Product Junkie: To be or Not to be?
The number one question that I hear from most people (not just in the natural community) is: What products should I be using? You can have a YEAR long in-depth conversation and STILL not even scratch the surface of all the products that are aimed specifically at African Americans, relaxed or natural.
Today black hair care products make up a nearly $10 billion industry. Black women purchase about 80% of the WORLDS hair products
This is only a small look at my products. I think I put in about 5 million myself
No wonder big companies are advertising everywhere now on social networking sites and they are spending big bucks to drawn in African American customers. And now that many women are becoming natural, you can't even turn on the television without seeing a commercial that has a natural women in it or for a new hair product. How can you see what products will work for you without breaking your bank?
First of all make a list (mental or on paper) of the NO NO ingredients and the YES ingredients that you want in a product. The best place to start is by looking at the ingredients in the products you use for your skin to moisturize it. I knew from the start that mineral oil is a NO NO for my skin, scalp and hair! It dries out your skin and takes AWAY the moisture. Here is an experiment. Take mineral oil and put it in a cup, then take a saltine cracker and put it in the cup with the mineral oil. Come back the next day and take the cracker out what do you notice? The cracker is still in tact. it even will crack when you break it in half!
What about good ingredients? Oils are essential for our hair so figure out which one works best for you. we need oils to moisturize our scalp. Another great ingredient for the summer (or if you live in humid area) are Humectants. They are used in skin and hair care products to promote moisture retention which is exactly what we naturals need...say it with me MOISTURE ( I can't stress this enough)
Now that you know what you WANT in a product how do you know which ones will work for YOUR hair? here are a few ways not to break the bank and still experiment until you find the right product for you.
1. Have a product swap party with drinks :) have friends bring 2-4 gently used products and swap. What may not have worked for them may be heaven to your hair. And who really needs an excuse to have drinks with the girls?
2. Call the companies up and request samples. See a product you want to try then be PROACTIVE. Find their customer service numbers and ask. The worst thing they could say is no. But more often then not they will send you samples because they want you to purchase their products. I know that Sephora has samples of their products so you can even go there and ask
Lastly if you don't want to do all the work then join a monthly subscription service that will do all the work for you. You can cancel at any time and you can have samples even full size products delivered to your front door. Two that I hear great things about are:
$20 monthly subscription image from curlbox.com
$20 monthly subscription image from curlkit.com
So to answer the question. Should you be a product junkie? Well that is entirely up to you (you thought I was going to tell you what to do didn't you?) I will say this: educate yourself, don't jump on the product bandwagon(what works for one person may not work for you) and HAVE FUN experimenting!!