Afrobella of the Week: Mahisha Dellinger, Creator of Curls
I’ll probably always be buying and trying new curly hair products, but I’ve found my Holy Grail for now. My hair absolutely craves Curls Milkshake.
It leaves my tresses more moisturized and perfectly defined than any other product. After I reviewed a batch of Curls products, I became hooked. Now I’m dying to try the rest of the line. Many of their products sound like dreamy desserts – Coconut Sublime Moisture Max, Whipped Cream, Curl Souffle, yum! My love for the Milkshake drove me to learn more about the brilliant woman behind this amazing stuff.
Bellas, meet Mahisha Dellinger, the super-clever afrobella who founded Curls.
Like many of us, Mahisha had a crazy hair journey. Back when she was growing up, there were no readily available products to nurture and style her out-of-control mane. And the products that were available were chock full o’ chemicals.
“Do you know that I used to use grease and water on my hair? Grease was the main stay on all ethnic aisles. I didn’t know any better! And the white owned hair care companies that marketed to us surely didn’t care of the long term affects of synthetic oils, they were all about the mighty dollar!” Mahisha declares.
It took the exhortations of a bona fide afrobella to bring Mahisha around to natural hair care.
“It wasn’t until my high school years that I discovered pure oils and natural remedies. A good friend of mine was 100% natural — a purist if you will — and she sparked my interest. I am 100% naturally curly…now. However, I died and fried my hair in junior high and high school! I had every hair color you can imagine, AND I used hairspray daily!” Man, that brought back my own high school memories.
I got my first set of highlights when I was thirteen and I thought I was so bad ass. If I could talk to my high school self, I’d beg myself to leave the dye alone — hot pink, orange, and midnight blue streaks were not a good look for me. But of course, that conversation would probably go along the lines of Cartman’s conversations with his past self on that awesome time-travel episode of South Park. Which is to say, I’d tell my future self to mind her own business. “Whatever, I do what I want!”
Many of Curls’ products are coconut based, which appeals mightily to this Caribbean girl. Coconut oil works wonders for my hair. There are lots of other natural ingredients that Mahisha thinks are key to her products’ success.
In the eleven Curls products and 7 Curly Q products currently available, Mahisha loves to include super-moisturizing certified organic aloe leaf juice, vitamin rich organic sunflower oil, Chinese Hu Wu Shu extract, Japanese green tea extract, calendula, coconut milk, mango and shea butter. No wonder my hair drinks this stuff up so fast — it all sounds like a concoction I could possibly drink as is!
Mahisha shared the products that work best for her, and I’m thinking of changing up my hair care routine with the seasons like she does.
“I have so many favorites; it truly depends on the occasion, time of year, and my current hair care needs. For example, in the summer months I cannot live without Curls Goddess Glaze for frizz free curls with all day holding power. When my curls are just not quite up to par and are in need of instant recovery, I reach for our deep treatment, Curl Ecstasy, and my microhaircap! However I use, one product on a daily basis… Quenched Curls Moisturizer. It is indeed my foundational product, “underwear for my hair.†It refreshes, revives, and protects curls. It’s now formulated with sunscreen, so it is the perfect curl protector,” she gushed.
For those of you who have specific hair concerns, Curls also offers custom regime kits, just for you Transitioning Divas who need to do some one-stop-shopping.
Curls products smell absolutely heavenly, and now Mahisha’s offering Body By Curls, vanilla and brown sugar body wash and frosting that sounds beyond delicious. Six new Curls products are getting ready to hit the shelves, and I’m so curious to find out what they are!
I’ve been planning to write about Mahisha and Curls for a long time now, but this particular interview became especially timely due to the recent New York Times article by Randal C. Archibold, “I Have Taken on My Daughter’s Hair and Won.”
Mr. Archibold’s beautifully written piece evoked memories of my own dad struggling with my troublesome locks and incessant wriggling as a child. It’s definitely a sign of the times that Mr. Archibold considers the politics of black hair as much as he does:
“With some limitations, we give Lyla a say in her hairstyle. One braid? Two, three, four? Part in the middle or on the side? Sometimes she prefers to let it all hang out, curly, frizzy and wild. When we eventually braid it again, fretting over those knots and dirt accumulating in the thicket, I wonder if we are then crimping her style, making a political statement?
Who knew hair could be this complicated?”
Um, my hand’s raised. And I don’t recall getting a say in how I wanted my hair combed, either (feel free to add a comment, familia). At that age, what with my Diana Ross aspirations, I’d have voted to wear my hair in a big bushy free form style every day. I would have gladly been a mini-Chaka Khan, strutting across my school’s playing field.
