WEN good marketing or good product?

Lucia

Well-Known Member
I use WEN and I think it's a really good product, the ingredients are the kind I would have to add to any regular conditioner to get a thicker condish or for a deep conditioner, except now I don't have to buy 5-10 products to do that, I just buy 1 or 2 (the WEN CC and Re-Moist) or maybe I've bought into the marketing but honestly most people don't even know WEN exists, or even co-washing for that matter they're still religiously stuck on shampoo. What do you ladies think?

Wen Fig Cleansing Conditioner Ingredients
Water, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Rosemary Leaf Extract, Wild Cherry Fruit Extract, Fig Extract, Chamomile Extract, Marigold Flower Extract, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Cetearyl Alochol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Amodimethicone, Hydrolyze Wheat Protein, Polysorbate 60, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B-5), Menthol, Sweet Almond Oil, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides, Methlisothiazolinone, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Citric Acid, Essential Oils.

Wen Fig Re-Moist Hydrating Mask Ingredients
Organic Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, Aqua, Shea Butter, Seabuckthorn Fruit Extract, Kukui Nut Oil, Tamanu Nut Oil, Macadamia Nut Seed Oil, Lavender Oil, Rosemary Leaf Extract, Wild Cherry Fruit Extract, Chamomile Extract, Marigold Flower Extract, Neem Extract, Menthol, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Amodimethicone, Brassicamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Glycerin, Cetyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Ceteareth-20, Citric Acid, Wheat Amino Acids, Parfum, Tocopherol (Antioxidant), Methylisothiazolinone.

here's what Terri of http://www.tightlycurly.com/products/combingconditioners/
has to say about it


Wen Fig Cleansing Conditioner

*Please read this entire entry before trying a Wen product*

Okay, this is a long one...Wen conditioner is one of the conditioners I get asked about all the time. And for most of that time I didn't recommend it because I felt it was expensive, the essential oils were irritating, and there were tons of other products out there that could do the same thing. But I guess if Wen's a product a person really wants to try, there isn't anything harmful for the hair in it, and it does its job with combing and keeping our hair moisturized. Because of it's essential oils, it would work well as a rinsing conditioner or a no-po conditioner. However, I must confess, I have ulterior motives for putting it here besides it simply working fine: I wanted to include a conditioner with nearly identical ingredients as all the others I recommend, but this one actually says on the bottle that it's okay to leave in your hair.

Wen is basically a simple conditioner. It has nearly identical ingredients to all the other conditioners I recommend. The two main differences it has over other conditioners are 1) Marketing and 2) Irritation:

Marketing: Wen is basically a regular conditioner, ingredients-wise (using the same ingredients that are in many lotions and leave-in hair products as well). It's just that it says on the bottle you can use it for conditioner-washing, and you can use it as a leave in (which is something this site talks about already for these ingredients), whereas most other conditioners don't say this about their products. Those other products want you to spend the money on buying as many different redundant items in their product line as possible. Wen's slant is that they market their conditioner as being able to do all these things in one product, but then they charge you a bunch for it (about $20-30 a bottle). But again, it's just marketing. These are still all the same ingredients that are in regular conditioners, but Wen is saying you can leave them in, and use them to wash with as well. Because it markets itself as being natural, people often don't question what's really in it.

Irritation: Wen contains very very strong and irritating essential oils, including menthol, and fig extract, among others. This is a very strong product. These strong essential oils are put in the product to make your scalp "tingle" so it feels like it's being cleansed. But in reality it's just irritation. When I was looking up ingredients that were in the Wen product, I was fussing to Jon about how surprised I was at some of the highly irritating ingredients it had. So he became curious, and wanted to try Wen for himself. He has really sensitive skin, and we both felt it would be a good test to see how this product would affect someone with skin like his.

When he came back from the shower, he shook his head and handed me back the bottle. He said he ended up having to shampoo the Wen conditioner out because it was hurting his scalp, and it was still hurting a bit. Days later you could still see it red and blotchy through his hair. So do be careful with this product. When I used the Wen conditioner, it was really strong on my scalp, but it didn't hurt when I combed it and left it in. So I was totally fine, but Jon wasn't.

