I have naturally curly hair and therefore am always on the lookout for a products not only has a clean and organic list of ingredients but one that works. Last year I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamal Hamadi, the founder of Hamadi Organics. Jamal generously sent my entire EcoDiva Review team a customized set of products to try. Each of us have different needs and very different hair, and I kid you not – we ALL, each of us, fell head over heals in love with this line. Over the last year, it was not uncommon to get frenzied calls asking, “what was that amazing organic hair line we tried, I’m all OUT!!!”
Jamal Hamadi is the sole designer and owner of his company. To start his line, Jamal literally purchased over 500 essential oils, invited a group of close friends, actresses, writers, and other great friends in the industry to come over and play with creating formulations of their favorite scents. From that day in his living room, he picked the top 10 or so that they created and built his product line.
During our interview I learned a lot about this renegade organics and beauty guru, how he got his start and what makes this line so amazing. Here’s what I learned about Jamal:
Jamal: I started early on. Mom was very natural, and Dad was a well known chef, trained in Paris. Food and the way it was prepared was a big deal. The family would compete with food at home. Natural ingredients and nature were always at the forefront.
In The Beginning
In grade school, like his classmates, Jamal learned the fundamentals of gardening. He not only loved it, but he was good at it. Jamal had inherited his Dad’s green thumb. Jamal was a hippy kid at the forefront of the hippy chic movement. He started doing hair in the early 90’s. Even then, he always found the products to be greasy, making hair dry, making scalps flaky. Jamal has very curly hair, and growing up in the 80’s curly hair did not stand a chance at being chic. All curls were straightened out to within an inch of their lives. Jamal blew his hair straight daily. None of his friends even knew he had curly hair.
The result of these years of hiding his natural curl lead to hair breakage from all the heat and breakouts from all of the gels he was using. Finally, Jamal went to school and ended up working in top Beverly Hills salons. He ended up working on celebrities and was able to really stay on top of what was happening and the new trends that were emerging. One thing that stayed consistent was that the products he was using on his famous clients, was drying out their hair. Jamal started keeping his own notes on what was good.
The Trip Of A Lifetime
Jamal took a serendipitous trip to Big Sur in California to recharge his batteries. While he was up there, he stumbled upon a local shop selling natural shea butter. Once he found the amazing moisturizing properties of natural shea butter, he was inspired to find a way to incorporate it into products for his clients.
He ended up searching for the most natural sources of shea butter and found them in African countries. He started playing with combinations of this amazing shea butter and essential oils. Nature and organic elements were the basis of Jamal Hamadi’s products from the start.
“Tested On Actresses, Never On Animals”
At work, Jamal’s (famous) clients were all having the same issues. Dry hair, dry scalp. On a trip to Europe, Jamal was working as the stylist on a movie with actress Heather Graham during which she was required to color her hair from blond to red and then back to blonde again. Anyone who has colored their hair, knows how damaging this can be. Jamal’s first thought was, ‘how am I going to save her hair?’. Without the option of cutting it, or using a wig, she needed to keep her hair healthy and avoid the breakage that can come with frequent coloring and processing. He created a night time leave-in shea butter conditioner for Ms. Graham and essentially saved her hair from horrible damage. This is where the Shea Leave In product was born. And it was, as his products say, literally ‘Tested on Actresses, Never on Animals’
Today, the Hamadi Organic line features only natural, organic ingredients to create hair products that preserved moisture and did not create more damage. “Nature is a powerful thing, it is part of my world. I want to do more than create a (temporary) bandage for hair. (Going organic) is a domino effect, it has to start somewhere. I want my products to heal, respect and replenish. I want to make a difference. It’s my passion. It’s really that simple.” says Jamal.
Why is this important to you?
‘no salons have windows, and the clientele and workers are breathing in chemicals on a daily basis.’ With natural products, this would not be an issue.
What are your future plans?
{I’d like to make} more conditioners, some non-typical gels and more products for men. I want to introduce a line of skin care..nice, yummy scrubs and lotions. I’d like the Hamadi brand to become a household name with a natural vibe. This will be a products that everyone can have. It’s about giving back…it’s about educating people on doing the right thing.”
Check out the entire collection at HamadiBeauty.com and let me know what you think.
Featuring:
- Free shipping on orders over $100
- Free Gift Packaging
- 4 Free samples with every order
- FREE Exchanges within 30 days
Enjoy!
Signing off…EcoDiva
