The products behind Britain’s best looking hair – Percy & Reed
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Percy & Reed London hair care review
photos: we heart this
Unless you’re from the other side of the pond, you probably haven’t heard of London-based hair salon Percy & Reed and you may not know about the work of top hairstylists Paul Percival and Adam Reed. Which means you probably also haven’t heard of their new-to-the-U.S. luxury hair care and hair styling products: Percy & Reed hair. The duo has created quite a name for themselves over in the U.K. and they have set to make their mark in the States, one head of hair at a time.
The Percy & Reed collection contains pretty much everything for your hair woes – something for moisture, something for shine, something for body, something for control – you need it, Percy & Reed has it. When I received a few items from this line to test, I was like, “BRING IT ON” (I also said “IT’S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!!!”–I’m super aggressive about hair).
Here’s a little background on the locks that got guinea pigged: I have hair that is, let’s say, “challenging”. I have baby fine hair, but lots of it. Most of it is loosely wavy and the hair at the base of my noggin has recently decided to tightly curl into dry ringlets (sounds so pretty when I type that out). It’s hella color-treated due to premature greying that has been the bane of my existence since I was in high school and has a tendency to be dry at the ends and oilier at the roots.
The products I tested included the Percy & Reed Splendidly Silky Moisturising Shampoo and Conditioner and their Smoothed, Sealed, & Sensational Volumising No Oil Oil for fine hair. My first impression of the Splendidly Silky Moisturising Shampoo – this stuff is thick! The fragrance is vaguely herbal. It’s packaged in a tube for easy use in the shower with a chic, sweet and simple black and white palette. While I don’t feel it particularly moisturizes my hair, it does feel very clean when I use this and doesn’t dry it out.
The Splendidly Silky Moisturising Conditioner was a thinner consistency – like a thick lotion – -I’ve never encountered a conditioner that was quite like this in texture. It didn’t make my hair feel sleek like a standard conditioner, it seemed to be absorbed very quickly into my hair. I needed to let this stay in my hair for about 3 minutes to feel like my hair was getting an appropriate amount of moisture. This worked wonders in giving my hair great texture and body – think Cindy Crawford circa 1992 hair.
I was a bit intrigued by the Volumising No Oil Oil; I tested the version for fine hair and it’s also available for thick hair. The scent is both floral and herbal – an interesting combination.
According to the packaging, this product doesn’t just help style hair, it helps nourish and repair, too. It contains pro vitamin B5 for increased hair strength and wheat proteins to protect from heat styling. It claims to impart the user with “lovely locks which are smooth, sleek and shiny while also adding volume”. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
I’ve tried hair oils before and find that most leave my hair feeling, well, oily. This one did AND didn’t make my hair feel greasy. Let me explain: When I used this, as per the instructions, and worked a drop or two through towel-dried hair, I ended up with hair that had body, more defined wave, and some shine when I let my hair air dry.
When I followed the same instructions and used heat styling, this flattened my hair out. My hair refused to hold a curl and just kind of hung there limply. I guess that’s the “sleek” part? My roots also seemed oilier than usual. I found that if I needed to heat style my hair, this no oil oil was best when applied after I finished my heat-based handiwork.
The box for this product includes the “Salon Secret” of warming the oil in the palm of your hand and using a blush brush to smooth the oil over flyaways – this is the method I would recommend most for heat styling. I can’t wait to hear what the testers blessed with fuller hair think of the thick hair version.
Overall, I feel that this brand is promising and I look forward to trying more from this line!
Pros:
• Moisturizing Shampoo & Conditioner give hair body
• No oil oil gives hair body when air-dried
Cons:
• Moisturizing Shampoo & Conditioner don’t seem to be particularly moisturizing
• No Oil Oil made my hair limp when used in conjunction with heat styling
Have any of you ladies out there tried hair oils? Thoughts? Feelings? Testers: What did you think of the Percy & Reed line, particularly their No Oil Oil?
Trying to find Percy & Reed here in the States? Click here to shop the line at ASOS!
Disclosure: This review includes products that were provided by the manufacturer/PR firm for our consideration. For more info, or any questions, please see our disclosure policy.
I tested the Percy & Reed Volumising No Oil Oil for thick hair, and it took me a few tries to get the hang of it. From previous experience with hair oils, I knew that the tiniest drop is usually enough for me, but even a small amount of this oil before blow drying made my hair look just the way you described, @krista — limp, oily, kind of dirty looking. The opposite of volume!
But a tiny bit used as a finishing product over previously dried hair– now we’re talking! My hair looked glossy and sleek, with fly-aways banished. I didn’t even think of using it when air-drying my hair, so I’ll try that next.
I’m giving Percy & Reed Volumising No Oil Oil for thick hair four stars, subtracting one star because it didn’t work well with heat. Still, very nice!
