- [Blair] Hello everybody. And welcome back to the channel. My name is Blair or the Illuminati. And today we're talking about a hair care company that ironically enough has actually damaged hair and even made people's fallout. And no, we're not
talking about Monat again but we're actually talking
about a company called DevaCurl. Now I know many of you have asked me to talk about this topic, and it's just taken me
a while to get to it. So I'm so sorry, but I finally
have dug into DevaCurl. And today I am presenting to you my findings on this company. What irritates me the most
about companies like this is that not only does their
product do the opposite of what it claims, but
DevaCurl doesn't seem to care. I haven't seen them pull their
products and issue apologies, but they call their product
safe and just move on. And we'll get there in a bit for now, but let's just get into who the company is and then how they did curly haired women so heck and dirty. Let's get into it. DevaCurl started in New York City in 1994, as the salon specializing in curly hair. The salon had incredible success and launched the product line, DevaCurl. On their website, DevaCurl
says that in 2002, they took the poo out of
shampoo, which is kind of gross, and it kind of leaves
you with the word sham but, okay, sis, we'll get
into that in a minute. According to DevaCurl, they pioneered an innovative
new hair care category with the launch of No-Poo Original, "Our game-changing alternative
to traditional shampoo." This first of its kind
no-suds conditioning cleanser is free of sulfates, parabens, and silicones to gently cleanse curls without stripping the
natural oils they need to look healthy, bouncy,
and simply gorgeous. No-Poo changed the industry and the lives of countless curl friends. So this poo is parabens,
sulfates and silicones. Sulfates and silicones specifically are in a lot
of hair care products. And there's been quite a
bit of debate about them. Generally, any big brand
you see like Pantene, Dove, Garnier, they'll have sulfate right there at the top of the ingredient list. And usually they're silicone
or sometimes dimethicone or in the conditioner. Sulfates and silicones
aren't the devil or anything. It's not like the products
with them are truly harmful, but for curly haired women
and girls, it's not ideal. Sulfates give that lathering effect and they strip your
hair of oils and grease. If your hair gets greasy or oily after too long without a shower, then you may want a shampoo
with sulfates in it. Now, obviously I'm not your hair dresser, everyone's hair is different. Generally speaking though, women with thick curly
hair don't have that issue. There's of course, a
wide variety of opinions on if you should stop
using sulfates altogether if you have curly hair
or even regular hair that's not curly, but at the very least, sulfates are known to
cause a bit more dryness and frizziness to the hair. If you want to go
sulfate-free, go sulfate-free. That's what DevaCurl was all about. Giving that option. The silicones on the other hand are polymers designed to retain moisture and give that soft sleek feeling to hair. Some say they're beneficial
and smoothed out frizz. Others say oil-based conditioners like coconut oil are a better substitution because silicones can build
up and be difficult to remove. And seriously, I can't stress
how many varying options there are on this, and I'm not trying to sway
anyone one way or another. I don't know your hair. And I don't really want to know your hair. That is your personal choice
with what you're doing. But this issue and this
desire from curly haired women to be more natural in
their hair care routine is what inspired DevaCurl, and it's their selling
point: plain and simple. And it's also why their products and other sulfate,
silicone-free hair brands are often more expensive than the shampoo and
conditioner you'll typically see at Target or in the beauty
aisle in the supermarket. There are some reasonably
priced brands out there like Cantu and Maui
Moisture, to name a couple. But this natural route is
what gave DevaCurl their edge and that very, very sweet selling point, and sell, they absolutely did. Now in 2007, which is five years after the No-Poo shampoo launch, DevaCurl started an
Academy in New York City to teach aspiring hairstylists. Unique haircuts called Deva
Cuts were sort of created, and stylists were taught this method where each individual
curl is cut while dry, so people that wear their hair while it's curly can see
how it will look naturally. I mean, personally, I feel like this method could
go horribly wrong so fast. Like, what if you want to
straighten your hair one day, wouldn't it just be all uneven if some curls are tighter than others? Not to mention this
haircut can run anywhere between 75 to $200, which
seems a bit much for me, but I mean, you know,
