The Scoop on Hair Products

You probably want to know some of my background before you will believe anything I tell you so here goes the boring stuff; I have been a hairstylist for over 20 years plus I have a number of years of college in Microbiology and Psychology, when I started back to college I was going for chemical engineering so I could make my own products and decided that I could make them without the college. I started a line of skin and body products called Hejazica that is not on the market yet, since I am manufacturing them in my kitchen right now, but they are all natural and we make candles and the whole bit. My kids and I are having a lot of fun with that, but it’s just a side thing right now.

On to the good stuff

First of all, let me tell you that people will probably be a little upset with me for giving away trade secrets but it’s your hair so it’s your right to know and there is really no one out there who could fire me from my job. So let’s make some people mad together shall we.

The next time you go into your favorite salon and that stylist is trying to sell you a load of products the first thing you want to do to find out if they BS-ing you or not is to ask them, “Which products are alcohol free?” See what they say. If they tell you that they any of them, even one is, then they are feeding you a line. Every product on that shelf has to contain alcohol in one form or another. It is used for all kinds of things and in all kinds of forms.

It is used in hairsprays to keep them liquid in the bottle and dry on your hair. The hair spray is sprayed onto your hair and then alcohol dissipates to allow the hairspray to dry to your hair. The faster drying the product, the more alcohol in the bottle.

It is used in scented products to bind the scent to the actual product, so anything scented will contain alcohol.

It is used to emulsify, that means mix together, bind or attach, different products in lotions and conditioners.

You can look at the list on the back of the bottle all you want, all they have to list is the 12 top ingredients in a product and anything that ends with -hol- is related to alcohol in some way shape or form.

When they tell you that it is alcohol free you can laugh right back at them and tell them that I have educated you on hair products and that they better not being feeding you a line cause you will come back and ask me. And you can do that, come ask me, I will tell you the truth.

Moving on, All salon products are concentrated. They don’t tell you how much to use cause they want you to go home and use it all and come back and buy it, duh, everyone knows that one. But did you know that you can use that old spray container or gallon pump, put your new bottle of stuff in and add water and get more out of it? Same with laundry and dish soap. The shampoo molecule has a head and tail, incase you didn’t read the earlier article on bad hair, I am repeating this. One end likes water, the other end likes dirt. When you shampoo or wash something, the head will grab on and a bunch of them will surround the dirt and then when the water comes through it grabs the tail and pulls the dirt off. All that extra lather that everyone brags about, unused product. So the more the lather, the more the waste. Remember that the next time you are a watching a shampoo commercial and the persons head is covered in suds, all wasted product and also an attempt to convince you to use more and ultimately buy more.

Conditioners- Wow, what to say, I guess the answer would be a whole lot. We all love that silky soft feeling of hair when we use those great conditioners that just seem to penetrate every strand. Beep- sorry wrong answer. Most of those conditioners that you love are full of wax or silicone, which is ok for a while, but over time they build up and weigh down your hair and can even drown it, so to speak. If you just love your favorite conditioner and don’t want to change that is ok, there is still hope. Take a dime size of baking soda and mix it in your palm with your shampoo and then lather it into your hair and let it sit for a few minutes then wash your hair again and condition. The baking soda acts like a stripper, not the kind in bars, and it removes the build up. If it’s really bad then do it again or use more baking soda. Another way to strip your hair but some people don’t like the smell, is vinegar. We keep a spray bottle full in the shower at our house, we have 5 girls plus me here, and then once a week or so you can smell someone using it. The best product to use and the only one I will mention in this article and they are not paying me to say this, is Joico. At least it used to be. They just came out with new packaging and I don’t know that I am still as impressed with their product, I will have to tell you later. But their conditioners are actually made with real hair in them to repair yours, gross right, no, it’s clean. They make it into a powder and put it in their products, very smart idea. I mean you wouldn’t repair a flat tire with concrete right. You want to repair with what is missing and what better place to find it than real hair.

If you are still having problems with your products or you would like more advice look me up on the web, HM Weimar, I am under writing also, but of course you can see that.

Talk to you again soon and may all days be good hair days.