The Haircare Industry Is Lying to Hairdressers with West Coast Blondes Founder Nicholas Augustine

[00:00:01] Dude, every fucking time I shampoo now my hair is just falling out. I don't fucking get it. Well, what are the ingredients on the product that you're using? I don't fucking know. Let me take a look here. Uh, bisammonia fraldylacol dilamate? Sulfur hydrogen? Dysulfide? Ow, dude, I don't even know. And do you wonder why your hair is falling out?

[00:00:34] Real hairdressers telling real stories about their experiences from behind the salon chair. And we are now saying the quiet parts out loud. This is Shit I Told My Hairdresser. Hello and welcome back to Sh!t I told my Hairdresser. One more fucking episode for you guys. Paula, how you doing?

[00:01:02] I'm doing great, Jason. A little bit here in Utah. Over 100 degrees almost every day. Fuck that. May I not? Too hot. Yeah. Seattle's got a little warm too, but that's alright. Alright. We'd like to thank everyone for going through and subscribing. Hey, you wanna know what, man? Hit the subscribe button. It is free. I guarantee it. So anywhere you go through and get this podcast on Apple, Spotify, give us a little subscribe, that little subscribe button. Make sure that you're following us. Listen to us on TikTok and on Instagram.

[00:01:31] Give us a follow on there. And guys, we wanna hear your shit. I, again, I'm gonna apologize ahead of time. A lot of you guys have sent us some emails that I am trying to get back to you guys. We are booked up quite a bit. We're kind of backed up a little bit. So I apologize. We will get to you. But please go through and tell us what you wanna hear on the podcast. We wanna hear some information. Remember, this is a hairdresser podcast for hairdressers. So we wanna hear your shit.

[00:02:00] You burn some little ears in the process. So hit us up at shititoldmyhairdresser.com or get us on Instagram. Or, I apologize, send us an email or a voicemail on our website. And with that, we got someone pretty cool. Paula, you found this guy. Yes, I did. And I started following him. And Nicholas is a down-to-earth, really cool dude.

[00:02:26] And it sounds like you and I kind of have been down some of the same roads, some of the same salons like that in LA and everything like that. And it's kind of nice to have someone who understands. We understand each other. And without further ado, let's introduce Nicholas. Nicholas. Hello, Nicholas. Hello, hello. Hello, everybody. I was so excited for this today. I was very excited. Fuck yeah. Yes, it's good. I was thinking about it all night. Just wracking my brain. A little nervous coming on. But...

[00:02:55] Oh, man. We're friends. You know what I mean? We talked on the phone. We're friends now. You know what I mean? And that's the thing. This is like... It's just a conference. Guys, this is... What we're doing is having conversations with other hairdressers who aren't bought by these large companies. And I mean, if we're... If anything, we're trying to go through and show you what else is out there and maybe where to source your stuff. We're going to get to that because Nicholas has something really, really cool that he has actually come up with.

[00:03:25] But before we get to that, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, Nicholas? All right. So, yeah. I'm a fourth generation hairdresser. My great grandmother was like... Kind of started it all. Got my grandmother into it real young. She started at 16. She became like a world famous stylist. She did like the Hair Olympics 68, 69, 71.

[00:03:55] Representing the United States. Won a bunch of British hairdressing awards more than any other American. I'm pretty sure up to now. We had like storage full of trophies and stuff of her. And then... Cool. They opened a handful of salons all through the Bay Area. And my dad went into the industry as well. Italian background. So, they have a million kids. And so, it was like my aunt, my uncle, my dad.

[00:04:25] And so, that's where my mom went to work for... My grandparents met my dad. And then I picked this up. My mom took me to school at like 17. I wasn't doing the best in anything, really. And so, I was getting in trouble a lot. You're preaching to the choir, man. I grew up in Lake Tahoe, California. And so, I was just like, you know, skater kid, whatever.

[00:04:56] And, you know, selling things and all that stuff. And my mom's like, you got to get into something. So, she took me into school. And there was like all, you know, packed full of girls. I'm like, sign me up. I'll do this shit. Right. And I've always been an artist, like drawing and stuff like that since I was like super young. So, it just clicked. And, oh man, right at like, I think a thousand hours, I was like, I was pretty cocky, you know, little kid.

[00:05:26] And I was like, no, I'm done. I'm going to go to LA and be a hairdresser now. No license. And I'll go down. I get a job in West Hollywood. And that didn't end up working out. But I had to go back. I had to do a second time. But, anyways, so, yeah, I've worked in West Hollywood. I worked at a couple of big salons down there. And you know how it is. These salons switch over real quick. Oh, yeah.

