SMACK! Reviews: Giovanni Natural Mousse Hair Styling Foam

Late start today, sorry...

So most of us don't have a team of stylists working us over for our morning commutes or a trip to the grocery store, meaning some days we have to make a choice: face or hair. For me, it's always been hair. It's not like I'm blessed with flawless skin or never get dark circles, no. It's just that my hair has always been my thing. Literally, from the day I was born when I popped out with a bright orange carrot top.

Losing my hair during chemo really was devastating. Like, lots of ugly crying. But now it's back, thicker and wavier than ever. You might remember reading earlier this week that I recently ran out of mousse and wanted to find something a little gentler on my body. Through EWG's Skin Deep database, I wound up with Giovanni's Natural Mousse Hair Styling Foam. I've had fair to good luck with Giovanni hair products in the past, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The price was right: $7.99 for a 7 oz pump bottle at my local Whole Foods. It's about the same price on the Giovanni website. A little pricier than I'm used to, but I'd rather spend more for fewer chemicals than the other way around, right?

The pump tells me right off the bat that I'm getting something that's a little easier on the environment and me, what with it not having all those accelerants in a pressurized can. That's good! So let's bust out the hair dryer and have a little fun.

The bottle says 'medium to firm hold' but this is a really light mousse. Two quick pumps give me what I think is the right amount for my hair length. The scent, well, leaves a little to be desired. The mousse contains a lot of botanical extracts and even 'natural fragrance' but all that doesn't add up to a very pleasant-smelling product. Reminiscent of the Giovanni Hair Gel I reviewed a few months back. I guess the good thing about the wonky smell is that it's a little more gender neutral? Equally unappealing to both women and men?

Moving ahead. The bottle makes these claims:

• builds hair to amazing heights with amazing stay-power
• distributes easily for smooth-moves in style
• adds texture and shine

Ok. Let's put that to the test. The mousse does distribute easily, especially in wet hair. Like. It doesn't build my hair to amazing heights, but then again, that's not the look I'm going for. And as for adding texture and shine, my hair doesn't feel or look all that different when I'm done, other than being blown into submission to stay where I want it to. 

That doesn't mean you wouldn't get the results you want from this product. Everyone's hair is different: texture, weight, etc. 

I think I've mentioned that this is a pretty light mousse. So no residue or flakes or other weirdness that makes my hair feel like it has a lot of product in it. That might mean I'm not using enough. Or it might mean the mousse doesn't actually do anything. Or it might just mean that it's a nice light formula that gives you a boost of control without completely masking your hair with yuk.

Again, Giovanni puts in the teeny tiniest print that this product is USDA Certified Organic, has 100% vegetarian ingredients, does no animal testing, and does not add parabens, laryl or laureth sulfate or dyes to this product. Seriously, the type size of this post is larger than on the bottle. Why isn't this bigger, and like, in the middle of the front? On a huge tag that is all in my face?

All in all, this is a good product, not great, but still worth recommending. When it runs out I will probably try something else, but I can always come back to it and know what I'm getting.

SMACK! Grade: B