Better Hair Begins With Better Water Ft. Culligan & Bridgette Hill

0:04Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. Today is a really special episode because we're going to be talking about everything related to scalp health and just the journey that we all take with skin and skin. With that said, I'd love to introduce you guys to our guest today, who is truly an expert in the area. She is a renowned trichologist, Bridget Hill. Welcome, Bridget. I'm so excited to host you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So I'm really excited, Bridget, to dive into your background. You have quite an impressive career. I'd love to learn more about what got you into trichology and if you could share that with us and walk us down memory lane.

0:54Yeah, absolutely. So in my career beginning as an editorial colorist, I dealt with a lot of models who had to transition between different just hair colors for different brands or different projects they were on. And, you know, 20 years ago, just the science of color technology was nothing where it is now. So a lot of the chemicals were really harsh. You weren't really incorporating oil based aspects into developers and peroxides the way that technology has expanded over the years. So maintaining the quality of the hair fiber was something really important for me. And so in my process of making a lot of transitions from just an aesthetic standpoint with color, I began protecting hair fibers in different ways.

1:36So that started my understanding with just hair fiber is a total different conversation than what's happening at scalp. The scalp situation became more obvious to me in doing high process colors for sure with high lips bleach, just seeing some of the results of the discomfort that clients would experience. Redness, flakiness and clients sometimes really being allergic to those ingredients and not really understanding or having a way to explain to them what they're experiencing. That allowed me to look into brands that dealt with more holistic approach to scalp, which introduced me to Renee Froderer.

2:12And in that time, I began to understand the importance of the hair follicle, followed by my own personal experience of being diagnosed with a genetic scalp condition that contributed to hair loss. Oh, wow. Yeah, I know. It's really interesting, though, that, you know, there's so much disconnect, because for so long, we've been focusing on the like the actual strand, you know, like the strand of hair. And I remember when I was growing up, that's all anybody ever marketed. It's all we heard about in the media, you know, was how to get shiny your hair, you know, like that kind of thing. It was never about, like, let's really talk about the health and what what your health means for your scalp, your hair, like everything, right?

2:56this holistic approach. So I want to kind of dive into that with you because I think it's important to break it down. Can you tell us a little bit about what your take is on truly what scalp health means? Right. So the first thing is there is no such thing as hair health. That's an oxymoron. Hair fiber is literally a fabric. It's not a living organism. So there's nothing in about a hair that can be healthy. I think just approaching that conversation of making that distinguish that hair is literally a fabric. It's no different than the clothes, the shoes, the things that we, our furniture, we need to look at it more from a dry cleaning fabric, maintaining hair fiber quality.

3:36Health is about the scalp and health with hair is about that hair follicle. So the hair follicle, which produces the beautiful fabric of our hair is housed in the scalp. And the first thing to remember is that, you know, the scalp was never studied. It was so understudied for so many years because it's not a vital organ and not necessary from a body and cellular level for our bodies and our vital organs to thrive. Over time, I believe what has happened is that as life has changed, as we begin to manipulate and start to play around with products for our hair fiber, you know, think about blow drying, air drying, heat styling, all of these things, the deterioration of the hair fiber is going to actually impact just how our scalps are going to function from a just external.

4:25Again, I'm going back to that idea of why scalp, right? No one, no one talked about it. No one understood it because there was really no real value from a marketing standpoint because the hair is just known. It covers the scalp, right? So it's that that's the protection and really the hair follicle people really, it was just confusing because we of 100 ,000 of them. Each one of them can have their own DNA, RNA. And science really wasn't putting the thought behind scalp health from a genuine just curiosity. And the beauty industry definitely was not thinking about that. As I said, I think the advancement and how we begin to manipulate the hair fiber with extensions, heat, coloring, just getting so creative with ways to express hair through the hair fiber, through art and performance, it is going to negatively impact the scalp.

5:14And those are the things that we, I believe were happening and we were seeing. And then it became, how do we solve this? Another need, another issue to solve. And once had the, I think what really brought things to the forefront, ironically was the pandemic and the pandemic forced all of us just to change our lifestyle and routines with how we managed our hair fibers. Some of us lacks back of not doing as much heat styling. We definitely weren't going to salons and getting blow dries and maintaining our color. And as that was happening, the hair fiber was getting a break. The introduction to this pandemic and this global virus that was really changing our DNA and our cellular structure, where people were experiencing extreme hair loss, it was just so obvious.