[00:05:52] And worked with my mentor was a guy named Peter Ishkins, who was the assistant to John Frieda. Oh, cool. Yeah. And so, I trained with him as well as a guy that came from Frederick Vakai. And so, that kind of gave me all my background a little bit. And then I went to San Francisco. I worked in Seattle. Kind of been all over the West Coast, really. Yeah.

[00:06:19] And, yeah, I did a laundry list of, you know, celebrities, politicians. I did, you know, editorial, runway. Did LA Fashion Week. Did, you know, America's Next Top Model. Did you LA Fashion Week? Did you, though? You know what I mean? Because I don't even know. Like, I've done that, too. And I use that term very loosely. You know what I mean? Exactly. I mean, exactly. It's kind of weird.

[00:06:47] You just don't get, you know, a lot of people really praise all that editorial. But you're like, man, I don't make any money. Oh, they don't pay you shit. They don't pay you anything on there. You know what I mean? You do it for the exposure and the experience. You'll get exposure. You do it so you can come on a podcast like this and drop it. You know what I mean? That's the reason. And I knew you did it. So, I was like, oh, my God. We got to cut this guy on. Man, I've done this, too. And it's like, I don't.

[00:07:16] I'm very embarrassed. I actually did it at the time. Yeah. So, that's it. I was part of it when they actually Mercedes-Benz dropped it. And then they brought it back. I don't think they had to. It was just really sad. Yes, totally. It's not recognized. You know what I mean? It really isn't. You know what I mean? It's like, what are you doing? You show up for Ed Hardy again? Cool. Ed Hardy. Oh, man. Yeah. I'll say it. I'll say it. I don't give a shit.

[00:07:45] That dude was in my, like, I lived in West Hollywood on Melrose and right next to Fairfax. And he started his first store after he left on Dutch. And I would see him across the street. He'd bring girls out. And they'd have, like, the jeans on, you know? And he'd have his Dremel. Yeah. And he'd be, like, putting the holes in the. Yeah. And that was crazy. That's how he started. Yeah. I used to work next door to his store on Melrose. That was next. I worked Warren Tricomi for a while. Yeah.

[00:08:15] That store was right next door. And it was just, like, Meathead Central. Oh, yeah. Totally. The dazzled jeans. What an era. It was so bad. Anyhow, we could talk about that forever. That's a totally different fucking episode. But the reason we brought you on is because that, you know, you're kind of going through and you're seeing things in the industry that you kind of think needs to kind of change. You know what I mean? And you are starting to change those things.

[00:08:45] So let's kind of get to a little bit of the meat, potatoes of that, if you don't mind. Yeah. So, like, I started my Instagram account. It was kind of crazy. I started it because I've been working on a product line. I'm a cosmetic formulator for, like, 10 years or whatever. And a homie was like, dude, you have to get something going online. And so I just posted. I just put up my phone. And it was a conversation I was having with a client.

[00:09:14] We were talking some crazy shit or whatever. And I posted it without taking off the audio. And it went, like, viral. And so I just kind of kept doing that, whatever. I built big audience. And the biggest thing that, you know, I build it off of is, like, I'm just saying what everyone's thinking, you know. I feel like there's just two categories right now on social media.

[00:09:42] You have influencers, educators, coach types, whatever. And they really dominate the space. And then you have everybody else. And, you know, there is 50 states in the United States, right? And there are people that work in all different kinds of places at all different kind of income levels.

[00:10:01] And these people just really forget, you know, that there's, like, a whole amount of hairdressers across the United States that just don't agree with the way that they are telling everybody to run their business like. And so I just started opening my mouth. And I was just saying things. And you could just pick a post of mine and just look at the comments section. It's just, like, it's America, right? And it's not even just there. I mean, I have international.

[00:10:31] I have people all over kind of expressing the same sort of frustrations that they have at the top. And so I feel like they're throwing rocks at us always, you know, criticizing the way we do business. And, you know, I just saw one the other day where they said the girl said that if you're over 45, you're not good at blow dries anymore. So, like, you shouldn't. I swear to God. If you're over 45. That's where my forearms are.

[00:11:00] Are you kidding me? Yeah, I know. 34 years into it, these forearms can beat the crap out of people. You know who should tell that to? Tell that to fucking Chris McMillan. All right? Exactly. That's what I'm saying. I've seen his work. He's just always that kind of stuff. Yeah. It's constant. He's 21 years old, and I guarantee he'll probably blow you right out of the fucking wall. I used to work on the other side of him. I used to watch him blow dry hair. Where do you think I learned a lot of my shit from? Absolutely.

[00:11:30] I mean, we get better, too. I mean, that's the reality of it. You know? I told the girl that sent it to me, I'm like, I'm going to be like motherfucking Tom Brady winning. I haven't even peaked yet. You know what I mean? That's where I'm trying to be. Like, I'm not trying to. Right? But it's constantly that kind of rhetoric coming down on everyone, you know? And, you know, you don't charge enough. And, you know, you should be mean to your client. You should be a bitch. And, like, all this sort of.

