The Body Shop Jamaican black castor oil cleansing conditioner
![The Body Shop Jamaican black caster oil cleansing conditioner.png](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/03/07/15/The%20Body%20Shop%20Jamaican%20black%20caster%20oil%20cleansing%20conditioner.png)
- Best: Cleansing conditioner
- Size: 400ml
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The brand says the formulas are made for all curls and coils, so I put it to the test on my thick, 4c-type locks
The Body Shop is well-known for its ethical and Fairtrade practices across its product ranges, using sustainably sourced ingredients. Founded by Anita Roddick in 1976 in Brighton, the company embedded sustainable practices into its culture well before the trend of what we now see more often in commercial products.
However, there is a new area that the brand has been venturing into and that is curly and coily hair textures. The Body Shop’s Jamaican black castor oil range is a step-by-step hair care routine designed with precisely this hair texture in mind.
It uses gentle, vegan-friendly and natural ingredients (at least 93 per cent). From its cleansing conditioner to its curl activator, The Body Shop’s Jamaican black castor oil range contains four products, with its oil sourced directly from Jamaica. The product range also uses Fairtrade-sourced shea butter from Ghana, as well as vegan keratin protein.
Collectively, the full range adds up to £60, but there’s an added bonus: if you’re not satisfied after trying out the range, The Body Shop has a 45-day-money-back guarantee deal, giving you plenty of time to decide whether the products are working for you. So what have you got to lose – bar dry, frizzy locks?
I tested the full Jamaican black castor oil range on my thick, coily, afro-textured hair, which would be classified in the 4c category of Andre Walker’s Hair Typing System. This is a popular scale used to identify the thickness and coiliness of hair textures, with 4c being the coiliest and thickest texture in this system.
I followed the instructions on the website and the packaging, to make sure I used them correctly and in the right order. This started with the conditioning cleanser, followed by the intense moisturising masque, the leave-in conditioner and then the curl activator.
Overall, I would give The Body Shop’s Jamaican black castor oil range a 5/10 for thick 4c afro hair. That said, I do think it could work better on looser curl types that are perhaps not as thick or require as much moisture as intensely coily hair textures like mine. The range does note that it’s aimed at a wider range of curl patterns, so it may have taken a compromise in some areas to make sure it can go some way to serving all curly hair textures.
The cleansing conditioner and the moisturising masque were the best products out of the range, as they worked well enough on my afro hair.
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