Be Good To Your Clients’ Hair in 2010
One whiff of hair dye and you know that the stuff you are breathing in cannot be good for you. That nasty smell is most likely ammonia: a chemical that preps hair strands to receive color. Ammonia used in hair color can cause a variety of side effects including:
• Coughing
• Nose and throat irritation
• Skin and eye irritation
• Damage of Tyrosine in the hair shaft
But don’t worry! Starting in 2010, hair coloring fanatics can opt for hair color sans ammonia without sacrificing results. L’Oreal will be introducing “Inoa”, their professional ammonia-free hair color line. Inoa, (Innovation no ammonia), replaces ammonia with a combination of monoethanolamine, oil-based gel and a cream developer. And after years of research, L’Oreal claims this formula to be as effective as traditional ammonia hair color.
Although Inoa is about 10 percent more expensive than the current L’Oreal hair color line, this new method of hair care can be expected to replace the current L’Oreal Professional line if preliminary trials are successful. Inoa will be available in 50 shades at salons in the United States and Canada starting January 1 – Just in time for a healthy hair New Year’s resolution!
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Tags: beauty product carcinogens, Beauty Products, hair care, hair design school, hair dyes, hair dying, hair school, hair trends, hairstyling, hairstylist, organic beauty products
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:40 am
I have been working with ammonia-free products for a number of years now. It started almost 20 years ago, at a time when few talked about product safety in hair and beauty products. I began having difficulty breathing and feeling sick whenever I worked with permanent haircolours or perms – which of course was almost all day long! My solution was to let my assistant do most of the applications and at the same time I called on suppliers and manufacturers to asked a serious question: “What is happening to me???” The answers ranged from, “Never heard of it” to “You could be allergic to ammonia.” What???? The only solution offered by most manufacturers was to advise me to get out of hairdressing. That was not about to happen. I was sure that there must be other hairstylists that encountered the same problem and if that was so, then how healthy and safe were these chemicals for our clients and ourselves?
Every hair conference I attended, I asked the same question: do you have or work on any permanent haircolours or waving lotions without ammonia in them? A lot of blank looks. So I started to experiment myself – not very successfully-with natural dyes from teas to berries to foodcolouring. And then one unexpected answer, a small, obscure company had developed a lightening system that worked on a physical basis without ammonia. It seemed that the owner of that company (a hairstylist) had been experimenting for some years on healthier haircolouring systems and had found a new way to colour hair. Once the ball started rolling and consumers became more sophisticated – they started to demand better products and more companies leapt onto the bandwagon. Today the product range is unlimited – from plant base unaltered, permanent ammonia-free, bio-ionic to eco-certified… the range of products and applications are unlimited. And, I continue to research and test the latest developments in new products regularly…. See More
In short, what I have learned is: not everything that is natural works or is safe. And, not everything chemical or manmade is evil. It is finding the best balance of the two that seems to hold the highest promise. At Strands, we always put your health and comfort levels first while still achieving the best results for your hair.