Episode 349 - Do at-home hair colors and professional salon colors mix?

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 349 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:26)

Hello, Valerie. So great to see you again.

Valerie George (0:29)

It's good to see you. We have a great show. We're gonna cover, can people with sensitive skin use retinol and vitamin C products?

Perry Romanowski (0:36)

You mean like orange juice?

Valerie George (0:38)

I think that's drinking.

Oh, right. Are there different percentages allowed for body products as opposed to facial products? What skincare products should be avoided when using hypochlorous acid? Are there any at home hair products that may interfere or damage my hair if combined with professional hair coloring? And would using salicylic acid shampoo daily cause any harm either to hair or scalp? But first, chit chat.

Perry Romanowski (1:03)

Well, Valerie, how's it going? I mean, you're new to Texas. Texas, you're enjoying the Texan weather there?

How's Texas now?

Valerie George (1:14)

I'm very new. So if you listened to the show last week, you'll know that I moved to Texas, and we recorded basically on my first day here. I was only here for a couple of days before we went to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving, visited family, and then I came back. So really-

Perry Romanowski (1:32)

Was it near Lake Winnipeg? Near Lake Winnipeg, actually.

Valerie George (1:37)

Lake Winnisquam, actually.

Perry Romanowski (1:38)

But the one I said was this lake, right?

Valerie George (1:40)

Yeah, is that the lake you're talking about?

Perry Romanowski (1:42)

Yeah, no, that's, no, it's a, it's some big lake there in New Hampshire. Oh yeah, it's there. So you were in New Hampshire.

Valerie George (1:49)

I was in New Hampshire, and I just got back to Texas this week. So I'd like to say, this is really my first week living here.

I'm still not used to Central Time. I probably won't be, because I have to go to Maryland for work next week, and New York City the next for work. So, yeah, I'll be messed up on that end. But yeah, it is cold here. And by cold, I mean like 50, 55

Perry Romanowski (2:13)

So that's colder than LA, like.

Valerie George (2:16)

Oh, for sure. It feels chillier, and it's much colder in the morning.

Where I lived in LA, it was at the very corner of the valley. And so we got really extreme summer and really extreme winter temperatures, but it is still just colder feeling here. I don't know how to explain it.

Perry Romanowski (2:33)

It's just less moisture. I think it's like a desert there, isn't it?

Valerie George (2:37)

Yeah, yeah. The humidity is difficult to get used to, that's for sure.

But the other thing is the bugs. Oh man.

Perry Romanowski (2:45)

A lot of bugs, huh?

Valerie George (2:47)

Yeah, in LA, we hardly had any. Here, you can't even leave a window open for two seconds without bugs wanting to come in.

And the bugs are big. So I've had a bit of a hectic week already. So we moved my lab. Mr. Cosmetic Chemist actually moved to Texas three months ago. My lab just moved last week. And the moving truck came Monday, but the floors had to be redone in the facility.

And so everything is just kind of sitting in the parking lot, in a pod. And the floor people have had a bit of a headache because it didn't get to cure overnight like they thought it would, because we had an extreme cold freeze last night and my heating system for some reason didn't kick on. So that was a big problem. And then once we got the heating system to work, a bunch of wasps came flying out of the HVAC system. Yeah, and so these wasps were flying around, big brown things, and they were landing on the sticky epoxy.

Perry Romanowski (3:49)

Oh no.

Valerie George (3:50)

There are all these wasps everywhere. They can't get the floor done on time. The exterminator can't come because they have to finish the floor. It's a huge nightmare.

Perry Romanowski (4:03)

Wow. Now, it's cold there. Wasps are still active?

Valerie George (4:09)

I was surprised, but apparently they're active when you turn the heating system on, and they don't like to be in there when that's on. So they wake up, and they come flying all over your facility and stick to the sticky epoxy floor.

Perry Romanowski (4:25)