Fergie, Bear, and Fermenting the Good Stuff

Before the science, the sentimentality: Michelle and Monica open up about the stuffed animals that survived childhood (and the ones that didn't, RIP Tessa's E.T. doll). Then the conversation turns to what actually matters for your hair — why FermaGlo's plant-derived polyquats and fermentation-assisted ingredients work with your hair instead of coating it in plastic like so many "clean" products do. Expect scalp-treatment horror stories, chlorine-green hair confessions, boric acid nostalgia, and a passionate case for letting seven-year-olds just be seven-year-olds. Warm, funny, and genuinely informative — classic Hair It Ferst.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_04 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. Have a job. Freestylists, moms, besties. We're keeping it real about beauty, business, and the chaos of motherhood.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

We're here to share stories, laugh 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_01 0:32

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

SPEAKER_04 0:40

Hello and good morning. Welcome back to Hair It First. You have Michelle Brocky, Monica McCafferty, and Tessa Mel. Glad you are joining us today. If you are a continue or a um, oh my gosh. Okay, we're gonna start it out like this this morning where I have no words. If you have visited us before, thank you for coming back. And if you are new here, thanks for joining. You're gonna love it. Hold on, you never know what we're gonna talk about. Although today I'm excited because we are going to talk a little bit about Fermaglow and some of the amazing ingredients that we have in it. So, how are you, girls?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Doing good, busy weekend. Yeah, momming hard. I'm momming hard.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

Yep. It was a very busy weekend. Very, very so you'll have to re you'll have to forgive all of us. We're a little bit um exhausted and meant mentally, I don't even know right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

So I don't know how it's all fitting in my brain, like keeping everything straight. I'm just hanging on by a thread. And I feel, you know, a lot of parents feel that, not just moms, you know, dads feel it too. It's it's just the way of the world now, you know. Yeah, get everything done and correctly. Kids moving home and you have no space for them. So everywhere I look, there's stuff.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

And the grocery bill just went up $200 a week.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

And gosh.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

I love them here though. I love that's the thing. I love them home. I I freaking love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

So I could take it all. It does your mom her good to have them home, but you're also like, oh my gosh, like there's so much stuff everywhere. Like we're getting now. I feel like dinner every night. Yeah. We're getting back into like our kids start school um in like a week and a half, two weeks, something like that. So, like, we did the back to school shopping, and we've done the, you know, try now, you know, when we get done shooting today. I have two kids that are getting three kids that are getting ready to have birthdays. Well, you know what that means. How about it? More more stuff is gonna enter my house. So for more things to enter my house, things have to leave this house. So that is gonna be my afternoon. Um, but I will say, my kids are really, really good. Um, I always tell them, you know, I want you to take this laundry basket and I want you to fill it up with things that you no longer want or use or things like that. So, and then they donate it.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

They donate it to the to little boys and girls that don't have those toys. So it's it is nice. They are they are giving, but I'm in a y'all got y'all are gonna be with me on this. You know, when you get in those throwaway spurts, I'm there.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Oh, we did it this weekend. This is the funniest thing. So, Berlin, Fergie was a rattle that was a frog, right? And you'd put it on um the carrier, the what's it called? The car seat, right? And you could pull it down and go all the way up. Well, I cut that part off, and it so it was a rattle that just kind of laid next door, and then she had a white bear. She still has Fergie. Fergie is very soothing to her. Fergie, I mean, she's 20, so you can imagine Fergie has been stoned and she won't let me wash it because it changes the smell. But I found this bear when we were cleaning out that room that we call it the pot room, which is not the pot room, but just whatever. Funny story. So it's in our basement, right? And it's this long, skinny room that had a door on it and it had a lock on the top of the door. And I'm like, what? Either you're hiding children or you're growing pot. That's so what we just call it the pot room. So it's kind of funny. So we that and it just ended up being a catch-all. So we are putting new flooring down in our basement, and they started there to see if they could, you know, if they messed up, it would be okay because it was in the pot room. So um, you know, we're cleaning stuff out and I'm going through all this stuff, like I'm ready to purge. You know, this can go to goodwill. This is thrown away, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm going through and I find bear. And I was like, she does not want to get rid of bear. And I mean, bear is hanging by a thread too. He's now no longer white, whatever. Well, it's funny because I had bear sitting on the chair in my bedroom, and she walked in my room like two days ago. She's like, Bear, where did you get this? And I was like, out of the pot room. We threw a lot of stuff away, and I didn't think you'd want me to throw this away. She goes, What did you throw away? I had stuff in a corner that I didn't want to throw away.