Hey, maybe it's worth it. I have one of my
girlfriends in New York City who does have very long curly hair and goes to well-known salons in Queens. And she told me she pays about $60 with a generous
tip for her last cut. Now, I've never gotten a Deva Cut and I haven't seen one done. So maybe this is some
super fancy technique, but you know, it does just seem
really pricey for a dry cut. DevaCurl was purchased in
2017 by Ares Management. Although the amount hasn't been disclosed, in trepid stated the following: "The company sells through
professional salon distributors, prestige retail partners
including Sephora and Ulta Beauty, company-owned Devachan salons, DevaCurl's Academy and online. According to industry sources, the transaction values DevaCurl between 250 million and 300 million. DevaCurl expects to generate
65 million in net sales for 2017, representing a value multiple of approximately four times to 4.5 times." In other words, they weren't
doing half bad by any means. And for a very long time,
they were on the rise with no signs of stopping. Recently however, things
started to change. Now, I can't really say exactly how long this has been happening, but word began spreading earlier this year that women were losing their
hair because of DevaCurl. I can't say if this was
in their 2002 products, or if it's only in recent products, and no one seems to know
exactly when this all started. One of those to kickstart the
whole thing was Ayesha Malik. Now, I want to start by saying that Ayesha was not paid to use DevaCurl. She was using them even
before she was an ambassador. And her interview with Forbes shows that. "One day in 2017, I posted a selfie and it went viral. Thousands of women were
accusing me of wearing a wig or that I used a curling iron. I hated having my integrity
questioned like that, so I made a YouTube video
to prove my innocence. I show my hair from wet to dry, styling it with DevaCurl
products," said Malik. "Their PR team in love with me. They added me to their
list of influencers, even though I didn't have
any followers at the time. A few months later, they flew me out to New York
City for an influencer event. I was a fish out of water. I had never felt so out
of place in my life." However, a few years later things changed. In January 31st, 2020, Ayesha
came out with a video entitled "Why I stopped using DevaCurl." And this made waves, or
curls, you could say. I'm sorry. (chuckles) I'll see myself out. I tried. But anyway, Ayesha was a former brand ambassador for DevaCurl as she said at the start of her video. - This is my official statement. If you've bought DevaCurl
products because of me, I am sorry. If you're currently using these
products, stop immediately. I do not recommend these
products on anyone's hair. - [Blair] To her serious credit she says: - Silence makes me complicit. And that's why I'm coming
out with this video. - [Blair] DevaCurl should
be the one apologizing and explaining themselves here. Ayesha shows more care and concern than the multi-million dollar company hurting their customers. Ayesha also says that her lawyer said
this wouldn't be libel because you can't get sued
for telling the truth. You just know we're in for something good when it's asking, "Can I get sued for libel
for telling the story?" - I talked to a lawyer and
asked if this would be libel. And apparently wouldn't be because you can't get sued
for telling the truth. - Ayesha used DevaCurl for six years, and not for the paycheck either. She wanted to settle down and find her soulmate
product as she calls it. And with all the conflicting thoughts about what to use for curly hair, it kind of sounded like
it was the perfect fit. She then goes on to show photos of how her curly hair started
to dry out and look worse. While her hair looks
amazing for this video, it looks like it's been straightened or relaxed compared to the
photos of what it used to be. Her scalp was on a fire. She started getting dandruff. Couldn't have a good hair day. And DevaCurl was the
only change in her life. There was no food diet, exercise, hormonal or hydration changes, nothing. In a way, Ayesha was the
perfect test subject, natural beautiful curly hair, not straightened in
years, not ever colored. No significant changes in
years could impact her hair. And she used DevaCurl religiously; their blow dryers, their
microfiber towels, everything. "So the answer lies in
this box," Ayesha said, holding up a gigantic box filled
with the DevaCurl products. It had to. It was July, 2018, she
started noticing the damage and hair fallout and the
difference, she explains, between her and other beauty
influencers that use this stuff is she was the only one using
DevaCurl 100% of the time. And how her hair looks when she
uses DevaCurl even once now? Like this. It's a mess. She has to use a steroid on her scalp. There's chronic itchiness. She's spending hundreds of dollars for appointments and treatments. Toward the end, Ayesha
