Greenwashing, Cheeto Crimes & The Toast That Won’t Die

 This week on Hair It First, we dive into greenwashing—what it is, why it’s everywhere, and how brands might be fooling you with “clean” claims. But don’t worry, we keep it real (and a little unhinged) with debates about flaming snack foods, a piece of toast that refuses to mold, and whether “ammonia-free” actually means anything. If you’ve ever questioned what’s really in your products—or just want a laugh—this episode is for you. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Hey, hey, hey, gorgeous people. Welcome to the Hair at First Podcast where Great Hair meets real life. We're your hosts, Tessa, Monica, and a job. Free stylists, moms, best kids. We're keeping it real about beauty, business, and the chaos of motherhood.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

We're here to share stories, left way too loud, and maybe spoke a little shampoo along the way. Just a quick heads up. We're not making any medical claims or giving professional advice here. Just sharing our own thoughts, opinions, and experiences.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

So grab your coffee, your paper blanket, and let's hair it first.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Good morning and welcome back to Hair It First. How's it going, girls? Wonderful. Good. Good, good, good. And welcome back, listeners. If you have joined us before, thank you for coming back. And if you haven't, we hope you'll come back. And we never know if anybody really will, because, you know, we may not be everybody's cup of tea. I mean, I don't know why we wouldn't be, but I'm sure we aren't. I think we're awesome. We're awesome. We're awesome. Okay, so today we really would like to talk to you guys about greenwashing and what greenwashing is. And some of you guys are probably out there like, what in the world is greenwashing? Um, but it's very important that we talk about this and get this out here and that people become aware of this situation because it's more and more and more and more and more. So what do you girls think?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

It's every it's exactly yeah, it doesn't hold it up. So I just want to read the definition and then we could talk about it. Okay, it says greenwashing is the deceptive marketing practice of inflating a company's or products environmental environmental credentials to appear sustainable without making significant genuine changes. Yep, and it's happening all over the place. I mean, like simply Cheetos. A Cheeto cannot be healthy. I'm sorry. Baked flavors are not healthy.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Yes, they took the dyes out of them, but it still has uh all the other crap in them. You can still light them on fire, yeah. You can still catch on fire. You can still light them on fire. You know what? Michelle probably has a burnt Cheeto, half burnt Cheeto in her purse and a baggie by the by the. You know what I do have? I have a tangler together. Like if Monica's gonna be like, it's not molded. I said nothing. It's not.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

This is my favorite. Okay, so this is great. So for those of you that are watching, I did an experiment. Sorry, lots of noise. I did an experiment, gosh, how long ago? Two months at least. Yes, with our detangler, which I use as a heat protectant against a pretty famous brand. And this has our conditioning mist and detangler on it. This has the other, and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

It's just crazy. But I do carry it in your purse.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

I just want to point out the fact that this was months ago that she did this, and her bread is not molded.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

No, it's pretty hard, but I would like to point out the fact that sometimes I forget my snacks at home and I would have already eaten like oh my god, listen. There would have been bites out of my toast. That's hard. Not if it's like gross. Well, I don't eat white bread, so I probably wouldn't have.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

I would have probably had an allergic reaction and died. Probably.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

So, yeah, green washing. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

We're seeing it a lot in hair care products, we're seeing it a lot in hair color, and um, and I cannot remember the percentage. I swear to god, I was told like one percent. So I think like one percent, please don't shoot me if I'm wrong. It's a low percentage of a product. Only that percentage has to be organic for them to label the whole thing organic.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

It's 0.1% that's what I thought. 0.3%.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, so if they have one tiny little thing that's organic, they can say that the whole product's organic, and it's not.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Absolutely. They one of the biggest things that you're gonna see these days, you guys, is the pretty little bottles that look like they are organic and there's a little green leaf on it, or it's the sage green pretty bottle, or very neutral colors and blah blah blah. That is greenwashing at its finest. People see that and they're like, oh, well, this is clean. This is clean. No, nope, it's not. Nine times out of ten. Look at our bottles for Fermaglow. They don't, you wouldn't walk past um on a shelf and say, Well, that's gotta be natural. Because we don't have to hide it behind a sage green bottle with a big green leaf on it. Ours is the cleanest of the clean, and that's just it. But this green washing is uh it's out of hand and it's on everything. All their advertisements, everything, you know, are like that. You see these commercials on TV about all these products, and they're like, oh, it's all natural, blah blah blah. No, no, the crap, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Yeah, you only need to put a little bit of natural, and they don't change the ingredients.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Or they start labeling things a little bit differently. Yes, like they'll start they'll throw like you know, a different word for perfume in there.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

What is the one for formaldehyde? That's formaldehyde, Tessa, that you talk about. They use what word?