[00:12:00] And I just feel like the rest of us, like, are like, hey, bring your dog in. Let's have some wine and fucking do some hair or whatever. Exactly. You know? Well, it's just so. And I don't know. There's like a hustle. You all know what I'm talking about. There's a hustle in us, right? That we just have in us that kind of draws us into this. It's organic. You're born with it. You're completely born with it. Yeah. But we're supposed to be not for hustle culture, apparently.

[00:12:27] It's kind of funny because it's like we were the ones that did the hustle. And then somewhere in between, it was, like, less and less. Yeah. And what I'm starting to see now is the new generation. I think Generation Alpha are some of the ones that are coming up. They're the new hustlers. Yeah. They definitely are. You know what I mean? So we're going to definitely see something very different around the corner. 100%. Because everyone else is like, oh, you don't want to be working one day a week and making a million dollars a month. And you're like, yes.

[00:12:55] Well, if you buy my course for $5.99, you know what I mean? I know. You can be doing this, too. Go fuck yourself. It's always like that. And like we were saying before, it's like an infomercial. The guy rents the yacht. He brings his strippers out. And he's like, I know how to make money at real estate. And, you know, you, like, believe, you know, you just whatever. You go. I don't fault anybody. But it's just kind of like it's not what we're really into this for. You know what I mean?

[00:13:25] Like I did one the other day like where I remember we all smoked cigarettes in the back and like drink too much coffee. And then get fucking wasted after, you know. Yeah. Come in all hungover. Like just to live your life, you know. And young stylists, I'm always like just live your, like do this job. Live your life. Stop being so, like, professional and, like, trying to make everything be a certain way. Just have fun with it, you know. Yeah. It's like the pretentious takes the quality out of it.

[00:13:54] And as older ones sees that pretentiousness and we see right through it. Like I was saying earlier, it's diluting us. It's diluting our knowledge. It's diluting our experience. It's diluting our IP, basically, what's in our heads. And, yeah, I completely don't. That's a perfect word. Pretentious is pomposity. It's, you know, look, I'm wearing these designer clothes and taking pictures of myself. But I'm like, are you a hairdresser? Are you a fashionista? What's happening here? Like, can you just?

[00:14:25] I don't know. And I love all that. It's great and everything. But it really has taken away from what we do ourselves. And it's kind of slapped this other label on it. And, I mean, I don't see us as being, we're blue collar. You know what I mean? There's no difference between us and a chef and a tattoo artist and somebody like that. And, you know, we get into this. We want to make a living. We want to take care of our kids, whatever.

[00:14:55] Like, live a life like that. And I think there's a lot of these program things coming down on people. You know, I did stats. I did an episode on my podcast, West Coast Blonde's podcast, the other day. And we talked about stats. And it was like over 35, 70% of people that make over $100,000 in the industry, which is only less than 10%. Yeah. There's only 600,000 hairdressers in the United States. So less than, I think it's like 5%, okay?

[00:15:25] Over 35, 70% make that amount. 70. So under 35, you only have a 30% chance of making those kind of numbers. Yet all these people are trying to push these programs on you. And you have to start to wonder that maybe them trying to tell you all these things is the reason why those numbers are not adding up, right? You know, but you know what? And if you don't believe that, do yourself a favor.

[00:15:54] When you walk into your salon, ask how many people actually own their own house. How many people in your salon actually own a home? Or if they're actually walking the walk and talking the talk, you know what I mean? Or have health care. That's the most important thing. It's like, what was that? Or have health care, he said. I know. Exactly. Yeah. You know? Exactly. You know what I mean? It's true. Or gas, you're rich. You know what I mean?

[00:16:23] But that's the thing. It's like, you know, walk inside there and see who's actually doing it. And that's exactly what we're talking about. It's like, you know, don't let these people go through and fake walk you through this bullshit. Yes, exactly. You know, exactly what they're doing. And they're the ones not reaching those numbers. Oh, I made this much money. Really? What salon do you own? What salon do you actually work at? Are you actually making that kind of money? Right.

[00:16:49] I think it's interesting because we all remember the walk-in culture, right? Yeah. Yeah. Remember? I heard your podcast on this one. That was good. You just had to be available, right? And if you were available, that's how you made the money. So we got good at taking whatever and being like quick about it because we knew in order to make that money, we had to just, we had to go, right?

[00:17:15] And I think that look at the difference just in a short period of time, decade or more, where we go from that to now where somebody is doing a service on one person for the whole day. And I'm like, how do you maintain a consistent, you know, my mentor said, this is a game of consistency. How do you maintain consistent clientele? Because it's a numbers game, you know, if you, and how does anybody book like that?

