How does The Body Shop’s Jamaican black castor oil range fare on afro hair?

First up in the Jamaican black castor oil range is the cleansing conditioner. This product acts as a two-in-one shampoo and conditioner, and I found that it worked fairly well on my afro hair, which was due for a cleanse since being washed a week earlier. Although sulphate-free, the cleansing conditioner felt like it cleansed my locks well enough, without leaving my tresses feeling dry or crispy. As the product name would suggest, it also felt like it conditioned my hair quite well, leaving it fairly soft and ready for a follow-up treatment.

The intense moisturising masque was a great follow-up to the cleansing conditioner. Deep conditioning is a good way to add and ensure longer-lasting moisture with afro hair textures.

When deep conditioning, I also used an electric steaming cap for half an hour, to enable the product to absorb more intensely into my tresses and take in its moisture. After washing out the masque, my hair was in a much better condition to be detangled, and I noticed a significant increase in moisture compared to the cleansing conditioner alone.

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To add extra moisture, the Jamaican black castor oil leave-in conditioner was the next step. Although I could feel some moisture applied to my strands, the leave-in didn’t feel like the thick, creamy, long-lasting moisture that I usually need for my hair texture, with the creaminess soon dissolving after application.

I tried applying this leave-in conditioner again a few days later but the same thing happened – a lack of long-lasting moisture. So perhaps this leave-in conditioner is better designed for those with looser curl patterns, compared to my tightly coiled afro hair. Looser curls don’t need as much moisture as 4c-type hair, and so should be able to retain the moisture from the product for a longer period of time.

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As with the leave-in conditioner, the curl activator didn’t work that well for my hair texture. Applying it to damp hair (after applying the other products first), I could see that it did help bring some curls out. However, it wasn’t to a significant extent and was a tad short-lived.

I also tried leaving the product in overnight on flat-twisted hair to see if it would have an effect on the curls. When unravelling the twists the next morning, I could see there was some curl definition, but I would have expected to see more from a curl activation product. This again makes me feel the product would work better for looser curl types.