I learnt so much from an early age from my grandmother, Jennie Douglas. A third generation herbalist, Jennie used natural remedies at home for herself and family, helped manage the family health business, Red Seal, and also dispensed natural treatments to many a happy customer in her large Karangahape Road health food shop in the 1970s. I was a teenager looking for pocket money at the time, and every Thursday after school I “worked” alongside Jennie in her shop, watching and learning as she dispensed medicinal herbs and teas, Bach flower remedies, tissue salts and natural supplements.
Jennie didn’t have many personal beauty rituals (perhaps she was too busy), but she did treat herself to a weekly chamomile herbal hair rinse, something which helped add golden-white highlights to her naturally
