Episode 311 - Can hair change color like a banana?

Valerie George (0:00)

Hi, I'm Valerie and you're listening to The Beauty Brains.

Welcome to The Beauty Brains, a show where real cosmetic chemists answer your beauty product questions and give you an insider's look at the cosmetic industry. This is episode 311, or 311 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:26)

Hey Valerie, 311, is that like something you call up?

Valerie George (0:30)

I think that's like a band, right?

Perry Romanowski (0:32)

Information, oh yeah, maybe it's a band.

Valerie George (0:34)

Yeah, it's funny, actually in high school, I was in this pop culture class, and I didn't know the brand was called 311, so I called them 311, and the whole class made fun of me perpetually.

But anyway, we're gonna have a super exciting show today.

Answered questions about is skin aging the same as rusting? Will hair change color just like a banana? Is vitamin C late in the ingredient list really effective? And how do you test comedogenicity in a lab? But first, how are you doing? What's going on?

Perry Romanowski (1:08)

You know, I'm a little nervous.

Tomorrow, I've got to bring in one of the porch kitty crew, the cat I call Penitu. But I've got to catch him and then bring him to the vet, get him spayed, and then, or no, he gets neutered, get him neutered and then bring him back. So now I got this cage, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to catch him. It's a little tricky.

Valerie George (1:31)

I feel like this is one of those things where you have like a steak dangling and you're like kitty, kitty, kitty, or is it a fish?

Perry Romanowski (1:38)

Well, he would eat either.

But I'm thinking I was going to get like a big fishing net and just net him, but I don't want to be afraid of me. So I got this trap, so maybe I'm going to catch him. Or maybe I'll catch one of the half a dozen kittens that are running around.

Valerie George (1:54)

Yeah, and you could get them taken care of.

Perry Romanowski (1:56)

I could, but I'm going to catch something and bring him in tomorrow. So wish me luck.

Valerie George (2:01)

What a responsible neighbor. Bob Barker would be proud.

Perry Romanowski (2:05)

Well, I don't want the six new kittens to turn into 24, so I'm going to...

Valerie George (2:10)

Yeah, exactly. For those of you who don't know that reference, Bob Barker is a famous TV show host in the...

Perry Romanowski (2:17)

The Price is Right?

Valerie George (2:18)

Hosted game shows, yep.

In the US he's long passed away, but at the end of every show for The Price is Right, his closing line would be, Anne, remember, have your pet spayed or neutered. He would, and there's a shelter by my house to take care of these alley cats, to get them at least so they don't reproduce anymore. Oh, very cool. Oh, that's neat.

Perry Romanowski (2:39)

All right, what do you got going?

Valerie George (2:41)

Well, just working away. I had a really bad luck week next week, so I've exercised myself, not exercised, exorcised.

Perry Romanowski (2:51)

Exorcised, right?

Valerie George (2:53)

Myself and my space, because man, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And that was just the kind of week I had. I ended up cutting the thumb pad off my one thumb at the beginning of the week, burning the other thumb pad at the end of the week.

I had credit card fraud at a hotel I stayed at a few months ago. I guess they got my number there and were giving people free rooms in the premium spaces on my card. And then I got two flat tires and a bunch of stuff went wrong at my space at work. So it was just a week I was ready to have be over.

Perry Romanowski (3:31)

That's amazing. Now the cutting your thumb pads off, is that so you can go rob a bank or something?

Valerie George (3:38)

You'll never catch me, no prints, but I could only use my thumbs. But yeah, so that's kind of the week I had and just ready for a new one.

Perry Romanowski (3:48)

Well, we've got a new one coming up and we have some beauty science stories to talk about.

Valerie George (3:52)

Yeah. What did you see?

Perry Romanowski (3:59)

You know, I saw this article. Essentially, they were positing that COVID-19 has led to a beauty reset and they think post-pandemic women want to look healthy, not young, or at least that's what Avon is saying.