Number 1 Shampoo in the Land of Bubbles & Sulfate-Free

I would imagine most consumers think there are constant changes going on in shampoos, from all the wacky commercials on the tube. Frankly, within the chemistry make-up and formulation ends they have not changed that much in the last 30 years...in my eyes, that is not a good thing. About a month ago I made a few calls to some of the major shampoo manufacturers in the USA to see what they had to say about the biggest changes  within their up coming shampoo releases.

This was the best news I have heard in a very very long time. They all said the same thing: "Sulfate-Free" is their number 1 Red Flag. Which has been a knife in my side now for at least 4 years . . . .

So rejoice . . they have finally heard the complaints and bitching I and many of my stylist compadres have unleashed on the world! I'm not going to complain about the time it took . . . at least "it took". That is a very good thing.

I cannot completely prove that SLS or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is a 100% cause of all the hair loss and hair thinning in women of late....because I still feel from all my research that it is because of the synergistic effect of any one of, or combination of ... of the 10 steps of 10,000 HEADS. 

 






















But when you open the top of a simple small jar of SLS and the inside of your nose,eyes and lungs BURN  from 1 tiny inhale ( which is what I did !) .....SOMETHING IS DRASTICALLY WRONG ... who in their right mind would put that on the hair and hair follicles...??? wow that subject infuriates me...and always will. Stay away from SLS, become accustom to reading labels please....just like you do for your food. You have to learn to protect yourself...there are so many millions of products on the market now that it is not even realistic to think that our government could keep control over that entire industry. 
We can't even keep Terrorists out of the country that are trying to kill us with guns and 747 Airplanes !

HAIR FORCE ONE - 10,000 HEADS Regimen : Hair Strengthen System by Killerstrands

This is the time of year I add or detract to 10,000 HEADS, the program I started over 8 years ago on my clients in the Malibu Salon. I will take 2 steps per day this next week and add or detract from a notebook I keep from letters, emails, and responses I get from clients all year long. It's so nice having hundreds of people who are just as eager as I am to come up with a hair strengthening system that truly works on all types of hair loss, hair damage & thinning for women. Many of my clients would go to their dermatologist with their worries of hair loss or more specifically "hair thinning" and would be told "oh you look great - - - you are stressing over nothing, my dear, just go home have a glass of wine and be glad you aren't bald." If really pressed the doctors would give them women's Rogaine, and send them on their way. That type of attitude is not met well by women from the entertainment industry, they are a bit more demanding than that. That is when they all started to open up to me at their appointments. 

I had many girls and women finally opening up to me . . . which was not at all a surprise to me, I noticed the thinning myself, I know my clients hair well enough that I could bust them for using the wrong shampoo or a hot tub without treating it when they came in for their appointments. Some called me the Hair Nazi . . . but it was all done in fun. What happened took place over a few years it began with a few women per year, and what was different was that the women were younger - under 40 - under 30 and soon under 20! (men have always had this problem it is new for women) When the problem progressed to a few people every 3-4 month's -- then every month - - every week. . .and when I began having 1 woman per day every few days per week from the age of 17 up to 50... ( I would do 15-25 people per day) is when I put my foot down, 20 year olds with hair thinning ? ? ?
That is just WRONG, and something needed to be done.


 
 
I met with my assistants to brainstorm - they agreed with me > and we began with our surveys and trying to figure out what in the world was going on. Every rear end that sat in our chairs would fill out a survey... in our attempt to find a common denominator. I've told bits and pieces of this story throughout the Blog, as I will continue to but this is how the story BEGAN.  In my opinion the answer is in the 13 steps above - follow them all for 1 year. If you follow all 13 steps - ( which I understand, is very difficult to accomplish) -  I have yet to find anyone male or female that has not improved their hair to their own satisfaction. I realize that is a big...no, HUGE statement . . .  but not a whole lot of people have truly tried the entire program. That is a whole lot of discipline, but damn it  - - it works! Most do bits and pieces of it and I tell people to get the best results follow the last 4 Steps religiously . . . and do the best you can on the other 9.




SLS Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in the shampoo as most of you know ended up being the one true common denominator in all of my clients and now readers. So this is a mandatory step you MUST follow, I have a number of SLS-FREE POSTS you can review .  But through that survey and the next couple years work and research trying to figure out what was going on with my own clients hair, I began work on 10,000HEADS - without even realizing what I was doing. My assistants figured out at one point that I had done over 10,000 heads of hair, which was years ago...so you now have the birth of this very successful system.
Many people have ordered THRIVEN this week, so I am hopeful that many of you are looking forward to developing healthy hair. 