[00:17:44] But I understand, like I do, I do clients like big, you know, stuff, you know, all the time, like I do, you know, hand tie and all this stuff, Bali has all these things, but I know how to work it into my schedule so that I can maintain enough clients per day, not because of the money made per day, but because overall speaking, the larger the clientele you have, the more consistent you're going to be.

[00:18:13] And I, and that tends to be not what these big influencers, educators are telling everybody. They're telling them go after the big transformational service and then apply that to every single client. And I love this industry and I love, you know, all these young hairdressers coming in and they, they do fucking great work, man. We were pulling people through caps, you know, one day, you know, and everybody's hair was

[00:18:42] yellow, you know, not that long ago. So like the, with the pressure that they have on them, they're just being misguided and it's, it sucks to watch, you know? Yeah. I would say like back in the day, if you had like 400 clients as your base number, you were doing really good, really well. And now you need like 12 to 1600. You mean for sure? Because they're not coming in that often. No, they're coming in there.

[00:19:11] There's, they're being more sparse because they're, they're guarding their money. Yeah. I just, I think it pushes clients away. Right. Because if you're a young client, say, think of this. If you're 20 years old, you just got a paycheck. You're in college. You, whatever you you're working, whatever you go into your friend who is also your age. Right. And she's like, that's $850. You just think that that's normal. They don't young clients.

[00:19:37] Don't know that that is not the way it is actually. And so it's grooming a whole group of new clients. I know this because I picked them up all day long and I'm always like, damn, thank you for doing all of that work for me. I'll just, you know, cause they overtone cause the picture and all that. I'll just bang a couple of balayage in there and they're like, wow, it's amazing. And I'll be like, that's a couple of hundred, you know? And they're like, what?

[00:20:06] And I'm like, I'll see you in six weeks, you know? Not six months. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's once every six months and it's $1,200. You mean like, okay, I can kind of justify that. And then a month and a half later, they're like, uh, this doesn't look right anymore. Oh, exactly. But she told me not to come in for six months. You know what I mean? It's like, dude, you got screwed. Okay. I have to ask you guys, what do you, what is your position on developer level and bleach?

[00:20:34] Because I'm old school 40 volume, right? I love 40 volume. Okay. Thank you. Cause I know it's a lot of, a lot against that. And I know the low and slow, I try, but I just, I gotta fucking, and I'm like, I'm French trained. So like we, you know, European is like in and out. Like we want it quick. They call it flash, you know? Yeah. And depending on the level that I want, and I don't throw in like people talk 60 vol in Europe.

[00:21:01] Sometimes they do a hundred vol and then they dilute it down with water and everything like that. But my favorite thing is to throw, cause it was Schwartz cough. They used to have an ammonia. Now I have to buy the ammonia separately. And if you throw in 40 vol with any color, even a lift and deposit. And throw in some ammonia. It hope helps open up that cuticle shaft, especially with that really coarse dense hair. That's very stubborn. Yeah.

[00:21:26] It really hope it helps open up that cuticle shaft and allows the melanin to come out and then for the color to do, um, to, to deposit. So I love that. So we've got to work with our chemistry with that kind of stuff. I'm completely lost. I'm a, I'm here. I know. You totally went over your reach for the buttholes. And that's about it. You know what I mean? When it comes, when it comes to color, I don't know shit about fuck. So. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to change topic.

[00:21:54] Nicholas, tell us a little bit about what you feel about corporations and the way the industry has now kind of decided that it's going to go through and delegate things to hairdressers. What do you think about that? Yeah. So I feel, I mean, it's just, there's so much to unpack in there, but like the biggest thing is to understand distribution. Okay. And understand I'm, I'm in the business of this. So I understand this. Right.

[00:22:19] And we are all now, there's three Procter gamble, L'Oreal and Estee Lauder that own what? 99%. And then they, and then they even own our warehouses or did they own the distributors too. So it's like, we, there's no room right for us to have access to anything else. And, um, the way that they're, um, you know, we were talking earlier, the way they're pairing

[00:22:44] that with like a celebrity stylist or something like that to try to like jam it down our throat. So it's just, I don't know. Isn't it? It's gross. I don't know. I just find it cringy. I find it super cringy. Well, in my opinion, it's taken away our freedom of choice and our freedom of, of diversity, which is something we thrive on in our industry. So yeah, like you said, shoving down your throat, you're going to buy this product.

[00:23:13] Well, what about these other products that other people are coming out with that might be a little bit more conducive to what my clients need or what I need for my clients? That's right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And, and the thing about to understand is that the warehouse in which, see, here's the big thing. And it's hard because I, I, people are very dependent on their brands. And so I don't want to be like trashing it a little bit, but here we fucking go. Okay.