I checked out Mr. Archibold’s list of hair essentials for his little afrobella, and it’s here that I must speak up. From jump, this is a bad list for parents of naturally curly kids. TCB Naturals has nothing natural about it. Mineral oil and petrolatum are the first two ingredients, and they are notoriously bad and unhealthy ingredients. In fact, petrolatum has been banned in European Union beauty products because of its carcinogenic properties. Mr. Archibold could learn quite a bit from Mahisha Dellinger. She’s got an awesome children’s product line, Curly Q’s for Kids
, and she works closely with adopted families and biracial kids.
Mahisha has brilliant advice for any parent of a black child. This goes out especially to the Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies who adopt children with naturally curly hair that is the opposite of their own.
“DO NOT SHAMPOO YOUR CHILD’S HAIR DAILY! DO NOT RELAX YOUR CHILD’S HAIR WHEN SHE IS STILL A TODDLER! I cannot believe how many stories I hear about parents doing this. I also get questions after the fact, “how do I repair the damage I have done?†Seek out quality products, and advice, PERIOD!” she asserts.
I had to ask her, how early should parents start styling their little afrobellas’ hair? Apparently, my niece Dominique needs this stuff like, yesterday.
“As soon as their curls turn from naturally silky to somewhat dry, that is when you know it is time to add a Curly Q styler to their regime. For my son, his curls turned at about 9 months,” says Mahisha.
Besides admiring her product line, I also admire Mahisha as a business woman. She took a commonplace problem among black and mixed race women, and turned her solution into a successful business enterprise. She offers great advice to other aspiring businesswomen. Basically, her watchwords are “due diligence.”
“It is important to know your business inside and out. Start out researching your industry. Join a professional association in that industry. Seek out a mentor,” she suggests.
Mahisha’s business acumen is truly to be admired, and her products are absolutely to die for if you ask me. Curls Milkshake definitely works wonders for my hair texture — all these glowing reviews definitely aren’t wrong! And at $17 for an 8 oz tub, it won’t break the bank. I think it’s a must have for every afrobella.
Congratulations, Mahisha! You’re Afrobella of the Week!
Category: Hair
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I have 4A hair with some 4B. Its really hard to deal with sometimes. I have a few renegade straight hairs that are on the top of my head and the back of my head. I have never used heat of any kind on my hair. I guess its just genetics. None the less I determined my hair type by visiting this site: http://www.naturallycurly.com/curl411/types.php
I live by jojoba oil and the leave in shea moisturizer from sheamoisture.com. It smells great and leaves my hair soooo soft.
Also thanks bella for stepping in and outing the fire. I don’t have many black female friends and that is a part of the reason why i love this site. I wish everyone peace and happiness. I also wish Ms. Mahisha prosperity. I got a facebook hair group to add you as one of their top sites about black hair!! Keep up the good work Trini!
Can anyone please help? I have type 4B hair and I am wearing braids now because my hair is just simply not manageable! In order to workout I have to have braids otherwise I would be “hot combing” my hair everyday. I can’t go back to the perm because no matter which perm I use or person I go to my scale is always getting burned! I am now ready to just shave it all off because I am tired of it. However, i really can’t do that because of the office enviroment I work in. I saw this young lady come into our office one day and her hair was so AWESOME! I ask if she had a perm and she said no and said her hair is all natural and her stylist flat irons it. So I tried to do this at home and ya’ll….I looked like “chucky”. I live in Atlanta. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!
what is type 4b hair ???
I do not know about mandhisa’s product , but i will look for and try .
But phyto products work great for me .. a little expensive but the de frizz stuff, and that conditioner in the blue round pot,is off the chain!!! luv it .
i like your site afrobella . I think u can’t get upset with the comments . People are allowed to say what they want , if u don’t like what they say , just ban them , there is absolutely NO REASON FOR YOU TO ANSWER THEM BACK. Its the internet baby , crazy’s are everywhere!
I was terribly disappointed when I read the comments trashing Curls. I personally haven’t tried her products, but if she’s in business then obviously she’s has some good enough products to stay in business. Everything doesn’t work for everyone-that’s why there’s a variety. This makes me question what this company Mixed Chicks is all about. I have seen people go out of business because of internet trash talk. And you would think that our own people would be a better support to each other. Regardless, Mixed Chicks may have been living down this product review that I read on another blog.
http://theorganicbeautyexpert.typepad.com/the_organic_beauty_expert/2006/11/mixed_chicks_le.html
But, even though, this reviewer didn’t have a positive experience with this person, she still managed to give one of her products a decent review, later.
http://theorganicbeautyexpert.typepad.com/the_organic_beauty_expert/2007/02/m.html
It’s problems like this that makes me want to refrain from launching my product line. I feel that there is room for everyone, and this backstabbing is unneccessary.