The 2 Steps for today - Steps 1 & 2
Step 1 ; NO SMOKING (of anything)




I must get at least a dozen people a year that ask me to prove to them that POT is bad for them. Now I laugh, I used to get bent out of shape. I'm a child of the seventies, we were the ones who gave birth to the drug scene in America, so I am not the one who has never tried anything, nope I was right in there with the best of them. When I became pregnant, was when everything STOPPED for me. Completely stopped.  But you cannot tell me that when you take a hit of weed, and its all you can do to hold the sucker in your lungs, it burns so bad, hurts so much, that puff of sweet smoke is not tearing your lungs, your skin, your organs and your hair apart.  With every puff you undoubtedly end up coughing it out in a huge belch of smoke, cough and laugh....AM I RIGHT > ?  Sure that shit is fine for your body. Get real boys & girls its a disaster for your lungs & hair.. I was the first one to vote to legalize it so its not that it scientifically doesn't make sense to be OIK for your hair.
 
I have a relative that died a very very sad and much too early death because of lung cancer, this man was a great athlete, had absolutely no stress in his life, was a very talented artist, but smoked weed religiously from 1950 to 2000 (when he died)  50 years of smoking weed almost every single day. No its not the strength of the stuff today which I hear is like smoking an atomic bomb in todays market, but it was clean,clear and the amount they smoked was just a lot more. But this lovely man came down with lung cancer, and they did everything in the world to try to save him . . . they even gave him a lung transplant. Now I remind you, he was a health food fanatic, did his daily exercises, did EVERYTHING right  . . .he actually had a great head of hair till he was about 65 and then the thinning started. He simply could not quit his pot addiction. It was a very very sad loss and no one will ever convince me that pot was not the single cause of his death.Everyone denies it.

Some facts:
FPHL = Female Pattern Hair Loss is what they technically call it when the thinning starts, I will use those initials throughout. The cause of the failure to grow new hair in female pattern baldness is not well understood, but it is associated with genetics, aging, sulfates in shampoo and levels of hormones (especially androgens, the male sex hormones) . Why, the pharmaceuticals do not have more research going into this area - I truly, do not know. 



A hair grows from its follicle at an average rate of about 1/2 inch per month. Each hair grows for 2 to 6 years, then rests, and then falls out. A new hair soon begins growing in its place. At any time, about 85% of the hair is growing and 15% is resting.  Baldness occurs when hair falls out but new hair does not grow in its place. This is the simplified and EXACT reason for thinning or balding. Therefore the goal is to figure out a way to continue that cycle of hair growth on every single hair on your head and then you will have solved the problem of hair thinning. Now, every single step of the 10,000HEADS regimen deals with the many reasons that will prevent each and every hair from continuing that cycle of re-growth, which is why if you follow them all you will have a wonderful head of hair. With smoking at the very top of the list.

Pot or Cigarettes are a sure fire way to wreck your hair... smoking constricts your blood vessels, thereby restricting blood flow to the hair follicle, slowing cell turnover, which holds back new hair 
growth.
 
Remember my best advice to you is to dust off that "common sense" shelf and begin using it. If smoking KILLS, which we all know - can you imagine what it does to the poor little hair strand that is so tiny and defenseless against the big bad meany - NICOTINE, Formaldehyde, and God knows what other chemicals are in those death sticks. I know its hard, I smoked when I went through my divorce - years ago - it was so hard I chose to quit when I went in for knee surgery and I couldn't walk ! I used the patch as well which I felt worked wonderfully - but I see they have all sorts of tricks now. Just try something. Replace smoking with exercise, it is the perfect pacifier - and you will be knocking 2 of the Steps off the list with one stone! I promise!

Step 2; Nutrition
Ahhh nutrition . . . I have battled and fought this one my entire life. I am always - ALWAYS 
trying to eat better. How about - YOU?
I cannot tell you the amount of times that a diet change has helped one of my clients, but I think deep down we all know this. I can tell when one of my strict clients has changed her diet . This is the person that eats the proper amount of protein every day, the proper amount of vege's, and fruit and the whole 9 yards, I can tell when she has gone off and eaten junk for a week, so it is that apparent! 

2008 is when I have truly tried to get more people eating vegetables and most specifically broccoli.  I am of the belief that eating broccoli everyday will help everyone in many different aspects, so if you can - follow me and begin eating at least 1 serving of either steamed or crisp fresh broccoli every single day, I feel it is the one perfect food for your hair.


I have read just so much good about it.      Here is a short piece from a gentlemen that claims to have kept his hair through many years and a multi-pronged approach - kind of like mine - only geared at men. 

