Salon Hair Care Products vs. Drugstore "UnCare" Products

In the staff room at Joseph Michael’s Salon & Spa, my co-stylist, Megumi, and me began talking about salon products because one of my clients kept coming in with trashed hair.  I had been doing this client’s hair for only a short time but I’ve had a hard time convincing her that her crappy drugstore shampoo was wrecking her scalp & hair; not my coloring service. All of my clients always left the salon with beautiful shiny and in-great-condition hair but this particular lady continuously came back with damaged hair.  She has always bought the variety of shampoos that she used in high school and she continues to believe that her drugstore hair-care products are as good as our salon products.  My client has even alluded that she feels that the color and the extra money that she spends on me repairing her hair is making her addicted to the salon!

Oy.  Let me state the absolute truth about salon products: we would not carry the particular ones that we carry unless they were the supreme best for your hair.  We have to face you every time you come into the salon and if we are lying by selling you what isn’t the best, I’m sure you would “clip” us for that--and that’s just uncomfortable for us hairdressers. Fact: most hairdresser are NOT about sales or money--we just want your hair to look fabulous and for you to like us.  We like you!

We know salon products can be more expensive than the crappy shampoos that you can buy at Walgreens and CVS or Jewel Osco.  There is a reason for that.  Those brands spend more on scent, suds, sulfates and advertising which has a higher profit return than actually making a product which is better for your scalp and hair.  And most salons are small businesses--we cannot undercut our profits like Target etc, and make them up with our other products. 

But you do not have to pay an arm and a leg for good products.  Every salon has a wide range of products.  At our salon our high end is Kerastase then Renee Furterer, Bumble &  Bumbe then Aquage, so we have a product for every budget.  But if you use stripping, drying, over-fragranced products from drugstores, you’ll be paying a lot more for the specialized expensive brands later when your hair starts breaking off.

My personal list of hair-“uncare” products that I abhor: *Prell*Pert Plus*Pantene*Suave*Aussie anything*Head & Shoulders* Herbal Essence anything* I wouldn't use these products on my dogs, Junebug or Olive but I might use them to wash a car.  I find that my clients who use these products end up having hair and skin problems that I have to repair in the salon--for an extra charge, of course.

jon-david is the author of Mafia Hairdresser available on all eBook formats and his second novel The Glow Stick God will be published November 2011.