This is a true story of The Devil Wears Prada fashion magazine types.
A magazine editor friend of mine has great hair, the sort that you see on beauty editors who live in Manhattan, all glossy and blow-dried to perfection. But her colour used to fade fast. Then she started using my shampoo and when she turned up for her next salon appointment her colourist gave her a strange look:
“Have you been cheating on me?” he said, quietly.
“No!” she squealed (because the last thing you should do in Manhattan is go behind your colourist’s back. It’s just too risky, especially if you’re in magazines and need to look fabulous at all times.)
He picked up strands of her hair and frowned. He looked underneath. He peered carefully at the crown, checking her roots. Then he said, “What products have you been using? Because your colour is holding up really well.”
She told him she’d switched to using mine (which I was thrilled about as the colourist is a big fancy name-to-know in NYC). He was really surprised that her colour had not faded much at all between appointments (which is why he assumed she’d been cheating on him with another salon across town).
At her next appointment she brought out a couple of my bottles and showed his fellow stylists the label. “Look! No sodium lauryl sulphate,” he whispered. You see pretty much all shampoos do contain this and it really is horrid stuff – it strips the hair – like using Fairy Liquid on your precious tresses. “No sulphate or propylene glycol, parabens or synthetic polymers either,” he said, raising an eyebrow. That’s the stuff which coats the hair in plastic-type sealants to make a blow dry super fast and gives it that salon sheen, but at what cost to your poor hair?
According to my friend, they were delighted to learn that the shampoos contained gorgeous natural ingredients too, like ximenia oil, vegetable proteins, Kukui, a substantive honey derivative that smoothes the cuticle for shine and manageability, sugar derived cleaners (zero calories on the scalp, fear not) and fragrant mandarin oil which makes my products smell yummy.
My editor friend was absolved. Her colourist was convinced that she wasn’t cheating on him. All was well again in midtown Manhattan.
Talking of “The Devil Wears Prada” (did you see the film? I’ve seen it loads of times) One of my hair clients is the lovely Emily Blunt (she played the personal assistant to Miranda aka Meryl Streep). I asked Emily if she’d mind giving me a quote for my web site and she was kind enough to send me this:
“I love Louise Galvin’s Thick and Curly haircare collection, it leaves my hair incredibly smooth and shiny and they have no chemical nasties!”
Emily Blunt