Hotel shampooOnce upon a time, cosmetics were available only to a select few, but time goes by, and now every house has entire shelves and cabinets full of various bottles and tubes. Makeup has become everyday. But if you ask to select only one remedy, without which a modern person cannot do, most of us will name the shampoo. Commercials of various brands of shampoo are constantly shown on television, and it is already difficult to imagine our life without it. But can you imagine life without shampoo itself? But this modern tool is not so many years old – just over a hundred. True, it all started much earlier.
The first traveling Europeans were strange. In search of adventure or wealth, they reached different places. But, with the exception of Marco Polo, Europeans had no penchant for subtle observations: after all, they were not philosophers, but only merchants and adventurers. But they were genuinely surprised that people in other parts of the world took self-care seriously. The Chinese regularly washed their bodies, and the Chinese also applied fragrant cedar extract to them for better hair growth. As a result, along with Chinese tea, Europeans brought home the habit of washing.Hotel shampoo
In Indonesia, where Europeans also reached, local residents made special products from rice straw and rice husks to wash their hair: everything was burned, and the ash, which had alkaline properties, was mixed with water until foam formed. Then the mixture was rubbed into the hair and washed off – the hair became clean but very dry. And then the Indonesians moisturized their hair with coconut oil. Arab women boiled quince peel, and Filipinas soaked aloe stalks in cold water. These local remedies helped their hair look good. In North America, Indians taught settlers from the Old World to use the root of the soapweed, a relative of the clove, to wash their hair, and also to prepare a remedy for dandruff from the extract of the chaparral bush. Once the East finally entered the sphere of European interests, the British settled in India. India seemed to them as simple as linen trousers but remained incomprehensible to them, like a silk sari. A special world in which maharajas organically fit in, temples for countless gods, snake charmers, rigid caste systems, tropical infections, poverty, and dirt. However, from the muddy Ganges, the Indians pulled out unexpectedly washed, as if boiled, linen. They sparkled with snow-white smiles at a time when Europeans were suffering from chronic diarrhea. And most importantly, the luxurious hair of rich Hindu women shone so much in the scorching sun that one could look at them as a mirror, and the hair of the colonialists stuck together from heat and moisture. Hindus washed their hair with special herbal remedies using shampoo, which in Hindi meant “massage”, or “rub”.
Foggy Albion could only dream of having the same luxurious hair as the Indians: by the end of the 19th century, Europe knew only ash and soap, which left a white coating on the hair, and only a few could use expensive oils to wash their hair. But at the end of the 19th century in London, something happened that was destined to become the starting point in the history of shampoo, and since then the soap story has ceased to be nameless. The invention of shampoo is associated with the name of the Englishman Casey Herbert. His shampoo was dry powder, a mixture of powdered soap and herbs. This powder was called Shampoo. It is unfair, of course, that so little is known about Casey Herbert himself. Was he a chemist, pharmacist, or perfumer? Was he married and did he have children? Did he have a dream? Obviously, he still had a house, and money seemed to be tight, and therefore Herbert, without fooling himself with marketing moves, sold his shampoo right on the street near his house in London. And I must say, his trade was successful, but for real success, there was not enough scale. Casey’s idea was infectious, and the shampoo recipe was simple.
The new direction had great prospects – after all, in those days, almost no one, except for Schwarzkopf himself, was seriously engaged in hair products. And in a small service room on Passauer Strasse, where the entire production was located, there was no longer enough space for a business that required a serious scale. And in 1904, the first Schwarzkopf hair products factory was launched in Berlin. The range of shampoos expanded quite quickly and soon included eight types: yolk, chamomile, oxygen, herbal, lanolin, birch, sulfur, and even resin extracts.
And a year later – in 1905 – the company’s goods reached Russia. And Hans had a lot of work ahead of him, developing new products and expanding production. Only once did he have a break from work. During the First World War, it became impossible to get decent ingredients, and, frankly, the public was not up to shampoo. But at the first opportunity, Hans reopened his factory, and in 1919, with the release of the new product Schaumpoon, production reached a qualitatively new level.
Only the life of Hans Schwarzkopf was short-lived. At the age of 47, in February 1921, he died of a heart attack – this is how the first King of the shampoo empire died. The company after the death of Hans Schwarzkopf was headed by his wife Marta. She managed to keep the business going and even expanded her production. And then the eldest son of Hans and Martha successfully continued the work of his parents. Under new management in 1927, the company developed a liquid shampoo consistency: after all, the powder, despite all its advantages, had serious drawbacks: paper bags with shampoo got wet, and besides, powder dust sometimes caused an allergic reaction.Liquid shampoo foamed better, and the level of hair cleansing from pollution became higher. And it has become easier to dose liquid shampoo, which means it has become more economical. By the end of 1927, the company had already produced two types of liquid shampoo. These were the first liquid shampoos and, undoubtedly, a new word in the creation of hair detergents!
