Got your attention with that headline, did I? Fret not, readers. Afrobella isn’t delving into any distasteful subjects. We’re talking shamPOO, and the “no poo” method coined originally by Lorraine Massey, author of the book “Curly Girl”. I learned all about “no poo” on Motown Girl’s site, and of course I had to ask her about it when I interviewed her.
Afrobella: I will admit, I’m a bit skeptical about the “No Poo” routine. Would you recommend it? Do you follow it yourself? What’s the main thing that naturally curly-haired women should know if they’re going to give “No Poo” a try?
Motown Girl: The “no-poo routine†developed by Lorraine Massey, author of the book “Curly Girl”, is not for everyone. It works best for people who complain about having dry hair after shampooing. If this does not describe your hair, by all means keep doing what you are doing. A common misconception about “no-pooing†is that your hair is dirty. There are concoctions you can mix up to remove product build up such as adding baking soda to your conditioner or my personal favorite of using a baking soda and warm water rinse. You can find the directions for these items and much more here. Also you don’t have to no-poo full-time (that sounds gross doesn’t it? hehe). Many people condition wash a couple times a week and use real shampoo once or twice a week – this is called “Low-Pooingâ€. You have to try different things to your hair to discover what works!
Once again, Motown Girl helped me recognize what I had been doing to my hair. I have been “low pooing” all my life! Perhaps this is one of those little differences between black and white people, but the idea of washing your hair every day has never been encouraged in my family. My hair would be as dry and frizzy as a Brillo pad if I washed it every day. Now that I’ve gone natural, I try to use shampoo twice or three times a week at most, and use conditioner whenever I feel like it. Works for me.
Motown Girl’s got me thinking about cutting back even more, and experimenting with poos that are healthier for my hair. The shampoo that I’ve been using these days (I bought Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Moisturizing Shampoo on a whim) has a nice scent – the orchid and coconut milk scent is pleasant and mild, but as a product it’s just a’ight. I don’t plan to repurchase. My next shampoo purchase will probably be an old favorite. Specifically, Suave for Kids 2 in 1 Shampoo.
I was stuck on the kids shampoos for a while, and my best friend Lauren (what up, L-dogg? Westsiiide! LOL) introduced me to L’Oreal Kids 2 in 1 Shampoo. Her fave is the Burst of Blueberry (which curiously, isn’t available on Drugstore.com), my fave is the Cherry-Almond. The Kandoo looks pretty good as well, and at $3.49, I definitely plan to give it a try. Kids’ shampoos are cheap, easy on the hair, and smell deeeee-licious!
But what about low-poo or healthy-poo products for naturally curly girls? I haven’t tried these yet, but I’m definitely planning to get my hands on Anita Grant’s Babassu Shampoo Bar.
Anita Grant’s products look so incredibly delicious, and this looks as good a place as any to start.
Curlicious Curls Cleansing Cream available at curls.biz looks especially intriguing to me, especially after reading Motown Girl’s glowing review. Other products that are catching my eye are Deva Curl No Poo, and Alba Hawaiian Honeydew Nourishing Hair Wash, whose first four ingredients are pineapple, papaya, awapuhi, and the almighty aloe! Sounds delish to me.
i emailed you about it in the past and i never got a reply
can you PLEASE test out the oyinhandmade.com sample pack. i wanna know whats your opinion about. for me, it was over hyped cuz i dont see a major difference in my hair, maybe i did something wrong =/ …
Diamond,
I’m sorry I never responded to your e mail, I’ve been pretty overwhelmed with people like you, and PR reps as well, e mailing me and asking me to try out products. I’d love to try them all, but I don’t have the budget to try everything.
I came home to 38 e mails yesterday, and its just sometimes too much to sort out and respond to. I read my comments, try to jump on the discussion page, and occasionally, I try to respond when I can, which is either before or after work. I hope you understand.
I contacted Oyin about doing a review, nobody responded. In general, I am more inclined to try a product I see in a store and can pick up, smell, examine and hopefully get a free sample of. Eventually I’ll do the review you want me to, but for now, let’s ask everyone else. Has anyone else tried Oyin? Or seen a review of it on another site?
Thanks for writing,
Afrobella
Let me start by complimenting you, bella, on such a beautiful site. I’ve gotten great information and inspiration here. Diamond, I too was unimpressed with Oyin’s sample pack. Perhaps my expectations were too high because of all the rave reviews Oyin receives on nappturality.com, but the products did nothing for my extremely thick and coarse hair. I was especially let down by the whipped pudding. I expected it to be very light, but it was infact too heavy (greasy) for my liking and it smelled like nothing more than a bar of cocoa butter. I gave the Greg juice sample to my mother to try on her 8 year old locs. Though she liked it’s moisturizing effect, she hated it’s scent, even when diluted. Knowing that what works for one nappy head doesn’t work for all, I kept it moving and eventually found styling products that work for me. The experience with the sample pack did not sour me on Oyin as a whole so I recently ordered the grand poo bar. While I can’t say that I love it (it’s a bit awkward to use) my hair seems to be responding well to it. It has become part of my low poo routine.