[00:23:39] So yeah, you, you, you, you're, you're here to do. You got, you got the warehouse, right? Where it's, where it's manufactured. So let's just say L'Oreal. Okay. You, you carry Kerastase. You're like, Oh, look at it. I love Kerastase because you know how they try to attach it. I spent 300,000 on the fucking build out. So I want to have like a high end line. So you could pick Kerastase, but then you'll criticize somebody that is using Pantene Pro

[00:24:08] V, but you know, do you? I mean, I don't know. I don't know how you don't connect it. They're made in the same warehouse with the same formulator and the formulation. If you understand formulation is not different. It's just different ingredients. So this is a big issue to me. I mean, we get really upset with these guys.

[00:24:32] Oh, they're diversion or whatever, but yet we're buying their lines, you know, and people don't know that the base is exactly the same. It's the exact same base. There's only like the formulation changes after they already created the base. A hundred percent. This happened with luxury partners, luxury brand partners. Now that they, they sold that off. That was Tevye who was from Bumble, right?

[00:24:58] With Michael Gordon and this brilliant guy, you know, he is a smart dude, billionaire now. Right. But he had Orbe and then he had Arnco. So Orbe, when he was alive, sued Arnco, right? Because where he sued luxury brand because Arnco was the same formulation. But the price point was like half the price. And so that's just an example of where you see this everywhere. It's all over the place.

[00:25:27] And it's just frustrating. And we know it, right? We go in and we buy something and we're like excited about it. We're like, oh, it's something different. And then you use it and you're like, it's the same damn thing. I always say this thing. Okay. Take the brand, whatever you use. Okay. And I'm going to find two competitors. We're going to remove the scent and we're going to shampoo and condition each one and blow them out. And now you pick which one is your product. You can't. You wouldn't be able to do that. You weren't able to know.

[00:25:56] So if you can't do that, how can you stand behind that brand? You know? So, and they know this. And so that's the reason why they bought the distributors. They bought all the stuff because they give us no way to have any options. Right. And what they actually end up doing is because they own that. They're able to go through and situate it in a certain way where you either you have to buy that or they find their competitor and buy them out. Yes.

[00:26:25] And if they can't buy you out, they will force you out. Oh, that happened to one of our beauty supply houses, family-owned beauty supply houses here 15 years ago. And a big corporation came in and said, we're buying you out. And they said, no, we're a family-owned. This is third generation. They said, okay, if you don't sell to us, all the lines that we own, we're going to stop selling to your beauty supply house. So you'll have nothing to sell anymore. Yes. And they said, okay, we're selling. So I've seen it happen.

[00:26:55] That's, I mean, that's how they shake people down. I mean, I know L'Oreal did that to Oleoplex too when they were privately owned. Right. They basically took their ingredient, which was patented, and then they just put pressure on them until they bought them out. Right. And so that's how they do it. But, you know, the other thing too is you have like, say like Kevin Murphy. Right. Right. So Kevin Murphy is now corporate owned too.

[00:27:22] But like when it was private, people need to understand they were private label. So private label or white label means that it's also made in a warehouse that is regurgitated formulation. So this is everywhere. You can't get around it. Like it's hard. I know Dom Serna, Dom Dom has like some new products. He's also white labeling those products. So those are made and good for him. I love all his stuff.

[00:27:51] And, you know, but he's, he, they're white labeling because he has no, he's not a formulator. Right. So he has no other options. And you can't go to those white label or private label companies and say, make a brand new thing. They won't do it. So they'll just redo the same thing. Same in fragrance. We see that, you know. It's the same in cosmetics too. Cosmetics. Yeah. It's kind of everywhere. Yeah. It's not like the old days, Paul Mitchell in the back selling it, you know, on the fucking street corner.

[00:28:21] Right. Yeah. I'm in my kitchen formulating. Yes. But here's the, here's the difference though. You are a chemist, aren't you? Yeah. Right. Tell us a little bit about that. Super cool. Yeah. So I'm a chemist. So my dad was a chemist. My uncle was a chemist. My uncle helped formulate K-Pak for Joyco. So I grew up like when I was a kid, my dad died when I was like five.

[00:28:46] But when I was a kid, I would be like, you know, there'd be bottles everywhere, like all over our house, empty fucking bottles everywhere. And my dad and my uncle, I mean, this is kind of crazy, but they, you know, they're gangsters. Right. Okay. They're like real fucking gangsters. So, you know, no joke. Right. And so my great uncle was like on the most wanted list and all this sort of stuff.

[00:29:14] So they made the products to front for some of the other shit they were making. If you catch my drift, there's a little Walter White going on. And so I kind of grew up around that kind of stuff. Right. And so I. That's a higher level of hustle, honey. Yeah. I wonder where you're getting it from. Shit. A hundred percent. I'm like with my great uncle in the car. I'm like, hey, why is the airplane following us? Oh, don't worry about that. You know, we're going to go in this parking garage, switch cars real quick.