In summary: This product combs well, and clumps the hair well. The essential oils may be way too strong for anyone with sensitive skin, so please, please don't use Wen products on any one (such as a baby or a pet), who isn't able to let you know it's hurting their skin. Use this product with extreme caution:

Don't use this product if you have sensitive skin
Don't use on any creature that can't let you know it's too strong
This might be best to use as a rinsing conditioner, or for no-po routines
I suggest rotating this product with other (preferably unscented) conditioners every week so your scalp doesn't develop sensitivities to some of the ingredients.
P.S. I know it says to use it also as a shampoo, but I'd say that's a waste. Since it's so expensive (and potentially sensitizing), I suggest using it for only one thing, either as a rinser, a no-po conditioner, or as a combing conditioner. If you use it as a combing conditioner, use a more mild conditioner (if you co-wash) or shampoo (if you like to shampoo), but this product is too expensive to use as a shampoo and a conditioner. It doesn't do anything special that a regular light conditioner or mild shampoo does as far as cleansing. And the essential oils are too irritating to use as both a shampoo and a conditioner. It's good to give your scalp a break.
 
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*CherryPie*

Well-Known Member
I bought Wen from QVC when the debuted it years ago. Nobody had even heard of it then. I was so happy to find something like that, even though it was way too expensive, and still is.

When I used it (I had the variety pack-all flavors) it left my hair feeling coated and my scalp felt way too weird and tingly, irritatingly tingly. I tried the others (on different days, of course) and I didn't like those either.

I think they have really good marketing, because Wen feels like "cheapie" conditioner with LOTS of tingly essential oils (to fool us). Too many growth products in the BSS also have that "tingle" to somehow prove that it's working thing going on. They just put irritants in the condish. I guess they assume that if we can feel something, it'll be a greater chance that we'd eat the mess that they're feeding us....and it's working.
 

Frostipuff

New Member
I used Wen on my daughter. While washing and rinsing her hair a bit of product
ended up and remained in the fold of her right outer ear. A day or two later, her
ear was red, swollen with the skin eroded away.

This product is too strong for sensitve scalps or skin. The label should carry a warning.
 

naturalmanenyc

Well-Known Member
I've had WEN Fig since November and it's about half full. It's okay but I have found other conditioners that work for my natural hair. I only purchased it since it was very discounted (a friend of a friend works at QVC).
 
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chelleypie810

Well-Known Member
I still love it..:look: It's quite an excellent product. I haven't had any of these side effects and I have extra sensitive skin. My sister has sensitive skin that is out of this world limiting her to one or two soaps and she loves this stuff. So diff. products just work differently on diff. heads.
 

lwilliams1922

New Member
I love the Wen (as well as the marketing).
I don't have a sensitive scalp so that's not an issue but I do think my hair retains more moisture with it.

I alternate with HAIRONE For cleansing. I would like to try other varieties but I think I'll wait for now since it's so pricey.
 

SelfStyled

Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting that link Lucia, I enjoyed her reviews on all the conditioners. I think Wen has great marketing, and Chaz is laughing all the way to the bank.

I think Wen is, ok, not the end all be all. I like Hair One 1000x better. IA there are definitely other options that do the same thing. Another great option are Trader Joe's nourish spa and TJ's tingle conditioner. After My Wen is all gone, I would not repurchase.
 

Lucia

Well-Known Member
Well I did want to try it, I still say it's a decent product but not great except for the all-in-one angle, it's a luxury item and not going to be a staple for me it's just too expensive for everyday use, besides I've had great results with regular conditioners like: Suave Tropical Coconut, Hello Hydration Orchid & Coconut, or Garnier Fructis conditioners.

Although I do like the RE-Moist more than the Wen CC I can't justify paying $50 for it especially since it's basically aloe vera, shea butter and essential oils-I can get that cheaper, much cheaper, so I don't think I'll be repurchasing either.
 
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