Recently, I’ve received inquiries about a couple of sweet botanicals often used in curly hair products. I hope you enjoy this information about agave nectar and marshmallow extract. Agave Nectar Agave nectar (or syrup) has become quite popular at health food stores in recent years as a natural alternative to processed white sugar and artificial sweeteners in foods and beverages….
Tonya Mckay of Naturallycurly writes; This month I want to address a topic I see pop up on the message boards pretty frequently: use of homemade or diluted products. I pretty frequently read of products such as hair conditioners or styling products being diluted with water and used as daily leave-in treatments. Many people also enjoy making some of their…
Tonya Mckay of NaturallyCurly writes; Many people with naturally curly hair are practitioners of shampoo free hair care routines. This is an abbreviated term for a regimen that eliminates or reduces the use of traditional shampoos for hair cleansing. While many curlies have known for years that shampooing too often can be detrimental to our fragile hair, the idea of…
Tonya McKay of NaturallyCurly writes; In the cosmetics and hair care industry, a continual stream of new products are introduced into the market. Most seem to be variations of whatever happens to be the current popular theme. On occasion though, new products emerge onto the scene bearing remarkable claims that demand closer examination. One such recent case is the Nexxus…
by Tonya McKay of NaturallyCurly.com Summer is here! As always, we find special challenges for our hair this time of year. Here is a great question from a worried mom about her daughter’s curly hair after a beach vacation. Q: My daughter has 3c hair and we just came back from a beach vacation. She was swimming every day with…
Several questions came up in response to yesterday’s post on silicones by our Resident Curl Chemist Nicole Hollis of Hair Liberty. She addressed them in an email and I thought I’d share them with you! Q. Okay, so I’m using silicones again… which shampoo, or better yet, which type of surfecant removes them? A. The answer is that any shampoo…
by Nicole Hollis of Hair Liberty When compared to other hair types, African American hair is particularly fragile. That’s because any type of curly hair is dry due to the bend or kink in each curl. The area where the curl bends has raised cuticle scales, which means it’s porous and can’t hold on to moisture well. The more kinks…
Tonya McKay of NaturallyCurly writes; We get a lot of questions about whether or not castor oil is okay for curly hair. Another related question is what PEG-30 castor oil is (or any other PEG-#), and whether it is compatible with curly hair, especially for those on shampoo-free or shampoo-minimal routines. Castor oil is a plant-derived oil obtained from the…
Tonya McKay of NaturallyCurly writes; Because of the high interest in silicones, we periodically take a closer look at some of the many silicones found in hair-care products. This month we’ll be looking at Cyclomethicone.Cyclomethicone is the INCI (International Nomenclature for Cosmetic Ingredients) name for a category of silicones used in many personal-care products. Cyclopentsiloxane, cyclotetrasiloxane, and cyclohexasiloxane are also…
Tonya McKay of NaturallyCurly writes; For people with curly hair, silicones elicit many emotions. For some, they are a holy grail ingredient, while others shy away from them for fear they will dry out their hair. It is evident that there exists a considerable amount of confusion in the curly community in regard to whether silicones are good for curly…
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