mentioned that there's a theory that there could be plastic. And we've seen this theory in a Facebook support group as well. We can't be sure of this, or if DevaCurl will ever
actually give answers for this. In that same Forbes article, DevaCurl apparently reached out to her once the video went viral. "DevaCurl asked me if I would
get on a phone call with them. The damage has been done. There is nothing they can do to fix this unless they have some magic potion that will magically heal my scalp, instantly regrow 10 years worth of length, stop my headaches, get the
ringing out of my ears, and give me back my original hair color, then I'm not talking to them," she said. But Ayesha absolutely wasn't
the only one with this problem. Once Ayesha spoke out, we saw even more people start
to crawl out of the woodwork and share their stories. Mel, a YouTuber that
focuses on hair and styling and did a deep dive this last February, she remained pretty impartial but generally cited with DevaCurl stating that thousands of people aren't experiencing these problems, so it simply could be
DevaCurl just isn't for them. If you're using a product over
and over, it can be drying or that the No-Poo shampoo isn't
meant for removing silicone or heavy oil buildup. So when the buildup accumulates
from other products, DevaCurl, can't get rid of it. Mel said, this can occur with any products and that aging simply causes hair loss and it shouldn't be alarming
unless the amount is excessive. But here's the thing. For many of the women using DevaCurl, it is excessive for them. And there's enough people with problems. 62,000 on the Facebook
support group alone. I don't think their hair loss stories can be all chocked up to aging, not to mention if aging was the case, and this would then happen
with any product, right? So why isn't it happening with people who use Pantene for years? Or Garnier? Mel mentioned that balance is important. So using other products is important. But you can't tell me that's
the case for 62,000 women. And they just should
have used other products when I'm sure there's other people who religiously use their
favorite hair brands. Some people like to switch
up their routine, some don't. You know what's right for you
and what works for your hair. But that video from Ayesha where her hair changed from
one wash from DevaCurl, it doesn't explain Mel's theories. "If it's safe for your hair and you haven't noticed problems, then don't stop using your
favorite products," Mel says. And I get where she's
coming from saying that. If it works for you, why
switch to something else? Because it can take years
for that damage to be done like how a gradual wear away
of Ayesha's hair happened. And once that damage is done, it's done. Like she mentioned, shaving it off. Not to mention, how can
you support a company that's done this to so many
women and doesn't care? I'm not saying every single
one of those 60,000 plus women have experienced this, but it's definitely
more than just a couple. In a post on the Facebook group that asks women to share their stories or post the before and after photos, there's 2000 comments. 2000. There's photos of women
with serious balding around the hairline claiming it happened in a short amount of time. Others that say there's
been serious breakage or a change in texture
and photos to show it. One woman's story was even
told in the Chicago Tribune. Leslie Gomez noticed her
ringlets curls become wavy and her hair thinning last
summer, but she didn't panic until her mother her, "You
look like you're balding." Before that she had a head full of shiny perfect curls, she said. And she was horrified. "That sent me into hysterics,
because I'm thinking that something's wrong
internally," Gomez said. The following month, Gomez began
getting medical tests done, wondering if her hair loss
could be due to hypothyroidism. The possibility of that
diagnosis felt farfetched to the 25 year old because the condition
doesn't run in her family, but she hoped for an answer. The results from her test
came back normal, she said. And her worry increased. "If you look at my scalp normally, with dry hair, you can
see through the hair. That's how thin it got," recalled Gomez. "And that's not how it was before." Could some of these women be having issues unrelated to DevaCurl? Absolutely. Maybe a couple
of alopecia for all I know. There's a slew of possibilities as to why someone is
experiencing hair loss, but all of them did
have DevaCurl in common. Now, as the YouTuber, Mel, mentioned, as well as Brad Mondo, the
YouTube famous hairstylist, they mentioned three similar points about this entire situation. One, is that this reminded
them of when the a company, when another supposedly good
for you natural hair brand had a class action lawsuit
