The Right Brain rambles:

We came across an interesting shampoo rant by UK blogger by Rob Fisher that touches on some of the same themes that we write about here. You can check out the entire article, but here are a few pithy quotes from Rob followed by The Beauty Brains comments:

Rob Writes:
I find shopping for toiletries an overwhelmingly draining experience. I can stare at an entire aisle of shampoo for hours, just looking your basic, ordinary, not-too-cheap, not-too-expensive, not-containing-any-weird-ingredients shampoo. It’s nearly impossible. There’s too much choice!

The Brains Comment:
What do you people in the real world think? Are there too many choices out there for shampoo and other personal care products?

Rob Writes:
Yet could it be that all this choice is a good thing? After all, whether you have blonde, coloured, curly, damaged, dry, fine, frizzy, greasy, lifeless, oily, permed, thin, tired, treated, unmanageable or wavy hair, you need to make sure you have the right shampoo for you. And you will be provided for, even if you have greasy roots but dry tips. Pity the poor soul who has normal hair, but even amongst this vast array of hair categories there is room for normal hair shampoo. (It seems to me that the marketeers have admitted defeat with normal shampoo.)

The Brains Comment:
He’s got an interesting point here, modern shampoos stay away from the term normal hair and instead chose names that communicate benefits, ala Sleek and Smooth.

Rob Writes:
You can get shampoo that clarifies, energises, fortifies, hydrates, nourishes (from root to tip), nurtures, protects, refreshes, repairs, revitalises, strengthens, tames and volumises your hair.

You can choose from shampoo that boosts vitality; builds inner strength; dramatically increases body and fullness; enhances softness; enriches the vital substance; frees the scalp and hair of impurities in a wave of freshness; frees your mind and spirit (proving that there’s more to shampoo than just hair); improves manageability (by up to 87% – although how it is possible to measure something like manageability so accurately is beyond me); increases moisture retention (by up to 49%); infuses moisture; locks in colour and shine; neutralises dulling minerals in water; promotes healthy hair and scalp, a radiant shine, or silkiness and lustre; protects hair from drying out; reduces breakage from brushing; reduces frizz or dandruff; removes itchiness and irritation; restores the scalp’s natural balance smooths all the way to the tip; tames annoying flyaways; targets areas of weakness; wakes you up; or works inside of the hair fibre. Few would argue that these options aren’t vital for the functioning of society.

The Brains Comment:
Wow, is this guy cynical or what? But, we do agree with some of his points. Consumers have no way of evaluating many of the benefits that shampoo marketers present to you. How would you know what an emollient is doing to your hair, or how can you tell when your hair is 5x stronger? The truth is, you can’t!

Now, that doesn’t mean the beauty companies are deliberately misleading you. It doesn`t mean they`re selling crappy products. It just means that’s the way this marketplace works: to stay in business, companies have to constantly reinvent their products and claims. The reputable companies can prove everything they say about their products, but that proof may be based on esoteric scientific tests that don`t directly relate to anything you could perceive when you use the product.

Is that bad? Not necessarily. If their advertising says something that gets you to buy the product and you like it, then both you and the company win. If on the other hand, you try the product and you don’t like it, if you feel they tricked you into buying something that doesn’t work, well then, you won’t buy the product again and the company loses.

So, as long as the beauty industry keeps selling quality products and as long as they promote those products with claims based on scientific testing, there’s nothing wrong with them trying to catch your attention with creative language.

Finally, Rob Writes:
Then there are plenty of magazines that will happily inform stupid, gullible people, through a series of annual awards, what the best shampoos are and why they need their hair protected from the dulling minerals in water, and these are in no way in collusion with the overpaid arts graduates who lied their way into marketing jobs at shampoo companies. So don`t whine over your dry, damaged hair; adopt the Aussie philosophy: There’s more to life than hair, but it’s a good place to start.

The Brains Comment:
Ouch. We don’t like the beauty product consuming public being described as stupid and gullible. But, having worked in the industry for many years, there’s something about the line overpaid arts graduates who lied their way into marketing jobs at shampoo companies that just makes us smile.

But seriously, buying beauty products is really no different than shopping for a car or making any other complicated purchase: you should begin to educate yourself before you start buying. And that`s why are here – to, as Aussie says, give you a good place to start.

Cynical Girl sez…I have over-highlighted my hair and it’s fried. The salon recommended a Redken All Softconditioning treatment and another Redken protein treatment. Will any of these products really make a difference, or do I just need to cut off the damaged ends of my hair? Is it possible to add too much moisture or protein to my hair? Any risks?

The Right Brain replies:

Cynical Girl – it looks like you’ve committed the cardinal sin of chemically caring for your hair: you over-processed. But, rather than publicly berating you here on the Beauty Brains blog, we’ll give you some information that will help save your hair.

Is protein powerful?

