It’s been more than four years since I ended my lifelong reliance on relaxers (better known as perms) and chopped off my then shoulder-length hair. What fueled this lifestyle change, besides a resentment of damaging hair chemicals, was a need for financial freedom from exorbitant salon fees. After leaving that world behind, however, I found myself in desperate need of products that would do justice to my newfound natural texture.
The goal at the time was simply to go back to basics — to strip down my product collection and escape the vicious cycle of chemical dependency. My search for natural products is now a life sentence of wandering from the far reaches of the internet to the aisles of Whole Foods, all in the name of treating my hair — and my body — better.
Exiling myself from the land of sulfates and silicones created a whole new challenge: shopping for sustainable beauty products. It’s hard enough for any green consumer to find trusted brands in the haystack of options. But for a black woman with thick, coarse hair and thin patience levels, the past four years have been an existential crisis of trial-and-error filled with infinite hours of poring ... Read more
