Mixed Chicks Hair Products: Is It Too Late for ME to Get New Parents?

If you read this post, you may have extrapolated the fact that my husband is black and I’m white. Which makes our children half-black and half-white, aka “mixed.” True story, when Al first started hinting around to me about marriage, the first thing I said was, “But Al! What if we have a daughter? I won’t know what to do with her hair!”

And I was SO RIGHT. My daughter has this amazing head of thick blonde spiral curls that pretty much blows any hair I’ve ever seen anywhere right outta the water for its sheer beauty and uniqueness. It seems to invite comment from strangers everywhere we go. In contrast, I have this fine, limp, mousy straight hair that just hangs there, so tackling Bean’s hair, which has a life of its own, has intimidated me pretty much since day one.

Still, with Al’s help and a ton of experimentation, trial and error, and way more tears than I care to recall (hers AND mine), I’ve stumbled into a decent hair care routine for Bean’s lovely curls that keeps them semi-soft, semi-controlled, and semi-un-rat’s-nest-like. But I’ve always wondered if I was doing everything I could to bring out the best in her awesome tresses and take care of them so they stay healthy until I can finally (and happily turn) them over to her.

Which is why when I heard about a hair care product line called Mixed Chicks, my ears perked right up, and I scooted myself over to their website and did a little digging around.

And fell in love. With Kim Etheredge and Wendi Levy. For their sheer brilliance, their beauty, and their honest and humorous assessment of us clueless white moms out here trying to take care of our mixed children’s curls in a way that wouldn’t make us look as totally inept as we felt. Kim and Wendi understood my quandry, but stopped short of laughin’ at me. And that just felt GOOD.

What I learned is that these two beautiful ladies have worked together to create a line of products that combines all of the right ingredients for “mixed hair.” Their first and most popular product is their Mixed Chicks Leave-In Conditioner, and it was the one I was most excited to try. But they also very kindly sent me their Shampoo, Deep Conditioner and new Hair Silk to try as well.

Thanks to the awesome instructional videos on the MixedChicks.net website, which Bean and I viewed countless times prior to receiving our Mixed Chicks goodies, we knew just what to do when they arrived, and wasted no time in doing it.

Here’s a picture of Bean’s hair BEFORE we used our new Mixed Chicks products:

The Front

and The Back

Now, in our defense, we had just taken her hair out of a pony tail way up on the top of her head, so it was even a bit more than characteristically wild. But see how it looks kinda dry and fuzzy? That’s typical of her hair after she’s slept on it or even just played hard.

Here we are after shampooing with the yummy-smelling, build-up-removing Mixed Chick Shampoo and applying the thick, rich Deep Conditioner.

Here she is pretending she’s Wendi, in one of the videos, carefully running her fingers through her curls to get conditioner on every strand. I cracked up when she started doing this. She was also narrating, just like Wendi in the video. SO FUNNY.

After we rinsed, we got to do the best part. We carefully applied the Leave-In Conditioner to Bean’s still-very-wet hair, in four sections.

It felt so nice and clean – not heavy and oily or sticky like some of the products I’ve tried. And it was easy to work through her (nicely detangled, thanks to the Deep Conditioner and my trusty wide-tooth comb) hair from root to ends.

Now I want you to look at this, y’all. Here she is right after we got done applying the Leave-In.

The Front

And The Back

And most importantly, here’s Bean with her hair fully air-dried, AFTER A NAP.

The Front

And The Back

Do you see the improvement in the overall texture of her hair? How shiny it is, and how the curls are controlled but they look soft and lush? YES, I SAID LUSH.

And it stays that way, too. I put it up in a loose scrunchy overnight to keep the curls from getting all ratty, and down it comes in the morning, soft and shiny and pretty again. To control it between washings, I spritz it with water and reapply a dab or two of the Leave-In Conditioner.

Such great stuff. Really, really great.   A godsend for this clueless white Mama!

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Tagged as: bi-racial hair products, curly hair products, Mixed Chicks