for similar problems. Two, the biggest problem product was the DevaCurl No-Poo shampoo. And three, they both
discussed product buildup. So here's the thing. Product buildup is normal to an extent, it's going to happen. I don't disagree with that. It's a fact of life. But DevaCurl has to cause an insane amount of product buildup
for hair to just fall off. And according to research,
that's exactly the case here. Oxidative stress, the
inability of the body to sufficiently counteract
the sources of oxidation is prevalent in many skin conditions including normal skin aging. On the scalp, the hair
appears to be impacted prior to emergence, and oxidative stress
appears to play a role in premature hair loss. The scalp commensal organism has been recognized to be a
source of oxidative damage. Therefore, hair care products,
specifically shampoos with active Malassezia inhibitory agents, such as zinc something. I cannot say this word. But here it is. Tend to reduce premature hair loss, besides the known benefits in treating specific
dermatologic scalp pathologies and therefore should represent an integral part of every
treatment regimen for hair loss, even in individuals not showing symptoms of scalp pathologies. So yes, we do have little organisms all over our scalp, and that's normal. We've got tiny little microorganisms crawling all over us just
in case you didn't know. So sorry if that freaks
you out, but that's the T. So I'm here to tell you about shampoos and that it makes your hair fall out and not let you sleep at night, but you know, that's not entirely it. So I'm just going to
simplify things a bit here. So when the study says,
"Sources of oxidative stress with impact on the pre-emergent fiber," it's basically just saying
that too much oil on your scalp is going to feed that malassezia, or whatever it is. So when there's too
much oil on your scalp, you go into the sun, those oils turn rancid and can
harm the growth of new hair. So, using a lipid-rich
cleansing conditioner, clock the grapeseed oil in DevaCurl's Original No-Poo formula, alongside lipid-rich hair masks
and conditioning treatments are not only a recipe for scalp buildup, but for one rancid scalp buildup. So that's just kind of gross. I mean, just imagine how much buildup of product there has to
be sitting on your scalp in order to do the damage these
women are claiming it did. Now, there's also the
possibility of the packaging like we mentioned. An article from the gloss State's Stephanie Mero, the
Facebook group creator, thinks it might have to
do with the product's plastic packaging. Formaldehyde potentially being released at the packaging stage or
the preservative system which as she shared in
an August, 2019 post, the brand can change
without alerting customers. And remember the issues with Monat, when an FDA agent went to Monat's factory, they reported the unsanitary conditions were contaminating the products, which isn't to say that
that isn't happening here. It just means there's only so
much the consumer can gather from what a brand chooses to make public. So could this be allergies, menthol, packaging, the lipid
rich conditioner or shampoo? Yes. Or it could be none of these things. Seriously. I won't pretend to know. I don't always know the
answers to everything but I tried to research to find what I think could be the answer. And unfortunately it seems like we'll have to wait a
while before we know anything. After all, considering
WEN's FDA investigation has been opened since 2014, and no definitive link
between their products or hair loss has been made, it could be years before
anyone really has an answer to what's happening with DevaCurl. So regardless of what
might be causing this, the class action lawsuit
has moved forward. Deva Concepts has been hit
with a proposed class action in New York that alleges the
company's DevaCurl products are harmful to consumers and detrimental to the quality and
appearance of their hair. "The products can cause hair loss, hair thinning, scalp
irritation, and skin burning," the 21-page case says, "Defendants do not warn consumers that the use of the products may result in these adverse outcomes." According to the case, Deva Concepts is aware of the problems caused by its DevaCurl products yet has blamed such on other risk factors, including birth, stress, scalp buildup, losing weight and illness. The entire lawsuit is quite a long read but as we mentioned,
it's the No-Poo Shampoo that's the big issue here. Stephanie Mero, the leader
of the Facebook group, has photos on her Instagram
as well in the lawsuit. And the damage is heartbreaking. I mean, some people rely on their hair. If this woman is a stylist and she's taking care of
clients looking like this, it's got to affect her
business to some degree. I'm sure most people expect their hairstylist to
