Experience with WEN by Chaz Dean cleansing conditioner?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Sometimes when I’m doing other things around the house, I have one of the shopping channels on, just for background noise. Yesterday, I saw a presentation for this product:
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx?view=2&app=detail&params=item^A86335,RecTypeInd^IOFFER,navlist^A74043A86335A74047*,cp^detail,tmp^related,cpprod^A212497,cm_scid^dtlr&walk=&cmtags=

It’s a shampoo-free cleansing conditioner. No lather, no suds. It’s supposed to result in healthier hair, and my hair could certainly use some help in that regard. It seems a little pricey, but its reviews are good, not only on the QVC website, but also on Amazon. If it does anything close to what it’s supposed to do, I’m definitely in.

But I’d like to know if any of you have any experience, negative or positive, with this stuff?

#2

I’m glad someone else started the thread that I was too lazy to.

Occasionally on Saturdays, I am too lazy to change the channel after “The New Adventures of Old Christine” goes off (don’t judge me), and have caught the infomercials for this. I thought it looked good, but TV people are tricky, and always present their products as good, even if they’re sucky. Online reviews seem to embrace it, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to stop being cheap considering I’m okay with my hair using regular shampoo and conditioner. If it actually is better and will improve my hair quality, I’m in. I am eager to see if anyone has personally used Wen.

#3

FWIW, my fiancee got a pack of WEN products for Christmas and has been using it since. (Maybe it’s the cleansing conditioner she’s using, maybe not.) She’s always had healthy hair, AFAICT, and it doesn’t seem like the WEN has really affected it one way or the other, but I’ll ask her about it and report back.

#4

I bought a bottle of it. My hair is naturally fine and straight, and I bought the kind that was supposed to be for it.

Fail. I’d shower in the morning and my hair would be disgustingly greasy by evening. I couldn’t ever stand to go more than two days in a row without using shampoo. I never finished the bottle.

#5

What an awful name for a product.

wen
–noun
1.
Pathology . a benign encysted tumor of the skin, especially on the scalp, containing sebaceous matter; a sebaceous cyst.

#6

Interesting responses so far. I’ll wait for more input before deciding to order.

#7

I use WEN. For a long time, I was dissatisfied with my hair getting frizzy, hard to style or comb, etc. On the advice of a beauty board, I started “washing my hair” with conditioner. After about two weeks, my hair and scalp improved dramatically. My scalp wasn’t flaky and my hair wasn’t greasy and frizzy. Then, I saw the WEN presentation on QVC and I ordered a variety pack of the cleansing conditioners. After some experimentation, I settled on Tea Tree for my scalp and Sweet Almond Mint for my hair. I’ll never go back to shampoo and conditioner again because I always have a good hair day with WEN. Admittedly, it’s not for everyone and there’s a learning curve with how to use it, but I’ve had good results. If you want to read reviews, go to QVC.com, click Community at the bottom of the page, click on Beauty Banter, and filter for WEN threads. Some people hate it, lots of people love it. YMMV:)

#8

This guy was shilling his products on QVC. That alone is cause for suspect. My mother-in-law is an addict. In-between the purses and shoes and flameless candles and clothes from China, they sell all kinds of blick and this one of their blicky products,

#9

Well, I don’t know exactly what ‘blicky’ means, but from the context, I’m going to guess it’s nothing good. I don’t know anything about this brand, but I do know that QVC sells shoes by Birkenstock and Ryka, both very respected brands; they have makeup by Bobbi Brown and Smashbox, also both very well-regarded. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m unwilling to write off a particular brand just because it’s ‘shilled’ on QVC.

Medstar, very helpful; thanks! Oh, btw, when you were just “washing your hair” with conditioner, how exactly did you do that? I might give it a trial run!

#10

norinew, you might want to check out Curly Girl: The Handbook. It has a lot of information about going no-'poo, including conditioner washes. It gives me some reason to suspect that there’s nothing particularly special about Wen products; the approach might very well work with Suave conditioner instead.

#11

Awesome, Sattua. I like that the first three responses are from black women. Seems like something worth checking out.