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Yeah, there's not necessarily a word that they're gonna use, but they're gonna use the word of uh some kind of natural ingredient.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

No, you were just talking ingredients the other day. I think it was on one of our podcasts, and you said that it was actually formaldehyde. I wish I could remember what it was.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

I know, like with Brazilian Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, but I'll tell you right now, the word's not gonna come to my head this morning.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Well, I can tell you this like with Brazilian blowout and they have formaldehyde free, but the minute heat hits it, it turns into formaldehyde in the air. So, yes, the product is formaldehyde free until you hit it with heat, and that's what you do is you flat iron it.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

That's exactly the whole state of how it's presented, buy that and make it an active ingredient or make it into that active. That's exactly right. And people out there, if you're still getting Brazilian blowouts, keratin treatments, stop it. Yep, stop it. You know what? We're gonna have to do just a whole episode of that. We're gonna bring out just what all chemicals people are putting on themselves and breathing in when they're getting a Brazilian or a keratin treatment. We are going to do that, we're gonna bring it out because guess what totally replaces that in our company? The snow mushroom compared to keratin.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Unbelievable. That's my favorite ingredient that we have. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

I know, I just want to I want to touch one. I know. I don't even like mushrooms. No mushrooms. We're so so cute. I love mushrooms. I'm not gonna eat it. I you probably can. I just but I just want to touch a little snow. Can we get one at GlowCon, Tony, if you're listening? Can we have a snow mushroom in a jar?

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Oh my gosh, we should get like a shirt or a hat and just walk in with like a mushroom on our heads.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Oh my god, why would we not? Okay, gosh, we have so many costumes for Glow Con. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

Oh my gosh, have you seen how pretty they are? I've never Googled a snow mushroom.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Oh, I've googled them. Yeah, they're pretty. Don't you want to touch it? They're beautiful. Have you looked at it, Michelle? Uh-huh. Look at that. They're beautiful. Why would you not want that in your products?

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Exactly. The challenge is, is I think the problem, I'm gonna say problem, not challenge, people don't understand, right? Because it's if you let's say you Google something, right? And like dimethicone, which is essentially a plastic, and it says it's not harmful. However, when you use it over time and you use it and you use it and you use it and you use it, that's when it becomes harmful. The glade plugins, sure, right off the bat, it may not hurt you, but if you have glade plugins in your house all the time, it's the endocrine disruptor disruptor. So, yes, when you look things up, they can say not harmful. Okay, but over time, yes, they are, and that's where people get confused because Google sometimes sucks.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Yes, well, and and people can pay to have their spots, yes, you know, they can pay for what they want, just like you know, I heard somebody say that the yucca app, I used to love the yucca app, but like you can pay for a spot on yucca.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Yep, I didn't know. That's why it's important to do your own dang research.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yep, it is, it's it's sad, and it is for me. I've said this multiple times. I am not the cleanest, greenest person out there, right? I mean, I said Cheetos because I freaking love Cheetos, so I do indulge in a Cheeto now and again.

SPEAKER_04 10:17

Now and again, are you getting the die free Cheetos?

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Are you getting the full now and a full die? Did you hear her?

SPEAKER_04 10:25

Oh, now she'll try to I was gonna say, like, no, I was trying to be kind, Tessa. You didn't need to throw her all the way under the bus. This podcast only throws Adam under the bus and Craig under the bus. It doesn't even throw Mike under the bus, okay? We're not throwing Michelle under the bus.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

We're all best friends, we're all best friends, and sometimes we need to call people out on their stuff. And Michelle, we're concerned about your addictions to the Cheetos. I know, it's horrible. I guess kidding, too. Please, but you guys can throw me under the bus for all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

