Product Review: Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Anti-Frizz Styling Cream

According to my hairdresser and based on my own experience, my hair is somewhere between wavy and straight. It's straight and thick and heavy enough to not hold any sort of curl, and it's just wavy enough to frizz. On my most desperate days, I stick my hair in a ponytail or bun and wear a narrow headband to tame the flyaways. Oh, and did I mention I'm really lazy and low-maintenance when it comes to doing my hair?

A couple months ago, I figured I needed a smoothing agent for my hair after I got out of the shower, something to moisturize and add shine while weighing down the hair shaft so that it lies straight and flat when I blow-dry it. I picked up a tube of Garnier Fructis Style Sleek & Shine Anti-Frizz Styling Cream (usually somewhere between $5-10) at my local drugstore after much deliberation. (Side note: Good lord that's a long product name! It takes less time to work it through your hair than to say the full name of the product.)



The styling cream has a nice consistency and that trademark yummy fruity scent typical of Garnier products, but it took me a while to get the hang of using it. These were the instructions it came with:

1. Apply styling cream to towel-dried hair.


2. Blow-dry hair in sections using a brush.


3. Comb hair for a sleek finish.

Um, okay. After some trial and error, I adapted those steps to fit my own lazy nature. My own routine with the styling cream goes something like this:

1. Towel-dry hair.


2. Squeeze a dollop of product out of the tube, but not too much because it tends to make your hair sticky, and rub it between your palms.


3. Lightly run your hands through your hair and concentrate the product on the ends of your hair.


4. Thoroughly comb your hair with a wide-tooth comb to evenly distribute product. This also ensures your hair is lying straight before any sort of blowdryer goes near it.


5. Finger-comb your hair as you blow-dry. (Bonus: your arms don't get tired with all that brush-and-dry action.)


6. Comb hair for a sleek finish.

Ultimately, the styling cream didn't give me the ultra-sleek stick-straight locks I was looking for, but that's probably due to my refusal to spend an hour with a straightening iron more than the product itself. It did make a noticeable difference in the texture of my hair: It's smoother, shinier, and I have fewer flyaways. Not bad at all for the price and the minimal effort required.