unknown 5:50

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

I said, Well, I saved your Chromebook. She still has a Chromebook from high school. I'm like, I sis, take care of your stuff and it won't get tossed.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Living, yeah. It must be a generation thing because, like, I had a levy. My kids have levies. My, she was Jessie. It was literally, it's a bear like this big. She's got red and white polka dots, and she has a shirt on that's got hearts on it. Her ear is smushed because I used to chew on that ear. Oh, you did. And let me tell you, that bear, and it's embarrassing to say this, I have had four children. And for three out of my four children, she was there.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

That's sweet.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

The only reason she wasn't there with number four was because it was a C-section. But yes, so don't get rid of her bear.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

I did not. I did not.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

And you can wash it because they do change the spell, and it's just not the same.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

I had some major trauma over mine. It was an ET doll, and I loved that doll. I loved my ET so much. And my mom had to duct tape because it was like a you know, beanbag kind of filling thing. Duct tape its stomach, duct tape it, tape its arms back on. It was a type of material you could just not. So this poor thing was just duct tape on the just like that. And we were getting rid of things, and my mom had a big black trash bag full of stuffed animals that she sold for a quarter. And guess who was in there? You'll see me throw it on Facebook once a year when my memories come up. Because I'm there, I still am a forgiver. I'm probably not going to. Okay, so can I tell you?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Your town is so small. Couldn't you find it? Couldn't you just put it out there? Your town is so small. If it was sold in a garage sale, couldn't somebody like, I'm looking for my bear. This was years ago. We didn't have Facebook when it happened. You never know. I think that would be a cool thing for you to do now.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

If I found it, oh I know. Love it. I could heal decide. This is why I've been a freaking wreck. This is why I've been a freaking wreck, mom.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Okay, so I have to I have to say something. And y'all can't come through the screen. Go on to. I've never seen E.T. Okay. Go on.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

You need to watch it with your kids tonight. You need to watch it with your kids. It's so good.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

And you know how like that new series is called Little House on the berry? Yeah, I watched it. I haven't seen the old one. Like my friends are like, oh my gosh, it's so nostalgic. And I'm like, well, it's not nostalgic for me because I didn't watch it the first time.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

That was my favorite show growing up, and my dad used to call it Little House in the Woods just to make me cry. I'm like, I slipped.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

Little House in the Woods. I mean, any kid that was a complete jerk growing up when we were younger got called Nellie Olson. Oh, Nelly.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

And that means those pigtails. Yeah. Because I don't. I guess I'm just gonna have to watch it. And I guess I'll have to watch E.T. Monica.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

Have you seen like steel magnolias and dirty dancing and all those?

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I've seen those. Nobody puts baby in a corner. And I have watched steel magnolias. And thanks to Michelle and Dallas, I have seen now Fried Green Tomatoes. Yes. Okay, well, you're getting there, but you have to watch E.T.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

And you've seen The Lost Boys and things like that, right? Stand by Lost Boys scared me.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

That scared me a lot.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Don't watch that one with Stand By Me.

unknown 9:31

What?

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Okay, we need a weekend in the winter. We all need to get together and just make a and we are just gonna binge watch these shows and eat lots of junk food.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

I think winter time. I don't know if we'll even be able to travel because of the weather. We'll come to your house. We'll have a slumber party. Okay, we can skate here. One time one of my friends got hurt. Well, this was last year or the year before. Her uh her car was stuck here for um a whole week because it couldn't get up our driveway.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

I can promise you we're not coming there.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

I would as long as I don't have to go outside.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

That is no painting time. Sounds fun to me.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

Snow up. It is too it is so fun because we are locked inside. Adam still has to somehow find his way to work, and then he comes home and I'm in wigs with my karaoke machine at the kitchen table with whoever's stuck here.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Oh, Jennifer McKay sending that to you. And the whole outside of that envelope. Holy smokes!