Bella, I also plan on trying Anita Grant’s shampoo bar in the near future. I’ll let you know how I like it.
thank you ladies
and bella i didnt mean to sound harsh about you not replying to my email, i guess i didnt think of how much response u get from this site
ok.. i was just makin sure that i wasnt the only sis with the “not so great” results with Oyin. like you twinkle i heard all of the positive reviews everywhere and believed the hype and came back disappointed. i thought about tryin some of the other products but i then thought about the prices, the s&h, and small proportions and i would be mad to blow $60 on something au natrel (which i love) but dont get the greatest results. *sigH* and i HATE testing crap and blowing money
i dont like this journey. i dont enjoy washin my hair as is, but i want a juicy , soft and healthy fro!
i posted in Fruity Goodness but was kinda late, ,so i will repost here. i was on the hunt fro something fresh and new and found a site barryfletcher.com and his products really caught my attention. i looked around and he seems to be the mane man for Essence magazine. he has products for natural and permies equally. my only drawback was that he does not include a complete ingredient list. as soon as i can make room for more products(cause right now i overfloweth with ish) i will be hitting him up
fro-cute, sorry for
Hey Patrice!!!
Have you tried Carol’s daughter or Aubrey Organics products? When my hair was natural, I used a lot of Carol’s Daughter products and Aubrey Organic products. They have very gentle all-natural shampoos that I thought were wonderful. They all smell really great too!
Also, as a moisturizer, I used shea butter from that store L’Occitane. When my hair was soaking wet, I would put the shea butter in it. It made my hair feel WONDERFUL!! It was the only product that worked for me. It’s kind of pricey, but it was worth it!
Here are the websites for Carol’s Daughter and Aubrey Organics:
http://www.aubrey-organics.com
http://www.carolsdaughter.com
~Melanie
Oh, Diamond – I’m sorry if I cane across snappy and annoyed. It’s just hard sometimes, balancing Afrobella and a full time job. I’m trying hard to respond to my e mails in a more timely fashion, and my failures frustrate me. =(
But seriously, thanks again for writing, I appreciate all of you!
Look for another Carol’s Daughter review and some makeup stuff over the weekend. Thanks for the feedback, Twinkle! I was very curious particularly about the Greg Juice. Glad to hear some straight talk.
Anybody have luck with that Bronner Bros. castile soap?
I tried the Oyin sample pack too, I was initially impressed with it, because it smelled good and had little grease. Over the last few weeks I have tested it and I must say I am a little underwhelmed in the long run. MY hair is none the worse for it but also none the better.
Hello Ladies,
I have found a great new site that has quite a few lines which cater to black hair and best of all, all of the ingredients are listed. Have a look. A girlfriend of mind ordered and said that they were very prompt to ship, which is my beef with some lines or web stores.
Wib
Ooh yeah the site is http://www.honeyfig.com.
later!
Wib
Hi Wib! I heard about Honey Fig, and the site is gorgeous. I’m very interested in reviewing some of their products! I’ll keep you posted on my results if that happens.
I’ve just tried some wonderful products from Miss Inky or Inky Loves Nature. They have this Pine Tree Poo Bar that’s for itchy, dandruff scalp, and it works wonders. Sad to say , I only got to use it twice. My husband has dandruff that drives me crazy!!! So I had him use the bar. At first he griped about using “women’s stuff”, but a week later I looked for it only to find out he used it all. His dry, dandruff flakes were gone and so was my poo bar! The Nappalicious Scalp Butter is a great treatment product for the scalp. I’ve been using it for a few months and have notice growth around my thin hairline. It’s very concentrated and worth the $27. I’ve also tried their rebuilding products- the hair mask that you use before you shampoo smell soooo good- like bananas, coconut, and a spice. The poo bar has a nice smell- like a lemony scent, unlike the medicinal smell of other dandruff products. I have natural hair and it has never felt as moist as it does now. The products are mostly organic, naturally derived, and vegan certified. Miss Inky is a winner! http://www.missinky.com
Would you believe they don’t sell Pantene Hydrating Curls in London? That’s all I used to use back in Trini. It’s ridiculous. I’m going to try this no shampoo thing though. Hopefully I’ll be able to understand what exactly I’m supposed to be doing and get it right 🙂
I Certainly will be checking out this website…EVERY DAY…yours on the way to nappiness…
lovely
Has anyone ordered products from Inky Loves Nature? I always support black owned companies such as Carol’s Daughter and Nubian Heritage and decided to give Inky Loves Nature a try based on the articles I read about them. On March 14th, I placed an order for $140 worth of products and never received the order. I have sent several emails to the company as well as left voicemail messages and have not received a reply. I don’t know how the products are, but the customer service is terrible. And, the bad part is that now I have to keep on checking my credit card statement to see whether my card was charged or not. NOT GOOD!
Shannon. I ordered from Inky Loves Nature and a few other black owned companies last week. I have to say that I really really like the products and got them in about a week. I had no problem. Did you receive yours? Im a new natural so i am still experimenting with products and no poo-ing 😉