I disagree. Maybe if you're talking jherri curl juice or sulfar 8 (neither of which I've ever used
)...but I've always loved the smell of African Pride, African Royal, Always Indian Hemp, some Pink Lotion stuff, various Softee greases, hot six oil etc.
Now that companies know that we are paying more attention and learning to take better care of our hair, they are stepping their game up as far as ingredients go. We also now have many black owned/catered to black hair natural product lines that use high quality ingredients and smell great to boot.
However, even shopping at the local bss, I have never put something unpleasent smelling on my hair, and this is waaay before Carol even had a daughter.