Episode 396 - Toxic beauty, hair growth and lightweight sunscreens

Perry Romanowski (0:00)

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

Hello and 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 396 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:31)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:33)

Hey, Valerie, great to see you on that humid day in Texas, apparently.

Valerie George (0:38)

Well, you know it's humid because my hair is all over the place.

Perry Romanowski (0:43)

Well, you know what else is all over the place? The questions that we got in here are the ones we're going to cover today. On today's show, we are going to cover, what do we think of the hair loss product, Calecim?

Well, we'll get that. What is the deal with Banana Boat's Light As Air sunscreen? Why is it so light as air? Are personal care products filled with harmful toxins? What are our thoughts of the Deciem company? Are they sketchy? And, finally, we'll end with a series of patron questions about hair products. But first, a little chit chat. Valerie, how's it going today?

Valerie George (1:23)

I'm doing good. We just got back from a trade show in scenic Reno, Nevada.

Perry Romanowski (1:29)

Oh, that's right. We heard about that last time.

Valerie George (1:31)

Yeah, yeah, you know, it was neat. Good coffee scene in Reno. As far as a restaurant perspective goes, there were some good places, but just I don't think the service is great from the waitstaff at places. Yeah, just really like ambivalent if you're there, not super friendly. I was just surprised because in Vegas you get top-notch service because people are professional servers around town.

Perry Romanowski (1:58)

Sure, sure. Yeah, I guess Reno is sort of like the minor leagues to get advanced over to Las Vegas.

Valerie George (2:04)

Is there like something smaller than minor leagues?

Perry Romanowski (2:09)

AAA? No, that AAA is minor leagues. So like a little league.

Valerie George (2:14)

Exactly, but other than some of that type of stuff, it was a really great trip. It's beautiful mountains around. The town was really clean. Parts of it were run down for certain, but the town itself was very clean and I was impressed.

Perry Romanowski (2:33)

It's a nice area out there. Well, you know, yesterday was Mother's Day, so I got to go home to my parents, my mom's house, and you know, that was a nice time. We had some nice weather here. And you know, I did, my mom's getting older, so she's not going to be around for a while, but...

Valerie George (2:51)

I think we're all getting older, aren't we?

Perry Romanowski (2:53)

I suppose we're, all of us will not be getting... Yeah, if we're lucky, we're all getting older, right? I knew what you meant. No, that's a good point. Yeah, I guess if you start thinking about it like that, you know, we don't have that much time on this earth anyway.

Valerie George (3:07)

Her follicles and scalp are thinning. That's the age she's at.

Perry Romanowski (3:12)

You know, interestingly enough, she's 84 and she still has mostly dark hair.

Valerie George (3:19)

Oh, good for her.

Perry Romanowski (3:21)

Yeah, I would say she's maybe 10% gray.

Valerie George (3:25)

Wow. Hopefully you inherited that. You don't have a lot of gray hair.

Perry Romanowski (3:29)

I do not have a lot of gray hair and I'm in my mid-50s. So yeah, I did kind of inherit that. Unfortunately, I inherited my dad's bald spot, so I got that going for me. Well, anyway, I brought my ukulele to my mom's house and we did a little duet thing. So I'll throw that in at the end of the show.

Valerie George (3:50)

That was nice.

Perry Romanowski (3:52)

You know, another thing that happened to me, you know how I get this running streak going?

Valerie George (3:56)

Yeah. Did you hit a big milestone?

Perry Romanowski (3:58)

Well, I have not missed a day in over 6,000 days in a row, so.

Valerie George (4:02)

Wow.

Perry Romanowski (4:04)

But I have developed a little bit of an injury.

Valerie George (4:08)

Okay. But you've been injured before. What happened this time?

Perry Romanowski (4:12)

I don't know. I went to the doctor and, well, physician's assistant, I guess.

I guess people don't go to doctors anymore. But anyway, I'm there and she says, I think your meniscus is messed up and you probably have to have surgery. I'm like, but can I keep my running streak going? She's like, probably not. No, I don't know.