With the way current events are playing out in this country and around the world, I like to think that people—or at least Americans—are having a fundamental shift in thinking about our ideals and priorities. From the recent economic crisis to the “Dateline”-style exposure of everything from the healthcare industry to how our food is made, it seems that people are ditching their former complicated ideals for a simpler, more orthodox way of looking at and living in the world. One example is the spending trend following the financial crisis in this country. Once ardent buyers of everything we could touch just as long as our handy credit cards were in a nearby pocket or purse, many Americans are now done with sophisticated ways to incur debt in light of the simplicity of spending cash only when you can afford it. This trend of “pairing down” is seen even in our most basic need to eat, as the movement for *gasp* making meals at home with simple, unprocessed ingredients continues to gather steam.Though we as African-American women can sometimes find our reality slightly deviated from the mainstream of our non-Black American counterparts, I would argue that this “back to the basics” revolution is manifesting itself in our culture as well. The biggest indication of this is obviously with the natural hair movement. After realizing that (1) our hair is beautiful and worthy to be worn as it is and (2) all of these processes to make our hair different than what it is naturally is both expensive and impractical, Black women all over the world have “gone natural”. While I readily accept this shift in thinking for our community and encourage anyone who will listen to proudly wear their natural hair, my question is whether or not it is worth it to go natural a second time. That is…Should natural haired women also make the leap to using natural products for their hair?[caption id="attachment_264" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Photo Credit: Newyork808"]

[/caption]The above may seem like a random assumption at first glance, but many women within the “natural hair” movement are staunch “naturalist” not only with their hair, but what they put on it. Say what you want about the Whole-Foods-Shopping-Yoga-Class-Taking-Pooka-Shell-Wearing-Poetry-Show-Attending stereotype of Black women with natural hair, but regardless of what we do to our hair, I think we all can admit that going natural tends to spark an introspective look at our personal health and what we do to our bodies. All I’m asking is whether or not the logical conclusion of a Black woman’s natural hair journey is to start using natural hair products. In fact, I would say women with natural hair fall squarely into three friendly, but distinct camps: those who choose products based on its effectiveness for their hair, those who choose products based on the ingredients contained in the product, and those who consider a little bit of both.As someone whose own “holy grail” hair products consist of both natural (coconut oil, Kinky Curly Knot Today Leave-In) and commercial (Eco Styling Gel, Aussie Moist Conditioner) products, I’d have to say that I fall into the last camp. My interest in the subject recently piqued, however, when I wondered whether my new devotion to unprocessed food posed a conflict of interest with the slew of commercial products residing on my vanity. “Going organic” in terms of my grocery shopping was always a hard sale to me as organic seemed neither all that beneficial nor affordable. It wasn’t until learning about the American food industry (too complicated to discuss here but I encourage everyone to see the movie Food, Inc.) and actually giving truly natural ingredients a go did I see how much of a difference it really made. Sitting on my bed staring at the dozens of plastic bottles with effective, yet chemical-laden ingredients, I wondered if I was undoing all of the good done by my healthy eating habits.Furthermore, was I being a hypocrite by admonishing women with relaxers for using such an unhealthy product in the name of beauty while I myself slathered on Propylparaben and Triethanolamine daily? I took my search to the library where I checked out the book, The Body Toxic by Nena Baker. While the author's work was thorough and did a great job of exposing some pretty scary facts about the level of exposure to harmful chemicals we receive on a daily basis, I finished the book unconvinced that eliminating the use of all my commercial products would have that much of an impact. According to the book, a toxicology reading of the average American reads so high just by the chemicals found in everything from paint to plastic bottles, that most of the toxins that we carry will remain with us even after our deaths.After all of the above thinking and searching, I still remain steadfast in my position to try to use natural products whenever possible, but not at the expense of the product’s effectiveness for my hair. Yes, I know that I might literally be taking Eco Styling Gel with me to the grave for some of the chemicals found in it, but I can’t say I’m convinced that my commercial hair products will have a greater effect on my overall health than my eating or other activities that I do. But that’s just the personal opinion of this natural chick…what do you think?Should Naturals…well, go Natural? Leave your comments below.