Can hair straighteners stop your hair from being naturally curly? Episode 160

Perry Romanoski (0:00)

You're listening to The Beauty Brains Show, where real scientists answer your beauty questions. And now, here's Randy and Perry.

Hello, and welcome to The Beauty Brains. I'm your host, Perry Romanoski, and with me, as always, Beauty Brains' co-founder and originator of the Symbiote Spider-Man costume, Randy Schueller. Hey, Randy.

Randy Schueller (0:31)

Starting off the podcast with a superhero reference, well done.

Perry Romanoski (0:35)

Hey, actually, I saw there were those rumors about them making a Venom movie, so that'll be interesting.

Randy Schueller (0:41)

Yeah, when I get the check from that, I'll let you know.

Perry Romanoski (0:44)

Well, Randy, we've got another great show for you today. If you're tuning in for the first time, this is episode 160 So feel free to go back and listen to all our previous shows before continuing on.

Should we wait?

Randy Schueller (0:58)

Is there that much backstory to catch up on?

Perry Romanoski (1:01)

Well, anyway, on today's show, we'll be answering a number of beauty questions that were sent in from listeners around the world. We'll be covering whether hair straighteners permanently straighten hair, if you can believe the ingredient labels on anti-aging products, whether titanium dioxide is always a sunscreen, and we'll look at the long-term implications of lip plumpers.

But first, a little of that inane chit-chat that we're so famous for. You have any inane chit-chat to start us off?

Randy Schueller (1:34)

I'm going to pass today, because actually yesterday I had a root canal, and I'm a little off my game when it comes to talking. But please, chatter away to your hearts content.

Perry Romanoski (1:45)

I thought the audience would want an update on a story we covered earlier in this year.

Randy Schueller (1:50)

As long as it's not the rat thing.

Perry Romanoski (1:53)

It's Ratskalnikov, yeah.

Randy Schueller (1:57)

You know what? I'll just talk through my pain if it gets us out of this segment.

Perry Romanoski (2:01)

No, it was just a quick update.

People will be happy to know that Ratskalnikov, I caught him, and I released him. And I did a whole video on it, so if you want to check out my YouTube channel, at the Jogler.

Randy Schueller (2:15)

You can't promote your own personal crap on our show.

Perry Romanoski (2:19)

What? It's, you know, people came to know, and they came to love Ratskalnikov, and now they might be wondering what happened to him.

No, he's gone. Go ahead and check that out.

Randy Schueller (2:32)

I'll put a link to that in the show notes.

Perry Romanoski (2:35)

You know, I never do look at the show notes.

Randy Schueller (2:37)

I better check that out.

Perry Romanoski (2:39)

All right, how about we get on to some beauty science news? Randy, why don't you tell us about some smelly beauty products?

Randy Schueller (2:52)

Well, I actually saw three different news stories this week, but they all had something in common, so I thought I would kind of condense them down into one little knowledgeable tidbit. But the theme here is new products that have a rather odd fragrance profile. So, yeah, the first story I saw was a Japanese spa treatment where they have a pancake-scented hot tub.

Now, I mean, I know different cultures embrace different scents differently, which is fine, but the idea of a hot cake hot tub just sounds so sickly sweet to me, I couldn't imagine, but it smells like vanilla and maple syrup, so go figure. So then I saw this new fragrance from the company we've talked about a number of times, and I still don't know how to pronounce their name. Is it Demeter or Demeter?

Perry Romanoski (3:42)

I always go with Demeter.

Randy Schueller (3:45)

Demeter has a new scent, it's called Kitten Fur, and it smells the back of a kitten's neck. So it's oddly specific, but the back of a kitten's neck.

Personally, I'm waiting for their wet dog cologne to come out.

Perry Romanoski (4:01)

You're not much of a cat person though, right?

Randy Schueller (4:03)

Not really a cat person, that's fair enough.

And then finally, I saw this pizza-flavored lip balm. Now, this one comes to us from an Etsy seller named Regina. And she says, you know, it's not just a bland pizza flavor, it's not pizza in name only, because it has robust notes of Italian herbs, tomato, and garlic. So, in other words, this lip gloss makes your mouth taste like all the things that you brush your teeth to try and get rid of.

So, I guess I'm not the target audience. I don't really get it, but there you have it. Three products with questionable aromaticity.