Beauty Going Green with Chad Clark

Greeting’s my loyal style watchers! Welcome back to another style session with your Go-To-Style-Guru. This edition, I decided we would get back to our roots, but this time, not our hair roots, our natural, organic roots. Yes, with more and more joining the “Go Green” philosophy, we find ourselves scouring our local supermarkets for the latest “All Natural”, 100% Organic, and “Earth Based” products. From our lotions to our meats and fruits, we are becoming more conscious of the importance of our health at a booming rate. With this sudden resurgence in the organic and natural movement, I started to investigate how I could incorporate this ever growing trend into a natural, organic treatment that could help treat and correct some everyday hair and scalp challenges that we all may have faced, or be facing. So let’s get ourselves down to our local grocery store and farmer’s markets, and start shopping for some ingredients.

I like to start off at my farmer’s market for my 1^st ingredients. These people put that extra love into ensuring their fruits are the best around. For our first ingredient, let’s find the biggest red seedless grapes we can find. These grapes are revered for their antioxidant properties, and also contain a natural ingredient called pycnogenol, which is a skin purifier and will help deep clean, tighten and refine the tone of your skin and scalp. This is ideal for persons suffering from overly oily hair, as the antioxidants drawl out the overactive oil on the scalp, while the pycnogenol will help eliminate, cleanse and close the pore. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So after we have found our grapes, our next stop is the avocado stand.

The avocado is a rich and extremely deep penetrating oil based fruit. It is highly rich in vitamins A, D, and E, lecithin potassium, and its most moisturizing ingredient sterolins which makes it ideal for treating dry skin, eczema of the scalp, psoriasis, and rehydrate undernourished hair and skin. This super fruit is the foundation of our second treatment we will discuss today. Now that we have our grapes and avocados, we can head to the local grocery store. Once inside we just need a few more things.

Starting off in the baking aisle, we need to get a box of sugar. That’s right, sugar. Sugar will act as a scalp exfoliant, when combined with our pre-treatment shampoo, to help prepare the scalp. The thing I like about sugar is it dissolves through out the massage and lather stage, but still does the trick. Next stop cooking oils. We are looking for some Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This will act again, as an ultra hydrating, high shine, and help achieve the desired consistency of our treatment. We’re almost ready to go, but we still need one more ingredient. Organic Wheat Flour. The Organic Wheat Flour acts as an emollient, helping increase shine and luster in the hair. It is also and intensive pact treatment for the scalp.

Now that we have all our ingredients, lets start off with the antioxidant treatment. This is ideal for people with overly oily hair and scalp. For this treatment you will need:

1. A medium bowl
2. 15-35 Seedless Grapes
3. 2 tbsp Organic Wheat Flour
4. Surface Cleansing Shampoo (I love Shampoo 2 from Paul Mitchell)
5. A bowl of sugar
6. A fork or masher
7. Shampoo Cap

So we start of by mashing the grapes into a bowl. Try and pick out any large skin matter. Will help in the rinsing later. Then mix the 2tbsp Organic Wheat Flour, and mix. A paste will form. Set-aside for now. You will want to start by lathering your wet hair with your surface cleansing shampoo. Once lather is achieved, sprinkle a liberal amount of sugar through out the hair. Proceed to massage the scalp, utilizing the sugar as an exfoliant. Lather and massage for 5-10 minutes, allowing the shampoo to cleanse and prepare the scalp. Once completed, rinse hair thoroughly, until water runs clean. Now it’s time to pack on our treatment. Apply liberally to scalp, focusing on the scalp, not the hair. Once paste is completely saturated on the scalp, place a shampoo cap overhead, and let sit in hair for 25-35 minutes. Use heat for more intense treatment. After time is up rinse thoroughly and apply a mild detangler to hair, and rinse again. I recommend this treatment 1 to 2 times a month, depending on severity of oily scalp and hair.

You may be asking, “what about me? I have dry thirsty hair.”

Well here I come to save the day. This is another one of my favorite organic treatments that I offer inside of my salon. This is my Avocado Hydration Pact. For this you will need:

1. A bowl for mixing
2. 1 large organic avocado, halved and pitted
3. 3-6 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4. A bowl of sugar
5. A fork or masher
6. A surface cleansing shampoo (I like Shampoo 2 from Paul Mitchell)
7. A Shampoo Cap

Begin by prepping the hair with the Shampoo 2, surface cleanser, and sugar to act as a gentle exfoliant. Once a rich lather and massage is complete, rinse hair thoroughly. N your mixing bowl, combine the halved avocado and mash until almost smooth. Some lumps okay. Once mashed, add 3-6 tbsp of E.V.O.O., this will act as an intensive hydrator and shine stimulant. The more severe the dryness, the more E.V.O.O. you will add. Once this is ready, time to break out the tortilla chips! Just kidding, it’s time to apply liberally to the scalp. Once applied, process with a shampoo cap for 25-35 minutes. Heat will intensify the treatment. Once processed, rinse thoroughly with tepid water, and apply a light detangler to the hair.

I would love to hear back from you on the success of these treatments for you at home. Now of course, it’s ALWAYS better to have yourself pampered by someone else, but in the event you cant, this should be a great way to kick back, relax, and show your hair and scalp some love. So sit back, put some cucumber slices over your eyes, light some of your favorite incense, and give yourself a little treat. For the full experience, I encourage you to stop by Reflections Salon in Fresno, and I will whisk you away to heaven. But until then, see you downtown Visalia! GO GREEN!