by
The Natural Haven
‘Breathe, just breathe, now let us try and be objective.‘
If you have hair that shrinks, you may have given a massive eyeroll to the “anti-shrinkage” moniker on the au naturale products from Dark and Lovely. However let us attempt to be objective!
Q: Is decreasing shrinkage beneficial?
A: If your hair benefits from being in a stretched style or if it shrinks rapidly and tightly enough to cause tangling when washing, then you will benefit from a reduction in shrinkage. However, if your hair is the clumping type, then you are in the opposite group and require products to enhance shrinkage and your natural curl (ergo, curl enhancing products do work by promoting shrinkage and increasing the weight of hair so it will hang downwards).
Q: Can a hair product decrease shrinkage?
A: No, certainly not in a way that a physical method such as twisting, braiding, banding, African threading, roller setting etc would. A hair product can somewhat increase your hair’s resistance to humidity and slow down reversion of a straightened style. This is normally reliant on oil as the product or within the product and also the exclusion of water
Q: Can Dark and Lovely’s products actually decrease shrinkage?
A: I very much doubt it, at least not without the addition of the physical methods as listed in the prior question. My opinion is based on analysis of the ingredients and not on actual use. The company itself states that the au naturale line ‘contains an anti -shrinkage recipe with mango oil and bamboo milk’
Here is the product label for the hair conditioner (latin names removed, some spelling corrected)
WATER, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, PALM OIL, BEHENTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE, FRAGRANCE, GLYCERIN, PHENOXYETHANOL, ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL, STEARAMIDOPROPYL DIMETHYLAMINE, MANGO SEED OIL, CAPRYLIC / CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE , CITRIC ACID , CHLORHEXIDINE DIHYDROCHLORIDE, BENZYL SALICYLATE, LINALOOL, BAMBUSA VULGARIS EXTRACT. F.I.L. D158442/3
In my opinion, it looks like a pretty standard moisturizing conditioner. My concern would be that the bold ingredients mango oil and bamboo milk are really far down in the list, which means they are very low in volume within the product. (Side note: What is FIL D158442/3?). A further concern is that fragrance is listed high up (no. 4 after water). However, I will explain that in another article on another day as it is unrelated to the anti-shrinkage theme.
Q: Should you purchase this product?
If the ingredients are to your liking, you can do so. You won’t be disappointed if you expect your hair to shrink when wet.
This article was inspired by The Mane Captain who takes a different view point discussing whether you should really trust a relaxer company to produce products for natural hair .
28 Responses
I plan to try the Au Natural Anti-Shrinkage product by Dark and Lovely. I came here for a product analysis. However, I was disappointed because the product had not been tested by The Natural Haven person who reviewed the product.
Is anybody else besides me concerned about isopropyl alcohol being one of the ingredients in the product?
Heck no. I purchased about 4 of these Dark and Lovely August Naturale products and they do absolutely nothing but have bees chase me.
My mother in law bought the whole line for myself and my daughter. While I like the products they did nothing to combat the shrinkage. My daughter has 4c hair and it did actually give her hair something of a curl pattern, which was really impressive it didn’t do anything to help with shrinkage. I dont really mind shrinkage.
ant-shrinkage product LMAOOO sounds like a ploy highly doubt it can do what it says the product doesn’t seem to bad though. I don’t think anything can really cause ant-shrinkage but the creamy crack.
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I find that adding a little gel on top of my moisturizer stretches my hair. Also wrapping my hair into a scarf (a la Musiq Soulchild back in the day) once it’s about 80-90% dry stretches my tresses.
I’ve purchased the knot-out conditioner before, only for research and I was beginner at buying products..(never again)
I have been using the curl defining cream, i find it very moisturising to my 4c hair and the moisture stays longer, i also do not have to re-apply the product, i dont like piling on products, i only need to wet my hair a bit and then its all ok. Im not quite sure if the product is anti shrinkage but if i twist my hair, it stays stretched longer, compared to when i use cantu ( it snaps back immediately).
My problem is the price, because of that il go back to cantu.
BTW i noticed ORS has something on anti shrinkage too in their curls unleashed, not sure if its new or has always been there
These hair products do not work at all (as far as anti-shrinkage), but smells great!!
I have to agree with the Mane Captain. I am, on a conscious and subconscious level, extremely skeptical of anti shrinkage products and/ or products that promise to straighten the curl. I was too long in the world of beating my pretty curls into submission and somehow came out on the other end with a healthy head of curls. I will not take that for granted. I will never jeopardize that. Even the “keratin treatments” scare me. The stories of going to the salon and having a stylist mix a little relaxer or texterizer in with the conditioner sends chills up my spine. I know that is a rare occurence, but oooh lawd!!! I recall my 4b big haired 14 year old going to the barber and this old guy wanted to put a “conditioner” in my childs hair to make it “softer” I responded “really?? May I read the ingredients??” Nothing more than a relaxing agent. I politely declined and warned my son to never allow anybody to put any substance in his hair without parental consent. Oh yeah, I know the game. I am completely paranoid about my Mane a complete nut!
