Saturday, October 17, 2009

New Ingredients Dictionaries Have Arrived!


It's no secret I'm a total ingredients geek. If I could spend all day researching ingredients, I'd be a very happy person indeed. I have many ingredients dictionaries I use to look up ingredients to put in the Ingredients Dictionary on the site. I love the reference books I have, but they don't have nearly all the ingredients in the different products out there.

I've been coveting the mother of all dictionaries, the CTFA (Cosmetics, Toiletries, and Fragrances Association) dictionaries. These dictionaries are the industry standard. I'd requested them from my library previously so I could look up more elusive ingredients. My local library would borrow and ship in one volume from, like, a library in Ohio. But then I wasn't allowed to leave the building with it. I'd been wanting a copy of my own for years. New products come in all the time with ingredients that I can't even find out what function they serve in their product. And finally, we got the entire set of dictionaries (thank you, Jon!).

The reason for such massive tomes? In a few months, Jon and I will be offering a new feature on the site called ProductsGeek. It will give not only all the ingredients in any product, but you will also be able to get information about every individual ingredient within that product. Also, it will let you know what that ingredient does in the product, and if there's anything harmful to your hair in it. The service will also let you search for information on the ingredients in your product in multiple ways. This way you can see if a particular product you've been eyeing is worth the money to buy it or not. We're really excited about it, and building this feature is what we do in the evenings when we get home from work.

I've been happily petting our newest arrivals since I first pulled them out of their box, in such happiness they're finally mine. There will be few ingredients that escape me now!

17 comments:

lovelyrett said...

I don't know if this is my 1st or 2nd time commenting but I'm sooo excited about this. I've been wanting something like that since I've started my hair journey! I didn't have a clue where I would get it. Thank you sooooo much for providing your followers with this. I feel so grateful!

Former Mushroom-Haired Child said...

Thank you so much for what you said, lovelyrett! I do think a service like this will be really useful. I know when I go to a beauty supply store all the products can get overwhelming. It's hard to figure out right there in the store what products have the most helpful ingredients.

Blackened Dove said...

Teri, thank you so much for this!! You are an Angel! ^_^

R.M. Jackson said...

I'm aiming to try your regime in the morning... assuming that hubby finds one of your combing conditioners and a brush today. :-O I have mixed hair and I've been using bristle brushes all my life, so I need the right tool.

One question though... do you put a scarf of some sort over your hair at nights? Will I need to sleep on my tummy to keep from squashing my curls?

Anonymous said...

I finally did your method the correct way and my hair came out perfectly defined. The second day it was a bit fuzzier/fuller. Not sure what tomorrow will bring. I put my hair in a high ponytail to sleep but I get folds where the scrunchie is. Any suggestions?

Jessica said...

I just found your site today, and I gotta say, to be honest, that my eyes swelled and tried to hold back tears. I had been struggling all of my life with my biracial hair (I'm 22, grown up in black family where relaxers were always used), so much to the point of deep, extremely painful depression. Thank you so very much, I will try your techniques today to my curly hair (there is only an inch or so of it while the rest is dry, chemically bombarded hair, but its getting better, I chopped off like 6 inches or so of horrendous, straw-like, knotted, matted hair, and I will start anew)

Thanks again for everything, you and your site are truly a blessing to me.

Lanita said...

I just posted on your Mixed Chick Chat post. Have you reviewed Quidad, Mixed Chicks and Miss Jessie products?

Viv said...

I've been searching all over for a way to send you a message :)

I happened to find your site (tightlycurly.com) today and I think it was definitely a blessing. I've been wearing my hair natural about 6 yrs and recently have been experiencing a lot of breakage and it has just become virtually unmanageable that I was thinking about going back to relaxing again :(

I'm so glad I found a better way to deal with my tight curls .. Thank you so much!!!

Leila Daily said...

Hey Terry! This is Leila from Black Girl with Long Hair. I didn't see an email to contact you, so I had to hit you up here :)

I'm interested in featuring you on my blog. Can you email me?

blackgirllonghair@gmail.com

Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

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Janis said...

Hiya -- sorry to pester you again. :-) I'm thrilled at the fact that I can look forward to the book coming out soon, but I need to ask another question.

When you got the big brass comb from Simplistic Designs, you were able to wear your hair up completely in the way that I tend to do already, which showed me that I might be able to let my hair curl and still put it up firmly and completely. But I'm curious about a few things:

1) In your wash cycle from "freshly washed" to "gotta wash tomorrow morning," when would you tend to wear a figure-8 or a cinnamon bun with that comb? Just after washing? Last day in your wash cycle?

2) How does your hair behave the next day when you take it down from one of these styles? Is it smoother, less or more curly, less or more greasy ... ?

Mixed and Happy said...

Hi FMHC :-)
I'd like to invite you to my group, Mixed and Happy. We are working on a Christmas card for the ex-JOP who denied a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any bi-racial children they might one day have. I'll be including pictures of mixed-race families, couples and people in the card and I'd like you to be a part.

Here's the FB group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=190506895405

Please visit the Web site:
www.mixedandhappy.com

And feel free to email me with any questions!
mixedandhappy@gmail.com

And more than anything else, please pass it on!

leah said...

hey terry,i wanted to send you a message about a great clip i've been using for 2 years now-it's my favorite clip and i have very tightly curly biracial hair. thought you might want to check it out. it is the MAXIMUS CLIP made by FICARRE. this clip is awesome and it comes in many colors and designs. pretty price, (i paid about $40. for mine) but when you find a clip that will hold all of our curls,is comfortable and doesn't damage the hair, it's worth it! hope you like!

curligirl said...

sorry terry, i mispelled the name of the brand...it's FICCARE and it's spelled MAXIMAS CLIP. that'll teach me not to spell check before i send! lol.

check out ficcare.com.

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Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for providing a much needed service, thank God he is raising up women to educated women who have not known how to care the proper way for our hair. God bless this site.

Anonymous said...

Hi. I love your site. Since trying out some of your techniques I think my hair has grown a lot. I'm more conscious of the ingredients on my bottles now. I do however want to note a popular brand on your site that you recommend as a combing conditioner: Herbal Essence Hello Hydration. There are some ingredients in there that are considered carcinogenic that you might want to look out for. Here is the link with the article: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/natural-beauty-fashion/stories/herbal-essences-shampoos-get-toxicity-makeover

thanks again for your contribution to the curly community!