No, when it comes to I think there's more people like me than like you guys, right? Because it takes a lot of work to be clean, right? And to really watch what you eat. What are you doing? And to really watch what you eat, right? And it's a lot of work, and sometimes I'm super lazy. So changing your hair care is one of the easiest things you can do to get those chemicals off your body. And if you're a hairstylist, your skin is your biggest organ, and you are touching those chemicals, those ingredients that are soaking into your skin. What five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times a day. That's what you don't realize. You're breathing it in. Yeah. And most most companies don't test, like for color, they test gas off is what the fumes that the that the product um creates, omits. Is that whatever creates? Omit. So omits, yeah. So what companies do is they test the gas off for the client, never for the hair. There's one company I know that does for the um hairdresser, and that's the color I use. However, I didn't even know about it until this company. Um, so they're not testing safety for hairstylists, they're testing safety for the client that's there once every six weeks. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

And there are things, and like we were talking about a little bit ago with like the formaldehyde, the things that they're putting in it is the formaldehyde releasing, yes, preservatives like you were talking about. The DMD or D DMDH or D H somebody put me to bed. DM DM D M. DMDM. Sorry. Um, all of those things, the quaternions, different, and there are good quaternions, but there are bad. Uh, all of that that like what we're talking about, that's what those things are the things that they put in there that people see those names and aren't scared of because a lot of times when you're looking at the back of a bottle of something, nobody knows what it is anyway. Ours, ours the size of Texas, and you just yeah, it's like what what is this? But they're that's just the that they're causing these things to release into the air into your to make everything active and into your scalp and your hair and hairdressers work at you see people with lawsuits all the time now, bladder cancer, lung cancer, all kinds of everything. Wake up, yep. Wake up, we gotta wake up.

SPEAKER_04 13:48

And if you're if you if you I feel like people are starting to make this shift. I've been saying this for a while. I feel like we're coming into that clean era. I had a couple clients that were like, is there any way you can get ammonia-free color? And I'm like, I've never had anybody ask me that, but let me look and see what I can do. So when I was at the warehouse, I use um Schwarzkopf for my color line. Um, and I saw Schwarzkopf has now come out with an ammonia-free line. And I was like, I would have to like look.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

What are they using instead of ammonia to make a I I looked it, I looked it up.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

And what does it turn into? I don't know the answers to that. It's called M E A Alternative Alkalizing Agents. I I really haven't done any research on it. I am starting to try to switch to um, I have a couple of colored lines that I'm looking at that say that they're on the on the cleaner side, but I haven't done enough research on it. I haven't really deep dove to see if those are really good ones.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

I just I mean, bottom line is oh I just looked up MEA, generally considered a skin, eye, and respiratory irritant with potential risks from long-term exposure, yeah, which is thinner stylist.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

But you gotta think about it. You literally, if you can't pop that cuticle open, which is what the ammonia and stuff does, what your color's not butter and margarine.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Butter is better for you. Quit putting stick in your body with the margin, right? Well, yes, ammonia is better than MEA. Yes, yes, it's hands down, it's just people are that's part of greenwashing.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

It is. Oh, yeah. If we say this is ammonia-free, yeah, it's automatically gonna be cleaner. Yeah, it's not, and it's not but bottom line is if you've got if you're getting your hair colored or bleached or whatever, you can't do it without a chemical.

unknown 16:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

There has to be a chemical change in there to do the to alter the state of your hair. Yeah, it's not you can find cleaner brands, but ultimately the color lines to get it, and I don't know, people always say, Well, I use hemp. Well, uh don't ask me to pull that out because that's never coming out, and but I've never checked into the hemp color. But I'm sure there's some kind of something. I've never I've really never checked into hemp color. Have you guys? No, I I haven't like I me neither.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

I've really never started getting like uh I started everything like in my home cleaner and things like that, but I didn't really do any deep dives into like color lines and things like that. I've just now started to do that. Um, so I don't like I I'm really I'm just starting to. I'm just starting to really like look because people are now asking, yeah, you know, and I'm just like I let me see what I can find. Well, I absolutely great on everything else. Which one are you using?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

I use all nutrients, love their color line. It lasts, it doesn't fade, it's beautiful, and it's cleaner than most. You guys know what type of salon I I run. And my toughest clients with the toughest allergies or autoimmunes can use that safely. Alpha Gal. I can use it, my Alpha Gal clients can use it. Not saying that all people can. If you're out there listening, not saying all people can, but I've had very good luck with it. Now I use Fermaglow, the hair care, the shampoo, conditioner, all that. Everything else is that, but my color line is all nutrient.

