...How The Eastern Women Put it Down.

In my never ending search for beauty that does not compromise my health, I have stumbled upon Ayurveda. The East Indian community uses plants to do all sorts of things and the one that most interests me is their hair care.

If, like me, you've ever wondered if all East Indian women are direct descendants of Rapunzel then you probably also wonder how they grow and maintain those bountiful tresses. I was introduced to Ayurveda at my favorite place on the Internet to hang out and began stalking posts for products and testimonials from African American sisters that had success with these products. This of course led me off on other tangents and my curiosity was so piqued I went out and bought $35 of their products. That may sound like a lot of money to experiment with but that was 2 grocery bags of products. The products are beyond reasonable as my shampoo bars were $1 and some change each. I read on and Indian hair forum that even though Johnson's Baby Shampoo is gentle, it somewhat expensive - go figure. If they only knew how much Western women spend on hair care products.

BTW, If you're too shy to go busting up in an Indian store like you own the place and want to observe some of their conversations on beauty and health, just visit http://www.indusladies.com/forums/ .

So far, I've used a Shikakai shampoo bar and a conditioning shampoo enriched with henna and lemon. I'm in love and can't wait to do a henna and indigo treatment on my hair. My roots have been silky and my hair has been wonderfully cleaned without feeling stripped.

I was so excited about trying the hair care products that I also tumbled over into their skin care products and bought a multivitamin face cream and a facial mask. Why not go all out right?

I'm still doing research and haven't really solidified my regimen but I am definitely looking forward to the ride. So far everything is wonderful.

So look out for that sister that has so much hair she doesn't know what to do with it. That will probably be me.