Episode 398 - Product talk with Sarah Bellum

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 cosmetics industry. This is episode 398 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Sarah Bellum. Hi, Sarah.

Sarah Bellum (0:27)

Hey, Valerie. It's good to be here.

Valerie George (0:30)

Thank you for coming. That's right, guys. Today, Perry was supposed to host the show, but he couldn't make it, and I still don't have the guts to do my own solo episode. So I said, Sarah, please save me and join me. And we'll talk about some fun stuff.

Sarah Bellum (0:44)

Yeah, always, always.

Valerie George (0:46)

Well, first, a name chitchat. So maybe you guys are wondering why Perry couldn't be here. No, he is not traveling, but someone traveled to him. He is hosting a joggler from the International Joggling Community. And guess what they're doing right now? Joggling.

Sarah Bellum (1:01)

They are juggling. Yeah. So this person lives in the UK, and he came to the US. It's his first time in the US, and he's visiting multiple jogglers across the US. So we're on the stop. So he was in Madison. Now he's in Chicago visiting us, and then he's off to Boston. Who knew there was such a large, juggling, juggling community, Valerie?

Valerie George (1:22)

Oh my goodness. And he's going to be right on Lake Michigan there, and it's going to be really pretty.

Sarah Bellum (1:27)

Wow.

Valerie George (1:27)

Well, good for them, and good for us.

Sarah Bellum (1:30)

I know.

Valerie George (1:31)

So we can talk beauty news and products and all that kind of stuff.

Sarah Bellum (1:34)

Definitely.

Valerie George (1:40)

Let's jump right in. So far as beauty news goes, PROS has launched a hair scalp serum.

Sarah Bellum (1:47)

Yeah.

Valerie George (1:47)

And they are saying it was the first ever custom scalp serum available on the market. Really? There's never other, never been another scalp serum before that's customizable.

Sarah Bellum (1:58)

It seems dubious at best.

Valerie George (2:01)

Oh my gosh. Well, okay. I went online because I've used PROS before, and I'm not gonna lie. I'm not a fan of the shampoo. I'm not a fan of the conditioner. I think they're really gross for hair, use over use, and they feel very basic. And I've even gotten a couple ones where I've customized different ones before to different quiz answers. And, you know, can you tell a difference? Not really. But the reason I was interested in the scalp is when I was in my previous life at a salon brand, I actually created a software program. I mean, I didn't do the coding, but basically we took a device and we created an algorithm that allowed the device to image your scalp and detect using artificial intelligence to detect like different scalp and hair anomalies and make predictions about like what your scalp could need, like what your scalped concerns were. And we imaged over 7,000 scalps. And we had to look at every image and figure out like, okay, what's happening here and help train the artificial intelligence.

Sarah Bellum (3:03)

Right, right.

Valerie George (3:04)

And that device is no longer on the market, at least under the salon brand that I worked for. But it was interesting. We learned that most people don't actually have a scalp problem. So people would self-report like, oh, I'm sensitive. Oh, I have dandruff. Oh, I have these issues. And the reality is like aside from oiliness, people don't really have scalp issues. And so it's interesting that the scalp market has exploded with all these products that honestly, in my opinion, your scalp doesn't really need.

Sarah Bellum (3:35)

Yeah, 100%. It's just another way to get people to buy more hair care products.

Valerie George (3:40)

Exactly.

Sarah Bellum (3:41)

And I've never used pros personally, but it seems a little gimmicky, in my opinion.

Valerie George (3:46)

Well, for the scalp quiz, it's a very big quiz. And basically, you answer a lot of the same questions as the hair, except it goes down to like, do you have hair loss? Does your family have genetic hair loss? How often are you washing your hair? How long until it gets oily again? You know, are you prone to flakiness? Are you sensitive? And by the way, everyone thinks they have a sensitive scalp, but very few people actually have an oily scalp. And so you answer a lot of the same questions. A lot of it is data gathering, in my opinion, because a lot of it isn't actually really relevant to scalp.