SPEAKER_04 17:52

So I've been looking into um, it's called naturally. I've never even heard of that. I've I've uh like emailed them to like get like information lists and things like that, because of course there nobody puts that stuff out on you know the internet. Um, but they seemed like they had quite a few shades. So I mean, I just I feel like the whole point of that is I feel like people are starting to notice. And you know, I saw an ad for Burger King. Have you guys seen the ad for Burger King where they're talking about how um their burgers mold? Like, remember that was that big whole thing because McDonald's how the McDonald's burger yeah didn't um didn't mold after 30 some years. And I'm like, do you know why they're saying that? Because they're getting people are get calling people out, and I think honestly, that's what the world needs right now. You need to be called out on your shit. Yep, you know, like let's be real. If you look at the I have kids, so Fruit Loops is what I'm gonna say. Oh my god. If you look at the Fruit Loops and the Kellogg's that is in America, and the Fruit Loops and the Kellogg's that is in Europe, it's not the same. And I don't understand, but it's made in the same freaking facility. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Why for certain 90% of the brand? Yep, a certain makeup brand that's huge that's been around for years and years and years. I think we all might know what I which one I'm referring to. Estee Lauder, who it's uh uh they are also a network marketing Does it start with a starts with an M? Like my name? Starts with an M. I don't know if I'm supposed to call it out, so I'm gonna text you guys. Um anyway, so they have they have safe for they have two different um really in Europe they have a whole different uh what do you what am I trying to say? Recipe, whatever the hell I can't come up with the word, for Europe. But over here, it is not clean. That's crazy. I would have never guessed that. You can look at it, that's why they can sell over there, but they make it all in the same place, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

So what happens is it's almost like when counterfeit people like if you're buying hair care at CBS, Target, I mean, I think Alta's pretty safe because they have a salon, but what happened Amazon? It's not 100%, but sometimes counterfeit people can make a label that looks we'll use bedhead for example. They can make a label that looks just like bedhead, they will take like bedhead ingredients, but they will add things to it so it looks and smells. And unless you have the real bedhead next to it, looking at it, you don't know the difference. So when the products can go longer, the companies make more money because you know it's like watering down something, you know, that's frustrating. Wild, yes, and all the big companies are buying up all of the um all of the smaller companies, so using an independent company is the way to go.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Yes, so a zillion percent, and I think stylists are starting to wake up to that as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

By golly, if I can buy it on the shelves, you know, if you can walk into Walmart, Ulta, any of those places, even at this point, Cosmo, Cosmo Prof. I don't know what you guys have State Beauty Supply, whatever. If I can buy it in there, I absolutely will not. By it, it is not for my clients. Absolutely. I had where I went through before here was called the salon store. Only carried vegan lines of things, and so but we're learning our lessons on I uh uh this people are like, Well, I don't want to order online, or if it you have to order online, it's not legit. Bull crap. I can guarantee you it's more legit, and I can guarantee you we can tell you every single thing that's in these products.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

So I just chat GBT redkin because that's I feel like we see that everywhere. So I asked, Is redkin sold in Europe? And it was like yes. And I said, Okay, are the ingredients the same? This is what it said. Number one, ingredient regulations. The EU bans or extra or restricts more ingredients than the US, certain preservatives, fragrance, colorance, and UV fillers. So formulas have to comply. Oh, I hit the button. Um, so they have to comply with their standards. So just because it's sold in a different country, like the EU standards are way higher on everything. They are reworked to comply with the EU law.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

So they call they're not the same.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

They're not the same. And I feel like Europe will always in Europe, you'll often see more detailed allergen disclosures. The US is allows a blit a bit more flexibility in their labeling.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Yep. See, my color line comes from Italy, it is made in Italy, Italy, Italy, and so I it's like you guys wake up to that. If the US doesn't give a crap enough about us to make those guys, if they can make that same color but make it cleaner and healthier, but they just aren't doing it over here because these companies don't care because it's cheaper for them to make.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

And there's all this junk. They're just numbers guys.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

Well, just think about this. Like, when you look at people in like Italy, people in Italy, they eat pasta every single day for almost every meal.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

And they're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

If you ever thought about it, they have no gluten intolerance, they nine times out of ten are not heavy, they're they don't have an obesity issue in Italy. Like, why do you think that we have such a problem here? You know why? Because those Italian grandmas are making their pasta and they don't have a whole bunch of crap in it because they're not allowed to have a whole bunch of crap in it. Like, it's amazing to me the shit that we get away with.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

