August 30, 2012

The Shampoo Games

 Starring : Sulfate-Free Shampoo & Celebrities  

I thought I would change things up and answer a readers question, I never know what I will write about I just start looking at all things 'hair' and see what 'floats my boat', and today I wanted to answer this dear woman's question . . . . . . .
.." I have been using Pureology Hydrate shampoo for a few years now and thought that it was a great shampoo. After reading this I looked at the ingredient list and it has ALL of the bad ingredients in it!!! I am very surprised by this seeing as how it is supposed to be a very reputable brand. I was trying to read thru all of these comments and thought that I saw Pureology as one of the recommended brands?? Did I see that right? So I'm now in search for a new shampoo and conditioner and was wondering what you would recommend. I cant seem to find your recommendation list if there is one
.

                                                                                                        Anonymous  - August 21, 2012.."


 That is the downfall of having a 5 year old BLOG. And I do apologize, but when Pureology first came out it was the very best shampoo I had ever experienced - anyone in the elite hair industry had ever experienced. It was also the 1st shampoo to break the $20.00/ bottle price, which was so shocking at the time. Weird huh... only 8 years ago we were shock & awed by this fantastic piece of shampoo technology!
This Blog is 5 years old, and while that might not seem old, it is in Internet years. 5 years ago was when I had checked the ingredients on the PUREOLOGY label and they had changed - - drastically !  Pureology was bought out by a huge ass French company. Can you guess who it is? So before the story think about this.... the French, I'm told apparently they don't like us. So, I guess this is their way of getting us back? ? ! !  

 I get this same type of question from time to time from many different people about different brands of sulfate-free shampoos, & shampoos they 'thought' were of excellent quality only to find out - - they were in fact......NOT ! So, its time to clear the air, or to clear the shampoo air anyway . . .

Anonymous: The quick Answer is........we now have a store killerstrands.com  .
 The store has ONLY Sulfate-Free Shampoos & 100% of the shampoos have been vetted by me personally. We are the only store/website that truly, deeply, dearly believes in helping 'you' the public learn how to properly care for your hair.



 If I new what a difficult job it would be I probably would have never started this Blog. I now know what a "Love /Hate" relationship is. We have not grown like I thought we would. I thought the public would eat up this information. I also felt like I was taking my life in my hands....as these companies are so large they probably have numerous "HIT MEN" on staff ( and I am not kidding at all - but at least its out there now, if I happen to disappear soon be sure to call the police in my city would you please ?? !! ).

 I also believe the reason for that is because I speak so poorly against the biggest advertisers in the United States of America. Google, Yahoo, & the entire Internet, rely on advertisers and have been built on advertising dollars - so the last thing they will do is help me out. . I never thought of that in the beginning though... I was excited to learn this new thing called a BLOG. I thought because it was the Internet, that just the people would propel Killerstrands... so we all could get the word out.  The word is serious if you have a daughter.  I mean when I can get someone to truly give the 12 Steps of the program I refer to as "10,000 HEADS"  an honest > 90-day try  10,000 HEADS Protocol - they see -- exactly what I am referring to.  I have always received the most heartwarming email thanking me for the ones that do..... But I only get a couple a month, which is nothing for the amount of time that we have been at this. I know its hard, but I have found - in my years in the hair industry, that people care more deeply about their hair then they do about their parents ! ! Not their shoes....but pretty much most of their family members.  A joke of course, but you would not believe some of the things I hear.

I feel & believe with every inch of my soul that female hair-loss begins now, here in southern California at the age of 16-18 - - because of the hideous formula's these gigantor companies make & advertise on TV every single day of their young lives.  They use Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in every single shampoo commercial for hair on TV / magazines & the Internet today, why? ...its super super - CHEAP !  Remember when you were young, you never thought any commercial could be false, you never thought anything bad would happen to you....we didn't have people looking into those types of things 20-30-40 years ago. The only reason I did  ?? I kept having young, super young 15-16-17 year olds come in with very internally damaged hair. This was before Flat Irons, & those only propelled the problem even deeper. I kept trying to figure out a common denominator...of course 50 - 60 year old women would have this super radical damage from years of boxed color and way too many curling irons, heated rollers, and lousy products.....but none of these young girls used any of those things. It took me over a year to the day it finally hit me as I was driving to work ( where I would do most of my good clear thinking) in the most beautiful canyon in the world "Malibu Canyon". The one and only common denominator in the old with poor hair health & the young with poor hair health  - - - -  was shampoo. Then I spent 2 years trying to learn about the ingredients in shampoos and all about them - remember prior to the Internet as we know it and prior to GOOGLE as it is today !


