The product junkie club Spring 2018

We decided to have yet another challenge & I write we because I got brainstorming help from one of my curl friends!

This challenge is starting to become a yearly thing for me and this time we have more curlfriends joining welcome Hispaneek

A few ideas for the challenge

1. This is a freestyle challenge so each one of us brings a personal twist to it.
2. There are no forbidden products, all you need to do is test your old products and if you need help deciding whether to use them or not ask the rest of the group and we might be able to help.
3. Organize your products by categories.

The old products

• Garbage bin: those with smells or ingredients that We hate and the very old ones, let’s say older than a year must go in the bin. *If you don’t remember when you bought a product it is best to send it to the bin. I ended up with a huge bag of this kind that was discarded.
• The “I like you, but forgot about you” bin: Self explanatory, basically products we liked even holy grails but stopped using in favor of our excessive hair product shopping. Prioritize to finish these ones first.
• The Swap/gift box: Here I include products that other naturals loved but that somehow did not become a favorite for me; but that have a good quality and/or overall good reviews. This serves 2 purposes: making another curly happy and if you can’t swap it give it as a present and help to reduce waste, might be your curl friend just found a Holy grail thanks to you. This can also apply to unopened products that you have failed to use due to whatever reason but you think a fellow curly can love. I have received a few nice things from fellow curlies already and it really did make me very happy.

This challenge is open to everybody, everywhere. It is more like a club of curly friends who shop too much.

Our hasthtag #productjunkieclub2018

Our Ethos: shop smarter & more consciously

Our Goal: reduce waste and in the process save money or invest our money only in good products suited to our hair type.

A few ideas to get you started to clear out the old to make room for the new

1. Group products by brand and use them together on the same wash day according to your hair needs & routines (try the same wash day at least 2 times in a row, if you like it continue the same routine until finishing the products or if you need or want a change).
2. Repurchase of Holy Grails is allowed, so don’t worry you can keep your curls happy.
3. Have a budget idea: setting up a budget is up to you, but using the base of another challenge I participated in (& failed miserably at) aim for $30, £30, €30 a week or the equivalent in your local currency, or whatever sum you can afford for hair care products. This is just a guideline.
4. Buying products to complete existing hair lines is ideal. You can also choose to not buy anything so the budget goes from 0-30 depending on your intent. My personal intent is to reduce waste, so it makes sense for me to purchase less items and aim for zero expense, obviously this did not happen but for a few short months; once my holy grails ran out I repurchased mercilessly but lifestyle changes do take time!
5. Don’t give up!

Shopping (saving) ideas

1. Take advantage of seasonal sales for your favorite products.
2. Enter giveaways.
3. Get a subscription box, I joined one for £20 pounds plus shipping & I got at least 5 full sized products in each box to try at an accesible price. I have still have yet to try many of them, but the ones I have tried so far have been very good and at a fraction of their retail price.
4. 2 empties allow you to purchase one completely new product you have not tried before and empty holy grails can always be replaced as they empty so your curls are always on point.
5. Look for eco friendly packaging when possible to reduce waste too.

If you want more info about these shopping hacks let me know in the comments section, or on my instagram.

Happy, conscious shopping!

P.S. This is not a competition, but a collective effort to improve our consumer habits as a curly community.

Share your findings positive or negative but always saying something nice, if you follow me on IG The Hair Lab you know I am all about positive vibes so just be kind when sharing the fails, be kind to yourself & others in this curly hair adventure.

Other curly girls who have joined me since the beginning in this effort to shop more responsibly are

Curlymamaxx
Curlysue291

Feel free to follow their accounts for inspo & great tips.

We have had our ups & downs but little by little we are getting there.

May the odds be ever in your favor” may The Hunger Product Junkie Games begin.

May the force be with you

Hi my name is Lelia and I am a product junkie.

Puddings, Smoothies, Milk in Hair? And 2 year anniversary blogging musings

For people outside the Curly world ( which includes wavy, curly, kinky and coily hair) concepts like a hair milk or a curling custard could be quite confusing, well for us curlies it can be too.

When I first opened the blog almost 2 years ago I got offered a collaboration with Naturally Curly, my favorite curly hair educational resource.

They approached me for my opinion on the topic of why beauty brands use food names to entices us.

There is in a academic circles a phenomena called food imitating products which is aimed to make the consumer associate a cosmetic with food so they feel safe.

Another question I was asked was about product consistency and if it made a difference, to be honest back then I had not tried enough products to speak from experience, now as a product junkie in Rehab I can confidently say that in my case yes it does a big difference; but it’s a tricky subject and a matter of trusting the marketing from the manufacturer.

For the full scoop click the link below🤗

https://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/this-is-why-beauty-brands-use-food-to-entice-you/

I still feel intimidated by platforms like Facebook or instagram to promote my personal projects or achievements in the blogging universe.

I do not like conflict online, and in WordPress I have found is my safe place, where I can write with no word count limit and I can engage in friendly conversations.

After a year on IG writing about hair or sharing selfies I still do not know if it is the right platform for me.

I will continue as long as it is fun, and I admit that it has been fun so far albeit time consuming. If I do leave instagram altogether, I will send my contacts to those who have helped me learn more but it will be a silent goodbye.

My focus right now is working on my public outreach writing skills and my wordpress “toolkit” skills to optimize my blogging experience.

I wanted to publish this little note on a Thursday in the spirit of throwback Thursday in September 2017, but I was too shy to do so.

Today is my 2nd year blogging anniversary and felt like getting personal & finally sharing my thoughts & feelings about my usage of social media, but also because looking back it was a pretty big deal to have been asked for my opinion when my blog was still more or less anonymous and I was not confident enough to “self promote”.

I still need to work on promoting myself and have gotten so much help from other bloggers on instagram and for that reason alone, I stay in social media trying to improve. WordPress is my forever comfort zone, I have a few followers but I do have readers that silently give me their support and to my readers and curl friends I say thank you for staying with me on my journey to bring more science into our daily lives.

Kindly,

Dr. Lelia aka hairlabmd