Beauty Of 5: Vegan Hair Care Brand 2 Mango Sisters

Society is constantly sending the message that kinky-coily hair is sub-par. We’ve been made to feel that our natural hair is unmanageable. Worse, many of the products that are being marketed towards African-American women are being formulated by people with little knowledge about our unique haircare needs, which helps to further perpetuate the narrative that our hair problematic.

Thankfully, African-American entrepreneurs continue to emerge within the hair care industry with products specially designed for our natural hair. Among them are Jane Harris, the visionary behind the glueless wig brand, The Virgin Hair Fantasy, and her husband and business partner Chef Ed Harris, winner of Food Network’s hit cooking show, “Chopped” and “Iron Chef International.” Together, the pair has launched 2 Mango Sisters, a vegan hair care line inspired by their daughters Emma and Ellea.

“I want girls or boys who have curly hair to know that we can’t get around the fact that it takes more work, it costs more money to manage the kind of hair that we have. But I want them to know there’s a reason for it,” Jane told MadameNoire. “You have something so beautiful, it’s not gonna be easy.  Instead of being upset or crying about it, you can nurture it, you can feed it, you can take care of it.”

Here are our favorite products from the brand.

Source: 2 Mango Sisters / 2 Mango Sisters

Hair Cleanser

The Harrises formulated their Hair Cleanser to leave your coils squeaky clean without drying them out. Best of all, it can be used as often as you’d like.

“At the word ‘shampoo,’ I cringe because it strips your hair of your natural oils, which for some people that works. However, those of us with coils we need all of the oil,” Jane explained. “So when we created the cleanser the formula, we wanted to also have oil in it so that as you’re cleansing, you’re replenishing some, if not all, of the oil that you just washed out. I definitely recommend the cleanser as a weekly use. You don’t have to moderate your use of it because you’re worried that you’ll strip your hair.”

Source: 2 Mango Sisters / 2 Mango Sisters

Hair Conditioner

Next up is the Hair Conditioner, which can save you a few coins on wash day due to its dual abilities.

“I love the conditioner. It’s lightweight but it does the job,” Jane shared. “It serves as a detangler. So the conditioner can also be a detangler. And if you use that trifactor of the conditioner, cleanser, and hair softener, it does miracles.”

Source: 2 Mango Sisters / 2 Mango Sisters

Hair Softener

The Hair Softener, which can be used as a leave-in conditioner and a daily moisturizer, is a favorite of Ed’s because of the instant results.

“There’s no pre-treating,” said Ed. “I mean, this stuff works immediately after it is applied to the hair.”

Added Jane, “The oils in the hair softener are what break down your hair because when your hair is curly and dry, break down your hair and makes it more easy and pliable so that it’s more manageable. Before we created our line, I would have to mix conditioner with oil and let it sit on the hair. The hair softener already has oil in it so it’s breaking down your hair making soft so when you come back and brush it, it’s easy and you don’t have breakage. You can make your natural curls pop without the tangles.”

Source: 2 Mango Sisters / 2 Mango Sisters

Deep Treatment

Unlike other lines that require you to purchase separate products for cleansing, conditioning, and styling, 2 Mangos Conditioner is a multi-tasking product.

“There’s one particular oil that we have and that is our Moisturizing Oil and we recommend that to be used with the conditioner to serve as a deep conditioning treatment,” Jane advised. “So you take the oil, mix it up with the conditioner, and let it sit for a deep conditioning treatment. Boom. Awesome.”