while I adore hair masks and hair treatments, I am not especially fond of overnight hair masks. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the effects of a good overnight hair treatment product. I just can’t sleep in them. Growing up I was always told that you had to put on clean socks or clean underwear or whatever before bed incase there was an emergency in the night. while I remember arguing the point that any emergency that cause me to run out of the house in the middle of the night would be drastic enough that no one would care what condition my socks were in and would hopefully not involve me showing my underwear to the world at large, it was still a favorite saying of my grandmother’s and one my mother repeated.
In case you are wondering this is also part of the ‘make your bed with fresh sheets before you leave the house for a trip so that if there is an accident while you are gone everyone will know it isn’t your fault’ type of sayings. Apparently if you are the sort of person who puts fresh sheets on the bed before leaving then you can’t be blamed for any sort of calamity that happens in your absence. You are essentially blameless. Not that I think the police or firemen or other emergency service checks the state of your sheets if they have to enter while you are out of town.
Just so you know.
Anyway I don’t think my linens are inspected while I am gone and I can’t actually sleep with socks on my feet, clean or otherwise, somehow when i put a hair mask on my head to sleep in overnight my brain insists on sending thoughts of middle of the night calamities into my brain and I just don’t sleep. I also can’t stand the feel of a the slimy hair on my neck or pressed into my pillow. And I can’t sleep with a cap on any more than I can sleep with socks on.
My remedy is to pick a day where I am going to be home alone working at my desk with no interruptions. I apply the hair treatment to my hair in the morning post skincare and let it sit for eight hours while I work. I use a giant hair clip to keep it off my neck and a band to pin my bangs back and generally forget that I have the mask on.
Yesterday I decided it was the perfect day to go ahead with the over night mask. The one I chose was the Amika Dream Routine Overnight Hydrating Treatment. Mostly because I haven’t actually tired it before and I had a sample in my hair care drawer. According to the Amika Website…
it’s time to put dry hair to bed with our ultra-hydrating, silicone-free overnight hair treatment mask. infused with hyaluronic acid, dream routine boosts moisture for 72 hours* and results in hair that is 3x more hydrated by morning*.
who it’s for: made especially for all hair experiencing dryness, why it’s special: it’s called beauty sleep for a reason. infused with the ingredients of your dreams like hyaluronic acid, coconut water, blue algae, and sea buckthorn, this no-rinse, silicone-free overnight hair treatment mask intensely moisturizes strands.
FULL INGREDIENTS: water/eau/aqua, behentrimonium methosulfate, cetyl alcohol, c13-15 alkane, hippophae rhamnoides (sea buckthorn/argousier) fruit/seed oil, hyaluronic acid, polyglutamic acid, spirulina platensis (blue green algae) extract, cocos nucifera (coconut) water, selaginella lepidophylla (rose of jericho) extract, inonotus obliquus (mushroom) extract, rhodiola rosea (arctic root) extract, eleutherococcus senticosus (siberian ginseng) root extract, rhaponticum carthamoides (maral) root extract, glycerin, caprylic/capric triglyceride, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, sodium phytate, propanediol, glycereth-2 cocoate, ethylhexylglycerin, potassium sorbate, butylene glycol, benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, phenoxyethanol, fragrance/parfum
Amika
This sample tube had just enough product for one use. Partially because I have long and rather thick hair. While dryness isn’t usually a big deal with me, in the winter when I am not only using hot styling tools more, but the central heating is running more, my hair does tend to get a bit dry. It is more dry on the ends than anything else so while I did coat the bulk of my hair, I concentrated the product on the ends where I think a hydration treatment will do the most good.
The scent of this hair mask is delightful. It is a powdery slightly floral, slightly coconutty scent. Most of the products I have tried from Amika seem to have a similar scent so I tend to think of it as the Amika scent. It is certainly the same scent as their dry shampoo.
I applied the mask to my hair and bundled it up. As the day passed it seemed to absorb into the hair as well as dry on top. Actually it reminded e a bit of the 1980s hair gel feeling. it became a little stiff. it wasn’t sticky at all and the dampness from the cream faded pretty quickly. Oddly enough after about hour four of the hair mask, the stiffness of the strands faded as well. While I could tell that there was still something on my hair, the hair felt soft to the touch.
After eight hours of masking time, I jumped into the shower and rinsed the Amika overnight treatment out of my hair. It rinsed out easily. I had some hair come out and for me that was because I didn’t comb out my hair before applying the mask and because I had my hair tied up all day. I tend to shed hair throughout the day and this time I didn’t because it was all tied up. I would suggest running a fine toothed comb through your hair before applying and tying your hair up with this mask. It will gt all of the loose hairs out and cause less issue in the shower.
Typically I shampoo my hair and then use a hair mask as a sort of turbo boosted conditioner. This time, there was no shampoo so I worried that my hair would be overly conditioned. It wasn’t. My hair was soft and silky. The ends that felt a bit dry going in were no longer dry, but the parts of my hair that didn’t need extra moisture weren’t greasy or overly conditioned. While I probably still wouldn’t wear this mask over night, for a day time of self care, I really enjoyed the Amika Dream Routine and would certainly use it again. It smelled nice and made my hair feel moisturized, well conditioned and silky soft. what more could I ask for?
Ms. Mimsy Reviews 