moringa oil, shea butter, castor oil, and silk protein (only in the kinky/coily leave-in).
First Impression
Image Source: @lusbrands
What struck me first was how easy it was to handle the bottle. I’ve got tiny hands, and in the shower, things get slippery. It was incredibly easy to grab, open, squeeze product into my hand, and put it back down again.
The smell was extremely pleasant. Not overpowering or peculiar. I won’t name names, but some product smells give me an instant headache or odd smell that flips the tummy a bit.
I did two rounds with the product: a wash-in-go and two-strand twists. I loved how my hair felt with the wash in go. It was softer, with very little frizz. Cynthia’s hair responded well with first use, as well.
“After first use, LUS made my hair softer, lighter and shinier,” said Cynthia. “My hair looked amazing, defined curls, healthy, not frizzy at all.”
Product Breakdown: Shampoo and Conditioner
I definitely noticed the “less is more” to be true with the shampoo. I don’t use much shampoo anyway, but I followed the instructions and used half of what I normally would. Water “activates” it for sure. There was more than enough lather throughout my hair.
Now the conditioner was a little harder to get a handle on. When I applied conditioner to my head, and then added water, it felt like some of it rinsed out. It seemed like I didn’t have conditioner in my hair. However, when I detangled my hair, I had no issues. The comb went through my hair easily. But I didn’t have that slip that I am used to when detangling.
Cynthia had a similar experience, adding that it was hard to cover her entire head without overusing it.
“In the video, she said the conditioner wouldn’t be washed out after adding a little and squeezing down, but I felt I lost some in several cases,” she said. “I also didn’t see an advantage to letting it sit for 3-5 minutes before activating and combing. Seemed inefficient. Maybe comb it out during those 3-5 minutes and add more products if needed. Not sure.”
Curly Protocol
Image Source: @jhairieciprian
Cynthia used LUS for a week, and after the initial use, her hair felt incredible; with subsequent use, she says it felt like her hair was drying out.
On day 1, she completed the full protocol (shampoo, conditioner, leave-in, diffuser). After skipping day 2, on day 3, she washed, conditioned, and applied leave-in but let her hair air dry; her hair was a little frizzy, and only some parts were shiny. Repeat on day 4, and her hair was visibly drying out. On day 5, she wet her hair a little, added diluted leave-in, and diffused. Her hair looked better for a few hours but still looked to be drying out. On day 6, she used her protocol/products (she was swimming at the gym and didn’t want to risk further dryness) and noticed she looked great again, maybe even better than it normally does. Finally, on day 7, she used the LUS full protocol, and her hair looked better than on days 2-5 but not as good as it had been on the first day.
“It’s possible my hair looked great on day 6 after going back to my old products because LUS did a great job cleaning out the build up on the earlier days,” she says. “But it was also clear that after day 7, my hair was still too dry from using the product multiple times in a week. For me, LUS isn’t moist enough for regular use, so I would continue to use once a week and use my other products 3 times week.”
Cynthia says after watching the videos, she was confident in following the protocol, but in practice, she lost patience because she wasn’t able to figure out the right amount of conditioner to use without using the entire bottle.
Kinky/Coily Protocol
Image Source: @meg_yourstruly
On my one-day-old wash-in-go, I washed, conditioned, detangled, and two-strand twisted my hair. LUS advises constant spritzing with water before applying the leave-in and twisting. This is something I do anyway, so it wasn’t a big change for me. Being aware of how much product I was using was. You don’t need a lot to coat the strands. I probably used too much on a few patches of hair.
Image Source: @rosesovaj
After twisting my hair and letting it dry, the good news is that there was no residue. Even on the parts where I overdid it with the product, it dried nice and clear. My twists were firm but not hard and felt moisturized. The next day, I untwisted my hair. Now, I have fine strands, so my twist-outs always look sparse. Especially when my hair is so short (about two inches), I don’t typically style or stretch it until it reaches 3 or 4 inches. But the hold and definition were stunning. As I write this, I am on day 2 of the twist, and it looks just about as good as the first day.
Final Thoughts
There is no question that these are high-quality products. But it does take a bit of trial and error, particularly when applying the conditioner and all-in-one, to figure out what works. And LUS does say to take the time to experiment with different techniques on their info page. Curlies may also want to try the kinky/coily leave-in if you find the curly leave-in isn’t quite doing the job. Overall, these are products definitely worth giving a try.
Have you tried LUS products? How did they work for you? Let us know in the comments!
