A couple of years ago, I ordered this Paul Mitchell Super Skinny shampoo/conditioner set in travel size bottles on sale from Drugstore dot com. I thought I'd give this hair care line a try, because I'd never tried it before.

After one week of using the Paul Mitchell products, they made the bottom 12 inches of my very healthy hair break off around the 2 and 3-inch mark (broke off 2-3 inches from my scalp). My hair started breaking off in huge amounts, so I stopped using the Paul Mitchell products, but it was too late. Most of my hair broke off over the next couple of days. It clogged up the large main water drain that is underneath the foundation of our house and we had to spend $300 for a plumber to come and get the gigantic hairball out.

My long, thick, shiny, naturally-straight hair had always been my best feature. Therefore, it was pretty traumatic for it all to break off without warning because it made me look awful - I looked 10 years older. And that's not just my impression -- every stranger feels okay about coming out and saying this to me when he or she looks at my photo on my driver's licence or passport -- such as when I'm going through security at the airport, or when I am buying a bottle of wine at the supermarket. A supermarket clerk even said this last week to me, even though my jaggedy damaged hair has now grown down to my chin in the last 2 years and it looks SO much better than it did when it first all broke off.

My hair grows slowly, so it has taken 2 years to get all the broken pieces to chin length.

At the time that I bought these travel size bottles of the Paul Mitchell products, I did NOT know that Drugstore dot com was not an authorized seller of those products. I thought that they were such a big company and so well-known that of course they would stick to the industry rules and I assumed that they would only sell products they were authorized to sell. I later found out that this is not so - they are not authorized to sell Paul Mitchell products - and the fine print on their website states this. Apparently there is a big grey market in salon-level hair products. If you don't buy the products from authorized sellers (like bricks-and-mortar hair salons), the manufacturer won't guarantee the product's quality or purity.

Lord knows what was actually in the bottles I got. I cannot imagine that Paul Mitchell products would be so terrible, because they have a good reputation.

I do not really blame the Paul Mitchell company for ruining my hair, but even so, I will never try another one of their products again, just in case the shampoo that made all my hair break off was authentically their product.

My advice is to never buy salon haircare products from an unauthorized retailer! And there are many of them around now - supermarkets, big box stores, most of the major internet retailers -- but in most cases they are not authorized by the manufacturer. You can check on the manufacturer's website to see who the authorized retailers are.

===
In case you are interested, this is what happened after that:

I made appointments with many stylists/salons in my town, asking for advice. I tried nearly everything at the beauty supply store, and what the various stylists/salons recommended to me. I tried shampoos/conditioners, treatment packets, special protein treatments done at the salon, styling products, leave-in conditioners, various oils.

I was getting to the end of my choices, and I tried about 5 of the product lines of Redken, but nothing worked, until the Redken All Soft range.

The All Soft shampoo and conditioner were *magnificent*. The All Soft made my hair shiny, soft, and decent-looking. (To make it merely decent-looking, like anyone else's normal discount-brand-shampooed hair would look, was a miracle.)

Then, last year, Redken REFORMULATED the All Soft line. They took out avocado oil and added argan oil. They changed other ingredients too. The new formula of All Soft was terrible on my hair. It made my hair dry, brittle, frizzy. It made my scalp oily and it made my forehead break out in pimples.

In a mad rush, I spent about 2 days trying to locate bottles of the old product in about a 30-mile radius. I was able to scrounge up a couple of sets of the old shampoo/conditioner. I've been using those precious supplies sparingly for the last year, but I'm now out of it.

Therefore, I have gone around the last 3 weeks and tried all kinds of brands, I've gone to salons, I've gone to drugstores. Nothing is working for my hair. Not even the highly-rated Pureology line, which was really bad for my hair last week.

A lot of formerly-loyal Redken customers were very upset about the change in the All Soft formula. I don't know WHY they changed it. They could have brought out a new product line that contained argan oil, if having a line that featured it was so important to them.

I've tried to find what other people are using as a replacement for the old All Soft, but no one really says what they have moved on to.

If anyone has found something comparable to the original version of Redken All Soft, please send me a message via this website!

