I Draw The Line At.....Edge Control

Fancy Free Hair & Skin started as as consultant company back in 2013. It was called Fancy Free
Natural Hair Consults. My accountant told me that I needed to start a home based business and I was getting sooooo many questions about my hair routine and the products I was using that I decided that I would sit down with these ladies for a nominal fee of $20. That fee included one hour of one on one conversation with me, a sample of the product I was making for myself and a personalized hair care plan developed to help them reach their hair goals.
NOTE: Yes, the price has gone up but only to pay for the cost of the nutritional supplements I now include in the Natural Hair Consultation package.

A lot of my consult clients would contact me about purchasing more of the product I had given them. I'd just give them recipe - which I have tweeked since then. Fast forward to 2015, my goodt goodt girlfriend tried my product and simply said "Sell this". I trust her judgment and since I already had a few people asking for it, I started to sell it. The rest is history, well....more like, history in the making.

Since then, I've launched the Exclusives line of Shea Pomade for Hair & Skin, lipbalm, Fancy Free Milk for Hair & Skin, Alumium Free Roll-On Deodorant, and, everyone's favorite, Aluminum Free Solid Deodorant. I launched these products based on customer feedback and inquiries. However, I do not make products that I don't use on myself or that my family wouldn't use. I have at least one more product in the pipeline within the next year and it's NOT edge control.

In the beginning of my transition to natural hair, I did try to find the perfect product to lay my edges down nice and smooth but none that I ever tried were a lasting solution. My edges would end up looking just how they looked without edge control, just greasier. After spending about $150 over the years trying different products, I asked myself "Why am I doing this?". I didn't have a real answer, so I quit trying to control my edges.



As it becomes apparent that I can develop any product I want to, more and more customers are asking me about edge control, usually natural newbies. My answer is "Not gonna happen." Here's why.....

1. I don't want to be controlled and neither do my edges. I've always needed to operate in a space that gave me creative freedom to accomplish my goals/tasks/assignments in a way that feels good to me. When it comes to my hair, I had a much better relationship with my natural texture when I decided to let it show me what it wanted to do instead of trying to force it to do something it's not designed to do. I feel the same about edges. Let them be free to do what they want. Otherwise, they will always go against you.
2. People are losing their edges as a result of trying to control them. Most African-American women and girls suffer from traction alopecia (lost edges) because they are trying to get a look that's just not meant to be.....smooth, straight edges. Pony tails pulled tight. Braids snatched. Weaves tight. 
3. As I dive deeper into educating myself on the history of caring for kinky textured hair, product development and beauty standards, I have begun to find words like "smooth" and "control" appalling considering that my kinky hair is not ever going to be smooth. At least not in it's natural state. I pride myself on my wild hair. I will brush my edges when I pull my hair up but I never go out of the way to have them "laid" because...well, see number 1.
4. I don't encourage the use of edge control. I don't support what edge "control" represents. (Yes. I could be reading into it too much but there is so much subliminal messaging and brain washing with the beauty industry, I'm going to stick with my story) And most importantly, I don't use edge control. Therefore, I will not be developing edge control or carrying any "edge control" like products.

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This is my personal preference. I do think that toothbrush styled, swirly edges are pretty. I just know that for me, it's a waste of time. So, I don't do it. The funniest thing about this topic is, most people who have asked me about edge control in the past almost always come back to tell me that they understand why I don't use it. LOL! Right! Cuz it doesn't work. So why bother?

The name of my business, Fancy Free, represents both me and my products. I am fancy and free. A free spirit. I have a hard time conforming to norms that aren't true to who I am. I feel like Jehovah made us all perfectly beautiful and it is my mission to help everyone see their natural beauty and the beauty of individuality. What works for the goose doesn't always work for the gander. That's why it's for the goose. Let your hair be fancy and free. You'll be surprised how much stress is alleviated from your life once you're not trying to "control" it and make it do something it not designed to do.

Shameless Plug Alert:

Fancy Free Hair & Skin manufactures quality products for hair and skin, as well as provides natural hair consults for women who would like assistance on their natural hair journey. Our motto is "Keeping you fancy and free of chemicals." Visit our website, www.fancyfreehairandskin.com, to see a full range of our products and services. Sign up for our mailing list to receive natural hair tips and stay up to date on sales and the latest happenings with Fancy Free.

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