Latest / Skin Anarchy / E.342: Skincare For Your Scalp Ft. Act+Acre

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E.342: Skincare For Your Scalp Ft. Act+Acre · Skin Anarchy

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yellow four way.
• 0:09
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• 0:11
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  SPEAKER_00: At the banner or visit this episode's page to learn more.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_04: Hi guys, welcome back to King Care Energy.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_04: Today's episode is all about hair health and really taking care of your hair and your scalp and all the great things that we need to focus on.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm so excited because the brand that I'm interviewing today is a phenomenal, phenomenal brand.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: It's like skincare for your scalp, which is actually trademarked by them, but it truly is like skincare for your scalp.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_04: So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to the founder of Act and Acre, Helen Reavy.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the show.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_04: Helen, I'm so excited to be hosting you.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I love the brand and I love your vision for it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I can't wait to dive in because honestly, I've been really, really obsessed with especially the scalp renewal product.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: And then you've got that amazing goua sha tool.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: And everyone listening, you're probably all confused what I'm talking about.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_04: We're going to dive all into the products.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: So before we do that, Helen, I would love for you to tell us about your journey and just everything that led um you to create the line and you know, just the whole story.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, it's gonna be a long story then.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I suppose I'll start with where I'm from.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm originally from Northern Ireland, and um I decided to become a hairstylist just shortly after college, and so I'd done a business degree, but I realized that you know my passion really lay in being creative, and I got to do that through doing hair because I'd always loved doing hair.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And um back in 2013, I actually moved from Ireland to uh New York for one opportunity to work at Fashion Week, so this wasn't like to a whole new job or anything, but I'd worked for almost 10 years in a salon uh back home and you know trained and done whatever.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: So this was like my first experience outside the salon coming to do Fashion Week, and you know, I was just like so happy to be in New York, it's like the city where dreams come true, right?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: And had this one opportunity, and then it just all kind of like snowballed from there.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: You just meet the right people, and it really was staring, but this was I bumped into this guy from a hometown, and he put me in touch with my agent, and that's kind of like where everything started, and I started working with Sam McKnight doing Fashion Week around the world.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: I later that year I was on tour with Alicia Keys doing her hair, and um then that kind of brings us to like 2017 when I was leaving the show at Paris Fashion Week, and my husband uh came to surprise me, and we were backstage, and he was like watching me like in my element, designing the look, working with the models, and I'd said to him, I'd made this comment, I was like, Oh, it's really annoying.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I wish I had something to give the models because they've arrived here, they've done London, they've done Milan, they've done a New York fashion weekend, like Paris is like the last on the kind of tour, but they've had so much product in their hair, in their scalps, they're red, raw, they're you know, they're tender to touch.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: And what happens is with product buildup, the hair just won't kind of like behave properly.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I send this to him, and he's like, What?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is a thing, and so this light bulb moment went off, and um kind of like the rest, it's kind of history with Actamaker.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: He came back to New York, told me the next day, and said, All right, I thought about this and I think we should start a brand.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, it's a really cool brand because like I've never seen the approach before, you know, like I grew up in a family that hair health was like very much um focused on, even more so than like beauty or anything, honestly.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I think a lot of Indian families are like that.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_04: And um, when I first tried your brand, I was like very, very impressed by how the formulas were um, I mean, you you mentioned that they're cold pressed, you know, like everything is cold pressed.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_04: Love for you to talk to us about that because I mean, I mentioned the scalp renewal when we started off, and I really, really love that product because for me, um, you know, a lot of consumers I think can relate with this.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like dandruff is not the only scalp problem, right?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's like there's a lot more issues and go with your scalp.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: And so for me, it was always like too much oiliness, or like, you know, it just not just not the way I want it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_04: So I would love to get, you know, an idea of like what was your initial vision?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: Like when you were first, both of you sat down and were like, what product should we create?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what did you know that you wanted to like definitely, you know what I mean, spend your time on, your money on um from the get-go in terms of products?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And hair health to was so important to me as well.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: And when we launched back in 2019, um, you know, we scalp care was really an afterthought.