Respect the Positive,
Veronica
I just had to go out and get some Curls products right? !! Just had to go see what all the fuss was about ………right!! I’ve tried Coconut Sublime Moisture max Curlicious Curl Cleansing cream (veyry good) my hair pretty much sucked up all the product. Also bought but havent tried Milkshake and Curl Euphoria Elixir. The two products I tried so far have made my hair extremely soft and manageable. I’ve been transitioning for about a year now and tried numerous products as I am a product junkie, will attempt to try and find what will work best for my hair. Curls work fine on my mixture of “everything!” hair. =)
@ RJ–
I agree with you 100%. I’ve stopped using shampoos containing SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) and SLES (sodium laureth sulfate) and my hair is doing wonderfully. I have sisterlocks, so I can’t try any of the wonderful moisturizing products listed here (yet), so the only way to keep my hair in some sort of order is to forgo the cheap, harsh, cleaning ingredients.
Ladies– READ YOUR INGREDIENTS LIST. If SLS or SLES is listed in the top 5 ingredients, run like the wind!! Personally (I’m no expert), i think that a shampoo can have all of the moisturizng/botanical/aloe/ylang ylang/dead sea minerals/asian frou-frou/expensive ingredients it wants. If it cleans by srtipping (SLS, SLES), then waht’s the point???
Bellas….who are questioning their type of hair, what to do, need help…I am telling you go to the internet..do your research, stop using the harsh shampoos, like sunsail said, read your ingredients list, there are so many hair sites out there ..take a little from each. Hair blogs…Fotki.com, has pictures..you can find your hair twin there…email that bella and ask her for help with your situation…share dolls share so the God blessed tresses we have can be loved. Our hair has been drama for so many years..I am dealing with alopecia but still I am loving my nappy, curly head for real. I love how it shrinks and gets longer and the different spirals and curls and frizzy bits. I see my mom and my dad and a tiny bit of my big pop all up in there. I have to love it..its me.
I don’t really have any comments on the Curls product line but I wanted to address Emily.
Emily, I strongly encourage you to visit http://www.nappturality.com to get you started on working with your natural hair in its natural state. If you’re trying to manage your hair the way you did when it was straight, you’re going to have problems because that methodology doesn’t work for our hair (I’m mostly 4b too). Also while you’re there, you’ll meet a LOT of naturals who wear their hair natural in all kinds of work environments. The notion that we can’t wear our hair “out” is a MYTH, as is the notion that it’s unmanageable without heat and/or chemicals. Good luck…hope to see you there…
I think a lot of the discussion here is pretty silly. Not all products work for all hair types, despite what the makers of those products claim. Mahisha shouldn’t take offense to someone suggesting an alternate product for that very reason. I have very kinky hair and I choose products based on ingredients, price and good ol’ fashioned trial and error. If someone recommends a product, I may try it out. If it turns out to be a waste of money, so be it. That’s the risk of trying new products.
I have very little to do today at the office, and I’ve actually had time to read through most of these comments. Overall, there is a lot of helpful information that came out, despite a few people’s attempts to bash a product line. I appreciate all the feedback you bellas were willing to offer about shampoos and other links for assistance. I’m most definitely going to make use of the info I grabbed off of here. I wear my hair natural a lot, but I like alternating styles and go straight (hot-comb or curling iron) from time to time as well. This results in my hair drying out,and causes breakage—so much so that I recently had to cut my hair, which was at mid-back in length, and currently wear a sholder lenght hairdo. I’m guessing this has happened to me from the style extremes and different oils/conditioners I juggle between to keep up each style. In regards to the products that afrobella was spotlighting, if the product works great for you girl, I’m willing to give it a try, but I’ll keep my options open, because like someone else already pointed out, there’s so much variety–I might give mixed chicks a try too, I like having so much to choose from. That being said I don’t understand the point of product bashing in a case like this—nor do I really understand the purpose of going “toe to toe” with people who bash your product. Something about it just doesn’t present a rational and professional image. I guess I would expect a business person to have enough confidence in their product to let it speak for itself, and since she pointed out that she didn’t need to “copy” or look to small companies for ideas, because she was aspiring to be like the “heavy hitters” of the industry, then in same interest, what since does it make to go after “small minded” comments that bash your product? Many people out here still enjoy having their own opinion, so if they want to try your product they will, just keep doing what you do and don’t sweat the small stuff.
