Spinoff: Cathy Howse...Messenger or Monster?

[cocoberry10]

Hi Ladies:

I wanted to see what your feelings on Cathy Howse were. I bought and read her book, and found a lot of what she said to be useful/helpful. I also bought all of her products (Dew, UBH conditioner, and creme moisturizer). I lived in Denver for a little while, and actually went to her hairdresser, this is how I found out about her.

Anyway, I have come to question her behavior (or maybe motives) more recently. I noticed she is going natural, but hasn't updated a pic from her website since February of 2005. That's another year and a half of growth she's had, and hasn't shown anyone pics. That seems odd to me. Also, a friend had the original copy of her book, which I compared to my copy, the revised edition. In her original she stressed taking care of hair and hair health, whereas her revised edition was to me, a ploy to sell her products. Currently, the only product of hers I use/like is the creme moisturizer. The dew is not as necessary for me anymore, and I found a similar spray with more/better ingredients. And her conditioner was too thin/runny for my hair and didn't really soften it.

Anyway, I would just like your opinions on her. She's been on my mind a lot lately. Oh yeah, I did go to her headquarters when in Denver. You can buy her products from there. She was "out" at the time, but I saw pics of her from her hairdresser. Her hair really is long.

 

[so1913]

My opinion....

That woman is playing the game and is out to make $$$. With the boom in natural hair care, as she did with the relaxed hair care "how to" market, she's looking to reach the same level of success amongst natural hair wearers with what I'm sure she'll call the "Only proven method to grow natural hair long"

I don't feel she's genuine at all (and that turns me off) but I can't hate her for being a business woman and making that dough.

 

[inthepink]

Interesting post. I actually just toyed with the idea of starting a post about her. I would never follow her advice, specifically about never trimming. When you look at her website and see her pictures - how come her hair hasn't gained any length for years and years and years?? Wouldn't her hair be much, much longer (and more even) if she had just got a few trims? I see people on LHCF with far greater hair improvement that what I see from her pictures.

 

[Tee]

Interesting post. I actually just toyed with the idea of starting a post about her. I would never follow her advice, specifically about never trimming. When you look at her website and see her pictures - how come her hair hasn't gained any length for years and years and years?? Wouldn't her hair be much, much longer (and more even) if she had just got a few trims? I see people on LHCF with far greater hair improvement that what I see from her pictures.

I noticed that also.

 

[CarefreeinChicago]

i saw her at the Black Women's Expo last year and i have seen way better heads of hair on the board and the moisturizer smelled like rotten eggs i had to throw it away but i do like the conditoner

 

[Sistaslick]

@ the title of this thread

 

[MizaniMami]

I think she is a great messenger.

She promotes hair growth with common sense. She says a lot of things that if you really thought about it would make sense.

She is NOT anti-trimming. She only says this it isn't neccessary for long hair growth. Never in her book did she say she was against it. She only tackled the belief that trimming does not promote growth, and I strongly agree.

Maybe the reason why she hasn't gained much length is because she cuts it... Who knows if it became a hassle for her to take care of.

 

[Teacake]

==========================================

 

[africa]

I was actually wondering the same thing. The "trim/dust to stimulate growth" thread got me thinking about her hair and practices. I read her book a couple of years ago. I wonder why her hair did seem to take long to grow. From her pictures, it does look longer than it ever was in her life (according to her)...but why did it take so long? I've seen ladies here and on the C&G website that grow hair that long in 1-2 years. Maybe her heat every 2 weeks and no trimming is part of the problem...and her no-lye .

 

[sxyhairfetish]

I liked her ALOT until i found out that her way is not the ONLY way. Her products are not the ONLY products that work. I hate the conditioner. The dew is nice (but it seems like the measurements of the ingriedients are inconsistent ie. some batches are too oily some are too watery). Havent tried the moisturizer. Her book is good but she is doing alot of bashing, and it seems like its surrounded by selling her products... but I cant even front she did start me on my journey and she gave me hope that I can grow my relaxed hair. Then growafrohairlong and this forum continued my hope.

 

[Dare~to~Dream]

I think she is a messenger. As far as her hair not growing longer over the years, maybe she just has slow growing hair. I have the slowest growing hair on the planet and it would take me YEARS to get to bra-clasp length which is why I'm not chasing that goal. Also, you have to remember that the hair goes through many different stages over the years--I think she mentioned this in the book as well. Anyway, her website was the first one I came across when I started researching healthy hair and growth...so of course I bought the book and all the products but I only use the deep conditioner-it's a staple. She even answered my emails when I first started out...I do want to say that she is not totally against trimming but did not trim to prove her point...I think in the book she mentions that she has a "trusted friend" to trim and even up her hair...*shrugs*.