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so when we're in the development process, for me, I really wanted to provide that education and create incredible products for people that really worked and that focus on the scalp because I understood how important scalp health is.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm also a trichologist, which is that person that bridges the gap between your hairstyles and your dermatologists.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: So if you go to your dermatologist, they will have to do a biopsy, they will have to prescribe you something, um, usually something that's you know a drug or some sort of kind of like medicine to help treat the issue.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: But with a uh tricologist, we take more of a holistic approach.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: So we like to talk to you a little bit about your lifestyle, how much stress you have, um, various different things going on in your life rather than just giving you something to a you know that ends up stripping the whole microbiome.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I understood how important that was, and I realized no one was really talking about it.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: But yet scalp um health was across the board, didn't matter who you were, and any of my clients, whoever I was working with, per scalp, it was seen everywhere, and people were really having issues with this, and there really wasn't much on the market apart from like your head and shoulders really to help with scalp health.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um and as skincare kind of like became this a huge thing, people were so interested in skincare, really taking care of their skin.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: I re I kind of knew that uh other parts of the body would become uh really important to people as they kind of like a worked or delved into those different areas.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so scalp health being kind of the the main kind of uh process behind good hair health and longevity.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: And not really going, I think we're also used to like quick fixes, quick fixes for diets, quick fixes for skincare and whatever else.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: But um, for me it was important that we really educate people around scalp health and how that will lead to healthier hair and hair growth.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes even after COVID now, like people are starting to notice like hair loss or different things happening.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: But like you said, it's not just about dandruff, it's about just treating your scalp well so that it gives the hair the best and healthiest environment to grow.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the thing, is like, you know, um, that's why I love your trademark line of skincare for your scalp, because let's be honest, you know, we don't know much about the um the the scalp.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: And in terms of like, you know, when it comes to hair out, that's the only part, your follicle is the only living part of your hair.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: So we should be taking care of it.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: We should be using products that are, you know, made to like really nourish and support and just you know, just balance everything out.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean, from the get-go, I was very much enamored by the concept, you know, that you've created here.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what I'd always say to people, would you go a week without washing your face?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: Imagine putting makeup on your face and leaving it there for a week.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's technically what you're doing with your scalp, you're not you're not cleansing it often enough.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: So no matter who you are, everyone needs to have some form of a scalp treatment in their hair care regime because all these kind of things like dull, lifeless hair, hair growth, hair texture, everything that you know you're having issues with is all stemmed from the scalp.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: No, I know, and I completely agree with you.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't understand.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, maybe it's me because I have a certain type of hair and my hair just gets very oily, so I can't go a week without washing it.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: But the of the dry shampoo.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I feel like that has led to a lot of um people just avoiding it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: And but I think that, you know, it's really, really um the right time now, especially in the industry, to to promote this idea that, you know, regularly like caring for your scalp and caring for your hair is is just as important as you putting on, you know, that daily mask that you do for your skin or that, you know, whatever it is, right?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_04: That's part of your self-care.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_04: But um, you know, I actually want to ask you about that because I know that there's a lot of like kind of like myths out there when it comes to like how often you should wash your hair and like those things.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and I would love to get your opinion on that.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I remember um a few years ago, I think, is when I first heard the idea of well, you don't want to wash your hair every day because it's going to cause, you know, dryness and breaking and all of this.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: So, what is your take on like a good routine for hair care?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what should we all be, you know, what should all of us really be doing?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, that's an absolute myth um that you shouldn't wash your hair every day.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so funny.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's the first question people ask me.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Now, for everyone, it's it is completely different.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: So there's not a one size fits all for this hair, but there's definitely um when dry shampoos came out, the marketing around it was don't wash your hair too often because you're going to damage it.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, that's a good sales pitch, right?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so again, like and kind of like applying those skincare rules, you wouldn't go like a few days even without washing your face because of the product stuff on it.