The Natural Skin Care Playbook: Everything You Need to Know About Plant-Based Beauty

By Dr. Christina Hector

The act of caring for the skin with natural ingredients has been around for centuries. If natural skin care practices have been around for so long, why are products with harsh chemicals still on the shelves-and what can we do to incorporate natural skin care into our lives?

In The Natural Skin Care P

• Language: English
• Publisher: Purposely Created Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9781644845967

Book preview

Introduction

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My journey to creating skin care products started in medical school. It may have been the stress from studying or the lack of time for self-care, but I began to see a change in my hair. My hair became weak, thin, and damaged, and I did not know how to fix it. So, I searched for a hairstylist who could help restore my damaged hair. By the time I reached the third hairstylist, I was convinced that she could help restore the health of my hair.

After a few months of going to my new hairstylist, she pointed out my hair’s poor health. However, when I asked her what I should do to fix the problem, she could not provide any solutions. I became discouraged. Not wanting to look for a fourth hairstylist, I had to admit to myself the root cause of my problem: the chemicals I had applied to my hair for the previous sixteen years. I came to this realization because since childhood, I had visited a hairstylist every six to eight weeks to have a chemical hair straightener applied to my hair. This chemical straightener is called perm or relaxer. It is commonly used in the Black community to permanently change the texture of the hair from curly to straight. To maintain the straight texture of the hair, the perm is applied frequently to new, growing hair.

While in medical school, I was more aware of the information coming to the surface about the harmful ingredients found in hair care products. Performing my research, I learned that these chemical products could also harm my overall health and wellness. It became apparent that if I did not stop using chemicals in my hair, I would have irreversible hair and scalp damage. Scarier was the possibility of developing health issues due to these chemicals. I knew I had to find a solution.

The solution to this problem was to stop using chemicals in my hair and cut off all damaged hair. However, I was not sure if I was ready for that transformation. So, I made another trip to the hairstylist. My hairstylist was friendly, direct, and full of stories. She was a nice escape from my medical school studies. Then she asked one question, and I knew this would be my last visit to see her. What are you doing to your hair? I did not give her an answer. I went home after my appointment, vowing that the treatment I had just received would be the last chemical placement in my hair.

The next step was deciding how I would transition my hair from chemically straightened to natural. Having natural hair meant keeping my hair in its natural state without using chemicals. My continued research landed me on YouTube. On YouTube, there were women with similar problems and similar solutions. I remember lying on my living room couch with the laptop in front of me until 3:00 a.m. absorbing all the information available. By the time I was ready for bed, I had finalized my plans to transition my hair from chemically straightened to natural hair.

In this transformation, I cut off all my chemically processed hair. Then I had to change all of my hair care products. That included the shampoo, conditioner, oils, and styling products. Although I became more vigilant about the ingredients listed on hair care products, I soon realized few natural hair products were available. If I did find a product, it was too expensive for my medical school budget. I became frustrated. I often walked into a beauty supply store only to walk out empty-handed.

I went through many products during my family medicine residency years. When I started my sports medicine fellowship, I was closer to narrowing down my hair care products. However, I was not 100 percent satisfied with the products I purchased. During this time, I had the creative idea to make my own hair care products using only natural ingredients I had already researched over the years.

For the first time in a long time, I was happy with the products I used in my hair, not only because they were my products, but also because my hair was thick, shiny, and healthy. I could not stop at hair care products. Many synthetic ingredients in commercial hair care products are also in daily skin care products. I soon started to create skin care products. The summer after completing my sports medicine fellowship, I gradually transitioned out every skin care product in my house to natural products I formulated and created.

Chapter 1: Skin Care: The Past, Regulations, and Business of Skin Care

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF SKIN CARE

Have you ever thought about where and how skin care started? Where had it originated? We may think the concept of natural skin care is a new phenomenon. However, that is far from the history of skin care. In my research, I found that the use of natural ingredients for skin care dates as far back as Ancient Egypt. Skin care during those times served many purposes, including medicinal purposes. Ingredients