Other companies
And in general, in the prosperous 30s, the situation in Europe was very suitable for the cosmetics business – people began to think more about their appearance. The market for toilet products has developed at a rapid pace. Already in 1931, Schwarzkopf’s competitors – the Hamburg Beiersdorf Group – managed to develop their own chemical formula for shampoo.
And in 1934, the French factory L’Oreal also introduced a soap-free hair wash to the market. Six years earlier, Eugene Schueller, founder of L’Oreal, had bought Monsavon, a small toilet soap business. This acquisition allowed L’Oreal, a hair dye specialist, to penetrate the toilet market. L’Oreal’s first liquid shampoo was called Dop. But Dop shampoo was hard to take root in the market. Then, in order to find out the reason, Eugene Schueller commissioned a study, as a result of which it turned out that 30% of the French never wash their hair at all. The great marketer Schueller found a way out: in his advertising, he turned to children and their parents. It is to him that the merit belongs that the next generation of the French washed their hair exclusively with shampoo. But until that time, one still had to live. In the meantime, the 30s were in the yard. And although in those years more and more people became consumers of cosmetics, there was one more reason why shampoos were not ubiquitous: shampoo remained an expensive pleasure.
American miracle
The Americans were the first to remove the price obstacle. It was in America that the first successful “mass marketing” shampoo was released. The composition of this hair wash was developed by the American John Breck. He began to research back in the years of the Great Depression at his clinic in Massachusetts. And after a decade of work in 1930, the formula was ready. The new shampoo was affordable to many. In addition, for the first time, a line of shampoos was offered to consumers: for dry and oily hair.
The new shampoo sold well, but the effect that Breck was entitled to expect did not happen. It seemed, what could be simpler: “if you want to become rich, work for the poor”! This is what was done. It seemed, what else if the price is not an obstacle? But America faced the same problem as Europe: most people are not accustomed to spending (however small) money on special hair washing products. For real worldwide success, a new culture and a new cult of cleanliness were needed. It wasn’t. America would not be America if enterprising Americans on the road to commercial success could be stopped by this circumstance. And Breku remembered that “what is the engine of trade.” Definitely advertising. From this moment on, the history of Breck shampoo ceases to belong only to the cosmetics industry. The triumph of the company exceeded the wildest expectations and became a classic example described in advertising course textbooks. The Breck Shampoo advertisement was practically the first one where, in addition to the text, a high-quality image appeared that carried no less semantic load than the text. Cosmetic companies adopted the method: since then, the cosmetic industry has been developing itself and further enriching the advertising industry and advertising art.
This success story began like this: Edward Breck, the son of the founder of the Breck Shampoo brand, got down to business. In 1936 he hired commercial artist Charles Sheldon to paint girls for shampoo commercials. And the first Breck Girl appeared. Sheldon’s early work for Breck is done in pastels, with a halo of soft light around the model. Breck’s advertising slogan promised that the hair would become radiant and soft, like a child’s. Sheldon created feminine romantic images. The idea of purity was presented as a perfect image, as an ideal combination of chastity and neatness, i.e. purity internal and external. Sheldon preferred ordinary women to professional models. For half a century, Breck’s posters represented the ideal of the American woman—desirable yet pure natural beauty. The first advertising agency Breck worked with was Armor and Company. And the first model is Olga Nelson Atkins. Breck Shampoo has gained unimaginable popularity so far. Over time, he came to embody the American way of life. Well, judge for yourself: American soldiers who landed in Europe in 1943 after the opening of the Second Front handed out canned meat, sweets, chewing gum, and Breck shampoos to the liberated inhabitants of the Old World.
Epilogue
Another century is in the yard. And now we know the “energy formula”. Our hair is “stronger than ever” and “impressive”. From the sea of shampoo, we choose “favorite shampoo for the most beloved”. It’s like that. And now only the lazy will not throw a stone at shampoo manufacturers. They are accused of being too many and that advertising misleads consumers, and they also say a lot of things that are hard to justify. But they still produce shampoos, and we still buy them. Because we dream of flowing and shiny, as in their advertising, hair. And also because so far there is no better hair wash than shampoo..