A Few of My Favorite Things

As I have often said, I am firmly against Product Junkie-ism.  I believe in finding a few products that work and sticking to them.  However, there is no harm in trying out new things from time to time, and sometimes you will find new products that you prefer or work better.

I generally do not do product reviews, and I have never done a solicited product review for anyone.  But in the past few months have tried some different products that I have added into my personal maintenance routine, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite things for loc care and maintenance:

1. L'Oreal EverPure Sulfate-Free Color Care System

When you have colored tresses, it is important to protect your investment by using shampoos and conditioners that will minimize fading.  This shampoo and the accompanying conditioners are designed for colored hair, but L'Oreal also makes several other products for non-color treated hair in this same sulfate-free line (my daughter uses the EverCreme products).  The EverPure shampoo and conditioner leave my locs incredibly soft, but not weighed down.  I use the conditioner regularly, but the Restorative Masque is great for using after you've done a clarifying treatment on your hair (which strips out the excess oils and goo from your locs) or anytime your locs feel dried out.  And the best part is that it leaves your locs smelling absolutely amazing with its rosemary and juniper scent. This has by far been my favorite shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair.

2.  SheaMoisture African Black Soap Deep Cleansing Shampoo and Purification Masque

I recently purchased this shampoo and conditioner on a whim while looking for a clarifying shampoo.  It was on sale at Target so I decided to try it.  As I was shampooing my locs, I honestly didn't like the feel at all.  I actually had to look at my hair to make sure it was lathering, and it felt like I was drying my hair all the way out.  The purification masque kind of had the same feel, like it wasn't very moisturizing.  HOWEVER, keep in mind that these are clarifying products, meaning they are meant to strip the excess oils and buildup out of your hair.  Once I moisturized my locs and dried them, they felt amazing.  It definitely did the job of removing the gunk that was weighing down and dulling my locs, and my hair feels much softer and lighter and the sheen came back.  I'm definitely keeping these in the rotation for the occasional clarifying treatment in addition to my apple cider vinegar rinses.

3.  Ixora Botanical Beauty Macani Miracle Butter

I learned about this small independent business via her customers on Twitter who absolutely swear by her all-natural products.  I happened to be  looking for a new moisturizing product, as I had been using coconut oil which was very moisturizing, but I was noticing that it was starting to weigh my locs down after awhile (thus my need to seek out the products in #2 above).  After reading a few tweet reviews, I decided to order the Macani Miracle Butter.  I. Am. HOOKED.  This is, by far, the best moisturizing product I have ever used in my 10 years of locking.   I am always hesitant to use butters on my locs for fear of it building up and weighing my locs down, but this stuff just melts into your hair.  And a little of Ixora products truly do go a long way; just using a small amount leaves my locs incredibly soft and shiny with zero weight or greasy residue.  I apply it right after washing my locs before I dry them, and usually don't have to apply any more until after my next washing (though I do wash my locs once or twice a week).  The ingredients include Macadamia Nut Butter, Nilotica Shea Butter, Illipe Butter, Argan Oil, Jamaican Black Castor Oil, Emu Oil, Honey, Peppermint Oil, Tea Tree Oil, and Ylang Ylang Oil.  The smell is absolutely wonderful and compliments the other products I use in my hair.  I've also tried (and loved) a few of her other products, including the Whip It Up shea butter, the Cara Hermosa facial butter, the Ash Today Gone Tomorrow butter, and......