5:56And it was such a global phenomenon that the conversation and people were open to beginning to understand and dive deep into the science. Most people don't like science when it comes to beauty, right? We want the vacation. And unfortunately, it is not that simplistic. And I'm excited because I think we have the bandwidth to go deeper to understand scalp as a structure that holds the organ, that hair follicle. So it allows for us to have that deeper conversation. Science and pharma have jumped in. There's so much research and so much money that's going into understanding the connection between just overall scalp health and overall body wellness.

6:39Right. No, I really resonate with everything you said. I think it's so on point because very, very rarely, even now, do you hear people talking about how the hair is actually dead, you know, like all the styling and whatever we're doing, it's done. That's why you get damage is because it's not renewing itself, you know? So like, I mean, it's a really interesting conversation because I think it's become so complicated, overcomplicated over the years right because because of the marketing because of you know people need to sell products and they need to you know all these things so now it feels like okay everyone's discussing scalp health and this is so novel but really if you look at you know civilizations in the in historical in the historical context I mean people have always know that the scalp is where you need to be concentrated you know it's just a matter of bringing that to the limelight in a way that like you I mean you said it beautifully that people don't care about the science because they want instant results well those are instant results you know when you focus on your scalp in my opinion you know like I mean how many people do you know that suffer from things like dandruff but then you see their hair and it's like always nice you know like they've always been styled and you know it's kind of crazy you know to think of like that.

7:57Now, I'd love to, you know, talk to you a little bit about this whole thing about the things that impact our actual scalp health or health overall and what contributes to, you know, the pathologies that we do commonly see. I want to discuss hard water with you for sure. It's a big topic. But what are some of the things you've noticed is like the big, big things that have really impacted or do impact people on an everyday level when it comes to just, you know, having a healthier scalp? So the things that's such a great just way to approach it is it's multifactorial. So I'm going to focus on the things that we know we can control, right?

8:33There are so many uncontrollable things that impact scalp health, genetics, any type of illness or any type of inflammation in the body is going to impact scalp health. There is a direct connection between gut and scalp. There is a direct connection between medications and scalp. There's a direct connection to anything that goes into your body and scalp. And that does get confusing and overwhelming because people like, oh, that's everything. Yeah, it is. And however, the science is there to help guide us on those things that we can control. So the hard water is one of those things that we talk about because water is the basis of almost every beauty product that we use.

9:14And so we think about those products that are being made. Well, when you're formulating any type of product, the water quality in that product is controlled. Anytime there's clinical studies that are done with any product that we purchase, those water qualities are controlled in their environments as they're doing their testing. And so when we talk about just not to making a connection of what are we doing, putting in ourselves internally, externally, water is the source of all those things. whenever we're talking about any type of beauty and then just any internal wellness. It's something that goes overlooked and not really talked about because we take those things for granted, even though we take showers on a daily basis and we may see buildup in our bathrooms.

10:00We see buildup on some of our shower heads and we have these impurities and all of these unwanted substances that pollute our water stream. So when we focus in on those things that we can control, like the water, and we recognize that any product that we purchase has had a controlled water source that has been measured by pH, you know, the alkalinity of the water, all those things are so essential. It then allows us to go and to recognize what can we control from a consumer point of view that's not DNA related, that's not genetic related to help us recognize what some of those multifactorial causes will be that aren't necessarily health or internal related.

10:47And I do believe the overuse and underuse of products, the improper mixing of certain ingredients and products that disrupt the skin barrier on the scalp. So much of those things are in the products that we use. And we probably have more allergic reactions and don't have the defenses on our microbiome of our scalp and the way that the body is designed to do because our lifestyles are just so different. And again, with beauty products, the formulation of those things are not necessarily always taken into consideration, the scalp microbiome. They're taken into consideration of the performance of the aesthetic of the hair fiber.

11:29Absolutely. No, I think that it's very interesting what you've brought up here, which is the ingredients of the products themselves and the water inside of those products. That's something that's never discussed. I mean, that's a very, very unique perspective. And I, you know, I think that there's a lot of validity there because, you know, we don't ever think about that. We don't think about we I mean, we focus on ingredients. Yeah. With products, you know, people love tearing ingredient lists apart and saying, you know, no parabens, no phthalates, no blah, blah, blah. But it's just it's so much more than that.

