When it comes to mud masks for your face I’ve been slapping them on and gurning at myself in the mirror just to witness the cracking process that no doubt alludes to what I’ll look like permanently in 50 years time, for years. Double digits even perhaps. But a mud mask for your hair? Well that’s a brand new concept to me. It was Alexia Inge of Cult Beauty that originally sung the praises of the newest texture to reach lock land, courtesy Aestalance’s Mud Mask, so I spent last weekend making all my towels crusty with clay testing it out. The things I do, eh?

High up in this hair mud mask’s ingredients list is Dead Sea Natural Mud, which gives it a face mask-like feel and appearance. Coupled with herbal extracts among other good stuff it works as a scalp mask/intense conditioner hybrid; soothing and feeding the roots and nourishing the lengths of the hair too. A 2-in-1 if you will, that treats sluggish shafts from the top down, making it a good choice for those with dry-ish lengths, but congested sometimes oily scalps. You apply it on freshly shampooed damp hair – I used a good few squirts – work through from the roots and leave for up to 15 minutes, during which things felt very cool actually. You rinse it out and you’re left with a soft and conditioned, slightly powdery smelling mop. It’s all rather lovely. I reckon those with coloured or extremely heat battered hair will love this as a more frequent treatment, but I’ll be leaving it on my shelves to get dragged out every week or so.

At £17 from Cult Beauty, I’m impressed. Messy – yes. But well worth the impending towel wash it creates.