My first “job” in the 1960s was combing and plaiting my babysitter’s long, soft, thick gray hair every day. Out the blue one day, Mrs. Brown told me about her daughter’s hair woes with all the shampoo bottles that took up an entire shelf in the bathroom cabinet.
Mrs. Brown said ‘None of them work, you know’.
Here we are in 2012 and it turns out that Mrs. Brown was right, traditional shampoos do not work for everyone’s hair.
REVOLUTIONARY HAIR CARE
There’s a new generation of hair experts and ordinary women who have formulated revolutionary new hair cleansing and conditioning products and techniques.
These individuals realized that something just wasn’t right about the products they were faithfully and loyally using for hair care. The products just were not working.
This is the first in an ongoing series of blog post articles on some of these revolutionaries who changed all of our hair stories for the better.
CHAZ DEAN – WEN CLEANSING CONDITIONERS
The cleansing products are promoted as an alternative to traditional detergent-based shampoos.
Late one night, as I mindlessly watched a shopping channel, Chaz Dean came on with a presentation of his line of cleansing conditioners. His statements about his cleansers’ attributes barely penetrated my blue screen brain fog.
But when Dean stated that the detergent sulfates in traditional shampoos were the very same ingredients in de-greasers used by automobile mechanics to clean oil spills off of garage floors, I sat-up immediately. Next, I was on the phone to order the Fig Cleansing Conditioner.
Ordering the Cleansing Conditioner wasn’t too much of a stretch for me. As a teenager, I would try an herbal recipe here or there.
But it got tiresome after a while trying to actually find specific herbs and then compound them into a homemade shampoos.
Chaz Dean’s Wen Cleansing Conditioners save all of that labor.
There’s an entire line of Wen products that vary according to hair type with very different formulations and not just a different fragrances.
When I got the Fig Cleansing Conditioner and used it, I was simply amazed. My straggly looking, aging hair looked lusher and felt softer.
There’s no hype on this blog site! Wen works.
LEADING LADIES OF HAIR ON YouTube
The internet saved my hair and skin. Women who take time to document their hair care rituals on YouTube have made a tremendous difference in the look, feel and condition of my hair.
Until these women, who are virtually all in their 20s and 30s, started showing me on YouTube and writing downloadable books, I really had no idea of the serious problems associated with certain hair techniques and products.
Relaxed Hair – Thank you to all the ladies who have shown me and others on YouTube that there is a hair life after stopping using relaxers on African textured hair.
Women who did the “Big Chop” are particularly inspirational. Without their experiences, I would have never closely examined the damaging and dangerous details of relaxers. I haven’t chopped my hair, yet. But I now know that relaxed hair is so 20th century old school in the 21st century.
Petroleum Jelly – Many thanks to women who used the internet to spread information about the extremely irritating and drying nature of petroleum jelly. Instead these women promoted coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil and other tropical oils for moisturizing hair and scalp.
Now the major players in the hair care industry have jumped on the bandwagon by selling products with at least some natural oils.
Unsafe Combing and Brushing—until the internet, I took for granted my combing techniques and tools. I garnered little tidbits of new knowledge like ‘never comb dry hair, only comb hair when it’s wet’ or ‘don’t use combs that have seams on the teeth’ that have made a tremendous difference in my hair’s condition.
I could go on and on. I have learned so much from the young women who sit before their laptop cameras and educate the world via the internet.
Maybe you have grown comfortably old with traditional sources of information about your hair needs, like your hairstylist or television commercials.
I urge you to check-out YouTube for alternative sources of information for a fresh, new and updated approach to your hair’s life.
OSCAR BLANDI - OSCAR BLANDI PRODUCTS
Blandi’s entire line of hair care products is based on the aromatherapy properties of one essential oil: Italian jasmine.
And it not a perfumy, artificial molecular copy. It’s the real flower essential oil that has widely documented restorative botanical compounds for hair and scalp.
As an aromatherapist, I use to make my own recipes of hair conditioners with jasmine. This oil is very expensive and often sold in diluted concentrations.
Blandi’s line is convenient because the jasmine is already in the conditioner in the correct proportion and the essential oil is from the best source for jasmine: Italy. It’s highly fragrant, not a faint smell, and long lasting.
The Protein Mist For Restyling Hair is a must for moistening hair and then sealing with coconut oil before combing.
Oh… about Mrs. Brown, whose hair I used to plait. One day, in my mid 30s, long after I had moved from the old neighborhood, I decided to go visit her at the nursing home where she was living. She was taken there after her eyesight began to fail.
She still had a full head of long, thick white hair.
As I read the Bible to her, it occurred to me that she had been an old woman since I was a toddler. I wondered how old she really was but I didn’t ask.
She just wondered aloud why the Lord kept her on Earth so long. When I left, I myself wondered why anyone would question God about that.
When she died a couple of years later, she was 104 years old.
Pat Thomas for THE COCONUT LOVERS MOJO until next time…