4. Ixora Botanical Beauty Loc and Twist Butter

Results of the Ixora Loc & Twist Butter

I had previously been using Carol's Daughter Loc Butter for retwisting my roots, but I was never really 100% comfortable with it because it contains beeswax, which is a big bad naughty no-no for loc buildup.  However, since I only using it sparingly on just the roots of the locs along my hairline (I latch the rest of my hair and rarely retwist my entire head), I was okay with using it.  So when Ixora promised to develop a loc butter that contained no beeswax, I was intrigued.  Like the Macani Miracle Butter, I absolutely love it.  It is incredibly light and creamy, but has a great hold that leaves my roots smooth and shiny using just a very tiny dab on each loc.  Ingredients include Nilotica Shea Butter, Hempseed Butter, Avocado Butter, Aloe Vera Gel, Coconut Oil, Jamaican Black Castor Oil, Macadamia Oil, Peppermint Oil, Teatree Oil, Vitamin E Oil.  Again, smells amazing, and feels great on my scalp.  I must also say that I've been impressed with how fast Ixora makes and ships their products.  And for you environmentally conscious people (or people like me who love free stuff) they have a recycling program.  Good customer service is always a plus with me. 

So there you have my all-star cast of products that have me absolutely in love with my locs right now.  They have never felt so soft, light and shiny in all my years of locking.  I often find myself mindlessly stroking my own locs because I just love how they feel, and I love when I turn my head just right and catch a whiff of their delectable scent.  These are a few of my favorite things, and I hope some of them become a few of yours, too.

The Secret to Long Natural Hair is Out!

Finally!! Natural hair vlogger ChescaLocs has discovered the secret to long, beautiful natural hair.  Whether you have a fro, twist or locs, this product works for everyone.  And she was kind enough to share it with us all.  Even Myleik Teele, founder of CurlBox, endorses this product.  Now, you too can get the long, luxurious locs or full, bountiful afro that you have long coveted on the internet, TV, and magazines.  Hold onto your wallets, because all you need is.......  *drum roll*

Yup. That's it.  If you were hoping for another "miracle" serum or oil to add to the big basket of products under your sink, I'm sorry to tell you that this is the only guaranteed way to have long (natural) hair.   We have become such an instant gratification society that people forget the value and effectiveness of good old fashioned patience.  There is a Zen quote that is a favorite of mine: "Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself."  It is the exact same thing with your hair.  I have heard of people going so far as to put anti-fungal yeast infection medication on their scalp in attempts to make their hair grow faster, when bottom line it just takes patience.  There is nothing that you need to do or add, just let nature do what it does.

I view my locs as a life lesson in patience; that's what they represent to me, and what I hope my children have taken from their own locs. People ask us "Oh! How did you get your hair so long and pretty??" and my answer is "Nothing."  "Nothing" is an oversimplified answer, but the real answer is not much more complicated: it's patience.  Patience is the reason why I am a big advocate of the Big Chop method of transitioning to natural hair.  Patience is why I am not an advocate of "loc extensions" as a way of starting locs.  It is hair, it WILL grow back with no effort or intervention on your part (besides, of course, keeping your overall health in order).  Stop obsessing over the length of your hair and one day you will look up and realize "Wow.... my hair is really long."   

So, save the Monistat for your lady parts, leave the new miracle products on the store shelf, and put away your rulers.  You already have everything you need to get the long, beautiful hair that you so desperately desire....Patience.

Avoid Shopping Cart Shock (A Marketing Lesson)

I love handmade items. And I love natural products. I also love entrepreneurs. So being able to have all three things by supporting small businesses that sell natural hair and beauty products just makes my day. However, I have a pet peeve when it comes to shopping online, and that is Shopping Cart Shock.

We have all had a dose of Shopping Cart Shock. You peruse an online retailer’s site and pick out a goodie (or 5) that you want to try out. You add them to your cart, click “check out” and then you are shocked to find that your total is way higher than the cost of the items in the cart due to shipping and handling. A few weeks ago I was shopping online on a natural products site for some new products for my hair. The cost of the product I wanted was $11.00. I added it to my cart, went to go check out, and saw that my total cost was $17.25! Shipping charges were $6.25, adding another 57% to the cost of the item I wanted. I had expected to pay some shipping, but not over 50% of the price of the item. So I closed my browser window, got in my car and went to the department store to buy some Carol’s Daughter products where I knew exactly how much I was paying when I walked in the door (though I used to not buy Carol’s Daughter products for the exact same reason). Some may choose to go ahead and pay the cost, but at that point I typically abandon cart. It makes me feel deceived, like I would lead to believe that I would be paying one amount but now—GOTCHA!—there is a catch. Shopping Cart Shock is not a problem exclusive to natural products retailers, but one that is very prevalent amongst these entrepreneurs due to the high cost of shipping liquids.

