Last week, as we walked through the hair care aisle in our neighborhood, I decided on impulse to buy a relatively cheap conditioner. I had used it before and though the results were far from fantastic, it was okay for what I needed. Besides, it’s almost Christmas, I wanted to save a little money and thought it wouldn’t hurt to buy a cheaper alternative.

Two days after, I developed some rashes and red spots on my neck. I didn’t mind it so much thinking it would go away in a few days. But a day after, the red spots spread to my jaw line and cheeks! I wasn’t extraordinarily stressed so I ruled that out as a possible cause. I finally figured that the only thing that has changed in the last few days was my choice of conditioner.

I immediately grabbed the bottle and read the ingredients, I couldn’t pronounce most of it and an alarm was ringing in my head that there was some chemical there somewhere that might have triggered my allergic reaction. But I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure.

So I did a little experiment and stopped using the conditioner for one day. The day after that, the rashes on my neck subsided and a few of the red spots on my face faded. I wanted to bonk myself in the head, I risked a skin allergy just to save a few bucks.

Well actually, the original hair care products I was using cost twice the price of the cheap one, so it’s not just a handful of change I was supposed to save. But considering the ugly effects I got from that cheap conditioner, I’d gladly fork out the extra money just to make sure the product I buy is good for me.

To think I was even planning to downgrade my facial moisturizer because I wanted to save on that too. But after this incident, I won’t ever risk my skin again. I went ahead and returned to the grocery and bought my usual shampoo and conditioner. Good thing my trusty moisturizer is on sale so I still got to save a little bit.

Lesson learned again. You get what you pay for, and sometimes, it might not be good.

Also, it won’t hurt to read the labels of the products you use. I read the back label of my new conditioner and it had none of the ingredients indicated in the cheap one. I’m not assuming that the new one I’m using is chemical free but I guess it’s harmless enough because my skin is healing nicely.

I won’t mention the brand because I might just be an isolated case. Needless to say I won’t ever buy it or use it again. I can only say, this conditioner comes in a pink bottle which is sad, because I love pink.