Product review: Dr Paw Paw Does It All 7 in 1 Hair Treatment Styler

I was given a bottle of this stuff for Christmas last year and I’ve been using it a few times a week since. According to the bottle, the 7 things it does in 1 go are:

1. Heat protection
2. Reduces split ends
3. Detangler
4. Leave-in hair treatment
5. Reduces frizz & smooths
6. Blowdry styling aid
7. Adds shine

Dr Paw Paw It Does It All Hair Treatment (left)

Inconsistent grammar aside, the directions are pretty easy going. “Spritz this hair hero onto damp or dry lock. No need to rinse, just style and go”. Honestly? I don’t usually “style” per se. I kind of just wash my hair and hope for the best. I don’t even dry it if I can avoid it – it’s too damaged from too much colouring (although I’m working on that). I also don’t wash it every day anymore. With that in mind, something I can just put in my hair and then not think about again is ideal.

So, when I use this I almost always put it on wet hair and I find it makes my curls appear softer and less frizzy. Occasionally, when my hair has already dried, I apply a bit to tame a little frizz. Once or twice, on the rare occasions when I have dried and straightened my hair, I’ve added a bit of this glorious goop and it helps my hair to actually stay straight (which simply put must mean that it’s combatting the effects of humidity, which usually has my hair getting poofy within a few hours of leaving the house.)

The one downside? The formula is quite thick and creamy but the bottle has a spray nozzle. This means that it’s easy to be fooled into trying to spray it onto your hair but it doesn’t exactly come out as a fine mist. Quite the opposite, in fact. Now, if I were in charge of Dr Paw Paw I would choose a different kind of dispenser, or maybe just sell it in a pot. I certainly wouldn’t be using the word “spritz.” Since I’m not the boss, we’ll just have to  live with the spray nozzle, but that doesn’t mean we hve to “spray” this goop directly onto our heads. I recommend “spaying” into the hands and then applying. It’s also well worth shaking the bottle before use.

My thoughts are that it definitely works for items number 3 (detangler), 5 (reduces frizz and smooths) and 7 (adds shine). The others I’m not sure about. It probably does offer heat protection, it probably doesn’t reduce split ends (except in that using heat protection already does that). I’ve never tried it as a leave in treatment and honestly, I’m not sure what the result would be, but I’m kind of tempted to try. I don’t know that it’s the best blowdry styling aid ever, but, as I said, I don’t dry my hair much, so I don’t have a lot of products to compare it to – I guess it does the job.

Oh, one more bonus point: The smell is incredible. It’s like ripe mangos and something else that I can’t quite identify but is vaguely fruity. Even if this stuff did nothing else I’d put it in my hair for the scent. Yep. This Dr Paw Paw product is a winner and one I can see myself using for years to come.