Product Review: Suave Professionals Radiant Brunette Shampoo

Suave Professionals line has a new line of hair products specifically designed to emphasize the color for brown hair. Suave Professionals Radiant Brunette shampoo is designed to enhance shine and highlights for brunettes. Compared to John Frieda products, which are quite expensive, Suave Radiant Brunette Shampoo is specifically designed to provide color enhancement at an affordable price. It is specially formulated with caramel and green tea to refresh and invigorate brown highlights and color without actually depositing any color, while also cleansing.

Having never colored my brown hair and being curious if this product would add a little extra something to my hair, I purchased it at Target for less than two dollars for the bottle. The bottle is attractive: a brown color which is unusual for a shampoo but which catches your eye as you are in the hair care aisle.

Directions on the Suave Professionals Radiant Brunette are as follows: apply to wet hair, work lather in through to ends of hair and then rinse. For best results, Suave suggests use with its shampoo companion, Suave Professionals Radiant Brunette Conditioner. Suave also states that this product is gentle enough for color treated hair.

Ingredients include water, sodium laureth sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium chloride, fragrance, propylene glycol, dimethiconol, TEA-dodecylbenesulfonate, tetrasodium EDTA, guar hydoxypropyltrimonimu chloride, DMDM hydantoin, citric acid, laureth-23, cyclomethicone, caramel, PPG-9, methylchloroisothiazolinone, camellia sinensis leaf extract.

Suave Radiant Brunette Shampoo is a brownish, almost caramel color. However, the first thing I noticed about this product was not the color of the shampoo, but the smell. It was overpowering and full of perfume. I found myself gagging in the shower from the strength of the aroma. If you don't like strong fragrances for your hair products, I don't recommend this product. However, apart from the scent, I was very curious if Suave Radiant Brunette would work and I decided to continue to use it.

After using Suave Radiant Brunette Shampoo, I noticed a difference in color the first day. My brown hair appeared to be browner; the highlights which are typically blonde seemed to be a more of a copper color. I wondered if using this shampoo over a couple of weeks would make a major difference. With continued use, Suave Radiant Brunette made my brown hair have a caramel hue to it. I wondered though if this was just my imagination and wanting the product to work. However, even my husband noticed the difference and one day after using Suave Radiant Brunette for a week, commented that my hair seemed to be more brown, to which I confessed that I was using a special shampoo.

Color aside, I also wanted to see if Suave Radiant Shampoo would work as a good shampoo for every day use and make my hair smooth and shiny. After a week of using this shampoo (I did not use the accompanying conditioner and instead used Pantene deep conditioner), I noticed that my hair seemed very dry and frizzy, making it difficult to style.

Suave Radiant Brunette Shampoo does in fact work to invigorate brown hair and alters the color of your natural highlights. The caramel color is pretty but it seems with continued use the caramel color is more orange hued which I don't like. If you are looking for a product to gently highlight your natural hair color or emphasize the colored highlights in your hair, Suave Radiant Brunette shampoo works well, even without using the conditioner. I recommend a deep conditioner with this product if you do choose to use it.

However, color enhancement aside, I don't like this product overall. I find the smell to be overpowering and I dislike the way it has affected the texture of my hair, making it feel and look dry. I also have ended up not liking the color enhancement because now with the blonde highlights brown, there is a lack of contrast to my brown hair and I notice it has also made the few silver strands of hair I have a dull grey. Therefore, I don't recommend Suave Radiant Brunette shampoo if you are hoping to find a product that will perhaps color your grey naturally if you have blonde highlights. I believe if your highlights are all brown however, this product may work for you. I don't think this is a product to use to cover grey hair though.

Overall, Suave Professionals Radiant Brunette does work to enhance highlights of your brown hair, but you may not necessarily like the color or texture of your hair with use. If you do want to try this product for yourself to see how it works for your hair, Suave guarantees their products for full satisfaction or you can get your money back. According to the Suave website, you can contact 1-800-782-8301.