12:02And I think that, you know, the whole industry, the whole hair care, hair health industry, whatever it is, you know, it needs to be more transparent. right about like what do ingredients really do what purpose do they serve like I mean when I'm looking at something like a shampoo I understand that a shampoo is supposed to you know allow for the cleansing of that scalp right that's the main purpose that it serves is is going to help me rinse you know away the impurities that have built up you know over time and that's the whole idea but then you have about 30 other ingredients in there which is maybe related to texture or like you know whatever it might be there's a hyper focus on ingredients like skincare I talk a lot about skincare and with skincare ingredients everyone's like yeah well what's this and what's this you know but no one does that with hair and I just always wonder why I mean there was a when I first started this podcast I think I had an interview and at the time I was speaking to dermatologists and I brought this up I was like you know why doesn't any dermatologist educate about, you know, how hair care products are causing acne breakouts and how they're causing scalp breakouts.

13:12That's another thing. People actually break out on their scalp and no one talks about it, you know? And so it all links back to these products and what we're putting on our hair and what we're exposing it to. No, for sure. And I think one of the exciting parts with, you know, collaborating with a brand like Culligan is, again, going to trichology, It is full body, right? Every single aspect of our lives, emotionally, physically, genetically, cell, blood, tissue, have some form of water in it. You know, our bodies are majority water. So when you get to have a true water conversation and make a connection of how much water is integrated into not only in your physical being, but then externally of everything we do with cleansing and taking care of nurturing ritualistic aspects, all have to do with some type of water.

14:03So the quality of water, even if you have high ingredients, if you're using and rinsing with water that is contaminated or full of leads or has, you know, chlorine, magnesium, all of these buildups, you're counteracting the effectiveness of your product. So your product isn't even getting the actives or getting the benefits because we're then re-contaminating that and re-contaminating the surface of your fiber or your scalp, which again, the scalp has a very low skin barrier in comparison to our skin on our face. So it's highly susceptible to being disrupted with unwanted bacterias with buildup from water sources.

14:47So when you can control that through a softener program with all the waters that you use, not only for cooking and cleaning, but also incorporating that into how you brush your teeth, shampoo your hair, you know, condition, rinse, all of those things make a huge difference over time. And I think as we continue to do more clinicals and more data and research is collected as they are discovering and truly putting the science and the money behind clinicals, the water source is going to be is a true contributing factor. Just as a hair colorist, you know, sometimes people want to highlight or color their hair, but the calcium buildup, the magnesium buildup says on their hair fiber can create a barrier for getting really pretty hair color.

15:33the dryness of someone's hair is the same way so it's not just even the health aspect it's also the performative aesthetic aspect you see an improvement across the board when there are systems in play and the overall approach to what your water sources are yeah no that's a really good point I think especially for you know when we're talking like on in the scope of like international level like I know a lot of people love to travel I mean we're always moving around I think that's just human nature and we don't really think about, especially if you're, you know, you're traveling to another country, like what's coming out of that showerhead, you know, like the water quality is so, so crucial.

16:13It's very central to a lot of different things. Hair is one of them, but then also with skin, it's the same way. I guess, you know, one of my biggest questions for you is like, what are some ways that we can really have like a preventative approach to this? Because I think that's really key to be able to like kind of equip ourselves with the tools we need to make sure that we're not being exposed to things that can be avoided. Right. So the first, again, that water source, water softeners, adding true water softener, like a Culligan treatment system into your higher home is going to make, it's going to take away one of those factors that you don't have to think about.

16:49Because again, scalp and hair, and I'm going to be so repetitive on this, is it is multifactorial. There is not just one thing. And so that can be frustrating and people want to be like, well, this is just, how am I, this is something else to worry about? And it's like, well, let's remove that and aligning just the sources of things that run into our home that supply both our nutrition and our external cleansing and hygienic habits. If we can make that a non-issue, you're going to see an immediate difference in the way that your shampoos lather. You're going to feel an immediate difference on just your overall skin and body, even your food qualities.

17:25those things are reality you know with their nine in ten people that have always seen an improvement of just any of all the water sources when they have come into and used installing water softeners into their home and you know when after also instilling water softeners you seem to see a difference in just the hair fiber performance I think that's something that people don't think about we're always looking for a product to solve that and sometimes it is just removing it's more removing and getting the right sources of things to make the difference, not so much just a product. So I think part of the conversation needs to be going in a direction of before we think about solving a problem, what are some contributing factors, again, that are those controllable aspects?

18:10The other thing that I don't think we think about sometimes is a lot of the processes from like a lot of the processes that people use or that the states or our cities use and just purifying the water are so drying and harsh. So the skin is always in a fight syndrome. You know, it's always trying to just heal itself. And we always think of water as a nourishing aspect. So that psychology of trying to get the purest cleansing water source is going to be beneficial to every aspect of skin, scalp, hair fiber, and hair performance and product performance as well. Yeah, makes sense. No, that makes a lot of sense.