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: So if somebody has like is using a lot of product in their hair, they are working out a lot, they're living in a polluted city.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: You really do need to be thinking about cleansing your hair more often.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the damage is actually done when you're using products that aren't clean, that maybe have a lot of sulfates and silicones in them, or with heat tools that you use afterwards.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not the actual cleansing process that damages the hair, it's what you do to it afterwards.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're putting a flat iron on it and blow drying it afterwards, then yes, of course, it's gonna cause heat damage and cause grillness.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: And when you're cleansing your hair, you're actually there's another thing I say is people please don't cleanse your hair, you need to cleanse your scalp.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about the hair, don't worry about the ends.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: You need to focus solely on the roots, cleansing that area.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And the hair will naturally, you know, get washed and rinsed as uh you're rinsing that out.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: But as long as you're using good products uh with you know clean ingredients and it's very gentle, you want gentle cleansers using things like our scalp detox or our scalp renew that you talked about earlier, like with these essential oils in that help remove and cleanse, but they're not going to dry out the hair.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_04: No, that makes sense actually, because yeah, the roots are always the problem.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, you know, getting all that buildup out, you know, from like whatever it is, like product or just the environment.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: And that actually is interesting that you brought up the environment because I know that with the all the pollution, like, and you know, this again, it comes back to this whole idea of like, you know, we do so much for our skincare, right?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: And we're so aware of environmental factors and like UV and all these things.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: And we're not even talking about that in the hair care industry, where it's like UV also damages your hair, you know, it also hurts your your follicles.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: There's a lot of you know information and data out there that can support that.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_04: But for some reason, you know, again, with marketing, people just don't want to, you know, I guess bring that to the forefront of the conversation.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: I know, and you're so right, like there's so many like outside things that are you know affecting this.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um and like, yeah, UV damage as well, like protect your scalp, especially in the summer, put a cap on or something like that.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: But you've seen what UV can do too, like color in here, it can feed the color where it oxidizes it, it oxidizes it so much faster.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm glad that you're so into scalp health, it makes me so happy.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like when people, you know, talk back to me about you know scalp health and why it's important, I'm like, finally, people are getting this.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I feel like at the beginning I was just hitting people over the head with this messaging, but I was always like you have to just keep going.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: This is our mission.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: We have to get people to understand why scalp care is so important because as well, you won't need to use as many products when you're when you're getting the scalp, and kind of like the end goal is getting the scalp to homeostasis, it's the same as your gut health, your skin health, everything.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I like to use those kind of like um analogies, it's very similar to gut health.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you don't want to strip the scalp, you don't want to use any ingredients that strip it, you want to keep it balanced to make sure the oil production is good, but there's also the holistic side to it where it's like, what is your diet like?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: What is your stress like?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: This all affects the hair as well, so it's not just one product that's gonna fix this uh whole thing, it's everything in conjunction.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you have too many unsaturated fats in your diet, that's actually gonna come out through the seabum and make your hair oilier as well.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: If you use sulfates, that's gonna make your hair oilier because it's stripping the scalp and making uh produce more oil to kind of protect the scalp as well.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, I think that that's really important, and I'm glad that you um noticed that I am also like obsessed with the hair because I really am in the in the sense of health, you know, the health aspect.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_04: Because honestly, um, you know, when it comes to like just um I guess like when it when we talk about the scalp, I mean you I could you not, you know, the other day, Helen, I saw somebody putting SPF in their hair.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I was sitting there just thinking to myself, like, how much exposure is your scalp really gonna be getting?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like where are you planning to go?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: Are you the planning to like live in South Africa, like outside for the next three years?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like I don't understand it.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_04: So, like it's like there's just marketing, marketing, marketing everywhere.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's not it's not real knowledge, it's not real science.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just people are just, I don't know, just kind of grasping for, I guess, the truth.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what I see a lot of in the consumer side of things when I look at just hair health overall.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, you made a really good point of you're not gonna need as many products if you just do things right from the beginning.