First, let me disclaim that I do not think you have to have a business degree to run a successful business. But there are some principles of business taught in business courses—specifically marketing—that every business owner, big or small, must be mindful of. The first things you will learn in any marketing course are the 4 P's: Price, Place, Product, Promotion (also called the Marketing Mix). One of the trickiest of these four elements is Price. Not only is price made up of cost of goods, profit margin and supply and demand, but there is also a huge psychological component to pricing products. Price communicates not just how much it cost you to make the product, it also communicates quality (how good your product is) and value (getting a good deal) to the customer. It is the reason why people will buy brand names over generics for the exact same products (often made by the exact same manufacturer) and why luxury items are so much more expensive than average goods and people willingly pay that premium. When it comes down to it, marketing and pricing is a mind game that you play with consumers. And some small business owners out there are not playing that game very well.

I know this may sound bad, and may be an oversimplification bordering on hyperbole, but consumers like to be lied to. They like to believe that they are getting the best deal and the best value possible. I am not saying that you need to deceive customers, but you must be mindful of the psychological aspect of the shopping experience. I brought this topic up on Twitter and got several responses from natural products sellers saying that shipping is expensive and that they need to make money, too. And I wholeheartedly agree. I am not saying that retailers should eat costs. That is just not good business.  And I am all about good business and prosperity.  What I am saying is that natural products sellers need to take a different look at how they price their products.

It is not just about sellers covering costs, it is also making customers feel like they are getting a good value. The cost of goods includes everything it takes to get your product to your customer. So not only should you include the cost of the plastic jar, shea butter, essential oils, labels, ink to print your labels, etc., but also the cost of getting those goods to your customer. If you have a $10 jar of shea butter, but your shipping is $5, all the customer cares about is that they are coming out of their pocket $15, 1/3 of which has nothing to do with the product itself. Here is another option, though: Charge $12.50 for the shea butter and $2.50 for shipping. Build some of the shipping cost into the base price of the product so that the Shopping Cart Shock is not as great. The seller’s costs are covered, but the customer feels like they are paying for the product more so than the shipping and that they are getting a better value with their purchase.

And remember what I said about price conveying perceived quality? If you have a really good Product that you Promote and Place well, people will not mind paying a higher Price for it because they will perceive it to be of better quality. Another personal shopping example: I was on eBay looking for some nag champa body oil. There was one retailer selling nag champa dry oil spray for $5.99, and another selling it for $10.50. The obvious choice seems like the former, right? Wrong. The shipping on the first bottle was $3.99, while the other one had FREE SHIPPING plastered across the listing. The $10.50 bottle also had a better label and said it used “high quality jojoba oil and vitamin E”, while the other said nothing about ingredients. So I bought the $10.50 bottle, with this being my consumer thought process: 1) “FREE!! I like free!” 2) “Why is the first one so cheap? They must use inferior ingredients, especially since they didn’t list them.” 3) “Well, they’re about the same price total, so I’m going to go with the slightly more expensive one just to be on the safe side.” I know good and damn well that the price of the shipping was built into the second bottle and that they could have bought their jojoba oil from a hobo on the street and I would have no way of knowing. But when I allow myself to turn off my marketing major brain and go into regular consumer mode (yes, I can split my personality at will), what I saw was “FREE” and “higher price must mean better quality.” I may have paid more, but I felt like I was getting a better value by paying for the actual product and not for the shipping. I was not so much deceived as I was appeased, and that is the key to attracting and keeping customers. The goal of successful marketing is creating a win-win situation for everyone.

