Have you ever thought that some haircare products work more like makeup? Like foundation or powder, it temporarily hides the flaws with synthetic chemicals.  That’s what Jasmine Scalesciani, creator of Hairprint, told me most commercial hair products do. All the “treatments” coat your hair temporarily to fool you into thinking its in healthier condition. But is it, really?? Hairprint claims to provide pure, natural hair treatments that work less like concealer and more like vitamins to heal the hair from the inside out.

Hairprint started as a company providing a natural, chemical-free solution to greying hair, which first had me intrigued. The color restorer claims to create melanin, the building block of color in your skin and hair, and eliminate grey hair after about two rounds of treatments. I bought the color restorer, and for good measure, purchased some shampoos and conditioners. I have yet to try the restorer, but I’ve been diving in head first (haha) into their other product offerings. And I have to say I’m pretty impressed. I’ve tried several shampoos, conditioners, and oils over a month now and I’m pretty confident in giving them the BB&W stamp of approval on several of them.

While I was taking the time to review, I reached out to the creators for a bit more information.

BB&W: What inspired you to expand to shampoos, oils, etc?

Hairprint: We discovered early on that shampoos and conditioners were doing more than cleaning and conditioning. They were covering the hair, placing silicones, proteins, and quaternary ammonium compounds (any ingredient that ends with “ium” is a quat) on the cuticle so that the hair appeared shiny, volumized, and full. Those ingredients are basically hair makeup. Every woman knows to remove her make up at night. But what they don’t know is that they have makeup on the hair and it builds up, clogs the follicle which can suffocate and damage it, and prevents Hairprint from working because it is blocked from getting into the cortex of the hair. 

For that reason, we came up with our own formulas. And we did something different there.

BB&W: But there are so many hair companies claiming to be so full of healthy oils and natural extracts. Is that all baloney?

Hairprint: Almost all shampoos are made of what every co-packer in America calls pixie dust. Every single person and company I know of who manufacture the shampoos you use know this, and laugh at the gullibility of the consumer. The consumer reads the label, sees a few chemical surfactants they may or may not be able to pronounce, and then they see this long list of botanicals, natural and essential oils, and at the end of this long list of ingredients some more chemicals they are not sure of, some of which are preservatives. But what the heck, there are so many good ones in there. So, they buy it. The name of the shampoo is based on one of those bits of pixie dust. However, all of the ingredients in the middle are there in completely inconsequential amounts. Companies put ten to fifteen “natural” ingredients into one ingredient, however they only use 1% of it in a shampoo. They can legally list all fifteen of those ingredients as if they were 1%. The ingredient that contains fifteen botanicals may be made with 95% glycerin. There is virtually nothing there. Truly. There is one “organic” shampoo with a long list of great ingredients that sells for $9. We playfully call it the Donald Trump of shampoos. It doesn’t even list water as an ingredient, which is 70-85% of all shampoos and conditioners. The reviews say “thanks goodness someone has come up with an affordable organic shampoo.”  It is hard to compete with this kind of fabrication. When we formulated our shampoos, we went the other way. There is a substantial amount of each ingredient listed and none are there for show or to impress. They are there to get the job done, to make your scalp and hair healthier and vibrant. And we explain what and why. They are low suds, gentle, unscented, and truly 100% plants and plant-derived. Even the preservatives are made of fermented radishes and coconut milk. Our shampoos are literally made of leaves, bark, seeds, grasses, roots, oils, petals, berries, and fruits. This is what our bodies want. 

BB&W: How did you identify and select your ingredients for the shampoos? I have been using the Alma and Chelating shampoo and I’ve noticed significantly less breakage in my African American textured hair. What ingredients might be contributing to this?

Hairprint: We selected them by going back in time in most cases. The Indian Ayurvedic tradition has empirically tested and developed botanical means to create healthy, long hair for thousands of years. We also went to the Chinese traditions for guidance, we studied the practices of African women especially with regard to wildcrafted oils, and finally, we immersed ourselves into the exciting new discoveries that are emerging from plant research all over the world, from seaweeds to grasses to mosses and trees. It is fascinating. The ingredients that may be helping with breakage are the oils—Meadowfoam, Evening Primrose, and Amla—and what might also be helping is the gentleness of the surfactants themselves.  And you will see a plethora of these ingredients in a series of new products we will be introducing. 

BB&W: You have a range of elixirs and oils. What is the difference between them?

Hairprint: On the oils, we give you oil, the whole oil, and nothing but the oil—virgin, unrefined, organic. We see hair and skin oils on the market, say Marula, but when you read the back of bottle it contains sunflower as the first ingredient, then grapeseed, and so on. Marula is the fifth ingredient. The oils we sell are for scalp and skin. We sometimes think those two things are different, and although the thickness of the epidermis on the scalp is greater, what heals and nourishes the ski heals and nourishes the scalp. Look at a mirror and see if you can detect where your facial skin stops and your scalp begins. Oils are the ultimate conditioner for hair and the ultimate healer of scalp conditions. Conditioners, as they are made today, are designed to create combability, shine and volume. If you want true combability, shine and volume, use pure oils. Warm them up, leave them on for an hour, or even overnight, and wash them out with one of our shampoos. The result is stunning. Women have been doing this for thousands of years because it works. The Elixirs are carefully formulated with a variety of oils in order to institute different healing or stimulating activity on the scalp. And the carrier oils differ as well. 

My favorite Hairprint product…

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