 In this year alone I will bet I have read well over 200 articles that give broccoli the heads up for improving health in dozens of different areas. Everyone needs to add this to their diet, and especially if you are dealing with hair loss, or thinning, it just HAS to be mandatory.

Vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower produce a chemical when being digested that inhibits the action of dihydrotestosterone DHT. Leonard Bjeldanes, professor of nutritional science at UC Berkeley, and Gary Firestone, professor of molecular biology at the same institution, have been researching the anti-cancer properties of plant chemicals (phytochemicals). They found that vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts are rich in an indole called I3C. I really don't find it necessary to go in the whole technical who-ha, so this is an abbreviated version of his story.

Further research confirmed that this DIM inhibits the action of DHT. It does this by binding to the same receptors within the cell that DHT uses. DHT, is involved in baldness. The research that Bjeldanes and Firestone are doing is mostly centered on prostate cancer and the proliferation of cancer cells, but Dr. Bjeldanes in an email to Haggerty wrote that he is now requesting funding to do research on baldness.

The reason that I stress the importance of getting nutrients from real food instead of from pills is that there are many unidentified nutritional factors in food, especially in fruits and vegetables. These phytochemicals that one doesn’t get in pills may provide a great health benefit.

SILVER BULLET  --  BURST

There is nothing conclusive yet in the research of Bjeldanes and Firestone indicating that broccoli and other vegetables will benefit the hair follicles, but I loaded up on broccoli at the market today just in case.

 By the way, the best way to cook broccoli and other vegetables is to steam them. Boiling vegetables destroys over half the nutrients; steaming destroys hardly any. Just purchase one of those little racks at Target for $3.00 that sits in a regular sized pot , you put an inch of water  in. . . and you're good to go.

  Just a quick paragraph on PROTEIN. Protein is a must for good hair, if you are a Vegetarian, or vegan you seriously need to think about quitting that protocol - Hair is made up of protein and hair LOVES protein coming in the body. The more the better. There are some dynamite protein bars out there. . .be sure they are at least 15 Grams or above and devour one or 2 of those every day just to be sure you get some of the required 50-75 grams of protein daily. Nothing will replace the whole foods themselves, but in reality who can eat that well every single day. You would have to give up the rest of your life to "eat correctly" ! But I do know that revamping your diet  to getting close to what you should eat for your hair every day is not that hard. . . . so just start making the changes. 

Breakfast is the most important meal for your hair so DON'T skip it! Your energy levels to your hair follicles are at their lowest first thing in the morning, and they need a boost so skipping this meal would be your first mistake. Find something that has protein in it you like and begin making that you healthy hair breakfast from now on.
Lunch is the 2nd most important, remember salads have no protein in them unless you add chicken or tuna or turkey to them.  Protein is what will turn your slim salad into a healthy hair meal.

When eating throughout the day it will benefit your hair to eat many small meals or as I call it  . . ."grazing". Eat many little meals all day long, its better for your body as well as your hair.  You know how if you wait more than 4 hours between your meals you get a little giddy or lethargic ? That is the same thing that happens to your hair follicles, so you will want to grab a little snack like a vegetable or fruit ( carrot, or apple) . . . just enough to boost your hair follicles energy levels until your next meal. Remember when that one hair falls out and the next one is supposed to begin growing. . . is involved with your nutrition, you do not want that new one growing in to be starved because you are improperly dieting. That is why you will see almost EVERY anorexic/bulimic with such horrible thin hair.

DON'T STARVE YOUR HAIR.

SHAMPOO : the Movie...Shampoo: The Explanation! Make Sense Out of All the Bottles

BACK TO BASICS AND WASH AWAY

BAD HAIR DAYS WITH KILLERSTRANDS

SHAMPOO TIPS

Its funny, picking out a shampoo seems like a fairly simple task. . . in truth, it can be mind boggling. There are thousands of brands and thousands of options.I would like the subject of shampoo to make as much sense to you as it does to me.

Finding your perfect shampoo is no easy task. With such a huge range offered to the consumer from drug store brands to professional, from anti-dandruff to extra volume, we are literally soaked with choices.

Do you walk down the aisles at your Beauty Supply or the local Target and feel overwhelmed?

You're not alone. And the bad news is, over 80% of you are rumored to be using the wrong shampoo for your hair type!

My goal?

to de-mystify shampoo and the manner in which you choose your shampoo.

How can you find your shampoo soul mate?

The fastest, most accurate solution?

When making an appointment with a qualified Stylist or Colourist at your local Salon for a cut or colour ask for a shampoo recommendation. If that is not an option for you, the following will be helpful.