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_04: And that's something that I think I I really want to learn more about from you because um, you know, like I said in the beginning, everything is cold pressed, right?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_04: In your line.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_04: So I would love for you to tell us about that aspect.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_04: Like, why is it cold pressed?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: Why do we want um things to be done a certain way in terms of the products that we use?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, if you could just, you know, give us a little bit of like a 101.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if you think about it, the hair care industry is very established over what the last over 100 years.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: And um no one had ever really challenged like how the products were actually made.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: So when we were creating Action Acre, the first thing we did was sit down and um really think about how the products are actually made.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, being a hairstylist and in the industry, like I it wasn't good enough for me just to have a nice brand, which we see a lot these days, just nice looking brands, and they're all beautiful.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: The product had to be science-backed, it had to perform, um, they really had to treat um the scalp, and we had to see the results, you know.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: And we've done a lot of uh clinical studies at Princeton as well, just to like really um prove that these products are what they say they do, you know.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: And um with co-processed methods, so typically this process has been used for over 100 years is they use heat to blend the ingredients together.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you need heat to blend oil and water together and infuse these um elements.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: So um what we know from like cooking, from like juicing, things like that, when you heat certain ingredients, they lose their efficacy.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: And uh for me, I like we knew this, and we got deeper into like the conversation with our physicists, our chemists, and botanists like how can we do this differently um to retain the efficacy so that when we're creating these clean products, because typically, you know, uh clean products don't perform as well as the chemical, so we were like, how do we do this?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: That we can still use clean ingredients, but that we're getting this performance.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, after a long time figuring this out, we developed co-closest method, which we use hyperbark chamber, cold air, and pressure to infuse the ingredients together.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: So not only do we retain the efficacy of the ingredients put in, and we've tested this, it's like 97% of the efficacy of the ingredients put in.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um we we actually use 90% less energy.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: So from a sustainability standpoint as well, we're using much less energy to create the products.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: So not only is our packaging, which to me nowadays, that's that's a have to have.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: You need to have you know sustainable packaging as best as you can.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um but what other areas of the business can we change and look into and not just do it because everyone else has done it for the last 100 years?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: 100%.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I completely agree with you.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that that's very interesting to me, like the process of um creating the products the way you guys have, because you know, I think you know, I always say this with skincare brands, but this definitely applies here is that, you know, when it comes to technology that's available, if you're not utilizing it as a brand founder, you know, and doing your best to make sure that whatever you're creating is the least damaging, not only to the consumers, but to the environment, to the you know, the overall, I guess, ecosystem of, you know, I guess buying something, using it, utilizing it, all of that, right?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_04: The whole story, then you're just not you shouldn't even be creating a brand, you know, there's just no space for that anymore.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I agree with you, like, you know, especially with packaging nowadays, I still see brands that have these like exuberant packaging models that are like, you know, plastic everywhere.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's just, you know, it is just a lot.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like, you know, as a consumer, I'm like, I don't need that.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_04: Like, that's just gonna be thrown in the trash.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_04: Why are you, you know?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I had that attitude at the beginning as well.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like I I nearly almost like didn't want to put leaflets in the box.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Then you realize people actually do need to know how to use the product.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and a funny story is at the beginning we didn't have external boxes because I was like, that's such a waste of packaging.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: But in the end, it actually some products then arrive damaged.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: So there are some uh packaging decisions that you make because it's actually necessary, but making sure that you know anything that's unnecessary is not in there, it's so important at every point just to be ensuring that you're really thinking about this from every every point, you know.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and also like in terms of saving space, that's what I always wonder too about brands is like why would you want like bulky packaging?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_04: Because, like, you know, as consumers, like we need space, right?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_04: For me, shelf space is like it's so important.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_04: I know, right?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like real estate, like okay, if my shelf is overwhelmed, I'm overwhelmed.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know what to do.