I don’t like being lied to.
Shocking, right? Sarcasm aside, of course no one likes being deceived. So why is it that hair product owners seem to keep doing it? Especially for products that insist they’re for every hair type?
Why do brands do this?
I believe it’s the idea that you earn more money by casting a wider consumer net, and that you save money by forgoing more rigorous product testing. Ideally for the brand, the consumer won’t be the wiser and things take off… but how many of us continue to buy a product we know doesn’t work for our hair if we have the choice not to? The point is that in this time of communication and ease of consumer research, products that stretch the truth get found out much more quickly than they used to. Consumer reviews will are easier than ever before to access online and on social media.
To all the business owners out there, I do want to say there’s something I understand.
I GET the fact that between hair type, hair porosity, hair density, hair width, and even hair color, there’s a vast, VAST number of combinations that you can make with all of the factors that make up our hair type in the more colloquial sense of what our hair is actually like, rather than just the number and letter of the shape of our strands. It’d cost a lot of money to test on every kind of hair for every product, and I get that not every business is willing or able to do that.
One of the most specious and irritating arguments to me is “Well, companies exist to make money”. Um… yeah. The ones that don’t are called charities, and even THEY have troubles with the unscrupulous allocation of funds from time to time. But I’m always troubled by the implication that I should take no issue with a corporation misrepresenting its wares because it’s less expensive for them.
Of course we should all do our research, peruse reviews, check sources of any testimonials, and so forth, for all classes of product whenever we’re able. But at some point, we have to stand up and say ‘You cannot lie like this’, and mean it. If that means I have to be angry every time it happens, so be it. I’ll stop when they stop.
Besides that…
Don’t people know we’ll buy stuff anyway? There are so many bottles I’ve seen that say they’re ARGAN OIL or BLACK CASTOR OIL in big bold letters on the front, but then you look at the ingredients and it’s a blend! I’ll buy the blend you guys! Do you have any idea how DIFFICULT it is to rub pure, thick castor oil all over your body as a winter moisturizer? The stuff has the consistency of maple syrup, it takes 45 minutes! I’m fine with a little hemp or almond or coconut oil being mixed in, I just want to be told that that’s what it is!
The thing is though, there’s always the option to just… not put ‘For all Hair Types’ on the label or in the marketing. You know how it sucks to have to cancel on a friend when you said you’d help them move, because you realize you really don’t want to? The solution to that is either level up and don’t be a flake or just don’t offer in the first place! Some of my favorite products have absolutely no recommendations as to the type of hair they might work for on the packaging, and that’s totally okay! Now that we curlies are all getting increasingly savvy as to which ingredients/tool types work on our hair, and coming together to share tips and tricks, we’re letting each other know what the rundown is, and learning ourselves! Give your design team a break from adding more to the label, and breathe easy. They’ll thank you. And so will we!
Curlies, what are your thoughts? Have you ever had to deal with an ‘All types’ product not being right for your hair? Let me know in the comments section!