As a Cosmetic Chemist, when an order for a new shampoo formula comes across my desk, the very first requirement for end result? the "HAIR type" needs to be answered.... is the hair colored or virgin?

The first question would be: do you color your hair? or is it virgin hair?

Shampoo's are formulated for colour-treated hair or non color treated or 'virgin' hair.

Secondly the Shampoo is formulated and designed for a specific "condition" of hair: dry/normal/oily/damaged/frizzy.

The second question you answer about your hair in picking a shampoo: What condition is my hair?

~THE CONDITION OF YOUR HAIR

This is one of the main factors to consider. If your hair is dry you don't need a shampoo that will strip your hair of oil, likewise if your hair is greasy...you shouldn't be using a moisture shampoo. Your ideal shampoo will help restore your hair to a manageable condition, so figure out what your hair needs most, whether this is colour maintenance, moisture or strength etc.

~ WHAT LOOK ARE YOU AFTER?

Many people will use a curl-friendly shampoo if their hair is curly, but if you're styling your hair straight this is a definite no-no. A curl activator will do nothing to create the poker straight hair you're aiming for, but a smoothing shampoo will put you right on track. Remember, shampoo won't work miracles - its job is to cleanse the hair and create a good foundation, its your products that do the styling.

~ HOW OFTEN DO YOU WASH ?

Think about your wash frequency. Avoid using anything too harsh or that's likely to strip away natural oils if you're going to be washing your hair daily. No one needs to shampoo that frequently you truly don't need it. Its wasteful, not necessary and I highly suggest you begin changing your schedule.

~ Use SULFATE-FREE SHAMPOO ONLY

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate ( SLS)> must be avoided .

Watch out for this ingredient in your shampoos..

This chemical is one of the causes of the new hair loss cases in women. I will continue to speak out on it, because it needs to be abolished in our products.

SHAMPOO MYTHS Blown open

~ SHOULD I CHANGE MY SHAMPOO EVERY FEW MONTHS?

Why? There is no truth to the rumor that hair becomes immune to hair products...different products have different ingredients, if the dreaded Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is in one and not in another...then of course the 2 shampoos are going to have different reactions.That's all it is....No immunity factor...

~DOES A RICH LATHER MEAN MY HAIR IS GETTING A BETTER WASH?

Enough bubbles for a foam party does not make a good hair wash! A rich lather doesn't always mean hair is cleaner as it is controlled chemically. Moisturising shampoos will not develop into a huge lather like the one for greasy hair due to their make-up.

Are professional products much better than drug store lower priced models? 

Its all about reading labels - just like you do with your foord....Its so funny about 15-20 years ago NO ONE read labels of their food, now I see every single person in our local grocery stores standing trying to read the microfine print on labels of food. Remember when you weren't familiar with those technical terms ? ? ?  Like gluten, etc.... Once you have realized which ingredients there are that you must avoid ( later in the site I will make a business card print out to put in your wallet with the names of the chemicals that are to be avoided at all costs.). Once you have that list you may shop wherever your pocketbook leads you.

Its not the price of the products... its the ingredients that makes the differences you should watch out for.

Doing a quick Sulfate-free shampoo search. . . . there are starting to be a number of $5.00/$6.00/$7.00 shampoos without the dreaded SLS ingredient.. a couple phone calls revealed a couple major shampoo manufacturers...... the number 1 HOT ITEM in shampoos that has been hot for the last 10 years is Hair Color-Friendly and  SULFATE-FREE !

The shampoos in our store all meet my high standards of how Shampoos should be formulated, I have tested and tried and devoted many hours of time into the selection of  shampoos I carry, so never worry about which is better than the other.

Understanding Shampoo - through the pH scale - Does Yours Tangle Your Hair?

pH of shampoo - magical-simple-solution to ongoing problem

Shampoo is the number 1 Searched for hair product on Google's big board of HAIR search "tags" and lately "sulfate-free shampoo" has been bumped up to number 2 if you can believe that - - - makes me proud. Which means it comes from you, I like knowing what you want to know more about so I am going to stick with the Big G for reference. This will be a gentle description of the term pH, which is so important when "shine" "health" and "color-lasting" are your goals with your hair. Shampoo is that product that is on your hair more than any single other product, some of you use it every single day. With that being the case I feel I need to teach you all I can about it, which is a new concept for me. When I discovered how important it was on Google's scale of what 'you' look for under hair, I started to re-think my former stance on it. See, I can change - I love technology ever since I started this Blog it has become a new passion of mine. What a lot I have to learn though.
I am going to start on the pH scale as I feel it is so very important to understand in relation to shampoo and hair care products in general . I never know where to start  on this - -  again its the whole "chicken and egg" predicament, lets see how I do.

