Hi everyone, I am Natasha Brink founder of Afrodite Organics. Growing up, I had very thick hair, Type 4C as we would call it today. Not knowing how to treat my hair, at the very tender age of 5, my family resorted to using chemical relaxers and straighteners to 'manage' my hair. As I grew into my teens, I continued to relax my hair and the fashion style at the time was to wear your hair flat in a tight bun with lots of gel. Over the years these tight hairstyles including the relaxer, started to eat away at my hairline in the front as well as the 2 sides at the back. I now know that this is called 'traction alopecia.'

For many years I lived with a bald patch on the right side at the back of my head, a receding hairline (8 head as I am sometimes teased) and continued thinning of my beautiful thick hair, I had as a child. Determined to find a solution for my issue, I turned to the internet for help. I recall sitting in a waiting room back in 2019 and my google search was 'herbs that will grow your hair' I stumbled across this influencer who had the most beautiful Type 3 curly hair. Her name was 'Curly Proverbs' and she used Ayurvedic herbs to grow her beautiful mane. Inspired to grow my own hair, I decided then an there that I will stop chemically relaxing my hair and follow an organic approach to growing my natural hair.

At the time of my life changing revelation, my two daughters were also on a similar journey. My eldest, Lamese who was 18 at the time, had also been relaxing her hair since she was 13 (peer pressure to have long sleek hair) had been considering 'going natural' for a year already. I was surprised to find out that she had been 'transitioning' for the last year. I later learned that transitioning meant making a decision not to use chemical relaxers and letting your natural hair grow out while you continuously trim the chemically straightened ends off. Lamese's natural hair type is type 4a and I happily decided to join her on her quest for natural long curly hair.

My younger daughter Keisha (14 at the time) has a different hair type to me and Lamese. Coming from a mixed raced family this is not uncommon. Keisha has a mixture of Type 2 wavy and Type 3 curly hair. She never used any chemicals on her hair but blow dried and straight ironed her hair on a regular basis as it was more cool at the time. So in this time of our life changing decision, Keisha was experiencing scalp issues, severe dandruff and flaking. Her goal was also to transition from heat damaged hair back to her beautiful curls. So as a team, we all decided to take the leap of faith and 'return natural'

At the time of this decision, we were also inspired by the world wide movement to embrace one's natural hair. We saw many adverts with curly and coily hair and definitely wanted to be part of the hype. We started with international natural hair products at the time, brands such as 'Cantu' and 'Shea Moisture' were very popular amongst naturals.

One of my biggest challenges with using natural hair products that were on the market at the time was that my hair consistently felt dry and continued to fall. I always had to add extra oils and essential oils to our products. Keisha's scalp issue was resolved only when we started adding essential oils to her current natural hair shampoo and Lamese's hair could not be properly detangled unless we add more oils to her detangling lotion.

As for me, the shampoos had stripped all the natural oils from my hair so much that eventually i had decided to just wash my hair with conditioner and follow with a hot oil treatment for my wash day. I tried co-wash at the time it was Tresemme' but also too harsh on my hair. I had a huge task ahead of me and put lots of hours into trying to understand natural hair, why it behaves the way it does, what are the best solutions to maximize health and growth etc..

A few months into our journey, I had been mixing DIY concoctions in my kitchen from herbal teas for hydration, to Ayurvedic deep conditioning hair masks to bentonite clay detox masks. We had worked out a routine that worked for us and slowly moved away from shop bought natural hair products.

In 2020, Lamese and I decided to move away from 'transitioning' and do the 'Big chop' This is a process of cutting off the chemically damaged hair completely. This was a big step for us as all we knew at this stage was how to take care of 2 hair textures (virgin coily and relaxed). We later discovered that the process of transitioning had actually stunted our natural hair journey and that we could have been much further along had we initially started with the big chop in the first place.

At the time, I had advanced from DIY to mixing my own hair products which will help grow our natural hair. It was a 3 step process to growing your natural hair. Step 1 Hydration, Step 2 Growth Oil, Step 3 moisture butter. This was apart from our washday process which consisted of bentonite clay detox and oil treatments. This routine helped grow our natural hair and within a year we had already reached shoulder length. Success!

At the end of year 1, I was on a continuing learning process of trying to formulate hair products to cater for our ever evolving needs. One thing I learnt is that the oil content of natural hair products on the market is not as much as the products that I had hand-mixed and this is what sets us apart from the rest.

By the end of year 2 of our journey, I had developed and tested a wide range of different products on different hair types such as the conditioning cleanser that will not strip your hair, leave in conditioner used as a detangling lotion to help with the detangling process, deep conditioning mask, moisture milk, curling cream and curling jelly for beautiful type 3 curls and type 4 coily hair.

In the process of developing the products, we also learned from our own personal hair journeys on how to implement a healthy hair care routine based on our hair types. These routines have essentially been passed on to our customers.

We aspire to encourage men and women of all ages to embrace their natural hair and wear it with pride. Through our range of natural organic hair products, we reinforce the importance of using natural organic products that are free from harmful chemicals such as sulphates, parabens, silicones and petroleum. These chemicals contribute to stripping out the natural moisture of the hair and scalp. In addition, they form an artificial layer over the hair stand, thus preventing moisture from penetrating deep within the hair strand. In the long run, use of chemical based products would lead to a range of hair issues such as hair fall, hair breakage, dandruff or flaking scalp and will contribute to dry, dull hair.

Our products are currently hand-mixed by myself using the finest quality organically certified natural cold pressed oils, butters, natural herbs and essential oils. They can be used on all curly and coily hair types and can even be used on relaxed hair if you would like to follow a healthy haircare regime. The products can be used on men and women of all ages and is safe for use on your little ones as well.

We endeavor to use our knowledge of our personal hair journeys to encourage people of all ages to follow a healthy hair care routine which will then lead to healthy, strong, long beautiful natural hair. We do this by continuously posting natural hair care regimes on our social media platforms and having a comprehensive blog section that will assist you on every step of your natural hair journey.

For a obligation free consultation on how to take care of your natural hair, please do not hesitate to go through our blog section for a range of different issues that affect your natural hair or send us a message on our WhatsApp line via the icon that pops up on the website and we will be more than happy to assist. Hope to see you in the shop soon!

Love Always

Natasha