I covet stick straight hair. Having curls and a dual cowlick to boot, the flat-iron look is something that I really need to work for in order to make it happen every day. To think, that my Dabbler editor almost didn’t give me this assignment because she thought I already had straight hair! After I did my little happy dance, I accepted the challenge of testing out Pantene Pro-V’s latest collection – the Extra Straight hair care line: shampoo, conditioner, and straightening cream. With my jumbo ceramic round brush in hand, I gladly put this one to the test.

Since the beginning of time, girls with curly hair have brushed, ironed, blow dried, and chemically treated, all in the name of their sought-after coifs. Sleek, smooth, pin straight locks are but a dream for many Shirley Temple types out there and I speak from experience when I say, I’ve tried it all. When ceramic irons first hit the market, my hairdresser personally called my mother after a hair show and told her she had to buy one for me. My mother wisely listened. While this does not reverse the extreme psychological trauma of two perms (that’s right, I said TWO perms) and blunt bangs I was made to suffer through in my youth, it was a start.

I’ve gotten pretty good at the straightening game, but I’m always looking for products to help me out. I’ve developed serious biceps from all of the blow drying and if I don’t find a helper soon, I’m going to end up looking like Ahnold. So when Pantene Pro-V came along with the new Extra Straight styling tookit, I took the challenge on with gusto. All three products can be bought separately but the entire line includes Extra Straight Shampoo, Extra Straight Conditioner, and Extra Straight Comb-In Cream. The suggested retail price for each is $6.49 (cdn) and they can be found pretty much anywhere you can buy other Pantene products.

In typical big business style, you won’t see the mega straightening benefits of any of these products unless you use them together. I hate that. But nonetheless, I put all three to work as soon as I received them. I washed, rinsed and repeated like it was my job for almost a month and threw some straightening cream in whenever I needed to fight with my unruly curls.

The shampoo and conditioner smelled good and made my hair feel as soft as any other I’ve tried, so no complaints there. No praise either though, considering I didn’t notice much of a difference from my regular products. The straightening cream also smelled great, but I think that’s about the only positive thing I have to say about it.

My most important piece of advice: make sure you don’t use too much of the straightening cream. That was my mistake the first time I used it and I ended up with hair that felt like I had squeezed a tube of glue into it. It doesn’t go on gluey at all – it actually feels good – but once you’re done drying/straightening, it’s as if you’d gone to bed with mounds of hairspray in your hair. It’s not sticky, but feels like something dried into it. Upon finding the right proportions however, it didn’t feel quite as bad, but I did still have a little of that ‘can’t quite run my fingers through it without getting stuck’ feel. And I’m beginning to think that the way straightening products really work has nothing to do with silicones and moisturizers as the companies claim, but actually just weigh your hair down by putting more crap in it. Am I bitter? Yah, probably.

So, the verdict is in. Sometimes I buy certain products just so that I can feel like I’m making some aspect of my life easier. But in this case, I feel like I’d be just as well off buying a tube of Elmer’s and doing some extra bicep curls. The line didn’t really help my straightening, nor did it make the straight hair last any longer. If you’re a strong believer in the placebo effect, you can jump on the Pantene Pro-V straightening wagon.

For this kinky haired gal with killer upper body strength however, I’ll just continue the workout and my quest to find a miracle cure for the curly hair blues.

What we’re working on…

Because Canadians throw away more than $1.5 billion worth of produce they buy annually simply because it has spoiled, Rubbermaid has come up with a solution. Or have they? Next week, Stasia’s got The Goods on the new Rubbermaid Produce Saver food storage container, which promises to keep your fruits and veggies fresh a lot longer than traditional containers.

Got a great new product that you think could make it on Stasia’s shopping list?
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