18:52Now, in terms of products, like, is there something we can be using that can help mitigate some of these undesired outcomes from being exposed to hard water? Or I know you mentioned the softener, but like, have you seen any, you know, any specific cases where someone, you know, bought a certain type of product that helped them kind of get rid of the buildup on their their strands or their scalp, like anything that they were able to actually purchase? Absolutely. So the first thing to understand is what type of scalp condition are you managing? I think one of the things is when we immediately see flakes, people think it's dandruff and that's not all the way true.

19:28It could just be dehydrated or dry scalp. So it's identifying what's dandruff versus dry scalp and dehydrated scalp. And then the other aspect of that is if you are using a product because you see flakes for dandruff, but it's dry scalp, you're completely disrupting your microbiome because dandruff is an overproduction of yeast and malicexia and fungus on the scalp, which also is exacerbated by hard water. So when you are looking for identifying the source of what you're trying to resolve, right? So there are many rinses, there's scalp serums, there are scalp pre-treatment scalp exfoliators that I love oil and cream based ones that help to restore the balance of the microbiome without stripping or disrupting it.

20:16It also allows for cellular turnover. We are so saturated with so many things on the market, but they are great tools when aligned with the right condition. So it is getting with a professional just to identify first what that right condition is. I think that is an issue that goes overlooked is integrating the wrong product to treat a scalp or hair condition that you don't even have. So first is identifying what scalp condition you're treating. If you feel like you just are looking for a general scalp improvement, there are also lots of just, they're like, I like to call them as like vitamin boosters, right?

20:55Sometimes they'll be promoted as hair growth or hair loss. Think of them as vitamins for the scalp. Even if you have no extreme condition where you're excessively losing hair, scalp serums are just that added boost. Again, the scalp is understudied. The scalp gets underlooked. So we're able to integrate just some of those scalp serums that are formulated to maintain the scalp microbiome. Those are going to be game changers in the preservation of the hair follicle and leading to a higher quality of hair fiber production. That makes sense. Yeah, no, I think that, you know, we really do need to systematically think about this stuff because at the end of the day, you know, as many products as we can like buy, most of them we don't need.

21:40And I love what you said about dandruff. I think that is such an important, important piece because we do think every type of flaking is dandruff. I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever said like, oh yeah, you know, I have flakes. This, this is something else. This is not dandruff. I've never seen that, you know? So it's like, I think our minds just always go to like, well, this is what we've seen. And so this is what we expect. And you know that, but it's not the case. Everyone's different. And I think that's really case in point, right? Because it shows you how undereducated we are as consumers about what are the different things that can happen to our scalp?

22:13You know, what are the different ways this something like dehydration can manifest for different people? I mean, people who have oily scalps, is it going to look the same for them as it is for somebody who's kind of on the drier side? No, it's going to be totally different. So I think these are all conversations that need to be had. And also the education needs to be there, I think, you know, and I really do put that responsibility on the hair care industry, because I think it's important for us to get behind products and brands that are wanting to educate about this stuff, you know what I mean?

22:43Like they want to pour their resources into educating the public and their consumers about this is what you need to know. And you know, that's, that kind of leads me to my next question for you is this idea of like, you know, holistic health is on the rise right now. I see it all the time, even in my own work, translational medicine, holistic medicine. And when I think about scalp care and everything we've talked about here, it really makes me think about all the different people that can be involved, whether that's dermatologists, whether that's trichologists like yourself, hairdressers and hairstylists.

23:15What is your opinion about having this more collaborative approach to education around this topic? It's exactly why I'm a trichologist, because trichologists relies on, it's a paramedical science. It's designed to work alongside dermatologists, cosmetologists, endocrinologists, doctors. It is when the medical environment is going to open up to have respect for the trichologists and the cosmetologists to see there's so much synergy in how we are going to help solve people's concerns because there are scalp conditions that are medically induced that I, as a trichologist, don't have the wherewithal or the medical advice to guide them.

23:56But as a trichologist who comes from a salon background with trichology theory, we are the first line of defense. We see for blow dries, we're at the shampoo bowl for coloring services, the exposure to the scalp. That's the other thing is doctors, dermatologists, hair and scalp is not their primary window. Even those that go to specialize in it, that has been something they've discovered over the course of their careers, right? It's not something that people initially go, it's not something that's just thought about when you think about dermatology. So it is so essential as we are going into this 21st century, how I see it, it is going to allow us to bring the cosmeceutical side, which is the performance of the hair fibers.