WOW so that’s what’s in keratin. 0_0 I didn’t know what was in those products but I heard it keeps your hair straight for months so that scared me away by itself. I avoid products with any keratin like a cat from water.
You made the right choice as a parent.
that isopropyl alcohol is very high. omg that’s rubbing alcohol. how is that moisturizing at all? rubbing alcohol is very volatile and i dont believe thats good to put in your hair
It’s clear that they know nothing about what’s bad for natural hair. If natural haircare companies such as Oyin Handmade and Koils by Nature can make products without drying ingredients, than Dark & Lovely can too.
Yes! A big eye roll indeed!
i wish there was as much if not more promotion towards embracing shrinkage as there is towards “combating” it.
My thoughts exactly! I really do not see what the big deal is. Shrinkage IS what comes with natural hair. So why should we be looking for ways to ‘combat’ it. I honestly believe this whole natural hair care journey would be A LOT easier if people would just ACCEPT their hair for what it is. No harm in spicing things up by wanting to rock straight styles, but actually’ combating’ shrinkage?!?!? We are basically just complicating things for ourselves.
good point. the problem is, many naturals see it as a problem. and that’s why relaxer companies have decided to capture that specific group! shrunken hair is a bit more difficult to style and manage i agree. but you can do stretched hairstyles such as flat twists, african threading and the like in order to make your life easier. but buying a product to fight the issue? oh please!
Ikr I love big hair and how I get that is because of my shrinkage everything ain’t for everybody though
including from this site
Please hear me out, there won’t be a need for pitch forks lol. I really like the 10 in 1 styling gelee. No, it does not stretch my hair. But, it does a nice job of helping my 4c hair from shrinking so much over the course of the day when its wet. The curl moisturizing souflee (the orange one) really cuts down on frizz when I style without being flakey when it dries. My hair loves these two products. Of course I’d love if the price points were lower, but its a still worth it to me because of the results.
Honestly, I wish there was a magic anti-shrinkage product. My curls do clump (altho they are ridic tiny) and they also get tangled as they shrink. Everything gets poofy ugh. cant stand it. But i’m pretty sure no such product so it’s just one of those issues that there is no point in making a big deal about. Resistance is futile lol.
When resistance is futile, all that’s left is to embrace!
well you could try stretching your hair with twist outs, braid outs, threading and whatever else mechanically/physically.
I have the souflee and the only reason I bought it was b/c I wanted to redo their ads for my portfolio since I found them to be really basic and I wanted to see if I could reposition it so they’re not lying lol. So purchasing the product was a part of my research. Aside from that I wouldn’t buy this product based on the brand premise alone because I know better.
Honestly anything that claims to be anti-shrinkage a) I side eye and vigorously read the label. Because the only anti-shrinkage I know is a relaxer. Even when you band or flat iron or blow dry you’re still susceptible to shrinkage as the days go on no matter what you do. b) i’m still working out how I feel about well known relaxer companies now churning out natural hair care products that feature our terms (but that’s for the next post.)
The moisturizer is average and at the end of the day my hair still shrinks, lol. My hair shrink mainly b/c the product is water based! So that’s red flag 1. You can’t be antishrinkage when your product is water based. This is where I question the legitimacy of D+L because they haven’t done thorough research aside from perusing a few blogs/youtube channels and found a universal gripe to profit off of. There’s no such thing as anti shrinkage unless your hair is type 1 or 2 or has chemicals in it. In a way they’re perpetuating shrinkage like how they (and other companies) perpetuate hair breakage/heat damage. The only way you can fix hair breakage or heat damage is by removing the hair no product will revert your hair.
Type 3 + 4 hair is not meant to function nor look like type 1 + 2 in its original state. Dassit.
Overall, you’re wasting your money and Dark and Lovely is most definitely taking advantage of the natural hair community.
**THIS RIGHT HERE**
“Because the only anti-shrinkage I know is a relaxer.”
“Type 3 + 4 hair is not meant to function nor look like type 1 + 2 in its original state. Dassit.”
**THIS RIGHT HERE**
The sooner new naturals accept this, the easier their hair journey will be. PERIOD. And frankly I don’t care if the manufacturer is Dark and Lovely or the kitchentician down the block…if the label says it’s anti-shrinkage and doesn’t come with a warning to use gloves with it, I’m keeping my money in my wallet.
AMEN! The truth and nothing but the truth! (Both comments above=)
WELP THERE’S NOTHING TO ADD TO THAT LOL. PREACH