Mystery solved? And more about hair

Remember my Seattle Organics castile soap mystery? I have an email in to a company called Ballard Organics, asking if they were once called Seattle Organics, since I haven't been about to find anything about the latter. It's possible, since I've been seing Ballard Organics soaps on the shelves in several stores, and the labels of the two products looks the same.

In any case, I wish I had heard of them sooner. I just received an order of AAA shea butter, which I ordered online because as much as I want to buy shea butter from a local company, Alaffia, $10 for 2 ounces doesn't compare to AAA's $25 for 16 oz. But on Ballard Organics web site, they sell 16 oz. of shea butter for $24.25. Even cheaper and local! I would need to find out more to know if their shea butter is unrefined and as good quality as Alaffia's and AAA's.

I know I talk a lot about hair, but it's a black woman thing! So, I went to get my hair done last week (for the first time in more than a year), along with my daughter, with a hair dresser who works in the barbershop where my husband gets his hair cut. I told him that I don't want to use chemicals on either of our heads, and I want to find something I can do with my hair naturally and easily, and that daughter wanted her hair straightened. He gave me a nice cut, and applied a product called Noodle Head, which he said would keep it curly. I like the cut, hate the product. It contains, of course, a list of unreadable ingredients (although a quick scan on the Safe Cosmetics Database shows that many of them are low hazard), and alcohol is the second biggest ingredient (after water). My hair looked great at first, and an hour later, was dry and rough to the touch.

I think I'll stick with my homemade products, thank you. I really like Green Barbarian's hair recommendation -- washing with 2 T. apple cider vinegar in 8 oz. water, and then conditioning with a mix of 2 T. olive oil and 1 T. vodka in 8 oz water, with a little essential oil for scent. And my conditioners are working well.

The hair dresser did recommend a product that I purchased and do like: a paddle brush, which is great at detangling curly hair (when wet). I also just invested in a better flat iron, which a woman at Sally's Beauty Supply said for very curly hair, needs to heat up to 450 degrees. The one I bought was far from the $240 the woman at the mall tried to sell me at Christmas time--only $40. I won't use it often, but I'd like the option to straighten my hair or my daughter's on occasion.