SPEAKER_03 10:36

I love that girl. Okay, if you are listening, thank you. Yes, how cute. Here's the front of it. Look at that.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Oh my god, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

What was it? Isn't that so sweet? She said, I love to send happy milk. She sent me an Alpha Gal cookbook. Yeah. How do you already have so many things picked out to make and the sweetest little note in it?

SPEAKER_01 11:06

I love her. Sweetest.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

But a little saucy too, and I love that. Love Jen.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

It's fantastic. And you know, we need to get her on this. That is the cool thing about Fermiglov. Like the the people that like we get to meet that we would have never, we would have never met. Yes. I like see him and I'm like, God, I love that person. I mean, of course we got we got each other out of it. And that alone in itself is more than I could have ever asked for. But like there are so many, so many amazing people that we got to meet.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Look, I just made a note that Jen McKay on the podcast. I listen, I have to write down every single thing. I know me too. My phone goes off all day long with alarms.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Okay, at least you have alarms. I have this next to me. This is this is what I have to go through today. Ooh, what's that? Um stuff I'm trying to get ready for different things going on at the head spa. Client intake forms for the head spa I have to organize because I was slammed last week, which is great. I cannot complain. Um but I kind of just like threw all my intake forms and was like, I'll just organize these later.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I put everything in my notes. So, like, if you're watching, I mean these are my notes. Do you think I ever go back to them? No. Just like pictures. Okay, so my computer, when I say my computer crashed, it wouldn't upload the new Chrome or do the update, right? I spent seven hours with Apple and AI trying to, I deleted over 500 videos because my iPhone sinks. Well, all those screenshots, everything you do goes right to your computer and uses up all your so well, okay. So seven hours. So I finally take it in to Best Buy and I'm like, I guess I need a new computer. And I'm like, this is the funniest thing. He I said, Do you guys like do trade-ins? I read something about that. He looked at me. The guy was wonderful, by the way. He goes, I could tell his brain was like, How do I say this nice? And he just looked at me, he's like, Well, I mean, this is pretty old, and it's a little beat up, so they're not gonna give you anything for it.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

There you go, bringing in old stuff. Yeah, yeah, oldie. Yeah, oldie.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

So oldie been a goodie.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

It got me through. Okay. Let's get down to business. Okay. I'm not singing.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

That was that was my that was my input into the singing with Tessa.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Oh dear, she's got her microphone.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

It's always right by me. Always, always, always. Never, I never not have don't have it.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Well, since we are talking Fermaglow, I feel like, and you know, Michelle and I are not as ingredient nerdy as our wonderful Tessa. So when people look at our bottles and they look at our ingredients, there are like some of these ingredients can be plant-derived and some of these can be synthetic. Tessa, can you talk to us a little bit about those ingredients? So that way when people look at our ingredient list, they, you know, say, well, this is a synthetic ingredient. Like, what is what is it?

SPEAKER_04 14:53

So we absolutely do have ingredients in there that also can be synthetic. And and you're right, people look at it and they're like, No. Instead of researching or asking, it literally, there are so many that can be plant-derived or synthetic. Um, our sodium C1416 are um and I hate this word, soteryl alcohol, because I never say it right. So if I said that wrong, um, our these are the biggest words. I'm just our hydrexacellos. I'm gonna go on to that one. Um, our phenonexol, our emulsifiers, our polyquaternums. Um, we have three of those in there. We have the seven, the ten, and the fifty-three. And that is one people will see and be like, no, I polyquads are bad. Well, they're not all bad. Ours are plant derived. Um there are and if they're not plant-derived, yeah, they are bad. That's where you're getting all of your plastics and your silicones and all of your the crap that's smothering your scalp to death, um, causing the hair loss and and all of that fun stuff. Um our our C6 or our S1614 1416. You guys, it's Monday morning. I can't talk. It's all from plant oils. It's not from petroleum. Most of the time, these ingredients that we're listing off are from petroleum or petroleum-based um ingredients. Ours are not, they are all plant oils or um plant cellulose, plant sugars, things like that, and broken down.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Uh what is cellulose? What is for people? I mean, I don't know what that is, so I'm sure some people don't.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

