This is a fair question to ask because just a few years ago you could barely find any products tailored to curly or natural hair but now you can walk into any store and see several products calling themselves ‘natural’, ‘organic’ or ‘made for curls’. They are aesthetically pleasing with pictures of oils* and butters* on the covers in a big attempt to get you to pick them up and throw them in your basket.
It gives you a warm feeling when seeing so many items catered to us, but should we be jumping for joy for being recognized as a valued consumer at last, or should be cautious and leery of their products?
Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? When I first went natural almost 9 years ago, I had no clue what to use in my hair nor did I know how to take care of it. After three years of sheer neglect, my hair began to balk at me for just using whatever I had available while I sported wigs*, weaves and braids.
Under the pressure, I finally stepped away from the added hair and took on a more nurturing role with my tresses but as I shopped the big stores and beauty supply stores I was stumped on what to buy to add moisture to my thirsty strands.
Some of the items from a few lines that claimed to help curly hair were drying, some created flakes and others were virtually useless. I was drowning in self-doubt and debt as I tried to find anything that would give my curls life.
I became a product junkie because there wasn’t anything out there on the ground that truly could help my hair and I was searching high and low for anything to assist. It wasn’t until I hit the web and found some knowledge and products online that things really started to turn around.
Fast forward to today things have really made a 360 turn around and I can just drive to my local Target, CVS or Ulta and find just about anything I want in order to feed my hair the nutrients and hydration it needs to stay healthy.
Most of the brands that were only available to me through the web are now within an arm’s reach and so many more new and exciting brands have popped up to give me variety and lower prices. My dollars are going further as I can stay closer to my home not pay shipping and the best thing about this equation is that many of these brands are black and women owned product lines.
With this new wave of convenience and popularity for these new and interesting brands there have also been some well-known relaxer brands pushing out new product lines for naturals which, to be frank looks a tad bit suspect. What is this? What are these lines doing changing the colors of their bottles to look aesthetically pleasing to naturals with neutral colors and designs with plants and oils*?
I have totally noticed the transformation. I have been natural pretty much my whole life and had to rely on specialist black hair care shops to supply me with haircare that was not remontely natural. Since the upsurge in demand for moer natural ingredients, there has been some very obvious “greenwashing” by a lot of big brands. Chuck a couple of olives or the word shea on the bottle but when you take a closer look its pretty much the same formulations they always had, and the natural ingredients are not priority as they are furthest down the list. I hope people show their commitment to the smaller business putting out “purer” products, they may seem costly, but that is because you are paying for actual ingredients and not chemical fillers etc. Thanks for this post, i think alot of people are still unnable to tell the difference and the truth of the matter is simple regimens using NATURAL ingredients work infinitely better.
http://www.heynaturalbeauties.com
I’ve gotten fooled a few times just believing what some of these products are touting and learned you have to turn that bottle around and check it out! I agree with you 100%.
No, they are just jumping on a bandwagon and still pimping on our securities !
I don’t trust them and refuse to buy their products
I’m in the same boat with you.
I so feel you on this.
Unfortunately, in the world of business, I have the feeling that these larger companies will overwhelm the smaller companies. They have the resources and we have already seen where some smaller companies have been bought out.
Yes, it’s sad.
I’ve always stood by ” it take a village” and we have to protect our own. I have noticed the transformation but I’m partial to the small business person(s) because those big business do not know our needs or textures, you are absolutely correct, only thing they see is “green” so I will always purchase FUBU.
I dont
Of course they can’t be trusted. You know it’s all about money when they have their relaxer brand sitting right near their new natural products. Ready to make a dollar any way they can…
Exactly. Don’t put it in a fancy bottle and expect me to overlook the back.
I am very leery of these big brand companies trying to vie (not sure if this is the correct spelling or not) for my dollars given that our hair care needs have been ignored for many many years now. I came to this conclusion after I tried dark and lovely’s natural shampoo and for months it was doing fine until Feb this year. my hair suddenly became super duper dry and i couldn’t figure out why. I pride myself on looking at the ingredients of products that claim to be natural but i missed the mark on this brand as it had some form of sulfates in the ingredient list. granted, it was like 12th on the list but it was still there none-the-less. i will stick with buying reputable Black girl (or guy) owned hair care businesses from now on.
Yea, but you are not alone on being duped. As long as we learn we are doing just fine.
Thank you for putting these companies on blast for their blatant pandering! Yeah they are in the business of making money but I am not buying into it any more. I tried all three of Dark in Lovely’s initial “Natural” offerings and I was not impressed. I found that there were so many chemicals in them that were adding any benefit to my hair. Subsequently, they sat on my shelf while I felt robbed!
Exactly!
It was the same for me with the Pantene Relaxed and Natural line. It worked wonders for me while I was transitioning, but once more and more of my hair was natural, I noticed that it didn’t really do it for me anymore, and I had to look for new products. The only thing I’ve tried from the Au Naturale line from Dark and Lovely is the curl moisturizing souffle, and I like it sometimes for styling. I find that the more natural products work for me, and that making my own products works best for my hair
I don’t.
i think they really don’t spend enough time really testing these products and the general idea is to just separate us from our hard earned cash. i truly believe the goal is to reclaim the share of the market they lost when women stopped perming, texlaxing and chemical processing their hair. i saw a box of perm on a shelf in a local bs for $1.00! really people? *smh*
Wow, a dollar? I wouldn’t buy ANY product with chemicals in it for a darn dollar. Lord, hope no one’s hair falls out!
Most of these big brands use the same crap before or use the cheapest version of good ingredients they can find. There is no love for naturals from big brands, its all about the almighty dollar. I prefer and stick to the small business owners. I try out new ones when my stash starts to run low. Honestly if we learn which ingredients work best for our hair its easy to find what works and what doesn’t. Though for some naturals the more well known brand names do work very well for them, I will always prefer the small business natural products.
No.
I don’t.
Nope
Nope
Read the ingredients. What are they putting in those products? I think they just trying to make money. They have competition and don’t want to be left out.
Not if you want completely natural products. There are very few.
Now we cannot trust them because they are in the business of making profits and profits means they will cut corners and cut out natural things in products because its cheaper
One thinks not!
Who cares do what works for you
Don’t know about trust, but I do like Pantene’s natural line. I’m actually more inclined to trust Pantene than any of these so-called ‘natural’ producers.
Everybody is in the business of making money. Big name or not.