THE BLONDTOURAGE

(amazon.not ?)

SIGH.

Let me preface this by admitting my all encompassing love and dedication to amazon.com.

Not only has Amazon Prime changed my life, and in turn, Prime Now, but also the company is based in my hometown of Seattle, Washington!  Rain City is the place where I learned to be a capable woman, raised in a community of people who had loyalty and intelligence and and gave a crap about the environment and education. Bomb AF.

Maaaayyyybe though….Amazon had a couple of screws that went loose when it came to ensuring hair products (amongst other things sold on the site), were legitimate. Again, SIGH. 

I’m not here to point fingers or say anyone besides the seller is maliciously trying to sabotage us from having amazing hair care that makes all brunettes jealous. Oh!  It’s probably brunettes who are selling the fake goods!!!  (JK they never made me submit a current photo when buying any conditioner or anything LOL.)

So the end decision I have made is to CAREFULLY  buy any hair stuff or beauty products on Amazon.

Here’s how I’m seeing Amazon works since researching the issue:

Amazon has three ways they handle fulfillment of their orders:

–Sold by Amazon

These products are sold to Amazon to resell to customers by actual companies and vendors, so they are most likely the actual product.

–Fulfilled by Amazon

These products are not sold by Amazon, but are shipped from an Amazon fufillment center.  So they are at least processed by Amazon, but there’s a chance they were not verified.

–Ships From and Sold By a Third-Party Seller

These items are never in the hands of any amazon employee and ship directly from the Third-Party Seller.  This is how most of the counterfeit products are sold.

Reviews and How They Get Away With It:

-Fake Reviews 

I actually heard a story on NPR a couple weeks ago about this. Sellers are giving free products to “customers” in trade for a review.  I know that some of us would not trade free stuff for a 5 star review, but it seems that the swag stops to the reviewers when the 5 star ratings aren’t there.  Add to that, I’m SURE they don’t send the fake stuff to them anyways! HELLO!

-Selling of REAL product, then having cycles selling FAKE products

I went on amazon and checked out reviews for a seller that retailed “It’s a 10” leave-in treatment. The 5 star reviews were chronologically grouped together, and so were the 1 star reviews.

Example:

October 2013, August 2013, February 2014, there was a string of bad reviews stating that the product was fake, and that they knew so by comparing it to the product the had bought before in a store in person, or even brought it to their hairstylists who told them it was definitely NOT “It’s a 10“.

Then, there was months of good reviews. 

Again, in November 2015, December 2015, and another November 2015, the reviews stating the product was not real were left.

Then, another few months of positive reviews.

And, once again, another cycle of claims it was a fake product. THREE 1 star reviews claiming “It’s a 10” was counterfeit in May of 2016. You can tell that people are utilizing the reviewing process more and more, which makes sense because more and more people have started counting on amazon for household purchases.

My Experience With Amazon Haircare Purchases

I personally have a haircare product that I recommend to clients (and use myself) that I get on Amazon. I 100% let them know ahead of time that there’s a possibility of the seller going rogue, but the product I buy on there is not available in a large size anywhere in a Los Angeles salon or retail store. I use the exact same seller and only tell my clients to buy it by using the link I send them, which is where I originally purchased the item.  Also, I do have them touch and smell the product at the salon, so they know what to look for.  My clients are so awesome they even send me pics of it when they get it!  The product is so good for the hair, it is worth the risk to me.

Now here’s another story….

Roza’s Experience With Amazon Haircare Products

Uh oh. My BFF and favorite person in the world, Roza had a totally frustrating experience with this…. She bought a conditioner and when receiving it, felt like it wasn’t real… Actually, KNEW it wasnt real because she had used the product many times before. It ended up being hair CHOLESTEROL. A super cheap yellow “deep conditioner” used at beauty schools for practice. She complained. She wrote a bad review. She even contacted Amazon. Her review was taken down due to what she thinks was other positive reviews outweighing her claims. Or just basically in Roza’s words: “Everyone is a cheater liar”.  And lets be honest… She may not be the sweetest person on the phone when dealing with customer service representatives. Im pretty sure I would quit my job if i worked at a call center and she was a customer I had to help. I think she had just gotten over it when I went to Dallas to visit her and brought her a liter of the real thing as a surprise present. She ran into her bathroom and came out with the fake shit yelling I KNEW IT I KNEW IT!!!!  I’m actually the one that had to tell her the stuff she bought for $34 was cholesterol…ouch!

