Colleen Taylor

“The two biggest self-­deceptions of all are that life has a ‘meaning’ and that each of us is unique.”

-David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) in his new book, Bicycle Diaries, reviewed this week in the New York Times

Ha-- I'm looking forward to reading this book.

Two (of many*) quotable bits from the fantastic Diane Von Furstenberg interview** in this month's Harper's Bazaar:

What would you say is your favorite thing about being married?
DVF: I don't know. No one's ever asked me that. I mean, I don't particularly like to be married. I don't know. It feels very natural. I don't feel like I'm a prisoner. So the things I like the best about being married are probably the things that aren't very typical about being married. I can't believe I married twice. I so don't care about being married.

Now, you realize that you're a commanding, magnetic presence.  Were you always like that?
DVF: You don't see yourself like that.  Nobody does.  You know, there's a thing about the woman across the room. You see the woman across the room and you think, She's so poised, she's so together.  But she looks at you and you are the woman across the room for her.***


*DVF should really have been on the cover instead of Janet Jackson.  I mean, if "I can be an emotional eater" is the highlighted, takeaway quote from the cover story, you know it's a dull one. We all know you are, Janet. Let's move on.

** This is a great interview because it's in that transcript style that seems straight from the tape recorder. I love to get a feel for how a person really talks, especially when they have so many interesting things to say.

*** DVF was literally once the woman across the room for me, four years ago, when we were both at the same luncheon at the Four Seasons in New York (yes, it was one of those boom-time media events.)  I met her briefly, and she really is a magnetic presence--smart and seasoned and beautiful and chic and so completely comfortable in the world.

But what's really remarkable is that even though she clearly has a lot she could say about herself and her decades of experiences, she genuinely seems more interested in learning about you and what you're doing. That's very rare in general, and especially in people over a certain age. It's definitely how I want to be when I grow up.

A couple of statements I encountered today basically begged for a very, very facetious response of "You don't say?" 

--After being told of a new outsourcing scheme undertaken by a company in the past fiscal year, a shareholder at an investor conference said to the CEO ( in all seriousness and as if it were something that differentiated him from other investors): "I'm a very big fan of low cost processes, so, kudos."

--The cover story in my alma mater's alumni magazine this month is an introduction to Michele Moody-Adams, the new dean for Columbia's undergraduate college. The headline on the magazine's cover describes her only as "a strong advocate for undergraduate education."

I recently read a few scary articles about all the bad stuff in normal sunscreens and shampoos.  Please note: I've linked to the articles there for reference, but if I were you, I wouldn't read them.  Ignorance is more blissful (and a lot less expensive) than obsessing over ingredient lists and buying only all-natural personal care products.

Anyway, I didn't think it'd be too hard to find all-natural hair products I liked. For years, I almost exclusively used conditioner from an all-natural brand, Nature's Gate, not for fear of chemicals but because I just loved the smell and how shiny it made my hair.  I'd kind of forgot about Nature's Gate and hadn't used it in the past couple of years, but I figured it'd be easy to buy a couple of bottles at my trusty neighborhood health food store and get back on the wagon.

Well, they had Nature's Gate products, but they definitely weren't the same.  First of all, the brand has a new slick look, which was disappointing, since I loved the old hippie bottles. 



But the really awful part was how much they've changed the formula. This is the ingredient list from the old Nature's Gate conditioner:

Purified Water, Extracts of Chamomile, Nettle, Ho-lien-hua, Nelumbo Nucifera, Comfrey Root, Cherry Bark, Schleichera Trijuga, Kusambi Bark, Burdock, and Yucca, Vegetable Emulsifying Wax, Coconut Oil, Methylparaben, Myrrh Oil, Lavender Oil.

This is what goes into the stuff that's now sold under the Nature's Gate label:

Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Quaternium-87, Polysorbate 60, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract, Prunus Serotina (Wild Cherry) Bark Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract, Arctium Lappa (Burdock) Root Extract, Yucca Schidigera Root Extract, Lilium Candidum (White Lily) Bulb Extract, Nelumbo Nucifera (Sacred Lotus) Flower Extract, Quercus Alba (Oak) Bark Extract, Butylene Glycol, Glyceryl Undecylenate, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance, Caramel.

What's up with that?  Well, a little digging seems to shows that the formula changes got under way in August 2006, about a year and a half after Levlad, the company that's always made Nature's Gate, was acquired by a private equity firm. Surprise, surprise.

Don't get me wrong: I know M&A can often be a great thing for brands, but what the acquirer did here puzzles me. Why would they buy Levlad only to make so many unpronounceable additions to its flagship product right now, as more and more people are scrutinizing ingredient lists?  The new formula may be cheaper to make, but I'd personally be happy to pay double what I used to pay for Nature's Gate just to have the old formula back-- and I'm sure I'm not the only disappointed former fan.

Oh well, it's back to the haircare drawing board for me.  Any suggestions for *truly* all-natural shampoos and conditioners are very welcome!