Today I, shockingly, only spent twelve minutes in line at the Post Office waiting to send back the Diva Smooth products I purchased a few weeks ago.
I'd heard about Janelle Beauty's Diva Smooth product after looking at the website going-natural.com. At the time, I looked a few months back, there had been an advertisement for Diva Smooth, an all-natural product that promised to get your hair straight without the pesky and harmful chemicals some women of color (like myself) may come to rely on to straighten our hair. Well, hearing about that I had to find out more because who wouldn't want to be able to switch out the regular sessions and slight burning of chemicals for something that is natural and you can do at home?
So I went to the website, looked at their description of Diva Smooth, looked at their testimonials and the common questions area, then even Googled the product to see if anyone else had written about it saying she had some positive results. You'll probably also see woman chatting about it on the Long Hair Care Forum. After that, I figured I'd take the plunge because you always have to try something to learn, no?
It took less than a week for the product to arrive and I tried it that weekend. At this point it'd been several weeks since I had my last relaxer done and I wanted to see how it'd do with my hair having been "out of it" for almost two months. I read the directions and saw I'd need an applicator brush and had to make due with what I had in the apartment.
One of the main ingredients in the Diva Smooth product is honey along with herbs and some natural fruits and stuff. The consistency is of honey as well so when you're applying it to your hair it's extremely sticky and makes it hard to effectively get it from root to tip. I'd advise you to have a Diva Smooth party so you and your friends can do each others hair because after a few you see your hair sticking on its end, yet it smells amazing! After an hour or so I got through my full head of hair, roots and all, covered my head with a cap and waited. The instructions suggest that you wait 35 minutes with the product on if you have fine hair and 45 minutes for coarser hair. I cooked dinner and after an hour I washed and conditioned my hair via my normal routine as it states in the instructions. After drying my hair I noticed no change in texture, smell, or straightness. It looked the same as before.
Irritated, but still hopeful, I used the Virgin Coconut Serum figuring perhaps this would aid in the straightening process. It's actually included because it's supposed to help repair your hair from too much heat. One of the things that Diva Smooth notes repeatedly is that you have to flat iron your hair to get it straight. Okay, fine. As I parted each piece of my hair for the flat iron I sprayed some of the Serum on, massaged it in, then flat ironed it. I must say that the Serum brought out a nice luster in my hair and again smelled fabulous. It doesn't smell so much like coconut exactly but does have a faint trace of it that lasted for five or so days.
I decided that before I gave up on the product I'd try it again and waited a week before doing so. This time I had my applicator brushes (one straight and one a-symmetrical) all ready to go. Take that!
On another Sunday I took a couple of hours to apply (from root to end) Diva Smooth to my hair. Since there'd been a nice frost during the spring in NYC the Diva Smooth product and Serum products had congealed. So, note to selves make sure to keep these things at room temperature to ensure that they remain liquified. After leaving the bottles in hot water for several minutes they became liquidy enough to come out of their nozzle and spray respectively. It took a little less time, as by now I'd become a pro at this, and I covered my hair again for about an hour to do some errands then resumed the wash & conditioning routine.
Upon drying my hair I again noticed that the texture, consistency, and smell had not changed at all. I flat ironed my hair and used the Virgin Coconut Serum to no avail. My newly shiny and tropical smelling hair went on our merry way to work.
Now, just to explain I've been having my hair chemically relaxed since I was in my senior year of high school so that's about ten years or so. My hair is not naturally straight and my roots grow out relatively fast. So I was disappointed that for me Diva Smooth did not provide any difference to what happens to me after a while of not getting my hair chemically altered. This past weekend I saw my hair dresser (who gave me a tongue lashing for waiting two months to see her) and got my hair chemically relaxed and noticed the difference. My roots were bone straight and of course my hair had a nice luster. Once the rain and wind hit it this weekend that all went to hell, but that's beside the point. Diva Smooth claims to be the natural version of chemically relaxing your hair and all I noticed was that I had struggled to put honey in my hair, washed it out, and had the same results with kinky roots that were no straighter than they were hours earlier, along with ends that weren't any straighter than they had been hours earlier either.
Many women have noted on the Diva Smooth testimonials page that this product worked well for them and that they haven't had to use a chemical relaxer for months. So perhaps Diva Smooth really does work for some and not all. Perhaps I just picked a fickle time to use it on my hair. I did want to be sure not to mix up the effects of my chemical relaxer with that of Diva Smooth and so figured that using it after six, seven weeks of no relaxer would really tell me how this product worked on its own.
I'm not trying to say do or don't use Diva Smooth. I'd definitely suggest you try it and see if it may be your miracle cure for straight hair with no more waiting in the salon and shelling out extra cash in tips to your shampoo girl and stylist. However, you may enjoy those regular trips to the salon and getting out of the house every so often.
As a precursor you may want to purchase a cute little honey squeeze bottle in the shape of a bear and comb that through your hair a couple times and see if you want to take the plunge with Diva Smooth. It'd be a good test.
Side bar, I just wanted to say that the Janelle Beauty site has two listings for the same two products in the Hair section. One is the Diva Smooth Kit for $34.99 which includes the Diva Smooth product and Virgin Coconut Hair Serum. There's another listing of the same two products at the price of $29.99. Why they'd charge customers five dollars more for the exact same products with only the word 'kit' added is beyond me.