Salon Vs Supermarket Hair Care

Salon Vs Supermarket Hair Care

Salon Vs Supermarket Hair Care

A few weeks back I went for a little trip to the supermarket hair care aisle, to hang out with my bestest friends, Pantene and Gliss and Fructise… lol NOT!

For the average hairdresser we usually walk past this aisle and grimace and occasionally hiss or swear at it as we walk past quickly to avoid this awful space.

When I ask new clients what products they use on their hair and they tell me they use anything from a supermarket, I always ask them to kindly stop swearing at me! Haha or they might tell me they use a shampoo and mask specially for coloured hair. Again I ask but where did you get it? And they tell me the supermarket.

I understand that unless you’re a hairdresser it’s not your job to know the difference.

Why should you?

Your a normal Jane who watches the adverts on the tv and these advertisements look fantastic! They tell you, that if you use head and shoulders or herbal essence that you are going to have goddess like hair. They spend thousands of pounds on these adverts and even pay celebrities to sponsor their brand and film Cheryl Cole telling everyone that she uses Elvive. I can guarantee THAT SHE DOES NOT! Let me remind you she is an actress and she is getting paid to tell you that. Very good brand marketing. And I think it’s a crying shame that professional hair salon products do not get advertised in the same way… unless someone wants to pay me to get in a rainforest shower and tell you how much I love TIGI or Moroccan Oil or Davines Shampoo “because I’m worth it!” which i would happily do.

So I went to the supermarket. Because I believe It’s my duty to inform you of the difference. First thing i did was look at the ingredients.

BIG words, lots of chemicals that even me I had to google to figure out what they were.

This is what I found on the back of multiple different brands :

Sodium chloride aka SALT

Magnesium Chloride also SALT

Glycerin is a thickening agent or lubricant

Alcohol and Sodium, again more SALT.

Wow thats alot of salt! How is that supposed to clean your hair and moisturize your hair?

Guess what…IT WONT!

Did anyone see the little video i posted the other day of the difference between washing your hair in supermarket vs salon brand shampoo? Then wonder why your colour fades double quick!?

Then on to the masks and conditioners.

Last week I saw a fantastic hair dressers mass rant on Pantene conditioner. Its was in a private hairdressers group so i can’t share it with you but I can tell you that it totally battered the hell out of pantene! FYI it’s not just Pantene, it’s also fructice, gliss, john freda, treseme all contain the same ingredients.

As hairdressers we know that it leaves a silicone film layer on the outside of the hair. This silicone plastic layer builds up. And up. And up. So a few things happen.

  1. Someone who has a build up of silicone on their hair, when you colour it, the colour cannot get into the hair. It will look translucent of you will have to die it darker than you really want to, to achieve the coverage.
  2. When you try to bleach hair that has a silicone build up, you literally cook the plastic into the hair. And wonder why your hair is damaged after a set of high lights, possibly blame the hairdresser coz she must of done something wrong!

Yes the one thing they did wrong is touch your hair without checking what you use at home.

Watered down

Supermarket products are made by detergent companies like Lever brothers and Proctor and gamble, so the ingredients are pretty basic and cheap. When you look at the ingredients on the back the first ingredient is Aqua. The shampoos are really runny because of the high water content. Professional brands tend to be a lot thicker in consistency because they contain minimal water.

I always tell my clients how cost effective and longer lasting pro brands are, and better value for money. I use Tresesme vs Bed head as an example.

To buy a Treseme shampoo and conditioner is €11. It will last around 1 month.

To buy Bed Head Shampoo and Conditioner is €33. It will last 6 months minimum, sometime more.

So you can buy Treseme and pay €66 for 6 months, or you can Buy Bed Head for €33 for six months. Not only is that half the price it’s also an amazing brand!!!! Double wammy benefit and no brainer i would say!? What do you think???

Head and shoulders

People tend to run to this product when the have a dry Flacky, itchy scalp. The problem with this product is that it’s very strong. It strips the scalp, like a strong exfoliation. Once you have used this for a period of time the scalp is used to being stripped and is now still over providing the natural oils the hair needs on the scalp. Also this strong exfoliation on the hair will just totally strip it and dry it out! So in fact it might look like it’s doing the job, but not until you stop using it will you see you still have the problem, itchy flaky and now also dehydrated scalp and hair.

For dry scalp I will always recommend to hydrate your whole body, drink more water and less coffee. Also to use a moisture mask on the scalp. Because like when you have dry skin on your body you would wash like normal but then apply a nice thick body moisturizer afterwards.

For flaky, itchy scalp, or over productive greece levels I strongly recommend Bed Head Re Boot Shampoo. This is specially designed to re balance extreme scalp conditions to bring it back to normal. You can find it on our website   https://haircarecyprus.com/product-category/wash-care/shampoo/page/4/

Johnsons baby shampoo

People often tell me “oh I have fine hair so I want to use something gentle on it, so I’m using baby shampoo.”

Well, actually for any type of hair this shampoo is by no means gentle!

Baby shampoo is actually a normal generic detergent but with a very high ph level.

Your hair is ph 4.5

So all hair care products should be around this level.

Whereas baby shampoo ph level is actually 7.

This is the ph level of the eyes. Johnsons make the ph level this high so that if the product goes in the baby’s eyes it won’t sting! BUT that means that this products is way too strong for hair and scalp! So if you use this on coloured, or already dehydrated hair… it’s not a good idea to say the very least!

 

A lot of people with fine hair often don’t use conditioner because they are worried it will weigh their hair down. If you have experienced this before that is because you were using the wrong product for your hair.

So let me help you with that too! Either take my recommendation or come talk to us. We will give you a specialised recommendation specifically for your hair and its needs.

If you found this helpful, useful or absolutely bloody awesome, please share and comment below.

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