Ok Ok! I know, Ive not blogged for yonks! Truth is, I don't want to just blog for the sake of blogging. I want it to be useful, informative and inspirational. I had to wait for inspiration to hit!
And HIT it did!
What have I been repeating over and over and over till I find myself saying it almost automatically?
Your shampoo and conditioner really is the first and most important step to the most beautiful hair you've always wanted. Honest. I'm not trying to sell you anything here. And when you go to your salon of choice and they give you lots of information about the shampoo and conditioner you should be using, believe it or not, they're not trying to sell anything to you either. A good stylist will want to educate their clients on the benefits of correct products, because their first and foremost goal is to get your hair looking so stunning all your friends will want to know where they get their hair done, therefore making them the most desirable stylist in town! They really aren't so much selling you products, rather prescribing you the correct home care for your hair.
Think about it this way.
If you go to the doctor with a problem, they give you a prescription. You pay for the prescription, take it home, use it and more often than not the symptoms go away. Do you feel they are "selling" pharmaceuticals to you? No of course not. They are trying to alleviate your problems.
We stylists are doing the same thing, in our own field. Prescribing you with the best products to alleviate and undesirable symptoms and give you the best possible care for your hairs individual needs.
Right. Now we've got that bit cleared up, Id like to talk about shampoos and conditioners that are available to you and try and give you enough knowledge so you can make more of and informed decision about what you put on your hair. I know Ive touched on this in a previous blog about products, but I want to specifically concentrate on shampoo and conditioner.
Obviously, I'm going to tell you that shampoos and conditioners you can buy in the supermarket really are no good for your hair. But why?
You get what you pay for.
You probably think that the companies that are selling the more expensive salon products are making way more profit. After all, its all the same ingredients, right?
No. In fact certain companies that spend millions on celebrity endorsements and Fancy Dan advertising are far more concerned with marketing their products to get you to lust after them, rather than concentrate on the science behind it all and making the product genuinely beneficial to the health and integrity of your hair.
Its not the ingredients, its the quality of the ingredients that matters! Salon products get themselves on to the shelves of salons because they really do work. They get the backing of stylists who will champion them because they've seen results and understand how they work. These companies know that the backing of a good stylist is FAR more important than paying a Pussy Cat Doll a few million quid to fake an orgasm over the smell of their shampoo.
And lets face it, the Pussy Cat Doll in question seems to get excited over yoghurt too so I'm not sure how valid her opinion is.....
Ingredients then. What about them?Silicons. Nearly all shampoos have silicons in them. News is getting around that silicons are bad, which is sort of true. A cheap shampoo will have cheap ingredients. Cheap silicons. Silicons work by putting a gloss on the hair making it shine. Good shampoos will have high quality silicons, that are water soluble, meaning every time you wash your hair, the old silicone is washed off and a fresh lot put on. Cheap shampoos tend to build up the layer of silicone, eventually making it feel sticky, heavy, dry, dull and even cause a flaky scalp. Which, by the way, most likely isn't dandruff, its probably old silicone flaking off.
Build up of silicone is a nightmare, and so commonly seen on clients who use supermarket products. It can effectively laminate your hair and scalp. Sure it looks healthy the first wash or so, just like the ad promised but its not actually fixing any problems.
Imagine this. You have dry, brittle and weak nails. Put a top coat on them. Nice and shiny, right? Are they healthy and strong again though? Course not, you've just coated them with a gloss so they appear healthy. Same thing with your locks.
Long term silicone build up can dehydrate your hair and scalp, causing breakage and an embarrassingly itchy scalp. Not to mention it being an absolute nightmare to perform any chemical service on! Its like trying to colour in a piece of paper that's been laminated!
Many products boast the presence of Keratin, the protein that your hair is made up of. Great. Perfecto. Good stuff. But I can promise you this, the stuff you just whacked in your trolley next to the loo cleaner has got a pitiful amount of keratin in it. And Ill bet the keratin is more likely synthesised in a lab, rather than extracted from nature. Good products have the real deal going on in the bottle, and in abundance.
Most of the ingredients in the supermarket products have been synthesised in labs, rather than extracted from origin.
You may have noticed from previous blogs, I'm a bit of a fan of the products from a company called Joico. Reason being, their products are so ram packed with cutting edge technology, that's been patented so no other company can get their mitts on it. Those boffins in lab coats are constantly coming up with mind bogglingly ingenious products that really do make even the most battered hair HEALTHY. Not healthy looking, actually healthy.
The reason I choose them for my salon is pretty simple. They work. They really work. Ive tried and tested a fair few brands in my time, but nothing has ever compared to Joico.
In fact, all the Joico shampoos and conditioners contain Keratin.They also contain things like actual oat proteins to fatten up limp hair (Body Luxe)
Silverising pigments to blast out brassy tones (Colour Endure Violet)
UV protectants and nourshiment for coloured hair (Colour Endure)
Colour protection and Reconstructing Keratin (KPak Colour Therapy)
Ceramides and moisture to plump up the moisture layer on your coarse, dy hair (Moisture Recovery)
Gentle cleansing for you hair lovers that just want clean healthy hair (Daily Care)
And finally smoothness and frizz reduction using nut oils to nourish (Smooth Cure)
Good quality products will last you anything up to 4 months a bottle. True Blue! They're concentrated and packed full of high quality ingredients so you need only a little to do the job.
Tot up how much you spend on shampoo and conditioner in a year. How often do you pop it in your trolley? It will cost you around £30 for a salon shampoo and conditioner, but if you're only buying it 3 times in a year, that's £90.......do you spend the same, or even more on stuff that doesn't even do the job?
Yes, this is all a bit of an information overload. But if you remember one thing, remember this:
If its cheap, the ingredients are cheap and therefore really a total waste of money.
So next time you're in the salon getting tended to, ask your stylist about which products you should be using (if they haven't already volenteered the information!) And don't forget to fill that prescription!
If you would like more information about the products I have talked about, please visit www.joicoeurope.com