I then was diagnosed with a rare & deadly bone cancer it began in my left leg and forgot about all of that for about a year or two.....But I had already made my first Gleam and my first version of 'THRIVE--N' which sold like crazy for $96.00, so you are getting it wholesale  ! But the disease started to eat at my leg  .....  I could no longer "stand" for longer than 30  minutes (I used to stand for 10-12 hours).....something you need to do in order to do hair had been taken away from me.  Therefore in retrospection of my career of doing hair and becoming ill I had figured out a long time ago that Sulfates and lousy formulation of hair shampoos and conditioners were 100% responsible for all the new hair-loss and damage I was seeing in my career on a daily basis. So I began formulating rougher versions of the products I have as Killerstrands own, in our store today. Once ill, it opened up time to take Cosmetic Chemistry courses online. Which taught me exactly how the products should be made. I wished I had time to take courses on making shampoo's... but our teacher had a heart attack and died one morning, it was absolutely horrifying he was the most brilliant chemist ever.... he just had a way of teaching that suited my style of learning I suppose.


So, as I had stated earlier, Killerstrands kind of grew out of a small portion of women on the web who were striving for solutions to the poor health of their hair.  That is the one and only reason we are still here, little by little. . . mainly our own products have kept Killerstrands alive. I keep preaching and I'm so happy to have this as it gives me something to do with now that I need to be off of my feet almost the entire day.

In the USA - 3 absolutely humungous companies have bought up all of the little companies, and what happens is, they leave the original name the same ( so I believe the general public has no idea the sale took place.... it takes about 1-2 years, for the 'press' of the 'sale' to go away ( Pureology was sold for 20 million... to who? a French company of all things  ?!?!  "L'OREAL ")      http://beautykazoo.hubpages.com/hub/Pureology-and-Loreal   Everyone I knew that were reputable in hair in L.A. dropped the line immediately, L'Oreal has a 50 year reputation for destroying cosmetic companies right and left. Every single company L'Oreal purchases in the hair industry.....they destroy. I am amazed they still are a prospering company. So, once the big corporate employees come in to the new smaller company they have gobbled up... all the employees of the big GIANT MEGATROPOLIS company begin to figure out how to cheapen down the formulas of all the products / they search for cheaper packaging, move the production to China or Mexico, all to make their profits skyrocket, so they look good to their stockholders. I mean I guess its the American way, but to me that is not the America I thought I grew up in.

