What can be said about good shampoo hair products that you haven't already heard before. The good news is that I'm not someone from one of the giant companies like Head and Shoulders or Pert Plus so you'll get an honest review of what's really best for your hair and what's just not worth the price. A little known secret about shampoos is that the active ingredients are almost always very similar regardless of price. When you're buying expensive shampoos you're not always paying for what you get. I can already hear people now saying out loud as they read this page that they swear by their salon quality shampoo (which by the way isn't cheap). Can I realistically sit here and argue that "no" the shampoo they swear has worked best for them for twenty years doesn't work? Of course not, and I won't try to. What I can say is that in all likelihood there's an alternative cheaper solution that would work just as well for their hair. The same rules apply to conditioners and most other hair care products like gels, sprays, and various organic treatments. The truth of the matter is that the hair product industry isn't that much unlike other business, including segmentation in related industries like fashion and unrelated markets like prescription drugs. Without getting into two much unnecessary detail I'll just ask that you think about brand name prescription pharmaceuticals versus the generic counterparts. Is a $1,500 dollar designer handbag really ten times as useful or durable as a $150 purse (convincing fake purses really illustrate this point). The long story short is that weather you're talking about Fendi or Paul Mitchell part of what you're paying for as a consumer is the brand name and those extra dollars you fork over with every purchase support the advertising campaigns, models, and celebrity endorsements that top tier products budget for. When you get down to the basic properties that can be dissected in a lab you'll find that the real difference between shampoo brands is the price and we all want to get a good deal. This website might be hard for some people to read because they've been spending (wasting) money on luxury shampoo when the truth of the matter is that they need to stop listening to shampoo commercials and start buying cheap shampoo.
When I say that people should purchase cheap shampoo what I'm really saying is that they should buy quality shampoo at cheap prices. In fact this same attitude applies to quality hair products in general. Think about salon quality hair products without salon prices. Earlier I briefly mentioned that people reading this that come across this website while doing a random search online are probably shaking their heads in disagreement and I expect that. Better yet, I'm prepared for that. Whether you're someone that swears by Loreal for curly hair (as an example) or someone that's wisely open to the idea that shampoos can't live up to all of the promises that commercials would have you believe I'm here to dispel some myths about hair care. Some of them you'll be glad to hear (you can get great shampoo and conditioner for a fraction of what you're currently paying - shhhhhh) and others you won't want to hear but you probably secretly always knew they were true (shampoo grow hair faster - I don't think so, not really). Let's start with the good news before getting into the fallacies with the ideas that over the counter shampoos are going to help you grow hair overnight. If you've stuck with me even this long you're a good person in my book because you care about what's on your head (so do I). While there's still a lot of ground (scalp) to cover let's begin with the hair salon shampoo myth. The myth goes something like this, if you go to expensive salons and spas and pay a lot of money and then buy pricey products from those same businesses (they really love you) then you'll be more attractive to the opposite sex and you'll be happy for the rest of your life. You won't have any money but you'll look good and that's what matters. I always feel bad bursting anyone's bubble but when it's in the name of education I'm able to justify it to myself and sleep at night. Do I believe that there are lots of women (and men) out there that have tried countless a bottle of high end shampoo and eventually after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars trying all the rest they settled on the one that's the best for them and they're now committed to spending thousands (tens of thousands?) more on that very same beauty salon shampoo for the rest of their lives? Yes, I do believe that happens every day. As long as their are people they will want to look their best and I don't blame them one bit. When you look good you feel good. There have been studies suggesting that more attractive people make more money (movie actor and fashion model may effect the mean income results).
I realize that confidence is both attractive and perpetuates more confidence. Can confidence be bought? Many beauty salons would have you believe so and they might be right. Today I aspire to open your eyes to a new kind of confidence. No longer does the singular focus need to be on being beautiful and broke, how about instead we all strive for a heightened sense of confidence that comes with being beautiful, educated, and having more disposable income. That's the sort of nirvana of confidence that I can get behind. Is the beautician at the local beauty parlor a crook for trying to up sale you some hair products you don't need? No. Selling stuff like Aussie shampoo and natural hair conditioners is not only part of their job description it's part of the dogma that they believe it. Most of the stylist working in the most high end salons in places like Beverly Hills have no idea that the same hair products that they're selling can be found in grocery and drug stores around the corners (just with different labels). This is information that Paul Mitchell doesn't want you to know. Here's another little tidbit that companies like Herbal Essence shampoo doesn't want you to know: they're just selling you an image. Okay we already talked about that but here's the real kicker. Big hair news right here: in many instances the same companies that own the most high end hair care product labels also own the bottom tier generic brands. Brand segmentation is marketing 101. Let's look at how car companies do it. Toyota and Lexus = similar body designs (4-Runner/Lexus SUV) practically the same. Volkswagen and Audi = same parent company, same body type, and even made in the same factories. Are Audi and Lexus nicer than Volkswagen and Toyota? Yes, but only on the outside. Case in point, you're paying for the packaging on brand name hair products. Let's imagine it's Saturday night and you're going out to a nice dinner with friends and then a party where you'll see your ex. You want to look your best. Find the perfect outfit, wash your hair with a bottle of the stuff that has the most expensive packaging and go out for a night on the town. Will anyone know if you've used the most expensive product on the market or the cheapest that actually shares all of the active ingredients? The answer is no. By saving a few extra bucks you can afford to waste a drink by throwing one in your exes face to make a point.
