“Wow…lovely hair you have”
“Uh, what…you’ve never used Shampoo in your life!?”
That’s how most conversations around my hair start and end.
With a look of utter disbelief at the idea of a 32-year old woman with waist-long hair, never having shampooed it!
Now, to be fair: that’s a slight misstatement :)
I do revel in its shock value though!
I shampoo my hair (as often as twice a week actually) within the strict definition of what a shampoo is: “A liquid preparation for washing the hair” .
That is definitely how I’d define the “shampoo” I used over the years!
Except that it was made using only herbs, it didn’t lather a great deal and definitely did not have the fruity scent that was all the rage amongst shampoos in the 2000s.
It looked and smelled and felt like the herby paste that it was: made using Reetha, Shikakai and a bunch of other herbs that helped keep the scalp clean and hair nourished.
My mother prepared it every week for my sister and I as part of our weekly hair care routine.
The Routine? Champi with a home-made hair oil: herbs infused in coconut oil , Shampoo made from a mix of all Cleansing Herbs and Conditioning with a pre-shampoo hair mask
(yoghurt, hibiscus pastes) or post-shampoo rinses made from tea leaves. Yeah, sounds exhausting. Must’ve been too…for Maa!
It was our “Naturalist” household’s go-to haircare routine for generations. I think my belief in “natural” anything is a cultural element passed down through the generations via the Mothers. From a shared belief that Nature in her truest, rawest form has solutions to nourish and maintain human existence. It is when a problem arises, that synthetic solutions are needed as a temporary fix. “Health” and “lifestyle” is best maintained when it is in sync with nature’s cycle and its produce, with as less dependence on synthetic as possible. But more on this later!
As an active kid with the fuss-free “Mushroom Cut” (that most millennials were subjected to) I didn’t really have an opinion on ‘The Routine’. Mostly because we didn’t have to lift a finger for it but also because I cared for only one outcome: the sharp smelling sticky-oil to be washed off. The Humble Herb Shampoo delivered on this promise!
But when I finally became “old enough” (read: rebellious enough to question The Mushroom) and decided to grow my hair out, I trusted and actively participated in this routine. Couldn’t risk my Rapunzel aspirations getting thwarted now, could I?
And so without realizing, I ended up following whole-herb, 0-synthetic-product-hair-care for years together! It was a habit, a ritual that made my week feel complete.
I genuinely believe that in addition to my genetics and nutrition, this 0 synthetic exposure contributed towards my hair growing out strong and healthy. In fact, the first time I used a commercial shampoo was in my first year in post-grad: and it made my hair feel absolutely lifeless.
I looked out for herb-based products in the market: but every single one of them had at least one synthetic ingredient that was avoidable. It was then that I realized how rare it was to have followed a herb hair care routine and led me to look up what goes into making a truly natural product. So we started by looking at the version of “natural” me and most of the Indian Sub-continent believes in as natural: HERBS. Our research led us in directions we had never imagined: these herbs and pastes weren’t old wives tales and didn’t work on just faith or belief!
Herbs contain a whole range of phytochemicals that can imitate chemical/synthetic actives and provide outcomes that are just as efficient! Phytochemicals that can be isolated using simple mechanical/heating action and that can be JUST as potent. For instance, Surfactants (cleaning agents) in shampoos have a PLANT CHEMISTRY counterpart: Saponins! Saponins are found in Reetha. Dimethicones in Serums have a parallel called Cyclopentasiloxane found in Broccoli seed Oil. Humectants found in Conditioners have a natural counterpart in Honey…the list goes on.
THIS philosophy: of the science of plants, along with my personal experience of using a zero synthetic hair care routine (Formulations that contain HERBS and nothing else) is what eventually led me to start a company to service that version of nature that I TRULY believe in.
And we’re here for it. To tell the story of Plant Science and Hair Health. Because while Nature is miraculous, it doesn’t work miracles overnight. It takes time (to show results) and practice (the habit of a routine) But those results are much more sustainable because they solve the issues of hair health and scalp health. So imagine your hair to be EXACTLY like the plants that grow out of the soil. They take their time and you need to tend to the soil with the right amount of hydration and nutrition. But if the roots are deep and strong, the plant will grow out healthy and weather storms. The leaf that has died cannot be revived no matter how much you hydrate it. The thicker the root, the thicker the stem...these examples can go on but you get where I’m going with this…
So yes, I’m the girl with waist-long hair who hasn’t shampooed for the 32 years of my existence...but hey, I’m just a Herb-Girl living in her Plant World!
Come join the Tribe?