#12

Well, I don’t have thick, curly or frizzy hair; in fact, I have thin, mostly straight (it’s got a little wave in it), damaged, dry hair. But from the info I can find on the 'net, it looks like you probably could use just about any brand of conditioner to go 'no-‘poo’, and I may just have to give it a shot.

It makes such perfect sense that the detergents in shampoos that make the lather would strip the oils from my hair. I mean, that’s where the phrase ‘squeaky clean’ comes from, right? I never, ever, ever shampoo without conditioning, maybe I should just start skipping the shampoo itself! (And this decision right after I buy an econ-size bottle of Aussie Ausome Volume shampoo. . .oh well; I’m sure the church across the street that gives away free stuff on Thursdays would appreciate having it).

If I did this, though, I’d be tempted to go high-end with the conditioner. Not because I think the more expensive stuff is necessarily any better, but I’d want to be double-sure I have something that smells awesome, and feels indulgent. What can I say? I’m a hedonist. :wink:

#13

My mom swears by it; she’s got straight strawberry blonde hair and uses a lot of heat to style (blowdryer and straightener), and I have to say, her hair does look good. Of course, her hair always looks pretty good, as she’s used every product under the sun and is pretty picky about babying it.

She did come back to the Wen stuff after trying it alongside several other things, for whatever that’s worth.

#14

The whole Wen thing caught on here at work where the female to male ratio is around 10:1, and I know too much about female things to get into all of it, but here is my feedback from all the discussions I’ve heard about Wen:

  1. If you have dry hair, I’d bet a good chunk of money every time that you will love Wen out of the gates.

  2. If you have ‘processed’ (colored, permed or straightened) hair, I’d bet a good chunk of money every time that you will love Wen out of the gates.

  3. If you have good hair, not much to complain about, but want something better, I’d bet you would** not** like Wen.

  4. If you have fine hair, or it’s just not very dense, I’d bet you would not like Wen.

  5. Over time, your love of Wen will fade, and you’ll go back to your old routine. Occasionally, you’ll consider using Wen again, especially if your hair starts to dry out, get over processed, frizzy again.

I think the gist of the issue is that Wen let’s you get some oil and natural health back to your hair, until the point that it’s too oily and too natural. Then you’ll ditch it.

#15

Interesting, Phil. As someone whose hair is naturally dry and is chemically treated, I only wash my hair about once a week, otherwise it will become a dried up, frizzy disaster. I think next time I wash, I’ll try with just conditioner alone, and see if that improves things. Day one after washing my hair, it is always poofy – day three is when my hair is in the perfect zone. If doing that makes no noticeable difference, I’ll give WEN a go. $30 is more than I regularly pay for shampoo, but it’s not like it’s going to break the bank or anything. Also, since I only wash my hair once weekly, their 30-day supply will last me a lot longer than that.

#16

It sounds like the only real difference between you and I (when it comes to hair, that is), is that mine is very fine, and yours is not. I, too, was thinking about just ditching the shampoo the next few times and seeing what happens. From what I’ve read of the shampoo-free method, your hair could look worse for the first couple of weeks, then start to improve. Like you, I wash my hair max twice a week (usually just once) or it gets too dry and brittle. For me, day 2 is the ‘sweet spot’.

#17

Oh, whenever discussions of shampoo/hair, etc come up, you should determine what kind of water you have (how ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ it is).

Hard = brutal on hair.

That’s my input from me (a male)… all girl-talk aside. :slight_smile:

#18

For years I’ve been watching for an actual example where " a month of Sundays" makes sense. thank you.

#19

My grandmother, who has a tendency to believes what the television tells her, got some for me and the other female members of my family.

I’m not impressed. It isn’t bad, it’s just nothing special. My hair seemed ok after using it, but it also seems ok after washing and conditioning it. The top ingredients are water, glycerine, and cetyl alcohol and my guess is that you could get the same results by “washing” your hair with conditioner that contained those same top 3 ingredients for a lot lower price. Especially given the amount that you’re supposed to use.

ETA: MeanOldLady, to the extent that it matters, I’m African American with chemically straightened hair.

#20

Thanks! That means a lot coming from someone whose hair is likely very similar to mine. :slight_smile: