An apple a day keeps the hair healthy … ?

On a good day my hair is wild, frizzy, curly, wavey & unbearable all rolled into one.  The only thing that prevents me from shaving this Medusa hair off is the greatest hair related invention ever, the Flat Iron.  I bow down to its superior effectiveness.  This little gadget has been the line that kept my hair and my sanity in place and I am not sure what I did before I discovered it, or I do but my mind refuses to go back to that painful period in my hair life.    But after a while, there comes a point in your hair life when even the Flat Iron can’t work miracles and drastic measures need to be taken.  I had reached that point.

The cosmic universe must have picked up on my cosmic-level Fear of Wild Hair because last week I came across a Stylescoop article titled “Your crowning glory” that highlights environmentally friendly products which are great for your hair.  I have to highlight the environmentally friendly part as my tree-hugging-animal-loving-vegan friend is constantly chirping in my ear about the Earth and what I should be doing to help her.  I love her and she makes a good point so these products struck a chord with my inner tree-hugger.   Plus I love trying new products, which girl doesn’t?  The Victoria Garden Range particularly caught my eye because it is produced in South Africa and home grown products need lots of local love.

Quick search on Google and I was on Naturalistic, an online shopping site that covers an extensive range of organic beauty products - South African product that I can order through an online South African store with (hopefully) minimal hassle - lekker!  Within seconds my mind was bombarded with smells of Wild Olive, Lavender, Applemint, Honeysuckle and Pomegranate to name few.  It quickly became apparent that this was a decision that needed to be hashed out with like minded company.  Enter tree-hugging-animal-loving-vegan and bouncy-on-the-fence-libran and the discussion commenced.  Twenty four hours of pros vs cons, organic vs non-organic, lavender vs applemint, pricing and packaging discussions later, a decision was made.  People, genius cannot be hurried.

That was exhausting, so a quick cup of tea to revise our decisions and we were truly ready to put this order to bed.  Applemint Shampoo, Honeysuckle Conditioner, Rosemary & lavender  Shampoo, Wild olive & lavender Conditioner - tell me that doesn’t make you want to pop over to the grocery store, buy some fruit and mush it over your body gloriously?  No? Just me then.  Less than seventy two hours later, a nice looking man rocked up at work cradling a brown box of goodies.  Three giggly giddy girls speed walked to reception bursting with anticipation and impatiently tapped their toes, as I ripped the box open.  I must admit the packaging was not very pretty, confetti of scrap printed paper just doesn’t scream “dainty” and “girly” but I am totally willing to overlook that if the products are good.

They smelled damn good but the best part of all this shopping-from-the-comfort-of-my-office-chair is of course testing the product, which would have to wait till later in the day - earning a living and being a begrudging-health-freak came first.  Shower after a gym session is especially rewarding but now I had a dollop of apple heaven with a hint of mint to look forward to!

The applemint shampoo was crisp, sweet smelling, more apple than mint though.  It was luxurious, lathered up fast and left my hair squeaky clean and my scalp a little tingly from the mint.  One thing made my eyes twitch madly, the bottle had a really weak pump.  I know how this will sound and none of the innuendos are intended (or is, if that sort of thing gets you going) - I had an arm cramp from all the furious pumping to get enough shampoo out.  I was willing to overlook this but I knew that it would become really annoying really fast.  The conditioner has a sharp floral scent, not entirely unpleasant but I wondered how it would carry through.  The label adviced that the conditioner be used sparingly and I am really glad I followed the advice because it is very rich and did run the risk of leaving my hair feeling slightly greasy if I used too much.  Once I washed out the conditioner, I must say that my hair was lightly scented, not too sharp but pleasantly floral which was perfect.

The products left my hair really clean with a beautiful shine and the scent lingered till the next wash but I found the conditioner a little too rich for my liking and the oil build up over time was faster than usual.  Overall, I would get the shampoo again with another lighter conditioner though, but just for averting National Wild Hair & Death Day, this product gets my thumbs up!

I have to mention that the customer service I received from Naturalistic was absolutely brilliant, Bev answered all our questions promptly and suggested products that would suit our hair types.  Even when we  couldn’t find the products we wanted in their online store, they made the process simple by allowing us to mail our order through.  I was not impressed with the interface experience of their site but they made up for it by providing a prompt, quick, and easy solution to our problem so double thumbs up for Naturalistic.