[00:29:44] Like, wow, that car's cool. You know, but I, so I grew up around this and you know, I, the, I, I connected with my uncle and, and he kind of gave me like early formulations after he got out of prison. And, and, and, and, and that kind of got me started. And so like 11 years ago, I just dived into it.

[00:30:09] And basically I just, what I wanted to do is replicate every single product line that was out there. So I just, I, I, I replicated every single one and I found all the holes. Wow. And I wanted to study. I want to find out. And, and I tested it. So, um, I had a salon for a long time in the back. I had my lab. So I would be back there, you know, to my clients to this day are like, you fucking tested that on me.

[00:30:36] I was like, I, Hey, I'm not saying yes or no. I'm just going to beg for forgiveness, not ask for permission. Hey, it works. Say thank you. And that's, and that's how, that's how I started putting it together because I, I know as a hairdresser, this is why the product line is going to be, is completely different. The way I formulate is totally different because I'm approaching from hairdresser first, chemist second. Right. Right.

[00:31:04] So I, I'm looking at it from an angle of, you know, what is good for us? So do we don't care about the paralyzers, pearlescence and, you know, thickeners and emulsifiers and all these different elements that make a product look a certain way. We don't give a shit about that. We just want it to work really well. And so that was like the hunt for me. That's basically how I got into it.

[00:31:33] And see, that's what a lot of people don't know is that, you know, a lot of the stuff is like fillers. You know what I mean? Yeah. Red crumbs that go into the meat to make a hamburger. You know what I mean? To make the meat burger. That's exactly what this is. And when people, like you were saying the white label stuff, these big corporations already have the chemist already have a setup. So when you're like, Hey, I'm thinking about starting up a whole product line, you walk in and go, great. We have 15 for you to choose from. Which one would you like? 100%.

[00:32:03] What would you like? And they even do that with the big product lines that are out there right now. They'll come out with something new and go, Oh, well, this is going to go through and take your product line to the next level. So we'll slap your name on it. What do you think? You got it. Cosmetic companies do it too. I mean, Mac, Chanel, L'Oreal, all of them, all the cosmetic lines. So the chemists are trained at university and where, who trains them? Dow Corning. Okay.

[00:32:33] Which is like the biggest chemical company in the world. Yeah. They produce just like in medicine, where you have big pharma training all the doctors. It's not different. So all the chemists are going to be trained by chemical companies so that they are going to be like this for this. This works with this. This works with that. And it's a book and you have to do it by the book. And that's the way it's done. So they don't know how to think any other way.

[00:33:00] They only know how to think like one way by the book. So they're always going to formulate the same. You're just going to see the same formulation. Right. And so that's why what I'm doing is like one of the biggest things that I did was take this kind of gets sciencey, but like take a ionic charge. So two opposing charge and put it in one shampoo. It's never been done. There's no shampoo in the world that is been able to do it.

[00:33:27] And I have these guys calling me, giving me the fucking formulation. Like, fuck you. I'm not going to give that to you. Right. And so it's stuff like that because I'm trying to break the rules. I just have a long history of doing that. So might as well keep it going. Yeah. Sounds like it runs in the blood. Yeah. A little bit. Hopefully it doesn't get you going to jail, man. Yeah. Yeah. But that's what people don't understand is like, you know, they have the exact same

[00:33:56] formula or they'll change one thing. Then they'll go give it to their own team. And then the marketing team's like, oh, see, parabens are bad for you. Yeah. Parabens that are in PVC are bad for you. That's a cancer causing agent. But the shit they use in shampoo is different. That's right. That's exactly right. But here's the thing. They found that one thing they can market it to the market and then they exploit it. And then they push on you saying, oh, we had a friend who had cancer. So we had to come with the shampoo.

[00:34:23] They didn't have parabens in it because your shampoo causes cancer is going to fucking kill you. Yeah. They're counting on people being basically sheeple and not looking at the chemistry like you do, Nicholas. Yeah. And yeah. And it's unfortunate too because we are supposed to trust our hairstylist. We're going to solve it. Yeah. We're supposed to trust our hairstylist. People come to me all the time and say, what's the solution for my thinning hair or how

[00:34:53] do I get more volume? They trust us. And so, yeah, it really puts them in a vulnerable spot. Well, like a big one was recently, I have a whole sales team across the United States. And so we were talking about Oleoplex, right? And there is an ingredient in there that works really good under a microscope in a lab. Okay. For a minute. And it works on half for a minute. Right.