Potential Hydrogen (pH)


Understanding what pH is and how is affects the skin and hair is essential to understanding most of the services that you get in a Salon or that you perform on your own noggin. This will be a brief overview of pH and how it works so then I will go right into pH and shampoos. I'm using a couple textbooks to help me with this, as much as I understand it, I tried writing my own post on the subject and ended up trashing it, my version was so confusing, I gave it to my neighbor to read and he had the most confused look on his face. So we will go with this and see how it works. Its not necessary to fully understand pH, but I would like you to at least have an idea what it is for future reference. Having the proper pH shampoo makes ALL the difference in the world, as far as tangling and hairs condition at the end of the shampoo.

Many of you have complained about a particular shampoo that is Sulfate-free - thinking the sulfate-free is the cause, which couldn't be farther from the truth. The cause of very tangle-y hair post-shampooing is: improper pH of the shampoo, which is such a simple thing to fix. 


Water and pH
First we need to understand a bit about ions. An ion is an atom or molecule that carries an electrical charge. Ionization is the separating of a substance into ions. These ions have opposite electrical charges... An ion with a negative electrical charge is an anion and an ion with a positive electrical charge is a cation. Now Ions are at the base of that T3 Dryer that is such a big hit now which I will go into at a later date and subject.
In pure water, some of the water molecules naturally ionize into hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions. The pH scale measures those ions. The hydrogen ion (H+) is acidic..the hydroxide ion (OH) is alkaline, pH is only possible because of this ionization of water. Only aqueous solutions have pH, Non-aqueous solutions (oil and alcohol) do not have pH . . . without water there is no pH.

In pure water, every water molecule that ionizes produces one hydrogen ion and one hydroxide ion. Pure water is neutral because it contains the same number of hydrogen ions as hydroxide ions, meaning it is neither acidic nor alkaline. Pure water is 50 percent acidic and 50 % alkaline.

The pH Scale
The terms "parts hydrogen" or "potential hydrogen" are used to describe pH.  In fact, the term pH originates from the French term pouvoir hydrogene , or hydrogen power" and means the relative degree of acidity and alkalinity of a substance. Notice that pH is written with a small p and a capital H ( which represents the hydrogen ion, H+) the symbol pH represents the quantity of hydrogen ions.
The pH values are arranged on a scale ranging from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 indicates a neutral solution, a pH below 7 indicates an acidic solution and a pH above 7 indicates an alkaline solution.
The pH scale is a logarithmic scale, this means that in a pH scale, a change of one whole number represents a tenfold change in pH. A pH of 8 is 10 times more alkaline than a pH of 7...a change of 2 whole numbers indicates a change of 10 times 10 or a one hundred-fold change. A pH of 9  is 100 times more alkaline than a pH of 7.
Pure water, with a pH of 7, is 100 times more alkaline than a pH of 5. Since the average pH of hair and skin is 5, pure water is 100 times more alkaline than your hair and skin, even though it has a neutral pH.
Pure water can cause the hair to swell by as much as 20 percent.

pH and Shampoo
Understanding pH levels will help you select the proper shampoo for yourself . Remember, the amount of hydrogen in a solution, determines whether it is more alkaline or acid, is measured on a pH scale that has a range from 0 to 14.

• a shampoo that is more acid can have a pH rating from 0 to 6.9 
• a shampoo that is more alkaline can have a pH rating from 7.1 to 14.
• The higher the pH rating ( more alkaline), the stronger and harsher the shampoo is to the hair. A high pH shampoo can leave the hair dry and brittle.
• Now why shampoo's don't have pH ratings printed on them instead of all the other words and BS I will never know, this is one of the key measures  of knowing if the shampoo is going to work correctly (of course there are others).
• Ultimate pH for a shampoo you purchase?  5.0 - 6.0

The Chemistry of Shampoos
To determine which shampoo will leave your hair in the best condition, I must explain some of the chemical ingredients regularly found in shampoos. Most shampoo's share many ingredients in common. It is often the small differences in formulation that make one shampoo better than another for a particular hair texture or condition.
Water is the main ingredient in all shampoos and commonly is added at the rate of 30-40% of the formula. Generally it is not just plain water, but purified or de-ionized ( ions removed) water. Water is usually the first ingredient listed, which indicates that the shampoo contains more water than anything else. From there on, ingredients are listed in descending order, according to the percentage of each ingredient in the shampoo or formula. This is how it is 'supposed' to be done but I would guess 8 times out of 10 it is not. Regulating hundreds of thousands of beauty products would require every single agency of the government shutting down and helping the FDA, it is virtually impossible, so it basically self-governed and you can imagine how successful and correct that maneuver is.