24:42What immediately gets anyone going to a doctor is it's not that their scalp is looking a certain way for the most part. It's that my hair is being impacted. It's typically my hair is falling out or my hair is brittle or my hair is dry. So reframing the conversation to that holistic approach with hair is just a by-product of your overall health. That is the bottom line. And with that, we can't ignore how the relationship between understanding what's happening to you internally and on your your body, your medical, your lifestyle, and then the external aspect of just the daily maintenance of your hair and your weekly routines of your hair care with your hairstylist, with combined with your doctor, if you have any other, you know, deeper illnesses like managing for God forsake, you know, like cancer or thyroid issues or any type of hormonal concerns, all of those things need to be communicated so that as practitioners, we're able to align the client with the right medical need if needed, along with the right cosmetology approach to maintain and mitigate.

25:52The goal is to maintain a healthy microbiome, to have healthy hair growth function, which leads to beautiful, gorgeous hair. It's the hair growth function that we have to have the conversation about and it does require all of us to work together collaboratively no i i love that i love that you said that i'm glad that you said that i think that there's a lot on the shoulders of dermatologists i think people expect them to be encyclopedias of everything i mean they know a lot don't get me wrong they're brilliant brilliant professionals but at the same time that it's very difficult to be a you know like a true expert in every field of dermatology that's almost that's where I think that you're absolutely right I've I'm a huge advocate for having access to true like experts in the sub-disciplines of dermatology at hand you know in dermatological practices you know I really do advocate for that because at the end of the day I would love to be able to go to a derm and then know that okay I'm going in for scalp health our trichologist is going to see me first you know what I mean they're going to sit down with me talk to me I can share my opinions with them and then the derm can also come in with that more like overview you know understanding and I think that would be a really cool way to run a practice to have that available for patients um I definitely think this would be helpful and you know also like when we're going and getting certain treatments like having some guidance there like I can't tell you how many times I was like it was like fear mongering so whenever I used to want to dye my hair somebody would scare me out of it and I used to think and like you know I would think to myself I'm like god I wish I would just have an expert that could tell me because at that time you know when I was younger, like we didn't have, like I said, scalp health was never discussed.

27:34You know, it was never like a topic of conversation. So that lack of knowledge, I don't think it's because people don't know. Clearly, I mean, you and I are sitting here talking and discussing this topic in depth. Knowledge is there. It's just a matter of positioning people in the right places, where it is a more like collaborative approach. And I think it's now we're opening up to that. I think we're all, we're recognizing that you can't deny science, you can't deny research. and the studies and the clinicals that are coming out and the brands that are financing and putting you know putting the money behind not just to sell a product but to get true data and to get true awareness to out to the public is what is so exciting you know think about like well again going back to just the basics of water wellness we really weren't even discussing water wellness in relation to beauty and products until this you know until recently and because we just didn't know.

28:26Granted, yes, we always would test from an internal the way that we would internally use water, but we never think about those things from an external point of view because it's like, oh, that's not that big of a deal. It doesn't matter. And it's so great to see that, yes, it really does matter. We want to talk about like we were using flakes as the example. Sometimes your flakes could just be built up as a result of the hardness from chlorine and minerals on the scalp, right? So there's so many aspects of some of the symptoms don't always have to be something deeper. They can be something as simple as hard water.

28:59And that's true as well. So I'm making everything such an extreme case. A lot of times, especially in the U.S. markets, for sure, and the clients that I deal with who still manage a lot of unwanted scalp conditions, sometimes it really is just the source of simple things or the overusing of things or the underusing of things that are creating some of those issues. And it doesn't require you to have to go that deep to a dermatologist or a medical doctor. It really is something as, again, your source of your product is giving an allergic reaction. The source of, you're allergic to chlorine. There's so many things that you don't think of.

29:37And as a trichologist, being that inspector gadget to access more information and to have the time to access that information, which is another thing that is different And as we're exposing this, exploring this 21st century world of beauty, is that a lot of it is having proper consultation and asking clients the right questions to be able to guide them to what those solutions are. It's not a one size fits all. So the more we can create continuity and consistency for me as a trichologist, if someone was to say, oh, I have a soft water filter, I have soft water system in my home, it helps me eliminate that as something that may be an issue or may be caustic to one of their concerns.