Hairstylist Claims Shampoo Made Client’s Hair ‘Smoke’
When you want highlights and you get smoking hair. (Photo: Getty Images)
A hairstylist has claimed that his client’s hair started to burn and smoke while she was getting a light blond ombré treatment because she had used Pantene shampoo and conditioner. Yikes!
Patrik Alan Simpson, at Mixed Elements Salon in Gambrills, Md., took to Facebook last week to warn others about the alleged dangers of the brand’s shampoo and conditioner, which he claims create a waxy buildup that can melt during hair coloring. The post has since been shared over 56,000 times.
“For the love of anything holy, please stop using this crap in your hair,” Simpson wrote in the message he called a “Public Service Announcement.”
(Image: Facebook)
We reached out to Pantene, which, not surprisingly, disputes Simpson’s claims.
“The people’s trust in the quality of our products and their safety is of our utmost priority. Millions of consumers use and enjoy our Pantene products daily and color regularly as well,” a Pantene spokesperson told Yahoo Beauty via email. “There is no connection between our products and the reaction this hairdresser saw on the client’s hair. We don’t know what caused this; shampoos and conditioners cannot.”
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Pantene directed us to an article on Snopes, a research website dedicated to debunking rumors. Its conclusion was that this reaction may have been due to something else used on the client’s hair. It also noted that Pantene’s Daily Moisture Renewal shampoo shares many ingredients with Bumble and Bumble’s Seaweed shampoo, as does its conditioner.
Of particular note is that all of the products (one sold in salons, the other in drugstores) Snopes compared contain the popular silicon-based polymer dimethicone (mentioned by Simpson as silicon buildup in his post).
We spoke with New York City-based stylist and dimensional color expert Justin Born, at Bloom Beauty, for some more insight and how to avoid a major hair color mishap.
Born told us that while he’d never had foils get hot or seen lightener liquefy, he has had problems with silicon. “The issues I have had probably have more to do with the amount of silicon in the products. I had trouble getting color to take or the inconsistent taking of color due to the buildup. The best thing I have found to do is to clarify [what’s in their hair] with the client before said service. Also, it is not only drugstore brands that cause this. I have had a similar experience with ‘professional’ products.”
Born also had some very specific questions that we don’t have the answers to, since Simpson didn’t share these details in his post, but we have left messages at the salon and with Simpson and will update when we do. “What the [Facebook post] does not specify is what volume of developer, type of lightener, was heat used — what was on the hair already colorwise?”
Bottom line? Talk to your stylists before making any hair color changes. Let them know what products you use and what your expectations are.
Updated March 31, 5:30 p.m.
We spoke with hairstylist Patrik Alan Simpson, who gave us a firsthand account of what he claims happened.
“My client, who is a walking billboard for me, has hair down the middle of her back and only comes in once a year. She wanted to bring her blonde ombré up, as it had grown out,” he told us.
“I mixed the balayage, used Olaplex in the bleach — at a 30 volume,” he explained. Olaplex is a product designed to protect the integrity of the hair.
Simpson told us that after applying the product, he covered his client’s hair with cellophane to prevent bleeding of the coloring product and left her to sit — not under heat — for 25 minutes. After 10 minutes she approached him.
“She said, ‘It’s burning. My hair is burning me!’ and when I touched the cellophane it was so hot it nearly burned my finger. I got her to the sink and removed the cellophane very carefully, and smoke billowed out!”
After rinsing out his client’s hair, he confirmed she was not on any medication, not using well water, had no metal dyes in her hair. But she did tell Simpson that she’d been using Pantene for a year.
Simpson told Yahoo Beauty, echoing stylist Born, that on some clients Pantene can build up over time. He believes that when the bleach hit that buildup, it caused a reaction. He’s planning on doing a test of this on video soon.
And, as far as the post that’s been shared almost 60,000 times? “I was so frustrated and angry … I had to post that. I had no idea it would go global.”
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