 

[Angelicus]

I appreciate all of her tips, but I don't like how she bashes other companies/gurus. I sell hair care products too but you don't see me saying, "Don't buy your products from Marc at Sickbay.biz because he won't cater to your needs like I will." (btw, hey Marc! Business is continually booming for you!)

Her site seems nearly negative, as if she is tired of answering questions, frustrated. Her critism isn't creative

I also don't like how she came on LHCF and bashed other members for not knowing "common sense about hair." And she loves typing in bold. We hear you Cathy but we need you to be sympathetic to people. Hair is a very sensitive subject and we don't want to feel dumb just because we don't know as much as you do. I know she is reading this and hope it will change her character.

 

[dreysonsmommy2011]

I guess she is a messenger,Alot of the information that she gives you can get right here from this forum and then some. Her website has not been updated in about a year now, she only has the same 6 pics of her believers hair growth, and she is very rude. I personally bought the conditioner( I love this stuff) It is one of the best protein conditioners for me. The moisturizer, on the other hand, Is a piece of s**t. I think that if she can write a book we all can. It gives basic hair tips with a common sense approach, but for me the most beneficial contribution to my hairgrowth is LHCF. If you have damaged hair, you can learn how to nurse it back to health,you learn about vitamins, and different products/regimens that promote hair growth. You just don't get that from Cathy. BTW this is coming from someone who has read the book not once,not twice, but three times

 

[silvergirl]

i never liked the fact that her hair took forever and a day to grow, also her ends seen to be a lil chewed up, or at least they were last time i checked her site,,,

 

[dimpalz]

Dont mean to hijack but hairfetish that baby in ur siggy is too cute, little mouth open and everything lol.

Yeah Cathy... you know I bought her book last year and it did kick me into gear a bit. It is VERY common sense but then sometimes you just need someone to tell you what you already know. She's very negative about other "professionals" in the business and I didn't like her constant sniping either. I never tried her products cos I'm in the UK and never checked out the shipping but I'm not too bothered.

Her hair probably hasn't gained any length because her ends ARE chewed up. If your ends are thinning and you don't put anything special in them to strengthen them or even chop them off, just like splits I'm sure the damage will travel up the shaft, thinning the hair out as it goes along(this is just my theory). As well her hair could have just reached it's longest length, hair growth isn't infinite.

All in all she is just out to money like evryone else, like she said she has no official training she's just a lady like everyone else on here who's found away to grow her hair longer than average. I wouldn't call her a monster but if she really cared she'd have a little link to lhcf on her site or in her book!

 

[Queenie]

I loved her book that's what I used to get healthly hair. I have determined styling and products to use from this board after reading the book. But, I did/do follow her suggestions.

 

[Kimberly]

I think Cathy Howse is a messenger and you can choose to listen to her message or buy her products or whatever. For many of us, I believe, she was our first step in our long hair journey but, obviously, none of us stopped with her. For me, she and her website were an introduction to what I could possibly accomplish and what types of information may be available to me on the internet. If I had not found the information I was seeking, I had considered creating my own site. But I found LHCF and everything I ever wanted or needed to know can be found here somewhere.

 

[2cute2B4gotten]

I have never read her book because her web site just completely turned me off. To me, her answers to the FAQ had an air of arrogance that I did not like. Almost like she felt like her way was 'the way'. So, I continued on and found you guys and am happier than if I had read a thousand books by her. All of you do a great job, and I am satisfied with that!

 

[HoneyDew]

Great thread guys. I have enjoyed reading your responses.

I have felt the same way as many of you. Her word sometimes seem arrogant to me, as well. Also, I agree about her ends, they do look like they need a good trim. When I look at her pics, I have always thought of the ladies on hair boards, even those with shorter hair, that look way more healthy.

She has good tips, but there are so many other products and methods.

I mean, come one, in her FAQs, some one asked if she thought CON was a good shampoo. She said she never heard of it. I find it hard to believe, especially with all of her research, that she has never at least heard of CON. That has been around since I was a little girl.

 

[Tene]

I think she is a great messenger.

She promotes hair growth with common sense. She says a lot of things that if you really thought about it would make sense.

She is NOT anti-trimming. She only says this it isn't neccessary for long hair growth. Never in her book did she say she was against it. She only tackled the belief that trimming does not promote growth, and I strongly agree.

Maybe the reason why she hasn't gained much length is because she cuts it... Who knows if it became a hassle for her to take care of.

I agree with this and also maybe that's the length her hair will grow to. Everybody's hair is gonna grow to whatever length genetics determine.

 

[RabiaElaine]

I also don't like how she came on LHCF and bashed other members for not knowing "common sense about hair." quote]

What!!!!!!!!!! Wow, I can't believe that!!!!!!!

IMO Cathy Howse like other people who have written books about haircare have their own spin to set them apart. I read her book as well as several others including Shamboosie. They all have something good to say that I took from them, the other things...like promoting their products (or Nexxus in the case of Shamboosie) I didn't pay much attention too. It was more the methods.

