You know what’s Crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy!
The Dirty little secret that is the shampoo industry.
I was standing in the shower the other morning and I was reading the front of the shampoo bottle. Words like invigorating and energizing and scintillating are etched into the reflective container.
It’s like I’m lathering up with a Ferrari, I think to myself.
So I pour some of the emerald green lotion into my hand and start massaging my scalp. It smells like eucalyptus trees on the California coast. I smile wondering if sunshine is going to explode out of the bottle. Will daphodils sprout from my skull.
As I read the words on the bottle I feel the scrubbing bubble action on my skin. I am impressed with my decision to buy this product. I decide that what I am feeling is scalp nurishment and folicle regeneration as the bottle clearly indicates.
Man, it’s like nectar of the gods I think to myself.
Towel yourself off. Hold onto the counter. Are you ready for the truth?
What the shampoo industry is telling you is a LIE.
What is the dirty secret? What is it proctor and gamble is hiding like the formula for original Coke?
Is shampoo made from fermenting midget lard? Is it mined in the Himalays, carried down the mountain on the back of Sherpas blessed by Ghandi?
No.
The sad and simple truth is this.
When you wash your hair with one of those nutrient-rich elixirs, most of the nutrients and active ingredients don’t actually end up in your hair. Most of what you think you are paying for winds up down the drain… along with all the money you spent on the shampoo.
Is this a big deal? Well it depends. It depends how much money you feel like flushing down the drain. It depends if you like being lied to and taken advantage of by a monolithic corporation that cares about you as much as bacteria cares for penicillin.
As I stood there in the steam and glistening glow of cleanliness, I began to get mad. You see, shampoo is expensive, and it’s expensive because of the marketing. The bottle design, the bottle color, the words that jump off the container. It’s all a ploy to convince you that you are cleansing with the fountain of youth.
And that is what the corporations don’t want you to know. It’s not the fountain of youth, it’s the cash cow. It’s .69 cent Mr. Bubble pumped into a hypnotic bottle with fancy letters that promise unprecedented cleansing.
So why can’t you believe the verbage on the bottle? why doesn’t super nutrient building, aloe vera conditioning, coconut milk vitalizing NOT DO what it says it can do?
Because the shampoo molecules are too large to penetrate the cells of your hair. The shampoo sits atop the follicle like a relative who won’t leave, until we wash them away.
Think about fertilizing a plant. Do you dump the expensive fertilizer on the leaves? Not unless you are a dumb ass. You pour it on the roots of course.
Hair works the same way. If you want to treat your hair right, you need to treat the roots.
And if regular shampoo can’t penetrate the roots, you’re waxing your weasel with madison avenue imagery and liquid soap that isn’t fit for a Russian gulog.
Wash and rinse and be advised, you’re getting lied to. Be dilligent in the supermarket and buy a product that makes you feel good and fits your budget.
Think about that as you watch that liquid gold swirl around your toes and disappear down the drain.
Do you want to buy food or do you want your hair to smell like shamrocks on a summer day?
You decide. And that’s crazy!