[00:35:20] And so that's what a lot of the companies do that, right? So they go, oh, look, it's under a microscope. They take a picture. You look at it. We all look at it and go, oh, wow, it must be great. Yeah. But then you put it in, we call it, chemists call it competing factors. So the amount of it actually doing anything once it's in, I mean, what is the water pH? Is it hard? Do you have like, I mean, there's a million things.

[00:35:46] So once that ingredient actually touches the hair, if it's even any percentage that's relevant anyways, it doesn't matter. It doesn't do anything. But these are ways. And, you know, one thing that's just an interesting topic here is they make a lot of papers on this. So what they'll do is they'll publish a lot of papers on this. So when you look up things, because the new thing now is chat, GPT, all this stuff. So if you ask it, it's going to pull from the Internet. These companies know this.

[00:36:15] So they've been publishing like all their stuff so that it will circulate back saying, oh, it does dot, dot, dot, dot. So they're programming the chat, GPT. Yes. Counting on that. Everybody's going to look at chat, GPT. So that's mind, mental, mental. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. They're manipulating the algorithm. Yep. Yeah. And so what they're doing. So here's the thing is I just looked this up as well too. There's something new called Google console. You guys haven't heard this.

[00:36:45] If you want to get your websites out there, get on Google console. And it's what's going through and getting Google to crawl more. And Google's crawling and reading all this stuff. And then it puts it onto your AI platform. All right, Nicholas, tell us a little bit more about your product line, why you developed it, and why it's so different from everything else that's out there. So I do a lot of blondes.

[00:37:13] Like, that's, I fell into that. And the biggest thing that I know, well, first of all, there's never, that I know of a hair care company just specializing only on blondes. So there's a lot of hair care companies that will have like a segment of their full line for blondes, which would be like three things, you know?

[00:37:35] And I find it really weird because not even just blondes, but even pre-lightened hair in general accounts for what? 90% of our business. I mean, it's a huge amount, right? And so that's the reason why I got into it. And the biggest thing was just understanding that when you have a shampoo at a certain ionic charge, the cuticle is wide open.

[00:38:02] When the conditioner comes in, those ingredients just go right into that cuticle. And they oxidize and they make the blonde look like shit. And that's the reason why blondes look dull. That's the reason why your toning doesn't stay in and all of this stuff. Including like amounts like UV protection. That's like the leading cause of fading.

[00:38:26] So they'll make color, you know, systems for that, but not for blondes, even though we're putting really expensive toners, shadow work, all this different stuff. So that's what kind of prompted me to get into that. And one ingredient that I've been using for like a long time now, probably five, six years, even though it's really popular is GHKCU. So we're the only hair care company that uses GHKCU. And what is it? So GHKCU is a copper peptide.

[00:38:56] And it is without a doubt incredible when it comes to like hair growth, hair density, all of that stuff. But one of the biggest reasons we use it for is the way the ion adheres to the keratin, the cysteine inside the bond. So ours is CU-S. And so what that does is it just smooths that bond out along with the entire system. Shutting down the cuticle at the shampoo level first.

[00:39:25] And because we don't have fillers and no silicones, nothing's going to go and oxidize in that hair. And so that's what I was chasing. And that's what I've been able to create with West Coast Blonde. And see, that's what people don't know is that shampoo will open up that fucking cuticle. People don't know that. They don't know that. Yeah. Yes, exactly. And I used to use a conditioner.

[00:39:50] I think Redken made it that stopped the development of any bleaches, which worked great. But meanwhile, in the last couple of years, I can't get a hold of it. I can't find it anywhere. Yeah. And it works beautifully. The only thing with that is pH, right? Right. There used to be a lot of pH. I think Redken, right, had the pH spray or whatever. So we have that too. So in our mask and our GHK spray that I cannot keep up with, people ordering the shit out of that. Yeah.

[00:40:19] It's 4.5 pH. So it has keratin complex and all that stuff. Right. So recently, we just expanded out and now we have like a, I don't know, you call it a sister line called Baby Doll. And so that one is, you know, I've got Copper, Red, Brunette. So we're expanding out a little bit. But the biggest thing is like everything we talked about before.

[00:40:44] There's a reason why on our label, you know, not Marilyn, but somebody that looks like her. I was wondering how you got away with that. I'm all, he's looking at some copyright stuff, but he said, we got some people off, but good on you. There's a reason why there's like that, that nature. And, you know, I, I'm from the West coast. I'm from California. I love that culture.

[00:41:08] And so, you know, we really bring that into the culture of the product to kind of be like, fuck the establishment. And that's, what's really made this product spread all across. So I mean, we're in 32 states already, you know? Oh, fantastic. Yeah. I'm glad to see. I only launched in February. What? What? Yeah. You're fucking. This thing is like going off. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

[00:41:34] And that came from the inspiration from one Instagram post that you did that went totally viral. Yeah. Good. Good. Okay. You guys, this shit can be done. You know what I mean? We can be anti-establishment and actually pushing our shit out there and making a difference. And that's exactly what Nicholas is doing. Okay. Where do I find this? Yeah. Where do I find this? Sorry to interrupt you, Jason. But I'm excited. Where can I get the thermicest one?