Well I hope this has been of some help!

Here’s to Amazon weeding out the liars and fakers.

Love and Legitimate Fluffy Feel,

Caitlin ❤

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd #305 West Hollywood CA 90069 

(And we ALL KNOW I have THE ANSWER.  (Albeit my opinion.))

Let me say this: If brevity is the soul of wit, maybe skip this post. This is my drawn out opinion ;).

Most of my opinions are really based on Los Angeles air and water quality, along with lifestyle habits of Angelenos who dye their hair blonde.  Maybe if one day I lose my mind and go full blown hippie, I will move to the San Juan Islands and have naked offspring running around my property and no access to the internet…probably making my own soap out of god knows what and then using it on my chemical free babies whom I bath in large steel drums filled with rainwater. Until then, though, I will keep it ALL about Los Angeles Blondes since YOU are my audience! …Workaholic and/or actress/model career women who schedule a manicure between spin class and coffee with your mastermind group mentor. (This is all before you get to the office at 9am.)

Here is the point (if you bothered to read the above paragraph).

When in the world did you have time to wash your hair?

After spin, before your 8am manicure you guilted your nail girl into?  I don’t think so.  You barely had time to rinse off at Soul Cycle and get into your work clothes.  It’s hard enough to get wet legs into skinny jeans without wet hair dripping in your eyes. That shit is in a bun and we both know it.

Hair is sitting in sweat, then sweat dries INTO the hair.

Now its 8:00pm, and you’re lucky enough to get off that early from work.  Never mind that you had to lie about picking up your car from getting serviced… and the dealership CLOSES AT NINE.  (Does it? You’ve really dramatized this lie.)   Really you just wanted to make the 8:30 hot yoga class at Modo because you saw your ex snap themselves there the last THREE  Thursdays in a row.  Over your DEAD body will you let this slide because you claimed every hot yoga studio east of La Brea (INCLUDING the east side OF La Brea) in the break-up.

Fuck!. They aren’t there, but there’s a new hot teacher subbing for the regular one so you stay.  Get out of class- (shit that was a 90 min class) . Rinse off AGAIN in the shower with zero time to wash your hair because you have to be at a showcase at Hotel Cafe at 10:30pm.

Sweat once again dries into hair.

By the time you leave the showcase you had like 4 Hendricks and grapefruits, and got talked into sitting on the back smoking patio of Piano Bar for 2 more.  Ubered home.

Alcohol dehydrates you, second-hand smoke soaks into your hair.

Its 6am. Fetty Wap is singing ‘Trap Queen’ loudly from your iPhone reminding you to get up. You drag yourself into the shower and about 2 min into it remember your car is on Selma by Hotel Cafe.  SHIT!

Good thing you know its good to only wash your hair every 2-3 days.

…Right?

WRONG.

I have just named three crucial reasons above to why you should wash your hair more frequently!  If you are a typical Angeleno, you have done one of those 3 things, or more, in the last 24 hours.  

The very first thing I tell new clients who are preparing to come in for a color correction service and have seriously damaged hair, is to wash it every day.*  

*After that it is to stop using hot tools, and if you cannot for the love of god air dry your hair, instead use a blow dryer (with a nozzle) and a boar bristle round brush.

When these clients start washing their hair every day, the effects are pretty amazing.  The hair is shinier and feels stronger!  There is no need to wait until your hair is damaged to start this practice!  This is why I always recommend washing hair every day, and if you cannot air dry it, then you can wash every other day.

The biggest reason by far to wash daily is what I call “The Sweat Effect”.

Sweat is made up of toxins your body is purging by carrying them out of your bloodstream via sweating.  A huge amount of which is salts.  Salt dries out everything.  If you leave it to dry into your hair, it makes it more and more brittle.  This is an enemy of lightened hair!  If you use a really good moisturizing shampoo, your hair will be softer after washing it.  Also please use a good conditioner as well.  Your hair needs the daily conditioning to protect against environmental impurities such as smog in general or second-hand smoke on the Piano Bar patio.

Try it out!  

My future child who will wash daily.

Wash your hair every day or at least every other day and let me know how it goes!

( Or don’t!  You a free bitch after all!) 

Here’s to all my dirty girls 😉

XOXO

Caitlin 

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood CA 90069