Tag: vegan haircare

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Haircare products have come a long way in the last decade, with more products on the market and a far larger range available.  The boom of internet selling has made it easy to find the exact product for you and have it delivered to your door.

Umthi haircare products include restorative shampoo, leave-in cream and hair oil, all of which were sent to us to test on this curly-haired reviewer.  Umthi was developed by Lolita Sanders who was motivated to find, and ultimately develop new hair products for women who lost their hair after birth.  Lolita however, was devastated by her hair loss due to medication after the birth of her second son, and so during lockdown, she developed the Umthi products for friends and family. Like and good entrepreneur story, what started in her kitchen during lockdown soon became much bigger, and the story of Umthi began.

Sent to us were Restorative Shampoo, Restorative Conditioner, Restorative Leave-in Cream and Hair Oil.  Based around afro hair but suitable for everyone to use, the products are vegan, cruelty free, sulphate free, as well as paraben and silicone free. So there’s nothing nasty in them to harm either you or the planet!

The first thing that struck me about the products is the smell. They are made from natural products and that includes the scents which are added to them. Each of the products has a slightly different scent but all of them have a slight lemongrass freshness to them.

The obvious product to use first was the Restorative Shampoo.  Made with shea butter and almond oil with rose and fenugreek, it has a really strong but floral smell, which stayed on my hair long after I showered. Using it, I realised that it wasn’t going to lathe up because it doesn’t contain sulphates, but it does clean exceptionally well and left my hair soft and smelling lovely!

Also in the shower, I used the Restorative Conditioner. Again it had a lovely fresh smell to it, and as it’s in a tin rather than a bottle, it was easier to handle in the shower.  As well as shea butter, the conditioner contains andiroba oil, aloe vera, castor oil, mango butter, and amla.  The combination of fatty acids and vitamins are well known in African skincare regimes to be beneficial.

After washing my hair, I used the Leave-In Conditioner and Hair Oil at different times. Using the hair oil the first time I washed my hair, I think I used too much as it left my hair a bit greasy looking.  I think it would work well on much longer hair and whilst your hair is still wet so that it had some chance to evaporate.  The second time I used it, I was more sparing and used it on just the ends. It isn’t the kind of oil that creates big curls but it does define, and I think it would be great if you are creating a swept back, glossy look.

Finally, I used the Leave-In Conditioner the next time I washed my hair.  It’s quite heavy, so again you don’t need much and I found it was best to run it through my hair when it was still wet and to use less than you think. It left my hair feeling softer and the ends didn’t dry out as much. Over time and with the combination of the oil and Leave-In conditioner, I hope it will balance out and leave my curls both conditioned and defined.