At long last, the conditioner gods have deigned to smile on me. I have, after many, many years wandering in the shampoo wilderness, stumbled across milk and honey. Well, honey. Alaffia Shea & Honey Nourishing Conditioner (a mere $11 for 8oz) has made my hair soft and shiny. I'd even go so far as to say it looks like a young person's hair, or hair that hasn't (as mine has) been chemically treated.

I posted the other day that I came across Alaffia in Whole Foods and the Shea Butter Antioxidant Body Cream is my new favorite hand cream. Alaffia is big on shea butter and sources it from a cooperative in Togo, West Africa. A portion of Alaffia's sales goes to helping African communities.

Alaffia Shea & Honey Nourishing Conditioner has a really good antioxidant for promoting hair growth, rooibus (a South African native plant also known as red tea). There is African wild honey and a mild de-tangler that has an alarmingly chemically-sounding name, behentrimonium methosulfate, but actually comes from rapeseed oil. There is panthenol (pro-vitamin B), oat protein, a few essential oils and a nice, mild preservative, potassium sorbate.

If I am absolutely honest and own up to being the First World snob that I am, I must say that the packaging looks like a hair spray that could be bought in Poland in the 1970s. That aside, Alaffia is making great products and I get to assuage my guilt by donating to Bicycles for Education.