 You see that is the biggest misconception to 'you' the public, everyone thinks that Pureology is the same company and the man & wife couple who began it and invented this clever technology along with one very good Cosmetic Chemist is still in existence when in fact, it is not. Jim Markham who developed PUREOLOGY, had begun with ABBA, and he got bought out with that company then he started Pureology and it was the very first time Luxury Premium hair care was made available to the women of the USA.  I hated him after he did that, every hair stylist in America did, which is really weird because I did not even know him ! Remember that shampoo?? All you need was a 1/4Inch of it - the tiniest amount - (which btw - every shampoo I carry now passes the 1/2 inch test, which is still pretty good.)  Pureology though would make the biggest richest most sudzzy hair. Its so weird but the worst thing for the structure of the hair is SUDS, but you cannot find a woman who will give up suds for health.  That is why PUREOLOGY  'was' a true piece of genius. . .  it had both....the best ingredients AND the most Suds ever.  That way you may pay a lot for a bottle of wonderfully formulated shampoo - but the RIGHT ingredients are in it - there is nothing that will cause hair loss - actually there are herbs that help cure it.... I have looked for everything in the shampoos we have in the store. You may wonder why we only carry 1 shampoo of a whole entire line, and that is because the rest of the products did not pass my tests, which I ran on myself ! yep, every one. 
We all have different body chemistry's but with me being a virgin redhead, and most everything doesn't get along with my stupid bodies make-up  - - I figure you all will be happier than clams with every single shampoo !
And just for the Hell of it the other 2 Gigantic hair company destroyers are? ? ? ? . . .  
(2) Revlon
and
(1) P & G Proctor and Gamble - who hold the grand title of being the number 1 advertiser in the entire USA. Higher than Chevy & FORD and COORS BEER  and every single other company  + any Internet company... The #1 Advertiser in the USA is Proctor & Gamble here are the hair companies that they have devoured and spit out:
  • Head & Shoulders
  • Natural Instincts hair color
  • Aussie
  • Pert
  • Nioxin ! ......really? this is new
  • Nice n Easy
  • Wella - which is the color I used to love  - the minute I heard this, it was gone
  • Head & Shoulders
  • Pantene
  • Sebastian
  • Herbal Essence
  • Fekkai - Yep Frederik Fekkai the genius hair wizard from France sold out to an American company
  • Vidal Sassoon - he regretted this so much, he always remained a man of class though
  • Clairol
  • OLAY
  • Max Factor
  • PERFECT 10
  • and on and on
there are more... I just get disgusted every time I try to compile this list. . . . because they also try to hide them all from the public, they don't want you to know which ones they truly own.....and how many....I mean that is the first sign of guilt ...to me . But, if you are loaded and want a sure thing in a stock... here is your pick. Women will never stop caring about their hair - period. Buy a shitload of P & G tomorrow !






3 comments on "The Shampoo Games"
  1. Hi KC, I want to personally thank you for this site crammed full of some of the best information I have seen in a long time. I can't sing my praises enough. This is exactly what I've been looking for.

    I've literally spent hours turned to days trying to find relevant information regarding hair alchemy. I would like to go level 9/10 blonde, am currently a level 4/5 reddish brown brunette with (gawd awful highlights!). This site, which I discovered just a few days ago, has been a brilliant godsend in the world of wordy BS.

    A little about me: I am what you would call a 'crib colorist'. But I have some background in chemistry, and actually have what you would call a nerdy fascination with it all (when I learn about something I want to know exactly what's happening and why).

    Anyway. This blog you have is a gem. This is the first hair info blog/website that actually offers useful, informative, succinctly put information that involves chemist principles to explain the 'how' and 'why'. It is also the first blog (I have seen) to discuss openly, honestly, and best of all, bluntly, about companies and their BS.

    I appreciate that you treat your reading audience as INTELLECTUALS. I am grateful your offerings don't include 'DUMBED DOWN' information found on so many other hair sites; summed up with annoying and preachy disclaimers like 'now don't try this at home', or, 'this technique should only be done by a professional', and blah blah blah.

    Thank you, NO.

    I don't spend endless of hours of research to be told 'now go see a professional'.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this blog! I have been devouring your knowledge and honest information since it's discovery.
    Take care and please keep it all coming!
    Amanda

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jim Markham's game plan is to build brands and have them be bought out. With the puerology buy out the switch to being produced by L'Oreal over in OH took place a few years after the sale so during that time the formula stayed the same. What happened after that who knows but nobody involved in the original company went with it. It was a sale of the brand and the formulas only and even then they only wanted that so they could spin it off into what became Evapure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. First of all I just want to say that I love your blog & it has been bookmarked for me forever. As an aspiring hairstylist (not quite there - yet) I actually want to be able to give people the whole truth as well, instead of lying to sell, make money, etc. I've always wanted everyone's hair to be beautiful because I die a little inside when I see damaged hair, on anybody. So I appreciate how honest you are! Because a lot of professionals really refuse to hand out this kind of information in fear of 'losing' clients.
    I was wondering if you knew what the old ingredients for Pureology were, because I can't find a list anywhere! I wanted to compare them to the newer formula. I thought you might just know because you seem to have a bit of knowledge about the old formula.

    ReplyDelete

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