The flour that they buy over there to make their pasta with is completely different and clean compared to what we buy here. You get oh, the flour. We need to go into flour. Oh, you don't want me to go down that rabbit hole. Monica get all freaking worked up.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

No, I don't want me to go down that rabbit hole. So bad. Dude, like it, it really truly, I'm not even gonna let you, it truly disgusts me. The fact that like we fight so hard in this country just to be healthy, and it's so impossibly hard to be healthy. Like, you don't see this crap anywhere else when you know we're not joking what we say. Like, I feel like we're being poisoned by our food, our air, our clothing, like everything, everything, water, government, dude. It's just disgusting. It's disgusting. I say all the time, I just want to go and move to Switzerland. Yeah, you don't ever hear anything bad about Swiss. They make good watches, they got good chocolate, they got good cheese.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

I'm gonna go to Ireland and drink.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Uh, I'm so game for that. Okay, but you can't get on a plane.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

So I will for Ireland.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Oh, whatever. What you want for us? Yeah. I am showing up.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

I've got a can. We're gonna have to shoot her. We're gonna have to have epi pens just on board. Just do it. It's time. It's time. No. I'm gonna work on getting on the plane. I just have to see if they cook food on what they have, what they're freshening the plane with. Like, I wouldn't be able to get in the air and have a reaction. They're what are they gonna do with me? Well, epi you. Well, we're gonna throw me out. You you guys, my first really, really bad one, they gave me epipen after epipen after epipen after epipen, and it still wouldn't work. They had me hooked up to a whole breathing apparatus. So I just am not willing to take that chance if I don't know what's because I've been to that point where I didn't think I was coming out of it.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

So I've been on a plane before where they will say, I mean, this is small compared to what you have, but we have a peanut allergy. A person with peanut allergy, please do not even open a bag of peanuts.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

That's awesome. I'm a person that has a severe allergy to life. So if you all could not breathe. Yeah, you are mammals and you cannot breathe. Do not start nothing. We are gonna start this flight with the oxygen masks. Uh-huh. That's a good idea. Yeah. Can we just have you in an oxygen? We can just get you a tank.

unknown 27:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:51

We'll roll you a tank. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

You could roll me off like Hannibal Left or on a um one of them. What is that called? You know, where are they hatting?

unknown 28:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

We'll wrap you, we'll wrap you in bubble wrap. We'll put you in first class. We'll be in first class with you. And then we'll have the oxygen thing. We'll we'll yeah, you won't be able to eat or drink anything while we're on the plane.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

So just put the red wrap around you, around the whole chair, and just poke a cut. Oxygen, you don't need holes.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Yeah, she doesn't need holes. I really, though, I want to be taken out of that plane like Hannibal Lecter was when they took him to prison and they had him on that. What do you call those? It's like a refrigerator. It's like a dolly.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Dolly, yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

I want to be off coming off the plane straight jacket with one of them masks that have the bars over the teeth so I can't bite anybody. You know? Yes. Oh my gosh. I don't know why my camera just got so blurry. But anyway, we are at our end of time anyway. We'll try to be really, really good about it too. We really are, so we don't go over time for everybody out there. We are sorry. We've talked all day. We've been there. Yeah, we've been we do talk all day. We'll just talk on the yeah, we do. We will just uh gather here next Friday and chit-chat a little more.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Well, honestly, if you guys know us, we chat every day, so but we get to chat with you guys, our podcast viewers, and we just want to say, like, we super appreciate you. This is super fun for us. Um you're gonna be seeing more of a social media presence from us for the actual like podcast. So we really want we want to hear from you guys. Like, we wanna if you want to be on the podcast, let us know. We are always game for hearing somebody other than the three of us because as much as we love each other, we want to hear from you guys too.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Amen to that.

SPEAKER_04 30:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Okay, girls. Well, I love you guys. I'll see you next weekend. See you next weekend. Bye. And that's a wrap on this episode of Hair It First. Thanks for hanging out with us. We hope you laughed, learned, and maybe felt a little more seen through all of the good hair days and the hot mess ones too.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Remember, we're just sharing our own thoughts and experiences. No medical claims or professional advice here. Just real talk from stylists and moms who get it.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Don't forget to follow, subscribe, and share hair at first with your fellow beauty lovers and boss moms. We will catch you next time with more stories, laughs, and probably a little conditioner in our hair.