You know those girls that have beautiful, thick hair? Ya, I hate them too. My hair is not thick. At all. Not even a teensy bit.
If you have thin hair, then you know the problem with most thickening creams: either they don’t work at all or they weigh your hair down. I’ve tried a lot of thickening products, but I have to say Surface’s Awaken Thickening Cream is the first I’ve tried that I feel actually makes my hair look and feel thicker! And the fact that is uses natural ingredients is amazing!
I’ve tried a few Surface products before (here and here) and I LOVE them, so I jumped at the chance to try something to help my poor, thin hair.
For reference, my hair is very fine and thin (I guess I have said that already), but I do have a good amount of it. It’s naturally blond and curly, but I straighten it most days. Of course, straightening it also helps show off just how thin it is! At least with curly hair I get body, not so much with straight hair.
The first time I used this, my hair was about shoulder length and was a straight cut, no layers (layers don’t always help us thin-haired ladies). After applying and styling, I was amazed because I could see how my hair actually had thickness towards the ends. Usually when I straighten it, my hair just comes to a point at the ends. But with this, it didn’t – it had actual width at the ends. Like my hair was thicker – it was magical!
I have since cut my hair to chin-length and added some long layers. With this cut, I can see a noticeable difference as well – especially with my layers. It just looks thicker.
Now, when I say it is thicker – it’s not like my hair becomes something the Kardashian’s would envy. BUT, I do think it looks noticeable thicker than my usual (very) thin hair. And it even feels thicker in my hands too.
And here’s the awesome part – it doesn’t weigh my hair down. At the end of the day, my hair doesn’t look all limp and lifeless, it looks like how it did in the morning. I wouldn’t say this provides volume per se, but it definitely doesn’t weigh down hair.
The only negative thing I noticed is this doesn’t help hold curl. I thought for super extra thickness I would use this when I let my hair go curly, but my curls seemed looser and they didn’t hold up as well. So for you curly haired girls, this can be either a good thing or bad thing (maybe you want your curls to be a bit looser?). I don’t really mind as when my hair is curly, it naturally looks thicker, but I did want to mention that it’s not so great for curls.
The smell is also really nice, it’s very invigorating and fresh. I can see why they say Awaken – it definitely has a wake-me-up smell to it: peppermint with almost a touch of eucalyptus.
The texture is thick, as you would image it would be. I use about a pea size amount for my short hair, I used a large pea size amount when my hair was longer. I haven’t experimented with using more, as this amount works well.
So of course – the ingredients! (pardon the typos, I had to type these by hand… argh)
Water, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Hydrolyzed Amaranth Protein, Lysine, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Lentinus Edodes Extract, Hydroxypropyltrimonium, Hydrolyzed Corn Starch, Aloe Leaf Juice, Peppermint Oil, Safflower Seed Extract, Menthol, Capsicum Frutescens Fruit Extract, Babassu Seed Oil, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Tourmaline, Ceramide 3, Phospholipids, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, PG-Propyl Silanetriol, Saw Palmetto Extract, Hexylene Glycol, Caprylyl Glycol, Dicetyldimonium Chloride, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Glycerin, Cetrimonium Chloride, PG Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, PPG-1-trieceth-6, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Phenoxyethanol, Glycol Stearate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Polyquaternium-37.
Woooo, that’s a long list and my fingers are tired. So while there are a ton of ingredients, look at what is within the first half (and therefore the most of): glycerin, proteins, aloe, hydrating oils, vitamins, ceramids, phospholipids – that is pretty awesome! This is like a hair treatment and thickener in one. I’m super impressed with the range of good-for-hair ingredients in this.
There are some chemically-sounding ones on the list, but they are all pretty benign. I searched on EWG’s Skin Deep and all are below 2. The one that is higher on the list, hydroxypropyltrimonium is completely safe at a rating of 0 (0 is good) and is a hair conditioning agent.
So overall, this is another new favorite of mine. It makes my hair look and feel thicker and has great ingredients too. It makes me want to try the rest of the Awaken line!
Disclosure: A sample was provided to me by Surface to try. Opinions and the choice to review are 100% my own! I’m not compensated for anything I write.
