Everything She Wants

Everything She Wants  is on a mission to find the best natural hair care products that promote hair growth and thickening.  On this quest, we’ve tried effective moisturizing shampoos, conditioners and oils from  SheaMoisture ,  Nubian Heritage  and  Kinky Curly .  But one popular product we can’t recommend is  Virgin Hair Fertilizer . Although some women swear by the petroleum-based cream with herbal extracts and a strong minty smell, from our experience, the product’s tingling sensation didn’t signal hair growth.  Instead, it produced further scalp irritation.  One product we firmly endorse, however, is  Badger’s Argan Botanical Hair Oil For Dry & Damaged Hair ,  which   Everything She Wants  was gifted at a  Whole Body|Whole Foods Market  press event. We’ve used it for a couple weeks and have already noticed fuller hair forming in thinning spots around the temples and in the crown....

It's a new year, so it's the perfect time for a hair makeover.  I've been wearing my hair in twists for about a decade and during that time I've only had it blown out and trimmed a few times.  So I jumped at the opportunity for Dana Gibbs, celebrity stylist and CEO of dana's loft HAIR ( 96 Orchard Street, 212-677-7701 ), to give my hair some long overdue TLC. "More than half my clients have natural hair, and they can wear it straight or curly," says Dana, who specializes in blow-outs, perms, weaves and the Brazilian Keratin treatment . "[Black women] are the only ethnic group with so many [styling] options." My twisted hair before my makeover. Since my tresses are completely relaxer-free, in its natural state my hair shrinks up a lot after it's been washed.  And I haven't seen its actual length in at least a year.  I also had a resistant gray patch in the front that I desperately needed covered. Dana blowing my hair out. S...

While browsing the ethnic hair care aisle at my local Target, I discovered   SheaMoisture products and I've been hooked ever since. So I was thrilled when I was invited to the natural brand's pop-up holiday shop in New York City's Bryant Park. SheaMoisture products. Shea butter is naturally rich in vitamins A, E and F, evens skin tone and returns luster to the skin and hair.  The company's recipe is based on the homemade hair and skin preparations made by the founder's grandmother Sofi Tucker in Sierra Leone in 1912. Of the body products, my favorite is the SheaMoisture Organic Raw Shea Butter Wash , which leaves my skin feeling clean, refreshed and moisturized.  There's also an accompanying SheaMoisture Organic Raw Shea Butter Lotion . The hair products are designed for women ( like me ) who want to show-off the natural beauty of their hair and escape using chemically laden products. So I'm eager to try the products I was recently gifted at Shea...

As an African-American woman with natural hair, finding effective hair products and tools is a part-time job.  So when I discover something that works, I have to share it with my curly/kinky hair sisters. Ouidad's Double Detangler Comb I've been wearing my hair perm/relaxer-free for at least ten years, but usually get a little help from "Afro-kinky" hair extensions.  Lately I've been wearing my own hair out in twist styles.  But combing through the tangles to get my hair to a softened, twistable state is an arduous task. Ouidad (the curl expert salon and product line), however, has come to the rescue with the Double Detangler Comb , a revolutionary tool that detangles and minimizes breakage.   It's best used when your hair is still wet with conditioner and the comb's two double-spaced rows of rounded teeth painlessly slip through knots and tangles without ripping and tugging.  The ergonomic handle makes it easy to navigate through even the densest, ...

Recently we posed the question, " Is the Brazilian Keratin treatment safe ?" Well, the University of Illinois-Urbana laboratory teaching specialist I interviewed sure doesn't think so.  She asserts that by adding a fixative like formaldehyde to keratin protein, the hair can lose elasticity and flexibility and easily break.   Dana'a Loft Hair owner Dana Gibbs. New York hair stylist Dana Gibbs of Dana's Loft Hair , however, thinks the Brazilian Keratin treatment is an excellent option to "straighten" your hair.  Dana especially recommends the treatment for her African American clients with natural hair to give them less frizz and more manageability. We're still skeptical but asked the stylist to give Everything She Wants a more in depth look at the treatment process. Do you still recommend the Brazilian Keratin treatment and use it on clients?  And if so, do you use a formaldehyde-free version?   Dana Gibbs: Yes, I do recommend the Bra...

My hairstyle of choice is double-strand twists, however, it's been several years since I've worn my own natural hair without a pump-up-the-volume boost of added human hair.  Now that I work at home and have more flex time to style my hair, I decided it was time to change up my style.... at least temporarily . Me with hair twisted, before twist-out. So I went to Ouidad , a salon and product line known for its expertise with "curly hair."  The light-filled midtown Manhattan salon is spacious and extremely professional. Although most of the salon's clients at the time of my visit didn't have my ethnic hair type, I was pleased to see that the questionnaire I filled out before I met with my stylist included a box for kinky/curly hair texture. And as Mary on "The Real Housewives of D.C." drunkenly eloquently put it, even though we have different hair needs why should we have separate salons? I sat down with Ana, an African-American stylist who ha...