Hi all! My relaxed sistren, The Relaxed Chick, is sharing her experiences going organic and trying the ever-popular Carol’s Daughter products. Read her review and thoughts! If you have any suggestions for her, leave a comment.

After reading through The Accidental Natural’s blog and enjoying her adventures in hair (and it looks even better in person, folks), I decided to throw away my sulfate-laden shampoos and conditioner and take the organic plunge.

Notice I didn’t say the ‘natural’ plunge, as in going natural in hairstyle. Oh no. No no no. You mean CUT this all OFF and start again? Nope. I refuse. I started using the ‘creamy crack’ when I was 24. My mother never slapped the white stuff in my hair as a little girl, unlike some of my classmates in elementary school who couldn’t escape child relaxers, blow dryers and hot combs. I made the decision to start relaxing in my early 20s (much to the chagrin of my parents) because I wanted something different. I wanted my mid-back-length hair to be manageable. I get it touched up every five to six months and I’m good. Just as The Accidental Natural is happy with her hair…I am happy with mine.

I stopped using excessive heat on my hair about three years ago. I usually use heat right after washing and drying the hair and that’s it until the next wash.

But there’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do with my hair (relaxed or natural) that I’m attempting to do one last time.

I’d like to wear my hair in its curly state. You know, curls up as soon as water touches it? Touchable, corkscrew curls that bounce upon impact and flutters in the wind?

Yeah…no. When I dry my hair without the aid of setting lotion, rollers and a hood dryer it comes out extremely dry, very frizzy, crunchy, tangled and terrible. Like…like…Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls” album cover. (As I type, I look like Donna – minus the vacant look in her eyes, red lipstick and black lingerie. Plus a classic Toronto Screwface. I kid y’all not.) As much as I want to go natural (well, relaxed curl natural) my hair can’t seem to find its groove and I end up straightening my hair with the aid of jumbo rollers and a hairdryer out of frustration.

But I have good news regarding two washing products I used today.

Unlike The Accidental Natural, I am not product-savvy. There are a TON of products out there – way too many, in my opinion. The over-saturation of hair products makes me want to holler. I love what Sunshyne of Hairlista is doing but I can’t keep up with hair types (I still don’t know what mine is!),  co-washing, castor oil challenges, water challenges, etc. I’m so lost. Save me, Jesus.

I work in a profession that is information-driven. Sometimes there’s too much information to process and you have to get down to basics. That’s what I thought the whole organic hair care thing was about – basics. But yet again – there are too many ‘basics’ to choose from!!

The brands, the ingredients (do you know how many products have lavender oil in it? Answer: TOO many!), the types…it’s just too much. And for someone who isn’t a product junkie, I wanted to run out of Shoppers’ Drug Mart and rescue my sulfate-laden shampoos from the garbage bin and continue on my chemical journey.

The first bottle I chose was a product Lady Accidental Natural highly recommended: Kiss My Face’s Obsessively Organic Big Body Volumizing Conditioner. Yes, that is too much for a conditioner title (don’t make me type it out in French). I don’t know why I continue to buy volumizing products when they don’t work. Seriously. Has a Black woman EVER used a volumizing product and have it work? (Ok, maybe I’m just being ignorant and it DOES work for some of y’all. Me…not so much.) The conditioner also says it’s ‘aromatherapeutic’ with lavender and chamomile. Once I saw ‘chamomile’ I thought of the tea. That puts people to sleep.

Oh dear.

So I opened the bottle and took a whiff. YES, I am one of those people that opens the product, smells it, closes it, puts it back on the shelf and takes the new one BEHIND the one I put back (whatever…you know you do it too!) At first whiff I thought a squirrel had died in the bottle. “Wha?” I said out loud, standing in the aisle and looking at the green bottle with a mixture of confusion and dread. What on EARTH was that?

Then I thought “well, it DOES say organic, so…”

I went with a shampoo of a different brand. I’ve read about the Live Clean line so I picked up a 2 in 1 shampoo. I flipped the top and was pleasantly surprised. This product with its ‘certified organic botanicals’ of lavender and eucalyptus which is ‘plant derived, pure vegan, SLS/sulfate free’ smells amazing.

No, really.

I’m a candy fanatic and this has a hint of sour apple scent. It doesn’t help that it is light green in colour. I started craving sour apple candy slices. Yum.

Delicious smelling shampoo – well, we can find that with the chemically-derived stuff. But in an organic shampoo? Nice.

I took my wares home, happy with my purchase (even if my wallet wasn’t) and prepared for my organic adventure.

The next day, I decided to deep condition with Neutrogena’s Triple Moisture Deep Recovery Hair Mask. I’m a huge Neutrogena fan but this is the second time I’ve purchased one of their products specifically for hair. This hair mask contains olive oil, meadowfoam seed and sweet almond. It is lightly scented and does the job. Left the hair mask on for two hours while I did chores and got some work done.

I washed the hair mask out. I picked up the bottle of Kiss My Face conditioner and scowled as I caught a whiff of the product. But once I applied it to my wet hair, the smell mellowed out. I wrapped my hair in a bun and let the conditioner penetrate my scalp and the ends (I always have a problem with the ends of my hair).

I applied a Carol’s Daughter product that arrived today (super speedy shipping! Thanks, Carol’s Daughter!) Lisa’s Hair Elixir says it aids in preventing breakage. And Jada Pinkett Smith uses it. And I love Jada. And her hair.

Of course, I routinely forget I do not have Jada’s hairdressers who can make my tresses look tame everyday.

Lisa’s Hair Elixir is an oil that contains soy oil, peppermint oil, sage, sweet almond oil ‘and other essential oils.’

The peppermint is strong, man. Once I applied it to my scalp it felt like I had stuck my head into the freezer. It got real cold, REAL QUICK. I grabbed the bottle of Live Clean 2-in-1 shampoo and washed the oil out. The soothing sour apple smell made me happy…and I thought of candy. Again.

End result for my new organic shampoo and conditioner – I’d give them a 3 out of 5 stars. They did something my other shampoos could not – made my hair feel lighter. It doesn’t feel as weighed down. Cool!

I don’t know if I’ll ever find a product that will give me corkscrew curls and do away with the ceramic flat iron once and for all. But I now have a shampoo and conditioner that are earth-friendly and hair-friendly.

Mission (somewhat) accomplished!