HOW SWITCHING UP YOUR HAIR CARE WITH PLANTS MATTER

Humans have relied on plants for thousands of years to feed, heal and condition our bodies. We’ve pointed this out in the stories of our Active Ingredients, but since humans discovered how to extract elements like natural oils from plants, hair care, in particular, has never been the same. Primitive techniques such as roasting and grinding plants gave way to technologies like cold pressing that do the job in the blink of an eye.

In the last hundred years, humans got even more clever by using science to isolate plant’s nutritious compounds and ultimately recreating them as synthetics in the lab. If you look at the ingredients list of some of the top haircare brands in the market today, almost all of their ingredients are either scientifically isolated or synthetically based on plants or fungi. Sure, isolated and synthetically produced compounds have a place in our world. But when it comes to hair care, these processes end up producing ingredients that look nutritious but hardly pass the pub test – think broccoli that’s deep-fried and drenched in sauce – you really want to call that “healthy”? The dozens of vitamins and minerals naturally found in plants can be whittled down to just one or two in this process.

At Wuli, our products are crafted to benefit hair with every compound each plant we use in our formulas has to offer. Here’s some info on why we avoid lab-made synthetics and choose whole plant, naturally sourced ingredients in our formulas.

Raw Shea Butter

FOR HAIR CARE

You can have a hair styler with the cleanest set of isolated and synthetic ingredients out there, but if it does nothing more than apply a faint scent or a weak hold, what’s the point? Plant botanicals have fortunately stood the test of time in proving to be super effective to address these challenges. Modern products like Wuli’s range have harnessed the power of plants in ways our ancestors could have never imagined. The rich antioxidants, vitamins and minerals in plants achieve new heights of impact when blended with other plants.

For example, when oils from Argan, Marula and Jojoba plants come together, hair is instantly coated with three times the quantity of vitamin’s C and E. This means hair (and scalp) gets three times the fighting power for reducing hair loss and boosting hair growth, three times the anti-oxidants for stimulating a healthy scalp and more. Plant-based haircare products basically support your hair and scalp’s natural processes, with results being stronger and healthier hair that’s easy to style and maintain well into the next day.

Some good examples of this are our CURL CREAM, MATTE BALM and SHINE BALM solutions. Formulated not just for moisturising and providing a textured finish, but also to easily give hair the protection needed to face whatever condition that world throws its way.

 

Wuli Grooming Shea Butter Tub

FOR YOUR SANITY

With literally centuries of research conducted, plants are well and truly tested and validated for safety and efficacy. Most hair care products these days are jam-packed with questionable ingredients. Fortunately in Australia, rules and regulations are constantly updated by the T.G.A (Therapeutic Goods Administration) to force companies to disclose the scientific names of ingredients on product labels, but it’s still up to the consumer to research what each ingredient really is.

Plant-based products make it easy for you to understand exactly what is in the products you buy and the purpose they serve. You’re not putting under-regulated synthetic chemicals on your body and you’re not paying for filler materials. It's not enough that we use ingredients that are safe – they also need to be beneficial to how we care for our hair.

FOR OUR PLANET

Most ingredients found in today’s range of hair care products are pretty harsh on our environment – whether its at the production phase or disposal. Flip over your styling product jar or bottle to the ingredient list and have a good read sometime; if you see (especially in the top 5 ingredients) a mineral oil, toluene, benzene, DEA or anything with “butyl” or “propyl” in the name, surprise, these are all petroleum-based.

Additionally, most ingredients that promote scalp exfoliation are actually made from plastic microbeads. Synthetic ingredients in hair stylers usually have two main purposes: increase product shelf life and add texture to the product (not your hair). Once you’ve washed it out of your hair, those same synthetics build up over time and then, of course, our environment suffers as a result.

When you choose plant-based haircare products, you’re choosing ingredients our wild world naturally gifts us every day. Whatever you choose to awaken the best version of yourself, just make sure what you buy is sustainably and ethically sourced as well as produced. Your planet, loved ones and of course, your hair are sure to thank you for it.

Man Meditating At Stream