know what they're doing. And she recommended DevaCurl to clients before knowing the harm it could cause. Plus for so many women and men out there, hair is a part of who you are. You dye it to reflect your personality, cut it to feel stylish
and good about yourself. It's just, it's kind of
an identifying feature. It's literally part of you and what you put out into the world. I mean, yeah, it's hair, it grows back, it changes, but it matters to people, and it's a way to express yourself. More and more devastated and furious customers have filed lawsuits. The most recent one being
around May 6th from what I see. It's for the same thing. And this one is filed by Kathleen Biles. Now, onto the really infuriating
part, DevaCurl's response. If you're expecting an
apology or an explanation, don't hold your breath. Here is what they said: "To our devoted Diva Community, Over two decades ago, DevaCurl was born from
conversations with people like you and from our salons and
stylists about what you wanted and needed to embrace your curls. As a result, our community
grown to include millions of Devas around the world who
use our products every day. When that conversation includes product and safety discussions, we
are as engaged as you are. We are committed to providing the information you need to continue to use DevaCurl with confidence. We don't speculate on why some people are attributing the challenges with their curls to our products. As part of our ongoing commitment to product safety and satisfaction
of our Deva Community, we are conducting additional testing with an independent party. Please share your experiences with us at customercare@dwvacurl.com we will go above and beyond to help anyone on their curl journey. Your DevaCurl family." So there's two paragraphs about how they say their
products are tested. And I won't bore you with the reading. It's safe to say that
there's just no apology here. And as for that testing, if you head over to their website, it says the exact same thing. "Our products are safe to use. We go through a range of tests." Our products pass the
necessary testing requirements, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Hey, I'm not saying they don't. I mean, maybe all of DevaCurl's products do pass the needed test. They do seem to have
some recipes for that. I can understand why they
wouldn't want to say, "We're sorry our products cause damage." because they don't want to admit fault when we're not even sure
what happened exactly. But the thing that I think
ticks most people off is that they sound like they don't care. There's no concern or
compassion in that apology. They aren't even speaking
like human beings. Like we're so sorry for those of you who have experienced hair loss, we can only imagine how
heartbreaking that could be. Our products have passed
safety requirements but we will be putting on hold
our No-Poo Shampoo production until we can release additional testing from multiple third parties
to ensure your safety. Why was that such a hard
thing to possibly write? Because I don't know. Of course though, they don't want to stop
selling their products. But what if those
independent tests come back with some serious issues, then what? Then they'll have to put a recall out and have even more people that lost hair. And I guess for them, that's a fair trade. So frankly, I wouldn't
risk my hair for DevaCurl. I don't think anyone should. Even if it turns out that
DevaCurl wasn't to blame or it was just one bad batch
or, you know, I don't know, it's a matter of not
switching products enough, there are plenty of other
shampoo and conditioner, like companies out there that don't have class
action lawsuits against them that also compete with
DevaCurl for that market share. And I'd rather kinda use one of those, a company that cares about
their customers while I'm at it. Now, DevaCurl does have more recipes and testing their products
haven't killed anyone, so yes, there are a lot
better than companies we have reviewed on this channel. But, you know, that's a
pretty low bar at this point. So ultimately here, I'm
not a cosmetologist, I'm not a hairdresser. Talk to those people. They're kind of the pros in this industry. And that's the reason Ayesha
stopped using DevaCurl in the first place. The things you put on
your body and your hair are worth researching about. So with that being said, that's where I'm going
to end today's video. Let me know your thoughts, your comments, your whatever's all down
below in the comment section. And if you like today's
video, give it a thumbs up. If you are new to the channel,
hit that subscribe button. And if you want more content from me, pop up in my description box. Links for all my social media, puppy channel from Casper,
collaboration channel, was (mumbles) milk links for everything, description box down below. Again guys, thank you so much for making it to another video. I love you so much, and I'll
see you in the next one. Bye guys. (upbeat music begins)