Your stylist recommended a couple of Redkin products. There’s certainly nothing wrong with using those – the All Soft conditioner is a fine product that could mitigate some of the damage you’ve done to your hair. I’m not really sure you would necessarily need to use the protein treatment since protein aren’t typically a significant active ingredient in conditioner formulas. Although your hair is made of protein (keratin protein to be precise), protein delivered from a conditioner doesn’t really help that much. There are other conditioning and moisturizing agents that are more beneficial to your hair than proteins. Still, if you don’t mind spending the money on those Redkin products they’re certainly worth a shot.

You just need to be careful that you don’t over condition your hair or else you might end up with limp lifeless locks. Which leads us to the second part of your question. Can you add too much moisture or protein to your hair? The answer is: “Not exactly.” Let us explain.

Moisture is magic

One of the components of your hair is moisture – in fact your hair naturally contains between 8 and 14 percent water. But, and here is the tricky part, your hair naturally equilibrates to the humidity in your environment. In other words if it’s very dry outside you will have less moisture than 8 to 14 percent in your hair and if it’s very humid you’ll have more. Think about your hair after you wash it or after you’ve gone swimming. It doesn’t stay wet – it eventually does dry out.

On the other hand, you do need to watch out for adding too much moisturizer. A moisturizer is an ingredient that helps your hair hold onto moisture. Strictly speaking, moisture is water but moisturizers can be oils or silicones. And if you put too much of these materials on your hair you can get on build up or weigh down effect, which is not good, especially if you want your hair to look thick and full.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

We don’t discourage you from trying the Redken products, but you may find you don’t like them. If this happens, you’ll have to experiment with a few other conditioners to find one that gives you the right balance of moisture without weighdown. But at least now, hopefully we’ve given you have a better understanding of HOW your conditioner works. And by the way, don’t you dare wash your hair without conditioning – at least for the next few weeks. You’ve got to protect your fragile, over-processed strands.

What do YOU think? What are you favorite products for dealing with over-stressed tresses? Leave a comment and share your secrets with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Mid Brain reports:

Here’s an interesting new product from Laboratorios Fisa in Venezuela: a combing cream that contains corn and wheat based active cereals to provide nutrition and protection to your hair. Grain extracts certainly aren’t bad for your hair (unless you have a gluten allergy!) but they also don’t do anything good for your hair either.

Combing cream formulas, on the other hand, can be good for your hair. They’re a special type of leave-in conditioner that makes the hair smooth and easy to style. They’re very popular in Latin America and this Beauty Brain is interested to see if this styling trend catches on in the US and UK as well. It’ll also be interesting to see if Active Cereals catch on!

This is a sponsored post for American Discount Beauty Supply.

Hey Gals, Sarah B. here with a quicky review of an interesting beauty supply website.

Unique products

There are tons of places on the Internet where you can get beauty products so why would you care about this one?

Well, what I found most compelling was the collection of unique beauty products that you don’t normally find on other beauty supply websites.

While other sites offer things you can easily find at your local Target, American Discount Beauty Supply has many things that you can’t.

Consider some of the following….

1. Sunless Tanning Mitt – If you’re tired of getting orange/blotchy hands by putting on sunless tanners, try the tanning mitt. Guaranteed not to stain hands.

2. Rinse No More Shampoo – You work it in and towel it off. It gets you clean hair without wasting water.

3. Demeter Fragrances – We’ve written about these before. American Beauty Supply can get you some of my favorites like Gin & Tonic spray and Waffle Cone. You’ll smell good enough to eat.

4. The Star of David Kosher Soap – officially blessed by Rabbis

5. Fake Mustaches - Who isn’t a little curious about how it feels to kiss a man in a mustache? You can get these fun accessories here too!

I could go on and on about the extensive personal massager selection but Lefty would probably edit it out.

Reasonable Prices

I looked through the price list of most things and while they weren’t the least expensive of any beauty supply website, they were lower than most. With the unique selection of products and the 100% satisfaction guarantee (you can get your money back if you’re disappointed), American Discount Beauty Supply is a great option when you’re considering your next beauty product purchase.

The Right Brain rants:

Here’s an interesting  product that gets props for creative packaging- Charles Worthington’s H2O Styling Strips, water activated gel strips for styling hair.

According to the company, you simply take one between the palms of your hands, add a splash of warm water, and rub to activate. Then spread through your hair to give it body and lasting hold. The strips are even packaged in a convenient ‘pocket pack’ like breath strips.

Cashing in on the strip craze

Here’s the problem: The solids content of a gel formula is typically around 10% or more.  Part of that solid content is made up by a thickener, typically Carbomer, along with a holding resin which is usually PVP/VA. This is the active ingredient that really styles hair. So if you need a dollop the size of a quarter to hold your style in place, you’re delivering approximately 1 gram of solid active ingredients. These strips each only weigh a fraction of a gram. That means you’d need to use 5 or maybe even 10 of them to do the same job as your regular gel.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

While we applaud the innovative use of delivery technology, this seems like a gimmick designed to cash in on the success of Listerine Breath Strips. We see little advantage to this quick and easy gel substitute.

What do YOU think? Would you sacrifice performance to gain portability? Or would you  just carry a tiny tube of gel in your purse?  Are you impressed when companies experiment with new products like this or are you just annoyed that they’re trying to sell you another bad idea?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.