How do you find good deals on the top shampoo and conditioner products? I'm glad you asked because this is something that I'll tell you that the hair styling girls don't want you to know. The big secret is to find generic hair care products and compare the ingredients to those of your favorite most expensive salon approved bottles. Try out the cheapo versions of bathing gel, body wash, and everything else. If you want your bathroom looking high end for guests or you just need to trick your brain into thinking your someone who can afford to spend money loosely on brand name products then by all means pour the cheap conditioners into the empty bottles of expensive products that you've used up. Once you match up the scent and consistency of the salon quality products you're most accustomed to you'll never be able to tell the difference between the cheap stuff and the expensive stuff. I challenge everyone to do a blind sampling. Mix up bottles of pricey haircare products and inexpensive hair cleaners, secretly code them so you don't know which is which until after the experiment and try alternating for a month or some predetermined about of time where you can fairly try each out. If afterward you can't tell the difference, good that's what I expected. If you are determined that you know which is the real selsun blue but then get it wrong I won't laugh at you (I'll just smile smugly). The third and final scenario involves you actually guessing correctly which is your fancy french shampoo. How do I explain this? Simple, I just say that you guessed and got lucky. After all there was a 50/50 chance. Do the experiment again, I'm trying to save you money. If you like wasting money then please send it directly to me (via Paypal). Will you do this experiment? I'm sure you won't. Why? Because it takes time and effort and it's easier to just sit at your computer and surf around for shampoo reviews that only come from people looking to sell shampoo. I think you would be hard pressed to find a single hard product review online that didn't come from someone with an ulterior motive. I'm not going to tell you what to buy brand of soap to buy. I'm just going to tell you not to waste your money when you don't need to. Are there certain shampoos worth paying for? Maybe. There is something that I've been meaning to discuss that hasn't come up among all the talk about scam artist salon stylist and that's something I'll tackle in the next paragraph. Go on and read it, it's right below.
I won't go as far as to say that there is great shampoo and then there is generic shampoo but as surprising as it might be to hear me say this there is such a thing as a better shampoo - depending on the purpose. What I mean by this is that there are different chemicals and vitamins that can make certain hair products best for curly hair, colored hair, hair with dandruff, thickening hair, and yes even regrowing hair. So what does this mean for my theory that no one needs to spend more than the bare minimum for beauty products? Actually nothing really. For every brand name anti-dandruff product there's a store brand version. The same can be said for all the other topics discussed like shampoo for dry hair and shampoo for thinning hair. I will say that most of the labels overstate the effects of what are for the most part run of the will average hair products. There's very little difference between the expensive bottle promising big sexy hair and the equally expensive brand name bottle promising shiny hair. It won't hurt you to try specialized topical solutions that are alternatives to the standard choices. Just temper your expectations and realize that results vary. There may even be a bit of a placebo effect or as I like to think of it: a delusional effect. If you pay extra for a product that promises vibrant hair then due to some cognitive dissonance issues you'll probably believe that after application you have the most vibrant hair you've ever had in your life. The alternative to believing your hair is as vibrant as advertised is to admit that you senselessly spend more money on shampoo than you needed to. Let's see, two choices: (1) admit you made a mistake and did something dumb or (2) trick yourself by justifying your actions. People have tricked themselves and lied to their subconscious over things much more and much less important than vibrant hair. Hopefully you've found this post to include good tips for getting hair products and specifically shampoo at fair prices that are well below those found in unnecessarily expensive salons.
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Having curls can be both a blessing and a curse because good curly hair products can be difficult to find. However, like with any other hair type once a dependable product is found sticking with that product is the easy part. The most popular new product on the market today is natural shampoo bars. In an effort to remove toxins and unwanted pieces of information that are not natural the shampoo bar alternative is a great way to get only the most natural ingredients into your hair every time you shower. The shampoo bar works much the same way as regular shampoo in that lather is messaged into the scalp and roots of the hair. In this instance the application is with a bar instead of with liquid soap. Most people have only used liquid shampoo but the reality is that bar form can be just as effective if not much more effective. The bars are excellent for scrubbing and rubbing in ways that liquid soap or shampoo normally can't be. Think about the fact that with regular liquid form hair products in the form of soap most people who shower use a brush or luffa to maximize the effect of the soap.
A very common question asked by girls with attractive curly hair is: do curly hair products really do any good? Specifically, does paying extra for a specific shampoo that says it is made specifically for a certain type of hair really make a difference? The truth of the matter is that while different products have slightly different compositions the only real way to find out for sure what the best shampoo is for you is through trial and error. It is recommended that people wanting to find the optimal hair product (shampoo or conditioner) experiment. There is no blanket statement that one hundred percent of people with curly hair will find the same product good.
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