Spinoff: Cathy Howse...Messenger or Monster?

[MizaniMami]

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.

*looks for those chewed up ends*

I don't call that chewed up. They are just uneven. And not having your hair even does not equate unhealthyness! They are actually very smooth and not splitting at all!

 

[DragonPearl]

*looks for those chewed up ends*

I don't call that chewed up. They are just uneven. And not having your hair even does not equate unhealthyness! They are actually very smooth and not splitting at all!

I agree that uneven hair does not equal unhealthy hair. I am natural, and unless I press my hair, I really cannot tell if my hair is uneven. My hair is still healthy.

 

[KiniKakes]

I agree that uneven hair does not equal unhealthy hair. I am natural, and unless I press my hair, I really cannot tell if my hair is uneven. My hair is still healthy.

I, too, agree that "uneven hair does not equal unhealthy hair." I never made that statement.

But in my opinion, thin, see through ends are not healthy ends..... and in the pictures that I posted, the last inch of Cathy's hair looks thin and possibly damaged. Perhaps its the heat that she uses 2x a week.... perhaps its just from not trimmng regularly, if thats the case..... whatever. I wouldnt even say that her hair is uneven, it just gets thin toward the bottom, as many of our hair does.

All in all, my point was that (imo) her hair is not the model or prototype for ideal, long, super healthy hair.... It certainly looks nice. Im not trying to take that away from this sista. However, Ive seen hair that looks equally nice and even better on this board. *shrug* Thats my only point, and you can feel free to agree or disagree.

Still not knocking the woman's hustle. I think she is a great entrepreneur and doing her thing.

 

[Phoenix]

Well, I am one of the ones who thinks that her message is okay, but the way that she delivers it is totally unacceptable.

Why would I give my money to someone who talks (or writes) to me in a condesending, disrespectful manner, & obviously thinks I'm an idiot if I do anything other than follow her advice to the letter? Now, I am a straight to the point, matter-of-fact kind of woman. I'm not intimidated by a confident woman who speaks her mind. BUT I do think it's important to treat people with respect...especially if you want them as a customer.

I don't think Cathy does this...so I choose to spend my money elsewhere.

 

[leleepop]

Messager!! Cathy Howse's book and regimen was the first I have chosen. Her method really made my hair take off. I loved the way she expelled the myth on trimming ends and I realized it is extreme but I needed something extreme. Before reading the book I would trim all the length I would acqiure every six to eight weeks.

Now I havent stopped trimming altogether, but I only trim as needed and my hair is growing and retaining like a weed. I know she is kinda sharp but those comments are meant to help. I personally dont care if she is arrogant, I would be upset if she was a liar.

 

[DragonPearl]

But in my opinion, thin, see through ends are not healthy ends..... and in the pictures that I posted, the last inch of Cathy's hair looks thin and possibly damaged. Perhaps its the heat that she uses 2x a week.... perhaps its just from not trimmng regularly, if thats the case..... whatever. I wouldnt even say that her hair is uneven, it just gets thin toward the bottom, as many of our hair does.

She uses heat 2x a week? I didn't know that. I have not read her book.

 

[*ElleB]

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.

What!? She came on LHCF and pulled that mess?? Wow! I just lost alot of respect for her...I bought her book, and to be honest, what she preaches isn't that different from what alot of us do here. And her products are not the be-all end-all of it either!

 

[Mizani_Mrs]

