Everything starts somewhere

It all started with a beard. Like most good things do. I joined a friend in growing some face fuzz. In a huge effort to not look like I was destitute (and I suppose to keep my boss happy) it quickly became apparent that I was needing to groom this animal that was birthed on my chin.

So a strict regime of washing and conditioning ensued.  The conditioning effect however did not last for an entire day. I would get out the shower with silk on my chin, and arrive back home after work feeling like a wire brush again. A plan had to be made.

I got introduced to some of the online beard communities and discovered beard oil. That is oil for a beard not from a beard. Basically a mixture of plant oils enhanced by a combination of essential oils. I researched the whole thing and quickly realised that on my salary I was not going to be importing all these magnificent oils from overseas. In my local South African Rand the costs were already high and that was before shipping. 

I did more research and attempted a batch of my own beard oils. Within a couple of days I had a soft beard all day long.

28 May 2014 as I said on my personal Facebook page: "Tonight I make my own beard oil, tomorrow I smell like the forests..."

Some friends noticed that I had beard oil and I made them some too. Soon they wanted more, and an idea was born. I made a bigger batch with different fragrances all focusing on enhancing the oils to care both for your face and beard.

In the mean time we came across a talk on YouTube. The guy was discussing the regular soaps we buy in the shops and the negative effects of the chemicals in these soaps on our skin. Reading more about it we quickly realised that those effects are not just short term but devastating in the long term as well. 

Once again it was difficult to find an natural, affordable, surfactant free soap locally. More research led to our first batch of soap. We got really lucky with this batch, using some very expensive oils in a very haphazard manner. Nothing was documented (except the picture below) and that batch will never ever again be repeated... but we were hooked.

Knowing that the bad chemicals were present in the shampoos that we used as well, we made our first batch of natural shampoo a month or two later. My wife subsequently threw all my shop bought shampoo and conditioner away, and I don't miss them. 

The goodness of all these natural solutions had to be shared. And so, Mein Herr Natural Products was born.