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PERIOD BLOOD FOR HAIR GROWTH?! 😳🩸 LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT THE SCIENCE ACTUALLY SAYS! Just because something contains stem cells doesn’t mean your body can absorb them! And this is exactly why understanding the science matters. I recently came across a comment on social media that said: “Something is really wrong with some people!!! A lady is encouraging others to put menstruum on their scalp!!!!” Now, I know some people are immediately disgusted by the idea, but my first ques

Why Does Hair Science Make People So Angry? The Psychology Behind the Pushback in Black Hair Care I received a comment recently that genuinely made me stop and think because the question wasn’t really about shampoo, grease, oils, or even hair. The commenter explained that she had gone into a Black hair forum and shared some of the things she had learned from me and other content creators who discuss hair care from a scientific perspective. She wasn’t attacking Black women. Sh

Scalp Occlusion: What Is Really Happening Around the Follicle Understanding Sebum, Keratin, Product Buildup, Inflammation, and Why a Healthy Scalp Environment Matters When people talk about healthy hair growth, almost all of the attention goes to the hair. What shampoo should I use? What oil makes hair grow? What supplement should I take? How do I make my hair thicker? But before we talk about the hair fiber, we need to talk about the environment that hair is actually emergin

From Herb to Human Cell: How the Digestive System Processes Butterfly Pea, Peppermint, Mugwort and Chamomile Why the Gut Matters When a person consumes an herb such as blue butterfly pea flower, peppermint, mugwort, or chamomile, the body does not simply send that herb directly to the hair, skin, brain, or other organs. The plant first enters a highly specialized biological processing system: the gastrointestinal tract. The digestive tract mechanically and chemically processe

When we talk about thinning hair, one word needs to become part of the conversation: miniaturization. Hair loss is much more complicated than simply seeing hair come out in your brush or shower. In androgenetic alopecia, the real biological change is happening underneath the surface, inside the hair follicle. At the same time, we cannot ignore the environment surrounding that follicle. Sebum, sweat, dead skin, styling products, heavy oils, yeast, bacteria, inflammation and in

Softee Hair Grease, Lanolin & Black Hair: Why I Question What Years of Greasing the Scalp May Have Done

WHAT I BELIEVE GREASE IS ACTUALLY DOING TO THE HAIR AND SCALP Occlusion, Sebum, the Scalp Microbiome and Why “Soft” Does Not Automatically Mean Healthy By Cyn Smith, aka Cyn Doll Hollictic Research Scientist Holistic Hair + Scalp Research A quick introduction before we get into the science: I started my career as a cosmetologist, but I didn’t stop at learning how to do hair. I wanted to understand the biology and science behind what I was seeing, so I took my education furthe

Everybody online is saying “relaxers cause cancer” but that’s not the full story. In this video, Cyn Doll breaks down the real science behind chemical hair straighteners, Black women’s health, and the uterine cancer study that’s all over the internet. Over 44,000 women were followed for 22 years, and only 347 were diagnosed less than 1%. So why is the internet acting like every relaxer is a death sentence? Let’s talk about what the study actually said, what it didn’t test, a

If you want to understand hair serums at the level of a trichologist, cosmetic chemist, and dermatologist, you have to separate marketing from evidence. The majority of cosmetic hair serums are designed to improve the scalp environment or hair fiber not actually regrow hair. Only a handful of ingredients have strong clinical evidence for stimulating follicles. Reviews consistently conclude that most “active” ingredients in commercial trichology products have limited or low-qu

Trichologist vs. Cosmetologist vs. Dermatologist: Understanding the Difference and Why It Matters in Hair Care The recent conversations surrounding the “Abbey Method” have created a lot of confusion about who is qualified to recommend hair care practices. While everyone is entitled to share opinions and experiences, it’s important to understand that education, licensing, and scope of practice are not the same across professions. This article isn’t about attacking one person.

By Cyn Doll (Cyn Smith-Spikener), Founder of Cynple Apothecary Healthy Hair Begins Long Before You See It When most people think about healthy hair, they think about what they can see in the mirror. They notice thinning around their part, more hair left behind in the shower, a receding hairline, or hair that seems to have stopped growing altogether. Naturally, the first instinct is often to search for a new shampoo, serum, oil, or supplement that promises fast results. The tr

Separating science from tradition with evidence from dermatology, skin physiology, and hair biology. For generations, many people have been taught that greasing the scalp is essential for healthy hair growth. Heavy hair grease—typically formulated with petrolatum (petroleum jelly), mineral oil, and waxes—became a cultural staple long before we understood scalp biology. Today, dermatology paints a much different picture. This article isn’t about demonizing hair grease. It’s ab

Why Hair Doesn't Simply Grow It Responds By Cyn SmithFounder of Cynple Apothecary | Creator of The Verdant Code™ For generations, the conversation around hair growth has revolved around a single question: How do I make my hair grow? It's a question that has fueled an industry worth billions of dollars. Every year, new oils, serums, supplements, shampoos, and treatments promise thicker hair, faster growth, and miraculous transformations. Yet despite the endless products and ad