Cathy was my first 'mentor' for growing hair, I discovered her site and book, before i discovered this board. I will say that she 'edited' her book because alot of feedback on her website was that she told good methods and said 'use a good product', but she did not name products to use. in the edition, she named products (including her own).. i can't be mad at that. I do find it suspicious that she hasn't updated her pics. I met her 1yr ago and her hair was natural, like maybe to her shoulders and the rest was relaxed. And though it was thick...it wasn't the cutest 'do that I have ever seen. I use her products faithly, the dew and the creme moisturizer. (hate the price, but love the product) I have the protein conditioner but it was aiight..i use nexxus now. I like the moisturizers because they are simple. They are ONLY MOISTURiZERS. If i want protein or oil...i can add that to my hair as well...these 3 key ingredients should not be married together, like they are in all other products. so i can put in as much as i want and my hair is still soft. Not hardened from protein overload, or greasy from too much oil. And they barely have a smell, but it smells something like S-curl. Which makes sense cause the ingredients are the same. If yours smelled you should have sent it back and got another one. I have found that EQP Recovery Oil is very very similiar to the creme moisturizer, except it contains lite protein. I use this as well so I won't have to use all my expensive UBH creme. I haven't found a replacement for the dew spray though. I wish i could so i can save money. And once again, there aren't any magical ingredients in her moisturizers. I like them because they don't have protein and they are light and airy so i am not scared to use them daily and i don't fear my hair becoming hard or frizzy or stiff or oily. i can still maintain my wrap do for the week. I can add my own protein or oil if needed, i am not forced to apply it. Her stuff is very moisturizing and she is correct that with normal usage, I have stopped my severe ends breakage. Which is how i've managed to grow my hair longer than it's ever been. I will continue to dish out the cash, until i can find alternatives that are just as simple as hers...

 

[Browndilocks]

Well, I am one of the ones who thinks that her message is okay, but the way that she delivers it is totally unacceptable.

Why would I give my money to someone who talks (or writes) to me in a condesending, disrespectful manner, & obviously thinks I'm an idiot if I do anything other than follow her advice to the letter? Now, I am a straight to the point, matter-of-fact kind of woman. I'm not intimidated by a confident woman who speaks her mind. BUT I do think it's important to treat people with respect...especially if you want them as a customer.

I don't think Cathy does this...so I choose to spend my money elsewhere.

This is exactly how I feel. In fact, I've never even heard of her before joining LHCF. I commend her efforts but she definitely exudes an unpleasant sentiment: which leads me to believe that she's either insecure within her own methods or just a rude and nasty individual.

You can even feel the "tension" on her site. Robin Woods (for example) does not exude that unnecessarily rude aura, and she's a business woman trying to sell something too...

 

[Mizani_Mrs]

Hi Ladies:

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.

Coco, please do tell which product did you find to be similiar to the Dew...I wouldn't mind using both to save money....

I forgot to state, i do think that her attitude is a little on the rude side. And also, i agree with the ladies who say that everything in her book is on this website, PLUS MORE. this is certainly true, but sadly it was easier to find her site/book, than to find LHCF....

 

[Dare~to~Dream]

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.

I agree that she was indeed a trailblazer. She emphasized moisturizing and protein treatments years ago and many people still do these practices today. Look at the many hair topics on this forum regarding moisturziers and protein treatments. I am not affiliated with Cathy Howse but I do give credit where it is due.

 

[HoneyDew]

She uses heat 2x a week? I didn't know that. I have not read her book.

Yeah she straightens after shampooing, deep conditioning and airdrying twice a week. I am doing this now and it is working well.

 

[sprungonhairboards]

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!

I agree with all of this 100%. And her attitude does suck! I haven't been to her site in a while but those pics posted here are NOT the only pictures that were on her site. I don't know if she took them down or what, but they are obviously the best of the bunch and not a true representation of what she had going on at the time I saw it. Those are GREAT pics compared to the dried out, CHEWED up, see through, raggedy ends that I saw on her site. And it wasnt just the very ends it was like the whole bottom half of her hair! I was like yuck who would listen to her?

 

[Aalize]

Was she "MindyMouse"?

 

[Mestiza]

I have read her book and others, but don't live by any of them. If they mention something that works for my hair, then, great. In all honesty, LHCF has far more info than all of those books put together. That's not a put down to them b/c I don't see how ANY book (not just hers) could provide as much info as this site.

 

[Mestiza]

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.

OMG! That's awful! NO one person knows it all about any subject, including, hair!

So, she's a member of LHCF. :scratchch

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.