Surfactants
The second ingredient that most shampoos have in common is the primary surfactant or base detergent. These 2 terms, surfactant and detergent mean the same thing: cleansing or "surface active" agent.
A surfactant molecule has two ends" a hydrophilic or water-attracting "head" and a lipophilic or oil-attracting "tail". During the shampoo process, the hydrophilic head attracts water, and the lipophilic tail attracts OIL, this creates a push-pull process that causes the oils, dirt, and deposits to roll up into little balls that can be lifted off in the water and rinsed from the hair ( see the photos).

Other ingredients are added to the base surfactants to create a wide variety of shampoo formulas. Moisturizers, oils, proteins, preservatives, foam enhancer's and perfumes are all standard components of shampoos. On a previous post I listed 12 or surfactants that are considered safe, I have worked with each one and to be perfectly honest, shampoo's are not my forte...but wanted to just see - feel - smell and observe the materials with hair under the scope - for my own security - in  recommending them.  I know that probably sounds super UN-scientific, but I feel that is what these super cosmetic chemists - miss. Just plain common sense issues, like the scent of a particular ingredient being so caustic, how could it possibly be gentle enough for hair. Or the texture of this is so rough and the scent so strong, there just has to be a better choice. That is what began my suspicions with Sodium Lauryl Sulfates 7 years ago.  When I opened the jar and seriously, could not take a breath of air it was honestly that burning to the skin in my nostrils, . . . that alone was a huge red 'common sense' - flag. Why no one but me - started talking about it, I will never know .
Yes, later there have come many "Safe Cosmetics" organizations ... but they don't do it right either - They go the complete opposite direction and think everything is bad, and that's not at all how it works, either.  Not everything is bad or unsafe. . .that is as bad of a generalization as the other groups missing the dangers of SLS - it truly is. You can't 'ban' everything, that is the way politicians work...we have no room for that in cosmetics.  I just want to begin explaining this to you, its a big concept but many of you seem eager to learn it, I thought it would bore you all so earlier I decided not to open the bag, besides its bad for business . . . all the big companies won't advertise on my site because I say Boxed hair color kits are horrific - but look at me will ya ? ?  I can't keep my mouth shut!  It would make my life a whole lot easier, if I just conformed and didn't talk about them - I would be making a lot better income off of advertising on this site. This has now become a very well known hair web site, I get lots and lots of traffic everyday without the big boys advertising on my site - but I am trying to break into the next level and get some big advertisers on my site, it won't happen as long as I leave the info up about how bad boxed hair color kits are. But If I don't tell you the truth, you will never get it, and that really is pointless to me.  So . . .  there is the truth. I need your support and I need to know you all want to know the truth in this info - so I know I am doing it for you and you care.
 
There are many "natural" ingredients that are very harsh as well, that just should not be what you look for.  "Natural" and "organic" are the most fought about topics / the most argued over words in the cosmetics business right now. Every single month in my trade magazines will be another view on what one more group thinks the word "natural" and "organic" means - - please take that into consideration. Those words will never be the answer to the problem, so drop that theory.
Technically as I've said before . . . water is not really 'technically' natural - as funny as that sounds ... it does not come from nature - - it comes from the heavens. With scientists you should hear them fight over the word, it will simply - - - NEVER BE SOLVED  - - ever. I feel both sides have valid points, so its simply time to move on from it.
Remember that there are also harsh and incompatible ingredients in nature for your hair, its needs to be a very simple study and honest reviewed by a competent cosmetic chemist that is not funded by any of the big corporate manufacturers, that is hard to find.
Begin and never stop reading the ingredients on the label, you must -  you must - you must. I fully realize they seem intimidating, BUT that is how I started and a very famous cosmetic chemist told me when I began, just start reading and saying them - over & over & over, they begin to sink in eventually. . .



I never took chemistry in school I was terrified of the "word'', but you know what? He was 100% correct. I couldn't pronounce Sodium Lauryl Sulfates,  and now I now the names of about 15 sulfates by memory... remember I was raised a jock not an academic - so there is no one this is more foreign to, than me. It will make you feel proud of yourself the first time you pipe off the name of one of these scientific names with confidence - and YOU WILL! Talk to your girlfriends about them, people want to know about this subject, you become the new expert in your group of friends . . . that's how we all get smarter and all start helping each other have better hair. Wouldn't you rather be "looking' at nice hair when standing in lines at the Grocery store?

I sure would - - it comes from proper education - that's the compliments I receive from 'you' - the readers - - all the time.

