*Sigh*
Once again, Sally’s Beauty Supply has proven to be my downfall. As I was minding my own business purchasing a new vat of deep conditioner, my product junkie peripheral vision picked up these little gems:
The Hydra Cap
The Hydra Cap is, for all intents and purposes, a conditioning cap that shrink wraps to your head with the application of heat from a blow dryer. Its benefits (allegedly) include: less mess, conditioner penetrating better, traps heat more efficiently . Here…you can learn more from this comparison.
See? There is nothing but misery without the Hydracap and then…once you get it…yay! Bliss!
I kid, I kid…before and after pictures are always so funny, no matter if it’s related to hair or weight loss.
So anyway, even though I plan to stick to my plastic bags, I thought this would be fun to try out. The cost was $3.99 and there were 4 in the pack. Here’s what they look like fresh out of the bag.
I figured that the lady in the picture had more than likely wrapped her hair around her head. Easy enough to do if you are relaxed…a little more work intensive for us naturals (this is probably a lot easier if you have shorter natural hair). I ended up doing what I usually do, which is placing my conditioner soaked tresses in big “plaits”. I then pinned them flat against my head (or as flat as it gets for me).
Conditioner soaked hair before applying cap
I then put the cap on. It wasn’t easy to slip on (though it might be because of my big head) like the regular plastic caps which at least have the elastic around the edges. I got it on shortly, so no biggie.
Ta Da!
Ok so here’s where I screwed up. I didn’t place the cap over my ears. If I’d watched the video (scroll to the bottom), I would’ve seen that the lady placed hers over her ears as well. So I think that’s why I didn’t get a good seal, as you can see below.
Edges left out...bleh
So I realized this after I started blowdrying. It starts collapsing pretty quickly once it’s blowdried, so it took me less than five minutes to get it all done. I started with the edges first, as the packaging suggests. I left it on for one hour.
So, how did it hold up? Pretty well! I felt dripping after about 15 minutes around the ear areas, but not nearly as much as I would from a regular bag. The areas that were flat against my neck did not leak at all. Did it condition better than with a regular bag? Honestly, not really. Did it trap heat better? A little, but not by much.
All in all, it was nice to visit, but I could not see myself buying these on a regular basis. I don’t know if it would be worth the trouble of digging up the old hair dryer everytime I DC. Also, shelling out the money, however little, would hurt my pride. If you hate the messiness of DCing, this might interest you…or you could get a towel, like I do and wrap it over your head after applying the plastic.
But that’s just me 
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Couldn’t you just use saran wrap and have the same effect?
Yep that’s what my sister and I do. Saran Wrap from the 99 cents store and a 99cents sweat band from Sallys Beauty. In the shower I put the DC on, sweatband and the Plastic wrap. After that I can put on a cute hair scarf/or turban and run errands for the rest of the day.
Also in rare moments can rock a 2 wig caps on top of it and a wig. *lol*
The things they come up with! lol.
Keebo, I’m loving the saran wrap idea.
@Keebo, I have to try that. When I am out of plastic bags, I use the saran wrap but I love the headband idea;-)
I’ve also been using saran wrap for a few years now. I find it less messy and cheap too =)
Yeah, this is a useful thing while drying your hair. It looks really less messy. Maybe I will try this.
Yes, saran wrap seems a whole lot less complicated! Keebo, great tip!
The first thing I thought when I saw it was you’d probably get the same results with saran wrap
@ Keebo – That’s the same thing I thought when I saw the picture! Just put the Cling Wrap in the kitchen to good use.
I may just cling wrap my processing cap close to my head and call it an afternoon.
I love these hydracaps Im wearing one right now, totally less messy and absolutely no drip! I love innovation!
I notice that you left your ears out. These caps work best when the cap is placed down over the ears. I am wearing one now and none of my edges are left out. I like them but they re a little pricier than what I am used to.
These WORK great. You have to cover your ears. I hate using Cling Wrap it is much to difficult. Sorry you didn’t like them.
I have tried the hydra cap but it didn’t work for me. It was suppose to shrink but nothing happen. Saran Wrap is my next choice. They have to sale at Sally’s Beauty Supply but don’t have it out on shelves because of too many complaints. It won’t sale.