What's In My Hair???

As I was watching the Detroit Lions winning streak come to an end this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys... yeah, I know, the Lions have a winning streak??... I started to think about whether or not I was really putting an effort into my hair. I know it's been awhile since I'd blogged about my progress and the truth is, I've gotten pretty complacent. It's easy to fall into routine... pre-poo, wash (co-wash), deep condish, condish, detangle, style.... do it again the next week. So I thought, I should give myself a refresher course in maintaining natural hair.


My first stop was over to kimmaytube on YouTube. If you have no clue who this woman is, she is a must stop for your natural hair journey. In the couple of years I've been following her online, her Type 4 hair has grown from shoulder length to bra-strap length.


Anyway, I started peaking at some of her earlier videos about conditioning and stretching when I noticed she has been updating them to reflect changes or new information she's gathered. That's right... just because you've been doing one thing with your hair, doesn't mean you should keep doing that same thing. Case in point — products.


Products change and as much as we, as consumers, like to think that the companies that make these products will keep the ingredients the same forever, the fact is, they don't. Often times, they're looking for the easiest and quickest way to get the product to consumers and that means changing up their ingredients. Via kimmaytube, I noticed she had learned about changes in products through a Cosmetic Database website.

This website is a God-send for naturals (and maybe even non-naturals) about the products we're putting in our heads. I'm not big into figuring out ph levels or the chemical composition of every shampoo, but I like that there is a database out there with a simple to use way for me to know if the products I have are good or bad.
The website looks at the hazard level of the ingredients in the product and the amount of research or data available on the ingredients in the product.
Take for example, this screenshot for when I looked up one of my favorite conditioners, Herbal Essence Hello Hydration.

For the most part, the big kicker in HEHH is fragrance, which has a hazard level of 8 on the website's scale.



Updated: By the time I finished this blog post, the Lions came back to beat Dallas 34-30... 4-0 baby, 4 and 0!!!!