Brand New Sulfate-Free Shampoo Balls = Nohbo: Available Now on Indiegogo - Its Time To Start Paying Attention!

 Why Nohbo Shampoo Balls?

As the human race continues to exist on this planet, we have to take into consideration our environment. Nohbo is one small step to help reduce plastic and waste making the world a cleaner more livable space. 

 These balls are the size of a quarter. Absolutely ZERO packaging, don't just think of you.....think of your children and your children's children.

Well, I happened upon one of the most innovative products in hair shampoo that I have ever seen. Being as the majority of you ask us about shampoo's every single day of every week, we figured you would be as interested in this as much as I am. But...NO, it is not quite available yet - which believe me I found frustrating as well..But, lets help the kid out and start talking about it. We are 6,000 people strong here at Killerstrands Blog and that is THANKS to all of you ! Now I rarely ask anything of all of you but I am going to this time.

YUK - plastics

 I feel I have finally found the answer to everyone's questions and the funny part is a 15 year old boy developed this and it was presented on the TV show SHARK TANK ( which I don't watch) I happened upon this idea from my Cosmetic Chemistry magazine, which is saying a LOT that the editor of the magazine wrote a small review of the product and the fact that a 15 year old invented it - - AND I AM SO VERY HAPPY THAT THIS KID DID THIS ! ! !  and the one developer that I truly admire, " Mark Cuban" took a huge interest in this idea/shampoo and invested $100.000. and acquired 25% of the company. That was all I needed to know to make my own small investment and we will carry it as soon as its available (they say some time next month). 
 I LOVE THE MESSAGE, the formula, the idea, every single thing about the company


NOHBO is name of a small ball which is a shampoo ball
With all the plastic we use ( just check out every single hair product shelves in every single store you go in now. { no longer is it just the Salons - companies have figured out that people are obsessed with their hair and they will buy expensive hair products even if THEY DON'T WORK ! ! 

Above is a list of the features of NOHBO Shampoo Balls to give you an idea of what is important to the company it gels alongside my ideas about hair care as well, which you can see.

 So, for the very first time I would like to ask all of you to do a little Social Media spreading for me and for the kid, I think the product will be the answer to many of your requests for a wonderful shampoo. I promise as soon as I get my first one, you too, will hear about it.....




Thank you so much for listening and reading my little story.

KC

How To Get Yourself Out Of A Panic Hair Color Mess

Here is a perfect example of a problem I hear about 20 - 40 times a day.... everyday. This is a true story and I have just changed the name

I just want an example of what you should do  - - so you do not end up with an even worse mess by "covering up" a hair color GONE WRONG.

I think this is 1 point I have never talked about before, but the last thing you should do when you have a mistake on your hands in regards to your hair color, is....DO NOT COVER IT UP WITH ANOTHER HAIR COLOR. That just adds another coat of paint to an already wrong color underneath. Layers of bad color just make things worse. The idea to recovery? 
Bad Hair Color Removal

Question by a Blog reader:

I really need to know of a box color that is the equivalent of ION 8N & 8G. Sally's gave me horrible advice and gave me Wella color charm T18 toner. However instead of a nice blonde I have completely gray hair! I have a ton of coupons for box color because I have so much hair it takes 2 HELP PLEASE

Now here is my answer - to her - to YOU - to EVERYONE.
Please Do NOT PANIC and cover it up, nothing could be worse.....and when I hear people say , can I use "this" color - just because they have it o"ON-HAND"....it just makes me want to cry.
WHY? Because there is a reason you have it just sitting around and that reason is BECAUSE its a BAD HAIR COLOR otherwise you would have used it up by now.  Stop and think about what I have said, because its the truth. 

I have met tens of thousands of people in my hair coloring career and I have learned 1 thing from talking to people who have more money than GOD and people who live paycheck to paycheck.....
EVERY SINGLE PERSON CARES MORE ABOUT THEIR HAIR THAN THEY DO ABOUT their own GROCERIES. If I give them the option of scrimping on their groceries for a couple weeks over having shitty hair color...... they all choose : scrimping on their own groceries for a couple weeks !  
 People choose having beautiful hair color over almost everything....
So, if that is the case, why are you willing to use a $9 box of hair color that will for sure, 
trash your hair beyond belief ? 
I know this because I have spent my career removing boxed hair color.
The very first thing people tell me when box hair color comes out?

" omg my hair feels like "my hair" again...
Thank you sooo MUCH"

 I'm sorry, I do not mean to be harsh but I want you to stop and think before you get in more trouble than you already are....anf if I am nice and kind and don't use some of the words I am using - I feel I will lose your attention....if I haven't already!
but I would never in my life recommend box hair color for anyone........for A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G.  I receive hundreds of complaints about boxed hair color every single day of every single month month of every single year for the past 16 years....