Lessons from a (Reformed) Product Junkie

You don't need all this.

I have a confession to make:  I am a reformed product junkie.  When I started my first set of locs over 7 years ago, I, like many others new to locs and natural hair, was very excited and joined several online message boards about locs.  If someone suggested it, I wanted to try it, despite the warnings by my loctician that all I needed to twist my locs were water, oil, and maybe a little diluted setting lotion.  I also believed that if a product worked well, even MORE of a product would work better.

Um, not so much.... and here's what happened:

I'd had my locs for about 4 months.  They were starting to bud nicely, which is the beginning stages of loc formation so they were a bit uneven and slightly lumpy, which is normal.  I was using Organic Root Stimulator Lock 'n Twist Gel mixed with aloe vera gel (to "dilute" it) and was using LOTS of it, coating almost the entire loc with gel when retwisting, trying to smooth them out.  I was also using Dr. Bronners Peppermint Castile Soap, which is great as a soap but not so effective as a shampoo. My locs started to feel gooey, and I was reading on the message boards horror stories about "product buildup" and lint and the need to clarify.  I remember one woman blogging about going to the hardware store and getting some heavy duty orange degreaser (the kind my dad keeps in the garage to clean oil off his hands when he works on the car) and squeezing tons of goo out of her locs.  I was horrified.  I didn't want this to be me.

So, being the research queen I am, I looked up and put together a surefire clarifying treatment that would get all this built up gel out of my hair.  I read that lemon juice was good for breaking down greasy buildup, and that apple cider vinegar rinses were good for clarifying, so I put the two together.  I put this lemon/ACV rinse on my locs and let it sit for probably an hour.  Then I used Organic Root Stimulator Uplifting Shampoo because it said it was good for clarifying (and probably at the suggestion of a loc listserv member).

It was a complete and utter DISASTER.

What I neglected to take mental note of was the fact that the shampoo was also good for "manageability", i.e. it is a detangler. The result was a dry, clumpy mess, as I'd stripped not only the product out of my hair, but ALL the moisture. And the shampoo "managed" to make my newly forming buds loosen and begin to slide down the locs. As if this wasn't bad enough, I believe I then tried to use some conditioning product to add moisture back into the lumpy straw that was now my locs, thus making my loc buds unravel and slip even more.

I freaked out, then tried to stay calm, then panicked and called my loctician and made an appointment. I sat in his chair and just said "Please fix it." In hindsight I'm glad that he positions his chair away from the mirror so I couldn't see the expression on his face, but I could tell by the tone of his and his assistant's voice that I'd effed up royally, and had I seen his actual expression I probably would have cut them off right then and there. But he worked with them the best he could, gave me a free cornrow style so I couldn't see the damage, and sent me on my way.  At first I was pleased, thinking that he had indeed worked some sort of loctician magic, but when I unbraided it, the locs were still clumpy.  The only thing that could fix this mess was time and patience as I waited for my locs to fully mature.

For months after that I would try and twist my locs to smooth out the lumps, but they never fully went away. Over the years my hair grew and I got trims and eventually the lumpy locs became less and less noticeable as new hair grew and locked. But I still regretted that mishap every time I saw someone with a perfectly cylindrical set of locs, and though nobody else could tell the difference (or were just being nice), I knew I'd screwed my locs up.  I have a new set of locs now and have vowed NEVER to repeat those mistakes again.

The moral of this story: Less is more when it comes to products and locs. The more products you put on your locs, the more you have to worry about trying to get out later. Also, if you are unsure of what to do when you have a loc problem, don't be afraid to ask a licensed professional stylist who specializes in locs (i.e. a loctician). Other people with locs are great resources for ideas, but everyone is different. When you have problems it's good to have a professional on deck to tell you what is best to do for your hair texture and your stage of locking.  I visit my loctician maybe 2-3 times per year (I don't do my own cuts or color), but he's there when I need him.

So lay off the products, loved ones! Time & patience cultivate locs, not products.