P.S.-Afobella, BTW, I love your spirit and your site!
Phew! Talk about drama!! First of all Afrobella, thank you for the Dellinger/Curls write up, and for allowing all the comments to stand. It amazes me that people who are more than willing to put money in the pockets of huge corporations with questionable products and practices will come down hard and harsh on small business entrepreneurs with excellent intentions and well-formulated products. I am not just talking about Mahisha Dellinger either. This is a phenomenon I have seen 2 or three times in the curly hair world. It is always ugly. I wish these people would save their vitriol for campaigns against “ethnic” companies who use total junk or even harmful but FDA-approved ingredients in their products and market it to the hugely lucrative black hair care market as good stuff. But this is the Internet; Ms. Dellinger should be pleased her product is getting so much blog play.
I am a religous user of Curls/CurlyQ Milkshake (I use them interchangeably). That’s it. I use nothing else from the Curls hair line, although I have tried most of the other products. Milkshake is what works for my hair and it works fabulously. The only protest I feel the need to make is TO NOT BUY WHAT DOES NOT WORK FOR ME. It is absolutely the most powerful move a consumer can make.
I used Milkshake both before and after the product reformulation and have to say I like the new formula slightly better — just slightly because the difference is so minimal. I hated Milkshake when I first tried a sample purchased from http://www.sistasplace.biz. But I picked it up a second time, used it a little differently, and loved it. It is a constant repurchase for me, as is the Body by Curls Vanilla and Brown Sugar frosting.
Hello.
I agree that it is pointless to argue about what did not work and what worked and dispute this and that and so on and so on…POINT IS THIS: Everything does NOT work for EVERYBODY!! Women, we are all as different from each other as the shape of our bodies. So, look, stop bashing other products. You have options…if it does not work…MOVE ON to the next thing. Women we are always trying new & different things until we find what works so, do that.
Thanks
We should spread our money around to all of these niche companies. There is room for all of them to flourish.
Well, I am a white gal, that has RINGLETTS!!!!! UGH…they go frizzy, stand out when the Santa Ana Winds blow here in So. CA. I have fought my curls my whole life. I even straightened my hair….just wanted ONCE to know what it was like to have perfectly STRAIGHT hair and NOT worry about damn “mist” sprayers…..or watering my plants and the spray hitting my hair!! I finally found a product called Ouidad. She has a site you can go to….for ALL nationalities!! http://www.Ouidad.com even if you don’t want her products she tells you everything you have just explained about ppl with curly hair!! DO NOT WASH EVERYDAY!!!!! IF you feel you need to wet your hair, just use your conditioner. Leave a LITTLE bit in your hair to help protect!! Anyway, THANK YOU for this SITE. I think I might try some of the products you have recommended. You do need to change hair care products every now and then. Its GREAT to go NATURAL!!! If God gave it to you…..its for YOU!!!
Thanks again for the site!!!
Hi again……Afrobella, if you give me your name…I would be more than happy to use you as the person that sent me to the site!!! Or if you use that name with them I will just use that! BTW, the Ouidad products are not very expensive. You dont need to use a lot of the product. But, like I said, I am still trying to find a product for when our horrible Santa Ana winds blow. They are VERY dry. In the summer its a hot wind (up to last summer was 110!), in the winter it is usually a cold wind. But ALWAYS drying!!
Thanks Brooke
All this talking trash makes me want to TRY IT!
I would just like to comment on Mahisha’s weave.
This is a life long battle for Mahisha. What you’re doing is nothing new and it’s only inspiring her to keep doing better and better and better while you’re sitting on this forum just to hate on her next move. Go watch Kat Williams, Pimp Chronicle on the hating section and learn from that. Girls always peep behind her to see if she has tracks-it’s HILARIOUS! She does not wear a WEAVE. I know it’s very hard for you haters to believe that, just trust me on this one. Embrace, acknowledge, and accept another beautiful and successful women-afterall, she is the same color as you.
Bless!
I’m a bit late here, almost 2 years lol but have just started using Curls products within the last few months. I have been natural for a couple of years but was getting my hair straigtenend and made a conscious decision to stop around this time last year. But, I LOVE Curls products. They smell wonderful, moisturize my hair, and provide hold WITHOUT making it hard. Many other products such as Kinky Curly Curling Custard give definition but leave the hair hard, which is a look/feel I don’t appreciate. My hair is a mixture of 3C,4A, and 4B. My hair is schizoprenic lol but anyhoo, I think the products are great. I have most of the products in the Curls line and use them all.