- Kelly McLeod
The Girls
Kelly: So I have a question: what’s the different between a mask and masque? Does writing masque mean I’m glam and/or French? I think a masque is like a fancy mask.
Nikki: I mean, I think you pay for a ‘que’, you know?
K: I do know. So, Nikki…your hair is thick. And dry.
N: Not offended at all that you’ve noticed my dry hair! But yes, I have curly hair, so that already makes it dryer than average. It’s pretty thick, pretty frizzy, and the bits I’ve gotten balayage-ed (love a good fake word!) are really dry and crispy at times. Sorry, I hate the word crispy as it refers to hair.
K: The visual is just too much. Mine is pretty thin, but I have a lot of it. And the blonde highlights just dry it the eff out. So I have to be careful that products don’t end up weighing it down a lot. I feel like the lighterweight masques will be better for me.
The Masques
Organic Coconut Oil
K: This was my fave—organic, unrefined, virgin coconut oil. Apparently it’s important that it’s virgin. It’s like Catholic hair. Kidding. Anyways, I melted a tablespoon…
N: What! I did like three tablespoons…
K: (Laughs) And then I put it on dry hair. I put it in a loose bun, I went to bed with a towel on my pillow, and then washed in in the morning with MorrocanOil shampoo. It wasn’t super moisturizing, but I liked the texture it gave it.
N: I hate washing my hair in the morning. I just don’t have time for it. I wake up, like, five minutes before I’m supposed to be somewhere, so the concept of having to leave something overnight and wash my hair in the morning was just too much for my poor, late soul to handle. So I left mine in for two hours, then I washed it out, put conditioner in it, and went to bed. Anyways, I didn’t think it made a huge difference. My hair was definitely softer than if I hadn’t put anything in, but not much better than regular ol’ conditioner. The other thing I didn’t like about the coconut oil was I felt like it was so messy. It was a whooole situation.
K: Totally. It was an ordeal.
N: Like, I had to put it in the microwave. And then after it was in the microwave it got all over my hands; it was all greasy. Everything was greasy.
K: Did you try eating it?
N: (Laughs) No...did you try eating it?
K: ...Yeah.
N: Just plain with a spoon? What does that even taste like?
K: Yeah, just plain with a spoon! It was really good. And I used the leftovers as a moisturizer. I just put it on my legs.
N: I honestly don’t think I would do Coconut Oil again it was such a process.
K: That’s the opposite of me. I would do coconut oil everyday. I mean you can EAT it.
N: Yeah, but I can buy a jar of coconut oil just to eat.
K: Good point.
Kevin Murphy 'Hydrate Me' Masque
N: I’m already biased because I’m obsessed with this masque. I literally shout it from the rooftops.
K: I liked it too, though. It definitely wasn’t as heavy as the Oribe and I actually did it right this time so there’s that. I really liked the “exploding vitamin capsules”, too. This was my runner up after the Coconut Oil.
N: As if you liked the Coconut Oil more! I find the Kevin Murphy masque makes my hair really shiny and really soft. It doesn’t leave it greasy or anything. My only problem is the bottle is teensy. I need, like, a Costco sized bottle of this shit.
Living Proof Restore Mask Treatment
K: Living Proof was probably somewhere in between Kevin Murphy and Oribe. It was a bit heavier than Kevin Murphy but it didn’t feel quite as greasy as Oribe. The smell was good. It wasn’t like…anything spesh. I shampooed before and left it on for five minutes.
N: Only?
K: That’s what it said! I'm a stickler for instructions after the Oribe situation. How long did you leave it on for?
N: (Laughs) I don’t know! I liked the Living proof one; I felt it made my hair soft but it did something funky with my texture. My hair is curly but it dried kinda of puffy straight? Like Grace Coddington’s hair only way, way worse. I feel like maybe I would use it if I was blow-drying my hair or something.
K: It definitely made my hair soft and shiny but the back of my head got a little Kristen Stewart-greasy you know? So I think I’d need to focus this potent baby on my ends.
Oribe Masque for Beautiful Color
K: The Oribe. I messed this up.
N: To be fair, it has really awful instructions. I believe it was like “Wash. Indulge. Rinse” or something. So many questions, Mr. Oribe! How long do I indulge? How do I indulge? Should I comb it through to indulge? Do I indulge everything or do I just indulge the ends?
K: I indulged my dry hair, which was totally off (laughs) and then I had a bubble bath so it was kind of wet. But then I used shampoo after so I feel like that was also why it didn’t work. I'm not sure why I thought shampooing the masque out of my hair was a good idea. So that one it didn’t do much for me (laughs). Whatever, I blame the instructions!
N: I mean, I was able to properly indulge. I washed and let it soak in for like 20 minutes and then I washed it out and did a blow-dry. I felt like my hair was softer? I don’t know. It was indulgent but I don’t know if I would use it again.
K: Also, this one was a color masque and I didn’t notice any difference in color.
N: Neither.
Leonor Greyl Masque Quintessence
N: Then we come to our final masque. The one don’t know how to say. Grail? Grey-el. IDK.
K: Smells amazing. Really perfume-y.
N: AND it comes with a spoon.
K: And a full-on instruction manual.
N: We’ve learned to appreciate the instruction manual after Oribe. I do think instructions are important so people like Kelly don’t misinterpret them.
K: I lol-ed at the description of this one. It combats your hair’s trauma. So dramatic.
N: My hair goes through trauma everyday. Did you use the spoon?
K: Oh 100%. I lived for this spoon.
N: I really wanted to not like this mask because it was $150 but I’m obsessed. It made my hair so soft and shiny and it smelled like Namibian fruit (allegedly, I mean I don’t actually know what Namibian fruit smells like). I felt like I was putting butter on my hair! It was that color and consistency. Super luxe. So yeah 5 stars for the $150 dollar masque.
K: I liked it too! The scoop was so good for making sure I didn’t put on too much. I loved the smell also. Having studied the instructions thoroughly, I can tell you it actually smelled like a combination of Namibian and Amazonian fruit. My hair doesn’t feel greasy either but it’s a bit flat.
N: It’s definitely not an every week masque but a special occasion masque? For sure.