I do feel that there is more useful...and FREE...information on LHCF than I found in any book I've read. I think in general the ladies here are just as if not more knowledgable than most authors out there about hair (except Sistaslick...whenever her book becomes available ).

 

[MissYocairis]

Interesting post. I actually just toyed with the idea of starting a post about her. I would never follow her advice, specifically about never trimming. When you look at her website and see her pictures - how come her hair hasn't gained any length for years and years and years?? Wouldn't her hair be much, much longer (and more even) if she had just got a few trims? I see people on LHCF with far greater hair improvement that what I see from her pictures.

:scratchch That's really interesting. Cathy was my first exposure to re-thinking how I care for my hair and her logic on the trimming thing stuck with me. I have grown from base of neck to armpit length and beyond in the past 15 months but I have been dusting in the process. I just wore my hair down this past weekend and it was thicker toward the ends than I expected and I know it was that dusting. When you are nursing hair back to health and adopting healthier relaxing practices, those old, overprocessed ends will eventually need to go because they can only get but so strong anyway.

 

[MizaniMami]

So the people who don't like her, do you not like her because of THE WAY she presents her message?

Sometimes I don't always like the messenger (the way the message is sent) but the message be on point! Some people will not always wrap the package up in pretty words-such as myself. Any women that will tell you she is willing to die trying to get out the word against stylists, ya gotta know she is angry (hell, I am too)!

When I was reading her Q&A I was getting a little annoyed by the questions people were asking. Such as " I used your products, but my hair isn't growing, but I use tracks and glue too" WTH? She tells you in her book that it isn't the growing part that get's us it's the retaining end of it and glueing your hair isn't going to help you retain them!!

 

[Crackers Phinn]

I also don't like how she came on LHCF and bashed other members for not knowing "common sense about hair." And she loves typing in bold. We hear you Cathy but we need you to be sympathetic to people. Hair is a very sensitive subject and we don't want to feel dumb just because we don't know as much as you do. I know she is reading this and hope it will change her character.

I remember reading a 20 page thread where it was a gang of 'new members' joined LHCF and only posted in a thread where somebody criticized Cathy's methods. I mean they were on the war path, and it was plenty of 'well if you woulda read the book right, then you woulda known that the product should be used xyz way.' I checked out her site, found that the tone was the same and never went back. I didn't know if one of these folks was CH, but I was really turned off by that whole situation. Hell, it was like Beyonce thread up in here.

 

[KiniKakes]

Havent read her book (and have no intention of doing so), but i perused her site...... A lot of what she is saying sounds "okay," and no different than what we are saying here. So i dont see a need to purchase her book or her products. But i do like her common-sense approach to things. A lot of folks just dont have that common sense, so i can see why she has become successful.

She is a business woman, who is out to make that paper.... just like most entrepreneurs, and i am not mad at her for that. If it seems like she is promoting her products as the only effective way to grow hair.... well thats probably the smart thing for her to do. She is a sales person, when it comes down to it. She is not your friend, you know? This is business, for her.

Wasnt impressed with her hair, or the condition that it was in (esp. those thin, raggedy ends). A lot of the women on here have grown their hair out and it appears to be in better condition. But in the end it doesnt really matter.... she's come up with a great way to make money doing something that she knows, and i cant knock her hustle. I actually commend her for that. I think she has a job to do, and i respect her for doing what she needs to do to get there.

Contrary to what others have said, i actually didnt feel that her tone was "arrogant" or anything of the like. *shrug* It was matter of fact and confident, and there's nothing wrong with that. She believes in her product and it works for her, so i think its appropriate to present that information in a self-assured manner.

 

[Sistaslick]

So the people who don't like her, do you not like her because of THE WAY she presents her message?

Yep! I appreciate her message, but her delivery turns me off. I have her book as well, and I really didn't like how she bashed other authors and allowed that to leak over onto her site-- that just didn't seem very professional to me at all. I think the message will always speak for itself without you feeling the need to say "such and such was wrong or doesn't know what they are talking about," etc.

And then one of her criticisms of Shamboosie was totally off. She said his book was written by 4 different people which isn't the case at all. His book was reviewed/edited, not written, by several people. Something she could have stood to benefit from as well (editing) The two women she mentioned that were co-authors, had (co-author) behind their names because they were co authors for the respective books each of them had written themselves-- not his. Then the other person she said co-wrote the book only wrote the FOREWARD of the book- and that is standard procedure for someone other than the author to write a foreward for a book. It is considered an honor. If you are gonna criticize, at least get it right first. Then the clincher was when she said: "What credentials do these individuals have regarding black hair care?" Um. What credentialing program did she go through again? If they have nothing more than experience, they have the same level of credialing she has. And one of the mistaken Shamboosie "co-authors" she called out was actually the co-author of a well respected cosmetology TEXT BOOK and is a salon owner. If that isn't credentialing enough, I don't know what is.

