El Rubio’s Essential Shampoo & Conditioner Review for Men

The solution is a clear, thin liquid. Like hand sanitizer but slightly thicker. It would easily drain through the cracks in your fingers.

Massaging it into my scalp and the roots of my hair it produced a thin lather. Small bubbles rather than big bubbles, not a whole lot of texture. But more lather than a no-lather type.

Deep in my scalp and roots I let it sit for a little while to get the full experience. A tingling sensation, especially noticeable with a cool breeze coming in through the open window. The fragrance fills the entire shower, you can even feel it as you breathe in, like Vicks vapor rub.

It feels almost dry. Obviously my hair is wet, and I’m not saying it IS dry, but it feels dry. Almost that squeaky, rubby clean. Where it would make a sound if you rubbed it, like sliding your finger across a window pane. An unlubricated feel, not exactly rough, but friction.

Rinsed out clean with no residue, my hair and scalp felt noticeably cleansed. Nice feeling while wet, I could still feel the tingling.

First of all it’s black with sparkling “diamond dust,” does this, like, have silica in it? Are the diamonds going to cut my head? What’s it going to do to my hair?

Thick and globby with a nice, full texture.

Silvery and soapy, like pump-action hand soap. Opening the bottle and squeezing the shampoo out the space is pretty quickly filled with the strong tea tree/minty vapor, a pretty nice experience.

Massaging into the scalp and hair produced a medium to light lather, not really sudsy just a bit foamy. The lather decreased as the formula was in my hair.

I could quickly feel the tingling sensation, again pretty nice. I let it sit for two minutes or so, tingly. Especially with the window open and a little breeze tingly and very cool.

Should have used the hand soap. Rinsing it out my hair felt stripped clean. It felt squeaky, almost sticky, rough rubbing my fingers across. I can actually hear the squeaky, like when you rub against a floaty toy in the pool. Feels stripped, not nice. Running my fingers through they get caught up.

Imagine dragging your fingers across a smooth surface where they glide effortlessly, vs. a surface that causes more friction, almost sticky, where your fingers would jump and dart as they break friction on the surface. That’s what my hair felt like.

It does in fact smell just like the ancient nag champa incense you burned in your room to cover up the weed smell. It’s quite lovely, though I never would have thought of putting in my hair. 

Super thin and milky. Must have been the thinnest shampoo I’ve ever used, I actually had to cup my hand into a reservoir, fill it with shampoo and slap it onto my head quickly so it wouldn’t run down the drain.

Despite being so thin it actually lathered up pretty nice and thick, surprisingly so. Massaging it into the scalp it coated everything nicely.

Not too thick, not too thin. Jellylike texture, clearish with a hint of amber. It would eventually slip through your fingers but only gradually.

Quite interesting, there is absolutely zero lather. Massaging into the roots and scalp I could feel it getting in there but no suds or foam whatsoever. Instead it almost felt like it mingled or absorbed into my hair. Once it was all in there I almost couldn’t even tell there was anything in my hair.

Rinses out clean and doesn’t have that squeaky feeling. Fingers glide over wet hair smoothly and silently. It’s not a harsh cleanse by any stretch, very gentle. Hair felt clean but not starched out clean.

Zesty, direct, citrusy burst. It doesn’t fill the space, but more fragrant when you put it to your nose. A different fragrance than most hair care products, though very nice.

The instructions in the pamphlet mention twice to “use a lot,” and “not enough = not clean;” pretty brash if that’s simply a way to sell more product, but I took them at face value and used more than I would typically.

Problem was the product comes with this pee-shooter pump top that dispenses a dismally weak little pee stream. No question it would take at least five pumps to use the amount I normally would, but telling me I should really “slather it up” I had to pump the damn thing ten times, pinching my finger twice in the apparatus.

Anyhow, the texture was thick and almost dry. Not at all syrupy or flowy, wouldn’t go through your fingers if you left it in your hand for an hour. I could close my hand on it, open my hand back up and it would only stick to the original side. More textured, like what you would see in most conditioners.

Following instructions carefully I slathered up that mane, and as I read in the pamphlet there was no lather or foam or suds or anything, very non-soapy. Similar to one ‘n only in the way it feels like it absorbs into your hair. After a while you almost can’t feel it’s there.

I rinsed thoroughly as instructed, and I could tell why. I really had to rinse to get it out of there.

After rinsing it felt nice and clean. Not squeaky, like that distressed overstripped feeling. Hair felt intact. Refreshed.