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, I mean, and I think that you know what's interesting to me, and I and I want to point this out for everyone listening, is like, you know, if you look at Act and Acre's uh packaging and you just look at the brand, it's it's very, very beautiful, it's very chic, and it's like you've accomplished the same goal here without creating a bunch of waste.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: So that's that's the whole point, right?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: It's like you don't have to compromise on the beautiful, luxurious look or the beautiful, you know, chic look.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: You just have to be smart and you have to really approach it in a way that's going to be best for your brand, but also best for the the principles that we're discussing here.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, I have a question for you.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: When you saw our bottle for the first time, what color did you think it is?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: We have this like this funny thing internally because some people see the bottle a different color to like myself, my husband who created it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: And we're like, no, it's not that color.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: So we ask everyone, what do you what color do you think our bottle of our cleanse is?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, the bottle of the the cleanser or the because I'm like um I think it's quite a tricky.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean it's gray, but everyone thinks it's brown.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we have like 50-50 people on the team, and anyone new that starts, we're like, what color do you think this is?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, gray.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: We're like, Yes, you're on our side.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: then anyone's brown okay you're on their side no but it's grayish brown though you know it's it's gray the bottle but I think on certain sunlights um with certain product in it it looks um like a brownish tone and it's so funny when people say oh your your bottle's brown and if it's not it's gray it's just a funny color is really really uh like amazing I really actually enjoy the color of it and I was thinking because I was like I know the cold pressed uh the scalp detox is like definitely a gray like that's and that's the same color of bottle as the other products but I think it's just when you put in the ingredients inside it because it has like a whitish tone and it kind of changes it because it's a little translucent so it is no I think it's beautiful I'm not gonna lie I I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it because I was it's very chic like it's very like easy to understand what you're using and also it looks beautiful.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_04: Like I feel like in any shower I'm one of those people though that I like a clean look in the shower I hate those showers that are like super you know what I mean like floral or whatever people do now yeah and that actually was the reason why the color palette looks like this because that really used to bug me like every hair product is like bright purple with flowers and what everything else and I'm like why does it have to be this color why can't it just look beautiful like um like almost the way furniture looks in a home I think your shower should be able to look this way as well 100% no I completely agree with you on the same way and I think that's probably why I love your brands we're exactly it doesn't have to work as long as it looks good exactly no I mean it does work though so that's a great that's a great bonus yeah um no but I want to actually ask you um you know going further Helen I want to ask you about like in terms of um the idea of like okay so this is kind of a stupid question so please excuse me because I know you're definitely an expert but like someone had to explain to me a long time ago the process of like why you want to be conditioning with the same brand that you're shampooing with.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I want to get your take on that is that a myth or is that true or like how does that work?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like what is the real goal of a conditioner other than obviously making your hair soft so I wish it I wish um it wasn't a myth that we could tell everyone you have to buy these all together but that is definitely a myth.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: You can use any conditioner and the thing is and what usually happens when people make collections for example like our clients conditioner they will have similar ingredients within it.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes you want to use like you know there might be something to help with the hair follicle and the hair cuticle and the shine and sesium kind of ingredient but conditioner is only designed to close the cuticle.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: So when you shampoo the cuticle slightly lifts and that's actually how you can lose some colour through the hair and and sulfates will lift the cuticle even more so conditioner comes from that time when you know shampoos were only made from sulfate and you needed to close the cuticle because otherwise the hair is more susceptible to damage and breakage you know especially when you combed it.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: So for me conditioner is just there to close the cuticle to keep the hair healthy sometimes you'll have a little bit of protein in it a little bit of moisture just to keep the softness and healthy and you know bring shine into it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then you also have a hair mask.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: So for me a hair mask is for I I think hair conditioners are for anyone with fine uncolor treated hair and masks are basically another version of conditioner just a thicker version of conditioner.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's no different just a thicker version that's there for color treated hair thicker coarser textured hair so I have colour treated hair I bleach my hair and I use hair m our hair mask as my conditioner.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: So a conditioner usually conditioners when they have silicone in it you get that feeling that you've hydrated your hair and you've got this lovely feeling but that in the long run isn't good because it builds up on the hair it blocks moisture from getting in.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: It gives that silky kind of slip feeling but it's like it just builds up and builds up and builds up and especially when you're like changing products all the time you don't know what type of silicone they have in that or you know you're kind of like building up different types of silicone on your hair.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: And you've seen some of those TikTok videos where they're like taking a razor to someone's hair and they're scraping and it's like plastic just coming off the hair years and years of build up a silicone.