Review: Surface Hair Care (Vegan, Organic, Gluten-Free)

“I hope your hair curls naturally, does it?”

“Yes, darling, with a little help from others.”

Oscar Wilde, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

I have spent my life trying to coax curls from my classically Asian stick-straight baby-fine hair. I have used curlers. I have used curling irons. I have had perms, salon-inflicted and self-inflicted and spouse-inflicted, all bad. By the end of the day I always had stick-straight Asian hair. Only now, with frizz.

And then completely out of the blue a few months back, a decade after I’d stopped really caring about my hair at all: waves.

I am now the proud bearer of naturally wavy hair.

I don’t know if it’s hormones (I also now have the acne one associates with being 16; personally, I’d rather have the hips I had then) or the cumulative effect of all the hair coloring I’ve done over the years or just a very effectively multi-tasking haircut, but I’ll take it. And I’ve become somewhat obsessed with how I can encourage the most curl with the least amount of effort.

I may be vain, but I am also lazy.

Given a choice of products to review from Surface Hair Health Art, I went with Taffy Whip— a sculpting cream that texturizes for curly or straight effect.

Now, I have used it to straighten my hair, now that I think about it (meaning I worked it in my hair and then blew it dry by aiming the dryer down the hair shaft. I don’t have the patience for things like straight irons, or hairbrushes) and it did result in nice straight, unfrizzy hair. But I don’t find straight hair interesting so I’m moving on.

Please see Exhibit A: above featured photo. (Yes, the dog is photobombing us and yes, I still have braces.) My hair is usually just like Cassie’s, only frizzy and usually striped with Manic Panic red. I’m overdue for a salon visit.

But on Thanksgiving I had nice curly hair. And all I did was put a dime-sized amount of Taffy Whip on my hands, rub them together, and scrunch it into my hair. It dried about 95% of the way naturally, I repeated the dime-size process again, then hit my hair with the hair dryer on low for about 2 minutes to finish drying. And yippee skippee: bouncy, soft curls that stuck around until the end of the day, withstanding the repeated blasts of heat and humidity from turkey-basting and sweet potato baking.

Also, it smells nice. Not so much like taffy, as it is like hard candy when it’s cooking. That’s a really fine distinction. Let’s say it smells sweet but very light and not at all offensive (my sensitivity to fragrance being well-documented at this point).

About the Surface product line:

• Vegan. Organic. Gluten-free.
• Cruelty-free, never tested on animals.
• No Sodium Laurel Sulfate. No Sodium Laureth Sulfate. No parabens. No petrochemicals. No added dyes. And no animal or wheat protein.
• Made with sustainably harvested ingredients and certified organic botanicals.
• Environmentally friendly packaging (according to the website. No real details given).
• Portion of profits go to sponsor a child through World Vision.

Does gluten-free make a difference when it’s going on your skin as opposed to into your stomach? I honestly don’t know, but I’m thinking that if you avoid gluten, avoiding it everywhere makes a heck of a lot of sense. Please feel free to agree or disagree in the comments. I have no horse in that race.

In short: great hair product that doesn’t knock you over with fragrance and does exactly what it claims to do, without any toxic ingredients! I know, I can barely believe it myself.

Surface makes hair product lines dedicated to strengthening, hydrating, awakening (for scalp health & thinning hair), styling, and protein smoothing. It looks to be sold only in salons, you can search for a retail location near you here.

Now, tell me how pretty my curly hair is. Go on.

I’ve been waiting 35 years to hear it 🙂

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. Hair is my own. No compensation was received other than product to try out for review purposes.