I’m 35. I’ve lost some hair— not all of it, mind you— but enough. I still manage to tousle my hair just so, pulling off the disheveled look with relative ease, but I’d like the hair that’s left to stick around well into my forties. By then I won’t give a toss either way (unless I get divorced). The problem is, pulling off the I-just-woke-up-and-got-out-of-bed-and-couldn’t-care-less-how-my-hair-looks look ain’t easy. In fact, there’s a secret: Very un-eco-friendly African-American hair products like Murphy’s or Dax pomade. Basically, it’s Vaseline, which someone with thin, body-less hair like me needs to pull off any look remotely approaching cool. To top it off, it’s a royal pain to get out of your hair, so I’m always on the lookout for shampoos that pull triple duty: Strengthen my hair; rid it of its impurities; and stave off any further hair loss. Turns out, finding that sort of threesome isn’t nearly as easy I would like (by the way, here’s a challenge to eco-friendly companies: come up with a green pomade as thick and malleable and wonderful as those mentioned above, and it’ll have a place front row and center in a future column).
If you melted down a few sour apple Jolly Ranchers and poured the concoction over your head, you’d have an idea what it’s like to use Desert Essence’s Organics Green Apple & Ginger Thickening & Volumizing Shampoo . Luckily, I’m a sucker for a Jolly Rancher every now and then. This 100 percent organic sweet nectar has nothing bad in it at all, and calls on sugar and coconut oil for cleansing, and kelp and nettle extracts to beef up your hair. It’s vegan, too. www.desertessence.com
One shampoo that seems to speak directly to me is the Biotin & Peppermint Strengthening Shampoo from Jason . Soy proteins, panthenol, and biotin help revive my beaten down locks, while the peppermint oil provides just enough tingle for me to think I’m getting a scalp massage from my hairdresser. It’s no Rogaine, but I seem to have frozen the hair loss in its tracks for now. I have no idea if this shampoo has anything to do with it, but I don’t know that it doesn’t, either; so for now, I’m content to sit back and relish the compliments as if I don’t give a toss about my hair at all. Which I don’t. At all. www.jason-natural.com
Certified organic Amazon fruits like acerola and wild-harvetsed açaï fuel Ikove by Floresta’s Açaï d’Amazonie Shampoo , which I love for two reasons. One, it reminds me of Brazil, my new home; but more importantly, açaï, in addition to boasting 30 times more antioxidants than grape-seed oil, strengthens hair with Omega-3 and -9 without adding weight. Organic farming in the Brazilian rainforest provides 98 percent of the plant ingredients and the whole shebang smells like a juice bar on Ipanema Beach. Plus, whatever I don’t use on my head, I can finish off in a smoothie. www.ikove.com
One good thing about Organics by Noah’s Naturals’ Rosemary Mint Shampoo is that it’s an...
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