I live in Brooklyn, NY so I when I get the time I love dropping by Karen’s Body Beautiful. I’ve been lucky enough a couple of times to actually see Karen, (apron and all) mixing up a batch of her wonderful products. A couple of weeks ago I dropped by and picked up a sample size of Creamylicious and decided to share the results.

Karen’s Body Beautiful Creamylicious $8.00 (1oz)/$18.00(7oz)

Ingredients: Shea Butter, Rosehip Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Essential and/or Fragrance Oils, Vitamin E & Carrot Seed Oil

I love the fact that this product has all recognizable ingredients. It has a thick, creamy, cake-batter-like consistency, which at first I thought might not be moisturizing enough, but when I rubbed it between my fingers I could really feel the emollience of the shea butter and the oils in the product.

It’s not often that I can find a conditioner for less that $10 that can multitask well, so I was pleasantly surprised when I tried Desert Organics Red Grape Conditioner. First, the important stuff:

Desert Organics Red Grape Conditioner $8.99 (on sale NOW for $5.40!)

Ingredients:

Aqueous Infusion of Certified Organic Extracts:, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) (Grape), Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil (Olive), Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil (Grape), Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil (Sunflower), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Oil (Shea Butter), Emulsifying Wax (vegetable derived), Resveratrol, Red Wine Extract, Panthenol, Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Prunus Amygdalus Protein (Almond), Polyquaternium 7 (coconut derived), Proprietary Blend of Natural Essential Oils, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Glutamate, Potassium Sorbate

This product has no parabens, sulfates, cones, or other icky stuff, and it worked

I was curious when I saw that Jane Carter had come out with a sulfate-free shampoo. (One would think her line is completely sulfate-free, but unfortunately it’s not). However, most of her line is cone, paraben and mineral oil-free. This shampoo (and most of her line) is for all curly hair types. (I’ve been using this shampoo for a couple of weeks now, and here’s the scoop:

Jane Carter Solution: Hydrating Invigorating SLS-free Shampoo $7.99

Ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Gel, Purified Water, (aqueous extracts of nettle, burdock, and rosemary), Sodium Methyl Sulfolaurate, Disodium Sulfolaurate, Sodium Sulfoacetate, Sodium Cocoyl Glycinate, Sodium Lauroyl, Sarcosinate, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Cocoamidopropyl Betaine, Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate, Glycol Stearate, Sodium PCA, Polyquaternium-7, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, PG-Propyl Silanetriol, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Extract Fragrance, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Citric Acid

I separated my hair and washed it in sections following my regular routine. I do like how well this

I’ve received a few emails asking me what my Hair Regimen is. This post outines my weekly hair regimen through this past winter season. As it warms up, (which I hope will happen soon) I might wear the twists less often, but we’ll see. As always, I don’t use anything in my hair or on my skin with parabens, mineral oil, petrolatum, or sulfates. I try to stay away from cones too and I rarely dry my hair with heat.

Savvy Brown’s Curent Weekly Hair Reggie

1. Wash hair in sections with Bee Mine Rhassoul Clay Clarifying Bar
2. Detangle my sopping wet hair section-by-section with Giovanni Smooth As Silk Conditioner and a few drops of Vatika Oil, using a wide-tooth Shower comb

Although Renpure boasts 6 conditioners in it’s line, My pretty Hair is Parched is supposed to be the most moisturizing conditioner of the bunch, and since my 4b/c curls tend to get really dry, I picked this one.

Renpure Organics “My Pretty Hair is Parched” Conditioner $5.99

Ingredients: Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Cetrimonium Chloride, PEG 10 Sunflower Glycerides, Olea Europa Fruit Oil (Olive), Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil (Sunflower, Certified Organic), Punica Granatum Extract (Pomegranate), Hydrolyzed Silk PG Propyl Methylsilanediol Crosspolymer, Olea Europaea Leaf Extract (Olive), Persea Gratissima Oil (Avocado), Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Flour Lipids (Wheat), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Panthenol, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG 100 Stearate, Glycerin, Myristic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Polyglyceryl 3 Diisostearate, Polysorbate 60, Citric Acid, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Fragrance

What’s nice about the Renpure Website is that they describe each of their ingredients and their uses. This product

Since I grew my hair back in a few years ago, I’ve read on various sites, forums and blogs about people who praise and curse the use of glycerine in their hair-care products and recipes. I believe the debate is centered around using the product in cold weather vs. warm weather. I personally use glycerine in my hair year round, and I will explain how later on in this post.

I stumbled on this item a few weeks ago when I ran out of Bee Mine and I desperately needed to wash my hair and put my hair into two-strand twists. I really like it, and the price is great!

Hairveda Almond Glaze (6oz.) $8.00

Ingredients Include: Sweet Almond Butter, Sweet Almond oil, Ricinus communis Seed oil, Beeswax, L. Laurate, Copernica Cerifera Wax, Fragrance. 6oz.

I washed my hair, and did my tea rinse, then towel dried my hair so it was just damp. Then I put my hair in medium-sized two strand twists all over. I‘ve been really into protective styling lately, and just pulled most of it back in a barrette at the nape (now that it’s long enough), and left a few twists out for “bangs” at the front.

I got this great idea from fellow blogger and naturalista Yoli Ouiya after meeting up for tea and coffee one day. (She has beautiful locs by the way). I’ve done oil rinses before, and I’ve made my own deep conditioners, but it had been ages since I actually did a hot oil treatment. Yoli made two great suggestions. Don’t use more than 1/4 cup of oil, unless you have really long hair and apply most of it to a wet scalp, pulling the excess through your strands.

Here’s what I did:

credit: Leon Dale

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned tea rinses in my post 10 Ways to Combat Winter Hair Shedding Naturally, and how they were a good way to help prevent untimely loss of hair. Well, I’ve been actually doing the process for 3 weeks now and I LOVE it. I saw a difference in hair loss after the very first week! Of course as the weeks went on, and I got more rest and ate better, the hair loss went down even more. Apparently, the tannins in caffeinated tea help thicken the hair shaft and make hair appear fuller. Also Black tea is a natural astringent, which means that it penetrates the pores of the scalp and dissolve excess sebum (oil produced by the glands).

A few weeks ago after washing and detangling my hair, I stepped out of the shower, put on my glasses…and freaked.

When I peered back into the shower it looked like I’d just groomed a poodle. There were large clumps of hair everywhere.

BIG ones.

I ran to the mirror checking for bald spots, thinking that my near-sightedness had caused me to confuse my bottle of depilatory with my shampoo. But thankfully, that was not the case. I stood there for a minute, tapping my chin trying to figure out what I had done wrong. I hadn’t changed my routine, I wasn’t using a new comb or anything. The only thing that had really changed in my life…well…was me. You see when damage shows up on my skin or with my hair, I know that it’s usually my lifestyle, and not necessarily the products I’m using that are the culprit.

I was right.

Stress from my work had caused me to stop eating as well, and stay up late, which led to coffee-laden afternoons, and insomnia-ridden nights. Exercise? Yeah right.  So since the beginning of the year, I’ve actively been trying to approach my hair and scalp health from the inside out. And it’s been working!

Here’s what I did: