Finding natural hair beauty brands can be very difficult, especially with all the hype surrounding the top selling brands on social media. Small businesses are making their way up, proving that their handmade products work just as well as the ones you see in the natural hair markets.
Everywhere Hair Care, founded on October 31, 2016, uses all-natural ingredients in their products, and have created formulas that make your hair look great and keep it healthy. The founder is originally from Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, NY, with immigrant grandparents from Honduras. She grew up speaking Spanish and English, sometimes confusing the other children because she was darker skinned. She went through times where her "India" grandmother would pick her up from school and the other children would question if that was truly her grandmother. At 12 years of age, she moved to Acworth, Georgia, a culturally homogeneous suburb. Her nationality and ethnicity were questioned often, and she began feeling self-conscious about her complexion and hair, as if there were something wrong. She began not identifying as Hispanic/Latina or Honduran, but as Black or African American. As she got older, she realized that she should be proud of who she was and where she came from, and began to embrace her features and culture, thanks to her Garifuna grandfather.
As she got into her later 20s, she struggled maintaining her hair, despite going to school for cosmetology and her passion for doing hair. She found that it was difficult finding products that proved true to their name, description, and ingredients. Her hair was long, tangled easily, and was difficult to maintain. One day, she was in the shower trying to detangle her hair with some conditioner, and she began crying to her husband that she couldn't do it. He asked her, "Why don't you just make something you can use to help your hair?" She did not know and she wasn't sure how or if it would work. She had severed her nerves in her hand after an avocado accident (darn aguacates - it's a very common accident, believe it or not), but she started researching, creating formulas and testing them. When she shared the most successful ones with family and friends, they loved them! And thus, Everywhere Hair Care, the family business, was born.
Everywhere Hair Care believes that people of all races, faces, and places should be able to use a brand that does not discriminate, like others may. They were recently featured in the December/January edition of UPSCALE magazine as well as the March/April edition! I was excited to use their products and am so grateful that they thought to share with me. They sent me their Three Step Process Curl Defining and Moisturizing Kit which includes their Coconut Milk Fresh Spray, Moisturizing Flaxseed Cream, and GELADO.
The package arrived very safely, there were no spills or anything upon opening, and the products had Everywhere Hair Care's logo on it with ingredients, directions, and names of other products you could use within the brand. The font was a bit tiny on the back, so it was a little difficult to read, but here are the directions the brand sent for the products I used.
1. Coconut Milk Fresh Spray- Apply this light leave-in conditioner liberally throughout the hair. Make sure the hair is fully covered with the spray.
2. Moisturizing Flax Seed Cream- This is heavier than the leave-in spray. Apply a hand sized amount throughout the hair pulling it from the root to the ends, until it covers the hair.
3. The GELADO- Lastly, once you have applied the cream, apply the GELADO by using the same technique - pulling it through the hair from roots to ends. Scrunch, air dry and style as desired.
My favorite was the Coconut Milk Fresh Spray. This can be used as a leave in conditioner, so I used it first. It smelled soooo amazing, just like Mamita's Ice Cream! It was a very thin liquid, so a lot of sprays were necessary to feel like I had any slip to my hair. Next, I used the Moisturizing Flax Seed Cream, which was a thicker consistency, but not like a butter or a hair milk. It had a pleasant smell, as well, and I liked how it made my hair feel. There was definitely more slip and moisture. With the spray, my hair felt still very frizzy. With the cream, I felt like some definition was starting to come through. Finally, the GELADO was my first exposure to a flax seed gel. It was thin in consistency, but did a great job putting the finishing touches of definition on my hair.
Unfortunately, I noticed right away that I definitely hadn't used enough product for my hair when I completed the first section of hair, but I saw improvements in the definition as I continued on with the rest of my head, using more product (I'm a stingy styler and I have wayyyy too much hair - bad combo). I attempted to air dry, as the directions say, but my hair was still a bit damp when I went off to bed so I put my hair in a pineapple. I've come to the conclusion that air drying without constant attention to the lower back part of my hair is not a thing, because I woke up with tangled, undefined messes that looked like nests. I attribute this to my frugal product application and the air drying though, because the upper parts of my head (which were also thinner sections) still had some great definition to them! Next time, I'll probably still apply with my fingers, but I might diffuse instead. My hair is still soft and not too crunchy (a plus) and smells AMAZE-BALLS.
If you'd like to see tiny videos of me throughout the process, check out my #ShopHere highlight on Instagram!
May your fro grow and your soul glow.
YAA