At some point I came to realize that in the strictly gender-segregated American south, the weekly practice of stopping at the barbershop (I don’t think that once-common breed of southern man made appointments) was the male equivalent of my Aunt Ruth’s Friday standing appointment for a blue bubble lift over at Gladys Bishop’s beauty parlor. Gossip was/is a major draw at both, making the habit, for both sexes, the rural precursor to Twitter for postwar, nosy neighbors. The largest revelation came, however, when I learned that the slick wave sitting atop Doyle’s head was never washed. Apparently, it was thought that as one worked new product in daily, the dirt would kind of comb out of the hair, which was relatively short.
With all of this in mind late one night, and in need of better hair care than $20 bottles of Bumble & Bumble, I ordered Wen by Chaz Dean, yes, from the Guthy Renker infomercial. I am becoming my grandmother. When the commercial came on, a friend and I were giggling about Dean, whom you may recall as Jeffrey Lewis‘ favorite client on Bravo‘s Flipping Out. When his detergent-free, one-product approach began to make sense, we stopped laughing and punched up the 800 number.
*one hour after order arrived* Said friend and I have “lathered” up (the product is a cream, worked into wet hair, producing no lather). The mailer contained one 16-ounce bottle of Sweet Almond Mint hair cleanser, a 2-ounce tube of Styling Creme, a 2-ounce jar of Moist Intensive Hair Treatment, and a heavy, wide-toothed comb. We were apprehensive about the fragrance, but it was barely perceptible, and pleasant. We followed the instructions and applied the cream in sections, to wet hair, massaged, left in for five minutes, and rinsed. We did add a bit more to the ends after a towel dry just for kicks. Lo and behold, an hour later, we both have a clean, conditioned mop of happy hair, free of sodium laurel sulphate, ammonium laurel sulfate, and detergent. It will take a few weeks to see if this is true love, but so far Wen joins pin curls, cold cream, and silk hosiery as the latest discovery that sometimes the old ways are the best ways.
This article appears in February 3 • 2012.