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_04: Now there are better silicones than others um but again it's just I think it's better to stay with your brand you know their mission you know the ingredients that you're putting into it sometimes you know this uh the ingredients that are in the cans are in the conditioner and they help you know the same kind of like purpose or the same outcome and but it's not that you have to well see that's the thing and and you like literally answered my other question which was about color treated hair and that's very interesting to me what you said because for me like I use the hair mask too.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: I've been like using your hair mask um more so than the conditioner because um I do have color treated hair and I do you know when I condition my hair I look at hair masks the way well probably because I'm obsessed with masks first of all you know everyone knows this I feel like on my podcast even with skincare my favorite product is a mask but like you know so I like immediately gravitated towards that product like when you had sent me the line and I've been using it since then and it's been like really really great for my hair actually and I do have color treated hair and I've seen no problems at all like you know because I've got the highlights and there's no brassiness or anything like that.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: So that actually leads me to asking you about that is like I know that there are a lot of there's a lot of marketing around color treated hair and like what you should be using, what you shouldn't be using.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: But could you give us like a little um rundown of like what is it that makes your hair I guess lose that color when you after you go to a stylist um if you do have color treated hair and what we should yes it's to do with how harsh of a cleanse that you're using that's why you'll see a lot of cleanses will be for color treated so they can have certain active ingredients to help preserve that color but um if your hair is drier say from heat damage your cuticle is a little more damaged so it already sits almost like you've seen like the hair under the microscope in some of those ads where it's like scaly and then you know the the serum comes along and like closes all the scales which definitely can't really happen in real life just like that.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: But the hair shaft like that um cuticle will be just slightly lifted on drier damaged hair and the more heat that you're putting on that the drier it is and the more brittle the it'll be harder to close the cuticle and so that's how you lose colour and where the colour molecule just washes out through that there and fades over time.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so the one thing to like kind of help that is the type of products you're using looking for ones that are colour safe and using hair mask really to just help nourish and moisturize the ends.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like when they're brittle and it's just more susceptible to damage and losing colour.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you want to provide lots of moisture just hydrating oils like even when you're using your mask if you like put a hot towel on it or if you have a steam room in your gym or something like that you go in I go in with a hair mask on like my whole body is just super dry and just naturally dry.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've ever looked up your Dasha um from like the Ayurvedic medicine culture and like dry hair dry nails dry skin that's just who I am you know so I love face masks and I would be using like Willita like skin food like on my face because I'm just naturally very very dry.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so I just love oil lots of moisture just that's the main thing and kind of um you have those like hair treatments like caite and Olipex which are bond treatments and they really work with color as well that's if you're getting like a red color or even like blonde there's a lot of damage done you want to use something like that to help repair and provide you know the keratin bonds to the structure of the hair to help you know see lacutical basically it's filling in those little holes so that the color doesn't release as easy.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: That makes sense that makes a lot of sense because like I get that question a lot too is like that color treat treated hair and I never understood it.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_04: So that makes a lot more sense to me now um thank you for that.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah no I I don't know you know Helen I think you made a really phenomenal line if I'm being honest like I'm not because like honestly for me hair care has always been such a like confusing confusing like topic because I I go to the store and I'm like okay I need a shampoo I need a conditioner and then I get so lost you know in the aisles and I'm just like what do I buy and why do why am I buying this and so I feel like you've made this line to be so like it's it's a tight line you know it's not something that's like overwhelming for the consumer.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_04: It's not something that you're gonna be like oh my gosh I don't know which conditioner shampoo to pick you know I have no idea.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's very easy and it and I like that you know I think that a lot of like hair care brands can really learn from your approach here because you know we don't want things to be complicated at the end of the day.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_04: You want something that can be used day in and day out something you can stick to just like skincare, you know, which is like like skincare grant brands that preach this all the time.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: They're like oh stick to our you know routine for like two months before you see any results.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_04: But it's like well hair care is the same way stick to your routine you know like just stick to one uh line and see how that goes and you know I I I really urge everyone to like kind of start thinking that way because I see so many people that have like 15 different you know bottles in their shower of like whether it's shampoo conditioner whatever kind of treatment like and I'm like when do you use all this like completely and that's what I wanted from this brand as well simplicity that you just have one scalp treatment that you use before you get in the shower you cleanse you condition or you you know use a thicker conditioner depending on your hair type and then maybe you use a hair oil and that's it and your dry shampoo if you need to in between that's totally okay.