Fragrance Free Hair Care & Skincare

Finding "fragrance free" or "no fragrance added" products is such a stressful task because there are few options. Trying products that are labeled with natural ingredients like "Shea Butter", "Cocoa Butter", "Coconut Oil", etc are all fine and dandy until you read the back of the ingredient list and after going through 10-15 words, you see "fragrance/ parfum"... it's such a let down and searching starts to get stressful.

I've been through several hair care products for my natural hair because of this, facial care, I've managed over the years and body creams/lotions I've ran through or wasted money on for this reason as well. About 8 years ago, I discovered I was allergic to Coconut Oil.

I was using it on my hair as well as on my body, my whole family was. It was this huge Kirkland container of Coconut Oil and I noticed after a few weeks of using it that it didn't agree with my body at all, I broke out in bad rashes.

As for my hair, it left white flakiness that was different from dandruff all throughout my hair and scalp, so I stopped using it alone and or mixed with other oils. I thought, it's just Coconut Oil, it's as natural as can be, what about it doesn't agree with my skin?!

I switched to raw, yellow Shea Butter about 4 years ago and that did wonders for my skin and hair. For my skin, it was more hydrated, moisturized and glowing. For my hair, it was softer, stronger, longer, retained a lot more moisture and my twistouts came out amazing and lasted longer.

However, what I didn't like was how hard it was to apply raw Shea Butter to my skin and hair. It would be clumps that didn't melt from rubbing my hands together long enough or it just took too much time to put on. My hair would be left feeling like clay or sticky or my skin would be too greasy, and I don't like greasy.

Over the years, I've switched between several hair care and skin care products to see either what all the hype was about or see if they truly worked on my skin or hair. Skin wise, I am very sensitive, dry, oily, combination in some areas, eczema prone and reactionary.

Knowing that and having gone to the doctor various times about it, I have to use sensitive or baby friendly lines like Cetaphil, Eucerin, Nivea, L'occitane 25% Shea Butter Rich Body Cream or just naturally made fragrance free products. Some products I do love are Nivea Cocoa Butter body lotion, Nivea Shea Butter body lotion, raw Shea Butter, CeraVe Moisturizing Cream (is my new skin crack!), Eucerin Original Healing Rich Cream, Eucerin Advanced Repair Cream and L'occitane 25% Shea Butter Rich Body Cream.

My skin and hair needs thick, rich, hydrating and moisturizing products. The skin part is easy, the hair is a whole other struggle. Hair wise, I have wasted some much time and money on various hair products that didn't work on my 4c textured hair or they gave a bad rash or even acne.

Finding "fragrance free" hair products is so hard. Just two weeks ago, I was searching various Beauty Supply stores, WalMart locations, Amazon and online retailers and some products are discontinued, out of stock or simply too expensive. Hundreds, probably thousands of hair products have popular, growth promoting ingredients but when it comes to fragrance free, I know of less than 10 and that really sucks.

I have a hard time finding hair products with no fragrance added and I make sure to read the label front to back or specifically research products with no fragrance. Some of the ones I found are Design Essentials, Free & Clear, Kristin Ess, FragFre, Oyin Handmade Whipped Shea Butter, Shea Moisture Fragrance Free Extra-Mild Baby collection, Koils by Natural Fragrance Free Shealoe collection, Miss Jessie's Curl Pudding (No nonsense Formula) and JessiCurl No Fragrance Added collection.

Having super sensitive skin while going through trials and errors with my face, body or hair when it comes to building a great and effective skincare and hair care routine takes a lot of time and money but because I've been on this journey for so long I know and can recommend what's effective and beneficial for me that may work for others. So I guess you can say it's a blessing and curse...