Its why I started a Petition to BAN BOX HAIR COLOR from being sold.
 Most Hair Stylists like the fact that you have to come to them to get your hair color fixed, because Hair Color Correction is the most expensive service on our LIST OF SERVICES !  

But for me. . . . IT BREAKS MY HEART . . . to hear these stories. To listen to so many people so sad and so frantic to find a solution - ANY SOLUTION.... Read the question at the top again . . . see how frantic people become and she is is mild compared to many, It breaks my heart that so many people are so distraught about their hair color being ruined by Sally's or BOXED color I don't know which one is worse. But being as Sally's is a billion dollar company, I'm sure it is going NO-where - so I felt if maybe I brought attention to the fact that boxed hair color is the wrong answer - maybe somebody would listen to me.


 Any color system that has no choice gives the purchaser less than a 30% chance of the color being correct. That is not very high. There is a way to sell hair color to the masses, but people would be required to read a page of directions. . you MUST be able to choose the hair color and the Volume of the developer for YOUR hair situation or you will for sure end up in a giant mess. You have to read directions to put your vacuum cleaner together or even  a piece of furniture from IKEA.......... why can't people be required to read a page of directions before they purchase a hair color system? So they have a 80% chance of the color coming out correctly.????
 
What I am trying to do is help people get OUT of messes.
 Now for what you have right now, covering it up with boxed hair color is not how you get out of that mess. . .

That is what gets people in messes where they end up having to go to the Salon for very expensive "COLOR CORRECTION" procedures, i KNOW ..........I used to do them... Now that I am on this end of the problem I see exactly how people end up in these situations, which many times I did not understand before.

 So, if you could please just take a few breaths and just do some reading here it will get you out of your mess without having to create more of one.
If you really hate the color you have please begin doing a process called the shampoo train. If you put another color on top you have a high percentage of creating an even larger disaster.

In the Salon when someone comes to us with a Color Correction issue, the first thing we do is use a Color REMOVER - which is called VANISH and we sell it in our store if you want to purchase some, one box has 2 applications and no it is not a cheap product but what it is --- is a MIRACLE product. It reverses the way the hair got inside of your hair strands, without bleach + without peroxide + without one thing that damages the hair. It truly is a miracle product. As it shrinks the hair color molecules ..... they go back  OUT OF THE HAIR STRANDS, and go down the drain.
WITH ABSOLUTELY NO DAMAGE INCURRED.
As a matter of fact your hair will feel more like your hair USED to, people tell me all the time.
So I would truly think about making that investment.

Because having trashed hair is the #1 worst thing to have in my book.....and according to all the questions I have asked my clients along the way every single one of you agrees with me!

When its trashed...... everyone can see it, every-single-day of your life. So, before you run out there and create more problems for yourself, please consider my suggestion.
Then while you are waiting for VANISH to ARRIVE AT YOUR DOOR.....

You may begin with the Shampoo Train.Which is a series of repetitive shampooing with the crappiest shampoo you can find. WHY you ask? Because Shampoo with sulfates will not damage your hair, what it will do is REMOVE HAIR COLOR which is why we don't use it to begin with but everyone has one bottle of shitty shampoo under their sink...if not borrow some...

Shampoo with LOTS of shampoo create a giant lather and rub the hair and shampoo between the hands really hard, then put more shampoo on make a gigantic suds ball pile it on top of your head, put a plastic cap - shower cap- or some type of cap and leave it there

overnight even.

While you are waiting for VANISH the Shampoo Train is something I invented when I used to do hair models hair and they had to switch colors all the time but they weren't in the same city as me.....so until they got to me I had them do the shampoo train to loosen the color molecules so when they finallyu got back to LA I found many times I would only need 1 box of VANISH when I normally needed 2. What it did for me was SAVE ME TIME! !
But, what it does for youa? ? ? ? ?  Is SAVE YOU MONEY ! ! !
Some people ( most people need more than 1 box of VANISH) 

 If you have layers of hair color on your hair, you will need at least 2 boxes which is 4 applications. 
The idea?
Is to get the lousy color out, begin reading this BLOG so you can learn HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR HAIR COLOR THE CORRECT METHOD and then never need it again.

Then While you are waiting for your VANISH read every Post about the hair color you are trying to become, my best suggestion once again? Read the Blog from cover to cover.....you get a FREE MINI Cosmetology class and learn how to properly color your hair- which is my MISSION with this BLog and My Store.