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: But you don't need these like these 15 kind of like products you need uh to style your hair and you find like especially with our products when you do use it over time you start to feel your natural hair coming back in the texture coming back in it just starts to sit so much better.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like my natural texture I never had it before acting acres and it's because now I just let my hair dry naturally and I was never able to do that.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's just because of the buildup of other products for years in my hair.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah yeah no mine is actually supposed to be wavy and it like when it straightens out I can tell I've used too much crap like in my hair you know totally and sure silicones were used to like in the 90s to um when straight hair was like the fashion and people were ironing their hair like ideally and they wanted this flat silky straight hair which for some people they want that look and that's fine.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: But if you don't and you want like just a natural wave and just your hair to like breathe and actually just be its natural state then also say that like your the scent okay so I don't know for everyone listening let me explain so there's like a little like you have a product on your website it's like the little scent roller of like oh my god Helen like this is like it's my favorite are you joking like this is aromatherapy times a million you guys like this is I love this product like how did why did you create this and like how did you make it because it's the most calming scent I literally put it on at night and I go straight to bed.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not even joking like it's it's so nice like that makes me so happy um it's it's the fragrance that we use in all our products actually and which is very natural oil just natural oil scented um and there was just something about you know when you use something in the shower in your hair and you get that scent and it's just it's it creates that memory or something for you you know and with it people were like oh will you bring out like a an actual scent but I didn't want to add alcohol to it because you know with our brand being so clean it just didn't make sense it wasn't really part of our story.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so the rollerball made sense to me because you put on your pressure points and you know every time your pulse goes you just get this little scent but it's a base is coconut oil so there is no alcohol on that the delivery system of it to your skin and I just I love meditation I love breath work and I love my essential oils and I love just putting it on my pressure points so why not have our fragrance that we created at the beginning because it just brought such a beautiful memory to me.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah and it's oh my gosh yeah and I'm so glad you did this because I really love it.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I by the way I'm a huge meditation nerd as well I love yoga.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_04: I've been doing it since I was a kid and I like whenever I smell things like this like I always like that's what it really brings me back to.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm glad you mentioned that is just that feeling of like when you have meditated and you have felt that calm right afterwards like this that's what it really brings me to and it just I don't know it just transforms like the whole like feeling like I always say like okay this is my self-care time you know and that's usually when I'll apply this um the roller ball and I and I really really enjoy it so thank you for creating this this is lovely and you should actually make this a bigger size because I would buy I would love it I I carry them around my handbag because like the other products are too uh big to carry around so if I meet someone I'll always give them a little roller scent.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah no it's it's a lovely lovely lovely addition to the line I think you should definitely like make a bigger size because I think there's not enough out there and I I've seen companies actually like actual aromatherapy companies try to make products like this and I'm like oh no I can't I can't do it you know so when I smelled yours I was like oh my god how did she do this yeah so everyone listening I think I've ranted enough and showed my love because I really have so much love in my heart for this line act and acre go check them out buy everything I swear you're gonna love it.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_04: The whole line is phenomenal and it's so well thought out and Helen you are so awesome for creating this and for talking us through the whole process and just about hair health.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean I can't thank you enough for even you know just entertaining my questions and answering those like you know just I guess 101 questions that I've always had so thank you so much for that.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you and I feel so blessed to be on this podcast with you.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much again.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oh no the honor is truly mine and I would love to have you back maybe with the hobby next time we can have fun you might as well understand his accent mine's definitely much easier.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know I love the Irish accent in general though I I've always had friends from Ireland and I I it just it feels like home.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: So I welcome it I fully welcome it um so you know everyone listening go check out the brand I'm gonna tag everything in the concept art for the episode um but yeah it's it's truly a phenomenal line and I think if you guys really are looking for a new hair care routine and you or if you just want to bring your hair back to balance here you go you know let's this is a brand that you can you know really rely on for that so check it out and Helen thank you so much again.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_04: Hey guys so I hope you love that episode please make sure to hit subscribe if you're tuning in to us on any podcast platform we are available on so many different platforms so wherever it is that you're tuning in just go hit subscribe you will be immediately notified when we publish new episodes this way you're able to tune in to amazing insights from experts brand founders industry leaders authors all the wonderful people that we host and that's very important for me because I love to hear from you guys and really understand what you love and what you want to hear more of.
• 38:47
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• 38:55
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• 39:01
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• 39:11
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• 39:18
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• 39:23
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you