Remember the Rio Relaxer..We’ve Come a Long Way Baby!
I think this whole use a hair product you can eat stuff, started when that bad Rio relaxer came on the scene back in the 90’s. I remember Debbie Allen doing those cute, soap opera type, infomercials, and my giggles would start right when she said the “its so safe you can eat it” script. It was so convincing too. I begged my mother to buy some just so I could see how it tasted,lol. But after the laws suits came flying in Rio had to shut it down operations . Debbie ain’t been on nobody’s commercial since.
Hey! I just had a thought! Maybe Miss Jessie or Uncle Funky’s Daughter should call Debbie about product endorsement: just make sure you tell her that the olive* and coconuts can be eaten but not combination with the rest of the formula. WE don’t want no problems!!
Well I guess if you eat lard, you can eat shea butter*!
Anywho! Fast forward to today, and now have an insurgence of curly girl soldiers sporting fro hawks and flat twists with half shaved heads;the styles have no limit these days and it seems you can make a hair product containing anything from powered clay to breast milk..well maybe not breast milk, but I know somebody must be waiting to launch something like it as soon as they figure out how to market it!
So, we’ve got our shea butter (I talked with a chemist ,and he said that shea butter* is nothing more than wood glue), now I’ve never eaten it ,but I assume that since its natural ,like marijuana, you could eat.?! Just joking ladies, I’ve never smoked! Maybe…
Then here comes the good ole coconut oil*, it’s so fabulous for the hair. Some of the best coconut oils I’ve tried were from Indian and African markets, you can usually have you pick of pure unrefined oils from those store types. Coconut oil penetrates the hair shaft, and its light texture spreads easily on the hair. Ladies, this is my secret ingredient for making mashed potatoes taste buttery without using butter, shh keep this to yourself.
Next, we have macadamia nut oil, which is now being called, “The New Olive Oil*”. This oil is captured from expelling the oil from the meat of the nut itself. Known to grow in Australia, this oil is the new and very expensive ingredient in curly hair products. I do love it because it goes on so light, it non-greasy and goes into the hair shaft quite nicely. What does it taste like? Same as the nut itself, nice buttery. Why am I thinking about butter so much today?
Sesame oil* is so good for the scalp. This good tasting oil kills everything from cancer cells to bacteria causing dandruff, that said, people suffering from psoriasis can benefit from scalp treatments with this oil as well. And just to let you know, you can make mean stir-fried broccoli with this oil too, off the chain!!
Ok, last but not least we have, Olive oil*. I love this oil because it prevents the production of the hormone called androgen DTH: this hormone is one chief culprit responsible for hair loss. Again this is a an edible ingredient and doubles as a great moisturizer for and dry scalp. You could probably find all of these ingredients at a good health food store, check Amazon too for good prices.
I would like to respond to article regarding Debbie Allen and Rio hair relaxer. The first Rio Relaxer. Was a wonderful product! When I noticed my hair turning green, I washed my hair. My hair continued to grow. I Loved it! However, the new improved Rio Relaxer did nothing for my hair. Is there anyway to order the original Rio Relaxer? I will sign a waiver. The original Rio Relaxer is a excellent natural hair product that really worked!
I loved the rio with black color. It is worth more than gold! I cannot find anything like it. Have you?
So, please correct me if I’m wrong but,… Rio was a natural product that broke people’s hair off who applied it to hair that was exposed to traditional relaxers. The infomercial erroneously claimed that the product could be used on chemically relaxed hair. So, they were driven out of business by law suits, bad press and permanent balding. Debbie Allen did not endorse Rio.
She did, however, endorse Copa. A natural system that actually did well on hair, but is now defunct due to mismanagement by the manufacturing company. People were paying for future orders that they never received and were not refunded. Which is a shame because it did a great job naturally without feeling like jeri curl juice residue the way that most of today’s natural hair product styling systems do
Wrong person. Debbie had Copa not Rio. Rio was before her, and was the stuff that made people hair fallout.