When I went to New York last year (it feels just like yesterday!), I was on a mission to find some Kimble Hair products. I wanted to get their Hair Butter, Bounce Back Curl Revitalizer and the Ginger Cream conditioner. When I walked into Target, I really did expect to come out with arms full of products.

Umm, no. Americans are serious about their hair products.

The only thing I could find was the Ginger Cream conditioner. I fought off the masses and grabbed one and ran… OK, not really. I picked it up, along with some other stuff and headed to the cash. Fast forward three months — I was rummaging through my product bin and I saw the Ginger Cream conditioner. I pulled it out and headed to wash my hair.

Here are the ingredients:

Water, Cetyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Avocado Oil, Cetrimonium Bromade, Stearyl Alcohol, Collagen, Sodium Hyaluronate, Human Hair Keratin, Aloe Vera Gel Extract, Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Methyparaben, Propylparaben, Ethylparaben, Butylparaben, D&C Brown, Fragrance

All bolded ingredients aren’t so good for your hair or for you. There’s certainly a paraben party happening up in this conditioner. That is a concern.

First thing I noticed was the smell. It certainly wasn’t ginger — it was smelled like Pledge wood cleaner. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — I like citrusy smells, so this didn’t bother me too bad, but I can imagine people not wanting to smell like their cherry wood coffee table. Nonetheless, I put a big dollop in my hand and started working it through my hair. It was thick and rich, but I used a lot on my hair. I don’t know if my hand was heavy with the product or if I just needed a lot of product to get through my hair — either is possible with me.

It wasn’t too bad. I had slip and I could easily comb through my coils, which can be a feat. Once I rinsed my hair it felt soft to the touch and it was shiny without any product in it. I just read that sodium hyaluronate is super hydrating and moisturizing. I don’t know anything about this ingredient, but I wouldn’t be surprised because my hair felt like butter.

Nice.

My hair styled well and felt good… good enough that the next week when I went to wash my hair again, I picked up the Ginger Cream conditioner. And I did that the following week… and the week after. Four weeks straight, folks. This means a lot — I’m a person that will use something twice and get bored with it. If I truly like it, I use it regularly.

I like this product.

What I don’t like is: a) location – Kimble products aren’t sold in Canada. I will either have to order online and pay a crazy shipping fee (it really was crazy, something like $30 or $40 — I might as well buy the Kinky-Curly Curling Custard that I’ve been eyeing for $40 CAD if I’m going to spend that kind of money on shipping) or travel to at least Buffalo to get my hands on this regularly. Love cross-border shopping, but I can’t promise my hair that I’m going to be traveling to Buffalo in January or February to find it conditioner. Unless I plan to bring back a truckload or beg my American family to send me boxes of conditioner (and I’m sure they’d look at me side-eyed, they don’t know that I have a conditioner addiction), I’m kinda outta luck; and b) it’s chocked full of parabens – as I wrote a couple of posts ago, I’m trying to use ingredients that are kinder and gentler to my body. Four parabens is neither kind nor gentle. So, unfortunately, while I do enjoy this conditioner and have one dollop left once it’s done I won’t be repurchasing.

But, if you’re in the U.S. and have access to Target and don’t mind parabens, this isn’t a conditioner to sleep on. I don’t know about using it for a co-wash conditioner — it’s pretty darned thick, so it would be extremely difficult to get down to the roots. At this point, even getting shampoo down into my scalp is proving difficult, but I won’t complain.

I’m still curious about the other products — has anyone tried any other Kimble products? What did you think? Any good?

BTW, coming up is a post on the Hairlista Healthy Ends Challenge, which ended this week. There has been significant changes. I’ll post on the weekend.