Kate Hudson and David Babaii, her hair stylist-guru-to-the-stars, are allegedly being sued in the Superior Court of Los Angelos, through a verbal agreement with 220 Laboratories. The Laboratories say Hudson and Babaii are in violation of confidence, have misappropriated trade secrets, committed fraud and are in breach of contract, plus up to 13 other transgressions.

The well-kept-secret ingredient to the products, which are said to transform the hairdressing world, is black volcanic ash, from the remote tropical island of Tanna, in Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.

Researchers have just discovered that the average woman, unknowingly, puts 176 different chemicals on her body, in her daily beauty routine. The use of volcanic ash is part of the world wide drive to find more natural products.

Volcanic ash has been used in health care of the body for quite some time. Volcanic Earth, based in Vanuatu, sells a special exfoliating 'Ash Power' body scrub, produced from volcanic ash and sucrose, fine crystals of sugar. The scrub has the same color as rich black soil. The texture is like fine granulated sugar being scrubbed over the skin. Chafing the grains back and forth produces the exfoliating action, scrubbing away dead cells of skin. After a few minutes of scrubbing and rubbing, the grains dissolve into in lightly fragrant, moisturizing foam.

A user of the volcanic exfoliant product described it as, "It's a bit like dying your own hair. The stuff gets everywhere you don't want it to be, and it's black as squid ink. The washcloth I used to remove it in the shower will be hard put to recover. Thank goodness we had a handheld shower head to hose the splatters quickly from the grout. My husband would never have forgiven me."

The volcanic products are said to detoxify and restore life energy through the ancient minerals. The oil absorbing, mineral rich, volcanic ash contains sulphur, which has been used down through the generations as a way of handling a wide variety of skin conditions.

According to Kate Hudson and her partner, you can now manage fly away hair, as well as buy a mask for the face, procured a scrub for the body and an exfoliator and conditioner for the lips.

Who would have imaged that crushed rock and cooled molten glass, produced by violent volcanic explosions, could be so good for the body? The locals in Tanna may be burning away an absolute fortune, when they gather the ash and use it on their fires to cook their food, instead of collecting wood. Mainly since the area has been defoliated by the action of the volcanic ash. I am pretty sure when it comes to the bottom line, however, it will be a case of who owns the precious ash, which liberally litters the plain around the base of Mt Yassur, changing the landscape into a scene from some science-fiction movie?

However, there is another far more important use of the ash, which only nature can wangle. When high levels of volcanic ash is blown up into the atmosphere, as was experienced in 1991 after Mt Pinatubo erupted, there was a global cooling result. The ash can linger suspended for days and even last up several years, screening the sun and cooling the earth. Has anybody considered that a string of volcanic eruptions could answer the world’s crisis of global warming? Will nature lend us a helping hand?