I have thick, usually about shoulder length hair that always seems to have an issue with frizz and flyaways. I purchased this (and the matching shampoo) at a salon. As I said in the review for the shampoo, my hair always felt really dried out (stripped) when I would use it. While this matching conditioner did seem to help re-moisten my hair a little bit, it did nothing to help prevent my hair from becoming frizzy and having flyaways.

I used the shampoo and conditioner together, so I'm going to review them both as "one" product - in other words the cumulative and over all effect of this duo:
The good: smells like apples.
The bad: It really weighs your hair down and not in a way that simplifies straightening - it felt as though my hair took longer than normal to dry and even when dry it was hard to run my hands through. It feels as though the hair is heavily coated from the outside in with something waxy.
Basically, I was thrilled when this was finished (because I really don't like to waste anything if I can help it) - but I will never (ever!) be repurchasing. Thankfully I purchased the set on sale - otherwise I'd be really upset about wasting so much money on a bad product set.

I got the large bottle from my mother because it made her hair oily and since she naturally has oily hair I didn't think anything of it. I'm beginning to think she gave it to me because she wanted to get rid of it and didn't want to knowingly waste money.
I don't really care for this conditioner and I would rate it on the same level as those cheap conditioners you can buy from walmart. This product reminds me of why I never used to use conditioner. My hair is normally smooth, but feels dry. This conditioner made my hair kind of frizzy and now I have fly aways that I normally don't have. It's made it softer I guess, but it's not like a nice moisturized soft feeling, it's more of like the film on my hair is making it soft. If that makes sense to anyone.
It doesn't reduce drying time on my hair, it leaves a weird waxy/sticky feeling no matter how many times I rinse it out. The only good thing about it is the smell.

I received this as a gift & I agree with other posters' criticisms. I have thick, straight, fine, oily hair that is below my shoulder blades. I hoped I'd have a positive experience, but no such luck. I used this with the corresponding shampoo and they left my hair slightly dry and tangly. It feels like either, maybe both, of the shampoo or conditioner didn't completely rinse and it made my hair take forever to dry. I'm happily returning to my Dove shampoo & conditioner. continued >>

I must join with everyone here and give this product a ZERO if i could. Horrible product. Leaves a "film" on the hair... disgusting residue that you can FEEL on your hands. Then as it dries, omg, it's so matted and sticky.. felt like i put a wallop of straight wax on my hair. And because it made my hair so matted, it actually broke my hair each time i combed it! WHY would Paul Mitchell do this to us!?!? WHY!?!?

It's going straight in the garbage! Thank God i only bought a sample of it and not the full size bottle! Paul Mitchell please discontinue this product . Its horrible!!!!

I bought this on the recommendation of my stylist... WOW, what a horrible product! My hair is somewhat course, but with this junk in it, it felt like sandpaper. I would rather have no conditioner than this stuff.
Looking forward to a trip to the drugstore!

I feel compelled to write a review on the worst conditioner I have ever used.

After 2 attempts at getting used to the product; it has been banished from my house.

The conditioner feels amazing and smells great when it is being applied. The texture is that of a regular conditioner, so I was shocked when I started to blow dry my hair. It felt like I had wax in it, at first i thought I couldn't get it to dry, but realised it was deposited product. In sort - it was atrocious. My hair actually felt drier as a result of using this product, the spilt ends were more visible and my hair was matted!

Very disappointing. I would not recommend this to anyone.

The Ulta lady rec'd this and the matching shampoo to help with frizz on my fine hair. This stuff is crap! My hair had no slip but felt slimey after rinsing. The end result was awful using the two together, hair was weighed down but oddlly still frizzy. I don't expect miracles obviously but this shampoo and the matching conditioner combo were just bad. I've tried other PM shampoos and conditioners, they've never worked for me though some of their styling products are pretty decent. I returned both.

Goodness. This conditioner really felt soft in my hair when I was showering so I had high expectations. But, when I blow dried my hair, it felt so greasy and disgusting and absolutely abominable.

Well, I will just probably give this out to someone I hate, haha - kidding.

Anyways, Paul Michelle products are really good, this one is exceptionally a disgrace...