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As an avid blog reader, I often read several that pertain to budgeting, simplicity and beauty. Sometimes I come across this topic and its always the same. The writer gives advice that is more specific to them, but pretend that the advice is universal. Come on now. As women, I believe we are all beautiful in our own ways, and cannot expect to fit into categories so neatly. Use your own judgement.
I was recently thrown into a beauty and hair conversation with some young ladies and it really got me thinking. They were asking me things I thought they should have known. But I was happy to dispel some bad advice and give them other options to try.
And then later that day I was doing a survey on a product testing site. It was not easy answering the hair product section. As a black (African American - or however you say it) woman, who proudly wears her own hair natural, (not chemically altered to loosen or straighten the curl pattern) my answers probably sounded inconsistent, to be honest.
That night, I was reading one of my usual blogs and saw a post about "the beauty products we don't need". On half the list I thought to myself, "good thing I know better." I also noted half my hair product list was seen as unneccessary. If I followed that advice, my hair alone would be a hot mess.
Those three incidents, back-to-back, gave me the idea to make my own list. Not to pick apart the writers opinion, but to share another view to the topic. Here goes...
Five Beauty Products You Might Not Need (Ethnic Edition)
Razors
For some reason, our skin does not always repond to regular shaving with a blade in a positive way. Razor bumps, scarring, it's just not pretty. But I'm not one to go all hairy either. What's a good compromise? I have better luck with electric razors and trimmers. I may not always get as close, but close enough is better than hairless, with a side of razor bumps. For the summer though, I use depilatories like Sally Hansen on my legs. When combining those two methods I'm good.
Shampoo
Let me tell you a little known secret. Many shampoos are made with sulfates, harmful in many ways (maybe an idea for another blog post). And they also leave hair squeeky clean, which is drying. Except for clarifying shampoos to use occassionally, or in cases of product build-up, we don't need shampoo. So how to clean hair? Once I started using only conditioner, no poo method I learned from natural hair blogs and videos, my hair was so much easier to manage and detangle while wet. Which made drying and styling so much easier.
Wrinkle cream
This us normally not something we need to worry about. Our skin generally is not prone to wrinkle issues until much later in life. But to protect skin in general, find a face cream with sunscreen. Unless it runs in your family, it's not something to stock up on anytime soon.
Blush
Depending on your skintone, it's not a product to use everyday. It's more like a special occasion makeup, like eyelashes with glitter ends, or neon eyeshadow. But for work and just out and about, not too many ethnic women really wear it. Blush, if applied incorrectly, can run the risk of looking too made up, or worse, you picked a fight that you couldn't win.
Hair grease
An old school product, does anyone use this anymore? Well, if you still wash your hair with shampoo, your scalp might be dry. But a light hair oil is usually enough to do the trick.
Feel free to comment if you have more to add to. What else should should be on the list?