Then the products. One thing I've learned about hair care from being around here is that one person's truth may be someone else's nightmare. Rarely in the hair care game is there an absolute rule to anything. I think as an author with the best interest of her readers in mind, its her responsibility to indicate that fact. You can't tell people that your products are the only ones that work. She was growing her hair way before her products came out, with something right? She didn't always have that dew. That is my beef with Shamboosie too. According to him, without Humectress and dudley creme press you are doomed. With a market so saturated with more products than we can count, something is bound to work for somebody- not just these handful of products. I agree with Kini, she is a business person though. She has product to move, so she is doing what she has to do. But to me, product selling and book selling are a conflict of interest. It is hard to truly help people when you have products you need to clear out of storage.


I think she is a messenger, but she doesn't respect the messages of others if she doesn't agree with them--- and if she does she chalks it up to copying her. You can disagree without wasting pages in your book to call people out. Make that money Cathy. Make that money.

oh and Thanks for the plug up there, rabiaElaine!

 

[DragonPearl]

Havent read her book (and have no intention of doing so), but i perused her site...... A lot of what she is saying sounds "okay," and no different than what we are saying here. So i dont see a need to purchase her book or her products. But i do like her common-sense approach to things. A lot of folks just dont have that common sense, so i can see why she has become successful.

Contrary to what others have said, i actually didnt feel that her tone was "arrogant" or anything of the like. *shrug* It was matter of fact and confident, and there's nothing wrong with that. She believes in her product and it works for her, so i think its appropriate to present that information in a self-assured manner.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Cathy Howse, and I have never bought her book or her products. I am only going by what I see on her website.

I don't find her arrogant. She has strong opinions on hair, but don't we all? While she criticizes some of the hair recommendations out there (don't we all? ) she also agrees with some and she even recommends other people's products.

It seems that she started trying to grow her hair almost 20 years ago, when there was no information on how to grow black hair long, and she developed her own technique which worked for her. Now that there is tons of information and websites showing us how to grow our hair, we know about baggies, Con Washes, etc, some of her information may be obsolete, but back to years ago, she was clearly a trailblazer.

Some people are saying her hair is not that long. Hair length is subjective. It all depends on what you had before. If all your life, you've had chin length hair, then reaching armpit length is long hair for YOU. If all your life you've had armpit length hair, then reaching waist length hair is long hair for YOU.

As for her ends, maybe I need glasses, but I didn't see they were chewed out.

 

[pretty-girl#1]

Cathy Howse is a messanger but her message is faulty in that it is not universal as she claims. I believe she truly cares about AA women attaining lengths of hair past shoulder, but her logic about being the ONLY proven method is untrue. I have learned that what works for one person does not work for all! This forum is the best thing that has happened to me as far as hair care, and I thank Cathy because reading reviews of her book led me to this site. I co-sign with other post that said there are better success stories on this forum than her story. I am not that impressed with the state of her hait, but I am impressed with her desire to get the imformation out there to those who are lost. I appreciate her efforts, but I will pass on her system b/c I believe I know better what my hair needs than she does. HHG

 

[KiniKakes]

As for her ends, maybe I need glasses, but I didn't see they were chewed out.

I dont know about "chewed out", but in these pictures it appears that she could stand to trim off an inch or so. *shrug* Its all relative though. I think most of us here on the forum agree that trimming the ends is unrelated to growth rate, and is instead a personal/subjective thing, based on how you like your hair to look. Some women prefer the blunt cut, others like a natural "u" or "v" shape, others just let the ends do whatever they like. So its really up to the person.

I think that folks (including myself) just mentioned her ends to state that her hair is not the absolute "healthiest" we have seen, and that there are certainly other ways to grow your hair to mid-back, while also have healthy tresses from root to tip.

All in all, i think that Cathy has some good things to say, but i hear those same things on this board and for FREE. So i have no need to invest in the products that she is promoting or buy into her particular system.... my hair is growing just fine with the help of my fellow LHCF homies.

 

[KiniKakes]

Cathy Howse is a messanger but her message is faulty in that it is not universal as she claims. I believe she truly cares about AA women attaining lengths of hair past shoulder, but her logic about being the ONLY proven method is untrue. I have learned that what works for one person does not work for all! This forum is the best thing that has happened to me as far as hair care, and I thank Cathy because reading reviews of her book led me to this site. I co-sign with other post that said there are better success stories on this forum than her story. I am not that impressed with the state of her hait, but I am impressed with her desire to get the imformation out there to those who are lost. I appreciate her efforts, but I will pass on her system b/c I believe I know better what my hair needs than she does. HHG

You better PREACH, girl.