Your hair is your crowning glory. That’s a line my mom would utter countless times, almost as if it were a spell that would miraculously transform my hair. As I’ve always envied women with straight and lustrous hair, I would endure painful (on the pocket) trips to the salon or a grueling hour with my hair iron. Needless to say, a bad hair day is nothing extraordinary for me, hence the high ponytail I’m almost always seen with.
Though I’ve relied heavily on my perennial hairdo, I refuse to throw in the towel. There comes a time when a girl must take a breather from her usual allies—her trusty blow-drier and hair iron—and find a knight in shining armor for her tresses in distress.

In this day and age where almost everything is meant to make our fast-paced lives easier, sometimes turning to what’s simple and natural is the way to go.

“Simplicity is the essence,” says Prof. James Tam, director of Drug Discovery and founding dean of the School of Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as he kick-started the Pantene Nature Care launch in Hort Park, Singapore, last Jan. 18. The collection, which has received over 10 awards in the United States when it was first launched in 2009, combines cutting-edge technology with nature’s best.

New benchmark

With more than 60 years of expertise, Pantene ushers in “a new benchmark in nature-inspired beauty products.” Riding the bio-trend wave, Pantene unveils its Nature Care line, touted as “a new collection that blends Pantene’s signature Pro-V technology (which originally dates back to the 1940s) with the super-charged Cassia Complex to enhance your hair’s resilience to damage and breakage and fullness, without weighing down your hair.”

“From our signature Pro-V technology to category-changing creations like Pantene 3-Minute Miracle, Pantene once again spearheads a new generation in hair care with our revolutionary Nature Care series,” says Pantene marketing director Freddy Bharucha.

Pantene’s Nature Care line marries the best of both worlds, “leveraging state-of-the-art science and technology to take nature to the next level,” says Victoria Great, associate director (External Relations) of P&G.

Inspired by Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese and Indian medicine, P&G beauty scientists turned to an “ancient botanical known for its medicinal benefits and prized for its detoxifying and purifying properties,” among others. Pantene takes on the challenge to “create naturally derived products that deliver the power of science” with the cassia plant, which has been “documented as far back as 2700 BC, in Shen-Nung’s Classic of Materia Medica, the earliest Chinese herbal record.”

To harness the power of cassia, which, combined with Pro-V, is the heart of the Nature Care line, a scientific process was applied to change its unique molecular structure. The result is the new Cassia Complex in Pantene’s Nature Care shampoo.

More conditioning

Each 250-ml bottle of Nature Care shampoo contains up to 130 cassia seeds, which deliver a cream-like lather for 39 percent more conditioning than formulae without cassia, while the conditioner’s “dual-surfactant technology” creates a unique “airfilm” that separates the hair strands for effective and even application of conditioning ingredients. Working with the shampoo and conditioner are the Intensive Penetrating Treatment (which creates an artificial layer that mimics hair’s natural protective layer) and the Leave-On Crème (which gives an additional protective coat and moisturizes your hair even more).

Further emphasizing the brand’s commitment to healthy hair were the Nature Care Laboratory, led by Dr. Jasmine Karsono, principal scientist, P&G Beauty and Grooming, and the Cassia in Action Workshop-where Selin Mariadhas, senior engineer, Beauty and Grooming, P&G, led demonstrations to show the media just how unique the cassia-infused formula is, allowing for enhanced conditioning, effective cleansing, and increased hair smoothness, among others.

Capping off the session was a fragrance segment, which made us forget all our deadlines for a good five minutes as we were asked to shut our eyes while smelling Nature Care’s new watergarden fragrance, which contains the essence of cassia’s scent mixed with other fruit and floral notes.