It's like a gum almost. So, um, okay, let's say you popped open a leaf or a a good stalk of a plant. And let's, you know, we're seeing all the the stuff. That's that's what our cellulose comes from in a plant. The cellulose from the um petroleum is it's basically how can I say this? Um manufactured from a mixture of the plastics, the silicones, the it's it's um all the nastiness that you're gonna get from all these other harsh ingredients. That's what how they form their cellulose. It is not a um a natural cellulose. Natural cellulose completely different. But all of ours are. All of ours are plant derived in one way or the other. You know, whether we're breaking down the sugars in a plant, whether we're breaking down the oils, whether we're breaking down the the gums or the or whatever they are, all plant derived. So yeah, that is a very common um the DMA or D-A-D-M-A-C, the DADMAC. I like to call it the DADMAC. That's something people see in products that absolutely scares them. We do have that in ours, but it's not um, it's not harsh. That's another plastic-like coating that people see on their strands or fill on their strands or see in the bottles. Um ours is definitely not. Ours are um plant-based, plant-assisted, fermentation assisted um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

So the Dad Mac and the polyquats are in in other products would be more like the plasticky, buildup-y type of thing. And that I feel like is what people hear of the most when they think of like plastics and stuff. So ours is broke down and it's fermented, and it's made with the natural forms of stuff. Like, so you still get the same like slip that you would get with that people are feeling with the plastics, except ours is coating. Or ours isn't coating, ours is penetrating and actually fixing it from the inside.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

Yes, yes, very much so. Okay, yeah. A lot of the um ours is like I don't have words. A lot of the the poly or polyquats um that you see in other things, they are literally put together in a factory manufactured through a bunch of harsh crap. So when people do see polyquats on your bottles, they're like, oh my gosh, no, I've heard about these. These are awful, they're harsh, they're blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So a lot of times that will be a turnoff when somebody sees it.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah. Ask questions. If you're listening to this, obviously you're learning. And that's why we wanted to talk about it. Because for somebody like me, I'm not an ingredient nerd. I have Tessa in my back pocket. So um I trust her. So I I'm not I do though. Um, you know, I'm on the far end of crunchy, like from a lot of people that are using Fermaglob or that are interested in Fermagloba. So for me, I am learning so much. However, I had major issues with my hair and major issues with my scalp. My clients were having issues with their scalp and their hair. That's what led me down this road. So, you know, I'm learning right along with everybody else. And it's very, very eye-opening. Um, I've tried a lot of clean, aka clean products and they just don't work. And so that's when I found Fermaglow, I was like, all in.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

So you know, and so putting clean products that we would try to use behind the chair, a lot of times they will not work with your color and bleaches and all of that. Well, that's because they're they're not truly clean, they still have those harsh stripping um ingredients in them, and they're still putting that coating on, and it's not able to penetrate in. And and you know, when it's not penetrated in, and then you're washing your hair, of course, it's gonna fade and fade and fade and fade or or get brassy and yellow and gross and and something just popped into my head.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Um I have a client that I I don't think I can say what it is, but she goes to her doctor and gets a product that she puts on her scalp for hair loss. And, you know, I've talked to her about all of this, and she just, she was a doctor. She's retired. So, you know, she's very into that field. However, this is what brought this memory back when you're talking about how it doesn't work with us, her highlights turn fluorescent green every single time I highlight her hair. And I'm like, you cannot use this. I told her two weeks. She said, Well, I didn't use it for a week. How can it still be in my hair? I'm like, it's penetrating into your hair and on your scalp. Like, if it is turn, if my highlights are turning fluorescent green on your hair, what is it doing to your body? Like, I can't. It's frustrating to try and get people to understand. Like, this is a chemical reaction happening on your hair because of what you are putting on it.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Yes. Yes. Okay. Just like somebody's hair smoking.

