215: Debating the Sweet'N Low Hair Hack and Salon Integrity

Ever wondered why some stylists swear by the unconventional trick of adding Sweet'N Low to hair color mixtures? Brace yourself for an episode that unpacks the bizarre practice geared towards reducing scalp sensitivity, and why it's high time we cut out the sugar-coating—literally. We strip down the myths and reveal the potential havoc this sweet little packet could wreak on your hair and scalp health. With no solid scientific backing and a host of possible unpredictable results, we argue that it's not just about the integrity of your hair, but also the integrity of the profession.

This candid conversation goes beyond the mixing bowl, tackling the broader implications of such practices on the beauty industry's reputation. We scrutinize not only the ethics of salon protocol but also the trust relationship between stylists and clients. Are we, as beauty professionals, living up to the standards we claim to uphold? Get ready for a no-holds-barred discussion on the necessity of transparency in product usage and the long-term effects of dubious additives on hair. It's an insightful session that might just have you rethinking your next salon visit.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever heard about putting sweet and low in hair color? Yeah, what the heck. Why would anybody want to do that? Well, today we're going to talk about why there's this belief that adding sweet and low to hair color works and why you probably shouldn't be using it. Let's talk about the old wives tale Putting sweet and low yeah, the sugar packet in hair color. It used to be believed, and maybe it does work.

Speaker 1: 0:31

I don't know that it diminishes scalp sensitivity, so people would mix up the color and then tear open a package of sweet and low, throw it in the hair color, mix it up and say, okay, now, this won't burn your scalp. What? First of all, you need to know if their scalp is burning, because you want to take that off as soon as possible. The last thing you want is to put on a chemical on the scalp and it be irritating the scalp, but then they can't feel it because there's sweet and low in the thing and you think you're okay. And then you shampoo off the lightener or color and can't figure out why their scalp's all red or burned, which is worse. I don't know. Doesn't sound like a very safe plan to me. Also, your hair color was not designed to work. With the chemical which is sweeten low as a chemical with saccharin in it, you might get unpredictable results. Have you thought about that? So you're adding another chemical, an artificial sweetener, to your bowl of hair color. Don't you think that's going to affect it somehow? It's going to. Who knows what it's going to do. It's either going to turn warm. You won't have the tone balance that you want. Hair color formulations are designed for specific outcomes on a chemical, scientific level, and if you alter that, what are you going to do? You're going to blame the company, the hair color company, that their color didn't work for some reason. When, lo and behold, you're in the break room or the color room, adding sweet and low to your mixture Doesn't sound like a good plan.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Okay, so that's strike two. This is one of the biggest things, and I see this in our industry. If you're adding sweet and low or anything unconventional to whatever you're doing, it really does make the professionalism of what you're doing go down. And isn't that what we're trying to do these days? Is to rise above the stigma of what's been placed on our professional careers? Yeah, and that's what we do to ourselves. We go and go. Well, let me just add a little sweet and low to this.

Speaker 1: 2:58

It's like taking I see this in nail salons Okay, like you're taking a like OPI is a higher, higher end. People know what OPI, um nail products are, but they go in the back and they pour uh cheap gallon size nail products in the OPI or whatever the name brand to make it look like they're using the name brand, but in reality they've just gone to Costco I don't know what, to the warehouse and bought industrial size nail polish remover, let's say, and they're putting it into a name brand container to make it look like they're using name brand stuff. I see that a lot in nail salons and it drives me up the wall Not that I go to a lot of nail salons. It is crucial to uphold the highest level of professionalism in your salon. If you say you're going to use this, this and this, you better be using this, this and this If you are using the highest line that you can afford to use, which we always did, because the integrity of the hair is hugely important. They do have cheap products out there still cheap bleach that I would never put on a human being's head because it'll just fry the hair. Now I'll use it on a mannequin all day long because it's cheap and the mannequin doesn't complain. The client's trust and your professionalism is so important. Let me just leave it there, okay.

Speaker 1: 4:35

And then also, you don't know what the sweet and low packet is doing to the hair. Oh my gosh, the integrity of the hair, I mean. What are the long-term effects of this? What if you overlap the color and that sweet and low packet is like breaking or drying out the cortex of the hair? Do we even know that? I mean, I'm not a scientist, but as a professional, it's our responsibility to know what we're doing to our client's hair at all times with any chemical that we're using on there. The health of the client's hair is the utmost important.

Speaker 1: 5:17

As hairstylists and as hair salon owners, it is up to us to adhere to professional practices. It is up to us to adhere to professional practices, and if you are one of these people that are in the back room mixing food additives into your hair color, I would probably advise against it. Even if you're old school and it's worked for you in the past, I don't know it's not going to work for you. I can guarantee you that your guests, your clients, are probably asking questions in their mind like what in the heck right? It's kind of like going into a nail salon and they're reusing the files on all the people. It's safety, it's integrity, it's being a professional. It just shouldn't be done. That's just my take on sweet and low. Actually, I wouldn't even add sweet and low to my food either. I'm just saying it's been shown to cause a lot of bad things, and not just in our food, but bad things and not just in our food, but probably in our hair too. Hope this helps. Remember, when you know better, you do better.