Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hair Rant

I'm supposed to be on break from writing about makeup and the like but that doesn't mean I haven't been experimenting with a few things here and there. I have held off on trying totally new items and finishing up a Project 10 Pan, but for some reason everything is taking much longer to finally finish (I'm looking at you Bobbi Brown blush). In the meantime though, I've tried to reshift my focus back to natural and eco-friendly products which means that a lot of the items I have in "stock" aren't aligning with those goals (and I'm looking at you Illamasqua blush). Now considering that several of these items don't align just right, I have been considering returning them or attempting to exchange them. The problem is that I've had them in storage for so long that it isn't that simple. For instance, I can't really return a blush I barely used that's still in the box but I've had for a year. (Or can I?)

The makeup is a lost cause, but what isn't is the shampoo and conditioner. But therein lies the problem and my hoarding tendency. I'm down to the last bit of my Renpure Organics "I Love My Hair!" (which has no parabens, sulfates, gluten, phthalates, or propylene glycol) and I do a quick check of my inventory.

  • Nuance Salma Hayek Mamey Fruit Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner
  • L'Oreal EverStrong Reconstruct Rosemary Juniper Shampoo and Conditioner

On the surface, they look okay -- they have some kind of "This does not contain _____" which is usually the signal for "good for my hair." But then there was a moment, a moment that I forgot a while ago. See a while ago, prior to actively trying to stay away from parabens, silicones, dyes, etc., I was using Whole Foods 365 Shampoos and Conditioners. They were perfectly fine for my hair, I actually wasn't trying to achieve anything, I just noticed they were marginally cheaper in a place that I could buy mango slices by the container while worshiping Zoya nail polishes. But then I started using Suave Professionals Rosemary & Mint Shampoo and Conditioner and my hair threw the haterade down. I stopped using them and then switched to Organix (back when they were explicitly sulfate and paraben free -- their website claims that they still are but if you check the bottles, all of those notices have been removed).

Anyhow, as my Renpure Organics bottle is nearing the end, I grabbed the bottles of Suave Professionals (which I put in storage instead of tossing. What the hell, past self? What the hell.) and after one day of using it, my hair is once again throwing down the hate. So I head to the storage shelf (this is also known as my closet) and grab the Nuance Mamey Fruit and the L'Oreal EverStrong. And so my face palm moment began because I made the same mistake that I made two years ago.
  • Nuance Salma Hayek Mamey Fruit Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner
    • Paraben free and not tested on animals.
    • That's all fine and dandy but this also has SLS and 'cones.
  • L'Oreal EverStrong Reconstruct Rosemary Juniper Shampoo and Conditioner
    • SLS free
    • Cute, but not paraben or 'cone free.
Back to the store all four bottles went. What sucked though was that Renpure Organics wasn't in stock -- nor were any of the organic shampoos or the [SLS, Paraben, and 'Cone (hereby called S-P-C)] free that I'm used to seeing in drugstores. My staple (Garnier Pure Clean [Note: This is not SLS free but it is free of parabens, 'cones, and dyes which is a happy compromise.]) was out of stock at the first store that I went to so then I spent a while hunting through all the shampoos and conditioners to find a replacement. Finally I gave up and went to another store. 

I grabbed some bottles of the Pure Clean shampoo and conditioner, but wanted to check to see if anything fit my criteria. I found the Shea Moisture Organic Shea Butter Curl & Shine Coconut & Hibiscus Shampoo but not the conditioner so while I didn't end up getting that, I did keep it in mind for the future. Then I moseyed on over to the Halloween section, which is inexplicably in the same aisle as the baby section and there is was: a wider selection of S-P-C free items. I ended up getting the Garnier Pure Clean along with a bottle of Disney Baby Daily Naturals Shampoo because really, I need to try it.

There are two morals to this story:

  1. When you can't find proper SLS free, paraben free, and silicone free haircare items in your local drugstore, check their baby aisle because so many of them exactly what you might be looking for.
  2. Disney will always find a way to get to you.

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