I've battled frizzy hair all my life, so I figured I should
start using hair products that are as natural and good for the hair as possible
so that my hair could be in better condition.
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| This is how frizzy my hair gets. |
I chose Aveda products to reach that goal, which (as far as
I can tell) are as natural as you can get for hair products. I started buying Aveda
products to use at home, and I chose an Aveda salon to get my color done.
But the Aveda salon I picked, Van Michael, which is a big name
around Atlanta with many locations, had been using Redken color on me for years
without my knowledge.
What? How is that possible? The Aveda logo is prominent on
the outside of the salon, and all you can buy there are Aveda products. So,
silly me. I assumed that I would have Aveda products applied to my hair.
Not so much.
It appears that the salon I went to is an "Aveda
Concept Salon" as opposed to an "Aveda Lifestyle Salon." I'm not
sure about all the particulars between the two, and I'm pretty sure that only
people in the industry would know, but I've come to find out that only the
lifestyle salons must use Aveda products on clients.
The Aveda salon I
went to uses Redken products to color the hair (maybe mixed with Aveda
products, maybe not, from what a receptionist told me).
So the whole time I was going to the salon and paying
premium prices to get my hair colored in what I thought was Aveda color, I was
not. I could have gone to any walk-in strip mall hair studio to get Redken
color for a much cheaper price. I was also paying extra for conditioner to be
added in, which would have been unnecessary if the salon had used Aveda color
on me in the first place because Aveda color contains all the conditioners
needed.
I'm a big proponent of "buyer beware" and to take
responsibility for your choices. In hindsight, I realize I should have asked
whether the color I was getting was Aveda color. But, because this was an Aveda
salon and all I could see were Aveda products, it didn't occur to me to ask.
I believe the practice of calling itself an
"Aveda" salon, concept or otherwise, displaying only Aveda products
and having the colorists go into a closed-off backroom to prepare Redken color,
is deceptive by omission.
My goal with this post is to let people know this goes on.
I just had my hair done at an Aveda Lifestyle salon. The
colorists prepared the color out in the open so the clients could see the
products that would go on their hair.
If you care about using natural products on your hair, make
sure that you can see the products that are being used, or at least ask your
colorist or stylist what products they will be using.
I'm anxious to see whether my hair will remain as smooth and
silky as it was after leaving the new salon with Aveda color on my hair all the
way up to my next appointment without my hair starting to frizz and becoming
unmanageable halfway through, as I was used to.
What do you think? I'd love to hear your comments. Do you
think I was naïve, or was this practice deceptive?
