Chaz Dean offers a new approach to cleansing hair with his WEN line. With WEN, you cleanse with a "cleansing conditioner" instead of shampoo. WEN does not contain the detergents that are present in shampoo. Chaz believes the detergents are very stripping to hair and can cause dullness, dryness, frizziness, etc. He also believes it strips and fades the color in color treated hair. His WEN cleansing conditioners are supposed to prevent all of those probleams. WEN is supposed to cleanse your hair without stripping it. It is supposed to leave it soft, silky, shiny, and healthy without weighing the hair down. WEN is supposed to take the place of your shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, deep conditioning treatment/hair mask, detangler, plus some styling products.
I learned about this product on the QVC beauty forums. This was the most frequently discussed product on the boards. There were threads about it everywhere. So many people were praising this product as if this is some sort of miracle product. I quickly got caught up in the hype because it was an interesting concept and so many seemed to genuinely love this product.
I bought the discovery kit from QVC. It contains smaller bottles of 3 of the 4 different cleansing conditioner scents. I received Sweet Almond Mint, Tea Tree, and Fig. I have used WEN for about 3 weeks and I have mixed feelings on it. My hair did look a lot better when I used WEN instead of my regular shampoo. Hy hair was so much softer (especially the ends), shinier, and silkier. However, my scalp is oily and I found by the next day my hair will look a lot flatter and dirtier with WEN than when I use shampoo. I would need to wash my hair every day with WEN, but the problem is one washing with WEN requires a lot of product so I would go through a bottle of WEN in a month if I washed every day. It would end up costing me $30 a month to use this product.
Another problem with WEN is that it does have silicone in it. Silicone can build up on hair and weigh it down. You have to pay extra care to follow the instructions and rinse this product out really well or your hair can look awful. I had two horrible hair days when I first started using this, but it was fine when I started paying extra care to follow the directions. However, I did notice it start to build up after 3 or 4 washes. It wasn't awful but my hair clearly wasn't as nice. So I would have to clarify after every 3 or 4 washes.
Overall, I do think WEN is really good product, but it is not worth the price. I can getthe same effect by cleansing with Suave conditioner which I bought for $1. Suave also doesn't contain any silicones which is another plus for Suave.
I am going to continue cleansing using Suave conditioner but if I go back to shampoo I may buy WEN to use it as a conditioner/leave in which will be less expensive than if I used it as a cleanser. As for now I am sending back my discovery kit.