Review: Rene Furterer VOLUMEA Volumizing Conditioning Spray for Fine Hair

OVERALL RATING: ♥♥♥♥

• Overall Conditioning: ♥♥♥♥♥
• For Fine Hair: ♥♥♥♥♥
• For Curly Fine Hair: ♥♥♥♥
• Ease of Use: ♥♥♥♥♥
• Pricing: ♥
• Availability: ♥♥
• Bottom Line: Worth Every Penny

Rene Furterer has been developing breakthrough hair products for more than 50 years. The company is headquartered in France and is owned by one of France's largest pharmaceutical companies and a world-leader in phyto-cosmetology, Pierre Fabre Laboratories. The company concept comes from its founder, René Furterer, who said, "Beautiful hair grows from a healthy scalp like a plant in fertile soil."

The VOLUMEA line of René Furterer products was designed for fine and/or limp hair, which is notoriously difficult to condition and volumize.

Ingredients

• Water

• SD Alcohol 39-C

• VP/VA Copolymer

• Dehydroxanthan Gum

• Disodium EDTA

• Fragrance

• Hydolyzed Ceratonia Siliqua Gum Extract

• Methylisothiazolinone

• PEG-12 Dimethicone

• PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil

• Sodium Hydroxide

I first heard about this product when it made InStyle's 2011 Best Beauty Products list. I have very fine hair that is both color-treated and dry. Because my hair is so fine, I have struggled to find products that condition and moisturize my hair without leaving it limp or greasy—and to be honest, I had been unsuccessful in that search until I found this product.

Pricing and Availability

But see, I wasn't sold on this product. First of all, it costs an arm and a leg. This little bottle cost me somewhere in the region of $5.50/ounce. Although I only wash my hair a couple times a week (remember how dry it gets?), I could not see justifying this expense. But I started at Amazon and shopped around for a price. Ultimately, I came back to Amazon because it had the lowest price from the widest variety of sellers. More competition means lower prices!

However, all this shopping around made clear how difficult this product is to obtain. None of the salons in my area carried it, and neither did any local drug, grocery, or discount stores (not even Target and Wal-Mart!). If you plan on purchasing this product after reading this review, you will probably have to do so online and wait for it to arrive, which is a major bummer.

Performance

I was sold the very first time I used VOLUMEA conditioning spray, and I'll tell you why. It left my hair bouncy. My fine hair is naturally wavy, but it has been a long time since it has been bouncy. I let my hair air-dry the first time I used the product, and even so, my hair looked shiny and full of life. I just about lost it, folks.

The second time I used this product, I let my hair dry in sponge curlers, which I do frequently. I worried that the product would weigh down my curls and prevent them from holding all day, or even worse, leave them frizzy. Surprisingly, I ended up with soft, bouncy (!!!) curls that were touchable and held their shape all day. I cannot remember the last time I conditioned my hair and had it hold a curl.

Now a word of warning: this product contains alcohol. Typically, I do not like to get hair products with alcohol listed as an ingredient because my hair is already so dry and alcohol tends to make it drier. I am unsure how René Furterer managed to develop a volumizing conditioning spray with alcohol in it that didn't dry out my hair, but it did. However, for others of you out there, you may find that even this product has too much alcohol for your baby-fine locks.

Did I mention this stuff makes a great detangler, too? Anyone with fine hair knows how difficult it can be to get a comb through wet fine hair without breaking every strand, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the conditioning spray had enough conditioning oomf to make pulling a comb through my wet hair easy.

Ease of Use

I do want to mention the ease of use for this product. Here are the stated directions:

"After shampooing, spray all over towel-dried hair. Do not rinse. Proceed to styling." - VOLUMEA Leave-In Volumizing Conditioning Spray

I have one beef with these directions: they don't really tell you how much product to use. Yes, this product is very light and overdoing it might be tough, but then again, I paid $5.50 an ounce. I am disinclined to use any more of the product than is necessary to moisturize and detangle my hair.

So here goes: I have shoulder-length hair and I find that 5 sprays and combing is enough to perfectly condition my hair (and leave it bouncy, of course).

The Bottom Line

I will be purchasing this product again, absolutely! My small complaints aside, it has worked wonders for my typically unworkable hair. I am curious to try their color-protection line, as well. If I do, I'll be sure to write a review for it and link to it from here.