HOW DIVERTED HAIR PRODUCT CAN MAKE YOU SICK!

Bacteria up Close By 3D Wallpaper App

What’s in the Bottle? – A Guide to Finding the right Hair Products for You. Copyright © 1996-2011 By Sherry Miller – Ask a PHD (Professional Hair Dresser)

This is a great “hair rasing” topic in the salon industry as it makes the hair literally stand up on the back of every salon professionals neck when we walk down the aisles of our local grocery, retail, or drug stores and see diverted hair products. We also see professional salon products on the black market, counterfeit, or tampered with for purchase on the Internet. If you see diverted salon product you can contact the company. Each brand has a current 1-800 number where you can report it listed from their website. Even though diverter’s have been repeatedly warned and sued by manufacturers they continue because they just write it off as the cost of doing business and making more money. Unfortunately it’s not all just the diverter’s that have allowed this kind of evil to take place. Our own Salon Professionals have not been aggressive enough in organizing and collectively demanding fair contracts with their distributor’s, placing less liability on the salon owners and more accountability with the distributors and manufacturers to ensure that they are not selling directly to these diverter’s. Despite the manufacturers claim that they are not selling to them in court the evidence points to another direction given the fact that some smaller family owned companies like John Amico, (founded by a licensed stylist & salon/spa/school owner) that only sells their products directly to other licensed professionals, remains 100% diversion free! Although some licensed individuals (who may or may not actually practice Cosmetology) have acted unethically taking ( FYI -if caught they can lose their state license & the ability to make further purchases) “Aunt Sue” or any other unlicensed individual/friend to the beauty supply store or purchasing and selling it to them at wholesale price it happening by the truckloads and being delivered to your local retail chain is not the misguided work of a few hairstylist wannabee’s who barely have two nickels to rub together but is lining the pockets at both ends of those wearing the suits . Corporate GREED is nothing new but this one really “sickens” me and apparently can make you sick as well. Thus, the real reason for my article spawned by one of my faithful color clients that after 15 years of coming to my salon every 4 weeks and only using what I recommended ended up with a real problem when she unknowingly bought the same brand she had been buying from my salon for many years on sale at a local retail chain instead. We were able to trace the problem with conclusive evidence to a bottle of Matrix that had been tampered with and purchased outside of my salon.

In 2009, I received some educational material from Paul Mitchell Systems that I decided to share with all of you in our Salon’s Facebook Group. Today I decided to repost this because it’s still relevent and I think it’s important to inform clients on how they can protect themselves from retailers that do not have their best interest or well-being at heart. This report from JPS lists the top five reasons not to buy from these retailers who just want your money and do not care about you, your hair, or the health of either.
#1 – Get the real Deal not a bogus steal.. The only way to guarantee authenticity is to buy at a professional hair salon.
#2 – EWWW! independent tests of counterfeit product found dangerously high levels of bacteria and other impurities that can make you sick.
#3 – Why pay more? Diverted product in discount, drug, or grocery store chains usually costs more than the real thing.
#4 – Stop Bad Hair Days- A leading cause of BHD is using the wrong products. Ask your personal hairdresser about the products they recommend to make your style look and perform it’s best.
# 5 – Spread the Word – Tell your friends about the risks of buying professional products anywhere but a salon.

There you have it 5 good reasons not to buy your shampoo and underwear, wine, or lettuce from the same place. Even some grocery stores understand bacteria and now offer wipes for the bottom of your purse if it touches the cart seat where a leaking diaper may have been. Since Matrix and Paul Mitchell are the #1 & #2 most diverted products it would only be fair to also mention what Matrix has to say on the subject. They have posted this information on their website at http://www.matrix.com/antidiversion/. This explains more in-depth to the general public.

One last comment..FYI ~ recently big corporations have hired people with a hair license to walk the retail aisles to assist you or they have a few hair chair’s in the back of their store making it what we call a “Phantom Salon”. They think this gives them creditability. Do not be fooled by these people, they too are counterfeit. They are there to simply sell you their products. They do not know your hair the way your stylist does and most of these people have little or no experience even working in a salon ie. if they did they would be there instead of hanging out in a store aisle.

*Sources: Behind the Bottle 2009~John Paul Dejoria – Chairman & CEO JPS Systems

BSG – Distributor Sales Associate & JPS System Educators

Matrix.com – Anti-diverson Department

John Amico, Sr. – John Amico