LOS ANGELES — Louise Galvin said she was motivated to start researching her own hair care line five years ago after realizing she was being “bombarded by product and blinded by science.”
The British hair colorist created Sacred Locks as an antidote to the chemicals present in most hair products. The line recently arrived in California, courtesy of Studio at Fred Segal in Santa Monica.
“I would use something and it would first feel fantastic, but after three or four times, my fingers would get stuck, I would have buildup and no shine,” Galvin said. “It just didn’t feel like my hair anymore.”
Working with a chemist and dissecting products she found in health stores, Galvin two years ago launched Sacred Locks in the U.K. as a line without the parabens and propylene glycol found in many other products. Last year, the collection was introduced at Bergdorf Goodman in New York. It is also in 10 Saks Fifth Avenue doors as well as in independent boutiques in Italy and Russia.
The Sacred Locks line consists of five stockkeeping units in decorative packaging: a Hair Cleanser, Hair Moisturizer, Hair Treatment Masque, Hand & Body Wash and a Traveller set. Retail prices range from $32 for a 200-ml. bottle of hand and body wash to $170 for the travel set.
Now she is putting the finishing touches on a few new products to launch by next Easter. These include a men’s shampoo and conditioner, a vitamin treatment and a hair-loss regimen.
“Everything has to be as natural as possible,” said Galvin, who divides her time between New York and London, where she spends a few days a week working out of the salon of her father, Daniel Galvin. “With the whole line, I wanted it to be more of a holistic approach.”
The hair loss treatment, in particular, is being devised in consultation with doctors and geneticists, in what Galvin described as “somewhere between cosmetics and medicine.”
“A lot of what you would call natural products don’t really work,” she said. “Hair needs to feel shiny and nourished. While the collection works really well on color-treated hair, anybody can use it.”
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Instead of ingredients such as silicon and polymer, Galvin’s products contain corn protein, citrus aromatherapy oils and honey. She uses grapefruit seed extract as a preservative.
Galvin works with The CarbonNeutral Co., a U.K.-based program that seeks to protect the climate and slow global warming by offsetting carbon emissions. “I want my business to feel ethical and authentic,” she said.
With the beauty and hair care industry gradually shifting toward more natural products, industry experts cite annual sales for a comparable line at around $1 million at retail.