That's just shameful!

 

[secretdiamond]

I agree with all of this 100%. And her attitude does suck! I haven't been to her site in a while but those pics posted here are NOT the only pictures that were on her site. I don't know if she took them down or what, but they are obviously the best of the bunch and not a true representation of what she had going on at the time I saw it. Those are GREAT pics compared to the dried out, CHEWED up, see through, raggedy ends that I saw on her site. And it wasnt just the very ends it was like the whole bottom half of her hair! I was like yuck who would listen to her?

Never read her book either, but i did check out her site after people were talking about her book here. And I agree your the enire post, especially the bolded part. Those were deifnitely not the pics I saw. I saw the pics, read the Q & A, left the site and never went back. IMO, she is straight up MEAN.

 

[KiniKakes]

Dang, im still tripping over the fact that she came up in here acting all uppity and know-it-all. Uh huh.... pause DAT. Thats not how we get down here, and thats part of what i appreciate about this forum.

We have a LOT of folks on here who are a wealth of information and resources.... but in general, everyone is very humble, generous, and giving of their knowledge, never trying to make another sista feel bad or stupid about their own knowledge or lack thereof.

 

[DragonPearl]

Can anybody bring up the thread where she was rude to LHCFers and acting uppity?

 

[DragonPearl]

Shoot, I forgot. The search function is not working.

 

[brooklyngal73]

I know how you feel. I wanna check out that thread also.

Shoot, I forgot. The search function is not working.

 

[Synthia]

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!

You've saved me the trouble. I read Howse' book years ago before even learning about LHCF, and I am grateful for the tips and knowledge.

However, when I visit her website and read her sharp-tongued answers to people it really turns me off.

She exaggerates her expertise and likes to strike fear in people about using other products and methods. And she's sooo condescending.

 

[Yellowflowers]

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!

I agree about the picture of the cute baby. She looks like a little doll.

I started out with Cathy Howse and I appreciated the fact that she challenged the belief that hair had to be cut in order stimulate growth.

I had seen so many women who after gaining inches through hard work, go to the beauty shop and let some ignorant beautician bully them into cutting thier growth away. I think she gave a lot of women the courage to stand up to the butchers and say NO, you will not cut my hair.

I guess maybe she had to be a little ruthless because she was going up against a long standing beliefs about hair care, She received a lot of backlash from the so-called professionals.

Also, using peppermint oil to stimulate your scalp was virtually unheard of until she starting using it in her products, now the professionals are quoting this as if it they were the ones who came up with the idea.

Even though I have learned so much more on LHCF, I still admire her courage and ingenuity.

 

[sxyhairfetish]

lol thanks guys but hes a boy... my SON lol

 

[Isis]

For me, she was a messenger. Cathy Howse's book was a great help to me when I first discovered the hair boards. Although I've learned much more here on LHCF, her book had a lot of basic, common sense information I wish I learned years earlier. She opened many doors for women to learn how to care for their relaxed hair.

 

[cocoberry10]

@ the title of this thread

Thanks sistaslick! Personally, I think you are a messenger of good haircare and an inspiration and icon to many of us !

 

[cocoberry10]

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.

She's a member of LHCF? I didn't know that! Where are you Cathy? What's your screename?

 

[cocoberry10]

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.

LOL

 

[Aalize]

Was she "MindyMouse"?

Does anyone know/remember what her username was?

 

[Enchantmt]

I must have had her first edition of her book, because I felt it was lacking because she didnt name any products. She just told you the TYPE of products to use, shampoo for dry hair etc. One thing I took away was that if your hair is well moisturized, your hair rubbing against your clothes is not going to damage it. Its not unusual for authors to revise books to promote products. Atkins did the same thing, his original book from the 70's was all about the program, and then the other books were all about his products. In all fairness tho, he did tell you what you needed and that you could get them from other sources. I missed the thread she participated in. I dont recall the impression of her being arrogant, but I thought I remember reading some advice on her site that I thought was off.