unknown 22:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

There's a there's a reason for that. Yeah. Whoa, and the chlorine in the summer. Oh, baby. Yep. And then, and then they go get these other products. People go get products that say I'm it's it removes the chlorine, it removes the green. Do this, put this in your hair. Ooh. It's so bad. Think about that. Just think about what is removing that from you guys' hair. And it's really not because all it's doing is adding more crap into your hair. It's just awful. All the metals. All oh, it's it's so bad. And it's shoving it in there. It's it's sealing it in there, is what it's doing. It's selling your strands. But you trap that chlorine and all that stuff into your strands. Of course you're gonna get the breakage. Of course you're gonna get dry hair. You're gonna get all of that. It's you know how many kids start school with green hair?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Oh my gosh, so many in our area. So many.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Oh my gosh. I was just doing uh one of my younger clients the other day, and I'm like, oh, your hair is so green. Let me uh get it.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Do you know what we used to use before we would um no boric acid and hair cleansing cream?

SPEAKER_04 24:10

Honey, that was back when when I was 21. I've I've used ketchup before too, but yeah, the boric acid. Remember the sun in? Oh god, yes. I actually had a client ask me the other day. Sorry if you're listening, but not sorry, because we already had this conversation in the salon, but her daughter um is wanting her hair lightened. She's seven. I said, I will not lighten your I will not lighten her hair. The the chemistry uh does not mix with you know hair that is that young and and girls just go outside. It lightens by itself. Well, do they still make sun in? Because I'm thinking about getting her some of that, and I was like, okay. I didn't hear you say that.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

Girl, it's coming back. It is coming back. My Courtney, her 16, 17-year-old friends are like, just throw sun in. Let's just do some sun in. Courtney's like, my mom will kill me if I put any. At least she knows. Like she like at least she knows. Like, that's at least a good thing. And all my kids are like that. They're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't know. We're not doing that. My mom won't let me. But uh well, this is a good idea. I don't know. I do if if you are gonna do that, just use straight lemon. Right? Come on. Yes, it's just natural, it's not good to do, but if you're gonna do it anyway, don't put don't put anything else on it, especially on your younger kids' hair.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

You guys they have to have this hair for the rest of their lives.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

And what are you starting at seven? Like, let her feel beautiful and not not necessarily your client. Like, I'm not knocking your client at all.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

But I just feel like in society, like we're made to grow up fast, let them be little.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Yeah. Let them be little and let them not worry about themselves. Like, honey, you're beautiful. And you know she's got dementia in her hair. There's no way she doesn't at seven. There's no way possible she doesn't, because that's what all of us want is that seven-year-old hair that of the child that's been in the sun all summer. Like, that's what we strive for. Gorgeous. Yeah, I can imagine. Gorgeous.

unknown 26:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Yeah. Okay, this was great.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

This was fun. I'm sorry that I stumbled all over my words today, guys, and um sounded like a psychopath. I do apologize. It is Monday morning, and um, you know, Mondays are Mondays. Mondays, Mondays. Mondays are Monday. Monday. Monday, Monday. Monica probably don't even know that song. Do you know who sings that song?

SPEAKER_02 26:51

No, I don't know who sings it, but I've heard it before. You know, y'all are definitely judgy today, alright?

SPEAKER_01 26:58

We are.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

I'm just gonna call you your honor because you're judging.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

Because you have never seen E.T., and that's very upsetting. You know, I don't got time for y'all. Family movie night tonight. Make some popcorn on the stove and watch E.T. I might do that, actually. We might do that.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

You should. They'll love it.

SPEAKER_04 27:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

E.T.

unknown 27:21

Phone!

SPEAKER_02 27:22

My kids need a little bit of mom time.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

Yes.

unknown 27:27

All right.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Drew Barrymore.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

Well, I oh I know I'm too so little.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

All right, I love you freaks. Love you.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Love you too. And we'll see you guys next week. Thanks for joining. Thanks for joining. Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

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 the good hair days and the hot mess ones too.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

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_01 28:02

Don't forget to follow, subscribe, and share Hair It 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.