I got to try the No Oil Oil for Fine Hair. I love the shine that hair oils give but having fine hair they usually weight my locks down and make them appear dirty faster. This oil was the opposite. I primarily use oils when allowing my hair to air dry. Percy & Reed Volumizing No Oil Oil for fine hair keeps away frizz and gives a nice sheen with volume. 5 stars for me!
I tried the “no oil oil” and have decided that this is THE BEST HAIR PRODUCT EVER. My hair is fine and oily, never responding well to silicone-like products. I had my doubts but, Whoa! Volume from a hair OIL? For ME? To say I was a Doubting Thomas would be an understatement. Somehow, this gave me smooth, silky hair along with lift and volume. The product lasts a long time (it will be months, for sure) and it smells a-mazing– fresh and floral like a garden after a spring rain. I can’t reccommend this enough for fellow fine, oily hair folks. I will definitely, DEFINITELY get this again…and again…and again. 5 stars plus!
I tested the Percy & Reed Volumising No Oil Oil for fine hair and I love it!
I used it on towel dried hair and put it up in a top knot and went to sleep. I thought I would awake to greasy, limp hair, but no, ma’am!
I had a wavy, bouncy and not at all gresy mane! (My fine hair is prone to flatness anyway). I never tried it with heat, and now I am happy for that!
I was very impressed and love the fresh scent!
5 stars from me!
I tested the NO OIL oil for thick hair. I so wanted to fall in love with this product. I have a lot of thick hair and I hate having hair in my face especially when I am concentrating on something or even if I am at my computer. I dream of having “smoothed, dealed and sensational” hair.
First, I would say that this stuff is pretty concentrated. Even if you think because you have thick hair you may need more than one or two drops—think again. You could have a real situation on your hands. To give it a fair test, I put a very small amount in my palm and then vigorously rubbed them together. This way the whole area of both my hands could penetrate all of my locks. My hair did ok with it but, the results were nothing to rave about it. The consistency really reminds me of some primers I have tried for my face. Because of my mixed experiences with primers I looked at the ingredients. The first ingredient is Cylopentasiloxane and the second is dimethicone. I found this a bit puzzling because the quote on the box is “keep it natural ladies, easy on the silicone.”
I found the scent a bit perfumy but, not off putting.
I give this product three stars.
What pretty packaging! I don’t have a lot of storage space in my bathroom, so a lot of my products (hair, face, etc) end up on the counter top. I wouldn’t mind my guests seeing these containers!
The packaging is definitely gorgeous. I read that they designed the drawings of the women so that they would look British. I’m not sure what that means or how one achieves that, as the drawings just look like women to me. But then again, I’m not British, so I guess I wouldn’t know. Like, the one drawing is wearing a plaid shirt and shorts and I was thinking “How is this British? This is Daisy Duke’s standard wardrobe.” Weird.
As many of the ladies have said–if you’re using the oil for fine hair, heat styling with this probably isn’t the greatest idea unless you want flat, limp locks. If you have a little wave or a little dryness at your ends, I highly recommend this for air drying. I used a drop or two, warmed between the palms–I started at the dry ringlets in back (Seriously, what is up with that?) and then at the ends and then gently smoothed through the rest of my hair. Then I combed it through with a fine-toothed comb and gently dabbed at the baby hairs around my hair line and at my part. Then I scrunched my waves up a bit and let it dry on its own. The end result was smoother waves that didn’t frizz.
Also worth noting–after prolonged use, I can’t say as I would recommend the shampoo or conditioner for any length of time. While they are great for a one-off use for extra body, the moisturizing was terrible for a product that claims to be moisturizing– and maybe my filtered well water might be a contributing factor(?), but this pretty much ruined my ends and caused a lot of breakage. Like, I had to cut off 3 inches of hair and splurge on Kerastase & conditioning masks to fix the damage. I typically don’t get a lot of breakage, so that added a new issue I get to deal with now. Mrrrr…
I tried out the No Oil Oil for thick hair. I’ve tried similar hair serums before, so I was interested in seeing how this one stacks up. It’s priced similarly to other products of its kind.
Like @hao9703, I was initially confused by the fact that the packaging says to go easy on the silicones, yet silicones are the main ingredients. The packaging is definitely cute, and I like that you can see how much product remains. The pump is easy to use, even when you’re trying to get out just a few drops. The scent is herbal-floral–I detect some mint? I don’t mind it, but I don’t love it either. But here’s the letdown–I couldn’t get it to work for my hair. I tried every method of application that I could think of (on damp hair, on dry hair, on wet hair, before styling, after styling, etc), and it just didn’t do it for me. When I used a small amount, I couldn’t see any results, so I gradually added a bit more at a time, and then BAM, my hair looked greasy. One night when my hair was looking super fried, I put a ton on, and left it in like a treatment, just to see what it would do (nothing miraculous). I’m going to give this BARELY three stars.