Mid Brain Muses:
Ahh, how times change.
Today, amid fears of Mad Cow Disease and Bird Flu, the mere HINT that a product contains any animal by-products is enough to send even the most zealous fan of cosmetics shrieking into the night. But not so back in the 1970s, no sir! This ad we found in the Beauty Brains archives shows that back then we embraced our animal by-products. Case in point, this Clairol Condition ad from 1974. Read the fine print carefully – “It contains more animal protein than any leading conditioner.” Now there’s a claim you don’t see anymore!
What do YOU think? Will animal protein ever be popular again as a cosmetic ingredient? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hask Henna ‘n’ Placenta proudly advertises that it contains animal protein. Didn’t you guys say earlier that protein in hair treatments doesn’t do anything useful?
Oh Goodness I hope not. Everytime I have to buy a new product, I read over the ingredient list and attempt to decipher if there are any animal ingredients in it or if it has been tested on animals. I hope adverts like this do not make a comeback.
Now, I consider myself a educated person. But if it were not for this site, I would have no idea how to decipher the damn ingredients!!!!
Once there are synthetic versions, yes — and I don’t mean synthetic meaning things that are nothing like the actual material but behave like them, like coconut oil behaves similarly to sebum.
I mean actual material that is identical in wevery possible way to animal protein but came out of a test tube. Sebum created in a laboratory or whatnot. Mostly because it’d be expensive as all hell and probably not work any better than the other stuff, so it’s sure to end up in high-end personal care products.
In some ways we, as humans, are evolving and realizing just how disgusting and inhumane we have been to other creatures. My biggest complaint is that so many creams still contain lanolin. I’m also a Vegan and it’s such an archaic ingredient, not to mention one has to kill sheep to put it into a vanity item. Human evolution still has light years to go, especially with regards to cruelty to other creatures.
Almost everything goes in cycles. I wouldn’t be suprised to it back someday! It may not be in the same form as the Clairol ad but we will probably see it resurected from the ad graveyard by some future marketer.
Star, I disagree with your comment that sheep have to be killed to acquire lanolin for cosmetic products. Lanolin is like the sheep equivalent of our sebum – it is a skin excretion for protecting and conditioning wool. When sheep are shorn and the fleece is washed, heaps of lanolin is washed off into the washwater and sinks, which can then be collected. My mother grew up on a sheep farm and fleece-sorting time was associated with wonderfully soft hands – the only time of the year this was the case, she assures me. These sheep were bred for their wool, and not for their meat – a good quality product for either requires different breeds.
That said, I accept this is a side issue to animal use/exploitation in the beauty industry, amongst others. Just wanted to clarify.