[00:42:01] There on my Instagram page in the description, there's a link. And you can go right there. And that's where you can register for the pro site. So that way we keep it within our community that way. And you just put your license number and you get on the pro site. And then I always have like tons of deals. One of the biggest things too is I have an affiliate program for like booth renter types or people like that. Oh, cool. I have a ton of people that just carry my back bar.

[00:42:31] And then their clients can order on their phone and they get a commission off of that. I just drop, you know, ship it. I'm trying to think of every way I can like bring people up, like help their business because that's what I believe in. You're getting to the core issue, aren't you? You know what I mean? That's one thing we just did with another Golden State Victoria. We talked about how people shop and you're being very aware of that.

[00:42:56] Yeah, because the big corporations are cutting the hairdresser out and going direct to the client and selling directly to the public. But see, you're creating affiliate links. So that way people can actually go through and the stylist actually get a bit of commission. So when they're, you know, they're buying on Amazon when they're home and they're bored and they're drinking too much wine and they're like, you know what I mean? And this way, you know, they can't just drop into your salon every time they need a product.

[00:43:27] So this way, our salons that carry West Coast Blondes can sell directly to their client. Their client could keep it on their phone. Just go there and shop things and they'll, you know, I always will push sales and different things like that. The other thing for back bar is I do, because we have like nozzles on our bottles and they kind of look like ink bottles for tattoos, right?

[00:43:53] And, you know, we'd have the back bar and then we have leader bags that are like half the cost. So you just buy the leader bag and you refill the back bar. That way it cuts down waste and plastic. And we look out for the environment that way. And it saves the... Because we don't want to buy back bar. That sucks. We won't make any money on it. No, we're losing money on the back bar. It's so true. I know. Yeah. And what I like is what you're doing is you're making us...

[00:44:21] For people like me that are not tech savvy. I mean, Jason complains about it all the time as right as well. He did. You're the program. I am not tech savvy. And so to go online and buy something, I just sit there and think, okay, do I have to go through this entire process? And it sounds like you're making it very simple for people like hairdressers like me just saying, okay, just register, go online, share it with your clients. And guess what?

[00:44:47] You get to make money on the time you spend talking to them about this product. Well, I mean, on the affiliate program, if you're a West Coast Bond stylist or a salon and your client buys off of your link, you're going to make 40% commission. So I'm like generous, you know, because... Did you just say 40%? Yes. Because I know that that is distributing for me. I don't... I have all the cards because I'm the manufacturer and the distributor.

[00:45:18] So I can make every... You know, everybody's going to make money this way. The other thing is that I only select products that move. I'm not going to fill your shelves with a bunch of dust, you know? I want products that move and that move themselves. Yeah, because I'm tired of the dusty products. I have for years. There are so many product lines out there that you have to have a credit card with them and then they send you a certain amount every single month.

[00:45:45] And if you don't get charged, that credit card doesn't get charged every single month for that amount, then they pull the line from you. Exactly. So I'm like, dude, how much multi-level marketing can we get? What hair care line can you call, you know, that you could DM the chemist and talk to him? Right here. You're giving us a lot of freedom here. Holy cow. And I try to get it back to everybody, you know? I'm like that. I'm a surgeon for you, man. I know.

[00:46:15] Yeah, dude. Well, Nicholas, it has been a fucking pleasure to have me on. You have no idea. Thank you. I'm going to go through and add all of the links if you want to go through and find West Coast Blondes. Do we even say the name of your product line? West Coast Blondes? Yeah. Can we say that? All right. Yeah. Good. If you want to find it, it's going to be in the show notes. We're going to go through and pop a link on there for you. Whatever Nicholas wants to go through and pop inside there. Give him a follow on Instagram.

[00:46:45] See what the fuck this guy is doing because I guarantee it's changing some shit. So, Nicholas, thank you. Thank you. All right. Have a great day, Nicholas. Thank you for your time. All right. All right. Let's get down with some more shit with Shitology. Hey, Paul, that's a really cool product line you have there. You ever think about selling it? No. It's a family business. It's been around for generations. We really want to keep it that way.

[00:47:14] Oh, you can sell it to me. I'll make sure that it goes far. No, we're good. We're doing just fine. I don't think you heard me. All right. So, there's going to be one or two ways we can handle this. The easy way, I can cut you a check. Or you like picking up your teeth with broken fingers. I kind of like my teeth. It's what I thought. And with that, stay shitty. And see you next time. Hey, listener persons.

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