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New fragrance frontier

Posted by Robin on 7 January 2010 26 Comments

HAIR scent may be the new fragrance frontier. In recent months, several new products with exotic fragrances are challenging popular hair-care scents like coconut, citrus and rosemary.

— From Scent Trails Start at the Top, a short article on hair fragrance at the New York Times. Many thanks to Mary for the link!

Filed Under: perfume in the news
Tagged With: hair care

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26 Comments

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  1. pyramus says:
    7 January 2010 at 10:34 am

    In what possible sense can hair fragrance be said to be new? You can buy Angel hair perfume, to name just one. L’Oreal had a couple of hair scents in their line over a decade ago. Women have been spraying their hairbrushes with scent and brushing it through for decades at least. The ancient Egyptians are thought to have made cones of perfumed fat which they wore on their heads like headdresses, and which melted over the course of a night’s partying to perfume the hair.

    This is possibly the stupidest, wrongest trend piece I have ever read.

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2010 at 10:39 am

      I think she was trying to say that it’s becoming more usual for mainstream hair care companies to use unsusual/exotic scents instead of the expected coconut or banana. She doesn’t point out that “exotic” fragrances are now found everywhere: in dishwashing soap, in dryer sheets, pumped into retail stores, etc.

      But yes, hair perfumes have been around for ages.

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      • pyramus says:
        7 January 2010 at 12:24 pm

        I guess you’re right, but still, how do we define exotic? Coconut and banana are, when you think about it, fairly exotic things for soap to smell like. And even if they weren’t, I could go to the local drugstore and find shampoos that smell of pomegranate, kiwi, tea tree, lavender, or lemongrass, for starters: is “bergamot and blue hyacinth” (aka citrus-and-floral) really more exotic than any of these? I still think the NYT article is entirely devoid of content, unless you look at it as advertising, which it clearly is.

        Also, I meant earlier to mention Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific, which I think can be safely said to have invented the category of shampoo as perfume.

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        • ggperfume says:
          7 January 2010 at 12:56 pm

          Yes, and GYHST smelled better than most other shampoos then or since. But it didn’t invent the category– what about all those fruit-scented “natural” shampoos of the ’70s (which seem to have inspired the current fruity-floral perfume genre)? Or the original Herbal Essence shampoo, a deep pine-chypre scent?

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          • pyramus says:
            7 January 2010 at 6:52 pm

            There certainly were scented shampoos before GYHST. But that product was deliberately overloaded with scent for the specific purpose of perfuming the hair–for making sure that it kept the scent for hours and hours afterwards. That, I think, was really a first. (I could, of course, be wrong about this. At any rate, the advertising was geared towards that idea, and so, of course, was the name.)

        • Robin says:
          7 January 2010 at 12:59 pm

          Yes, would agree it’s essentially advertising for some new hair products!

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  2. RusticDove says:
    7 January 2010 at 11:50 am

    I’m just glad whenever I can find a shampoo and conditioner that doesn’t smell like an overpowering fruity fruit mishmash! L’Oreal has a pretty nice product that is rosemary and mint scented which is nice. I also don’t mind subtly scented citrus ones.

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    • boojum says:
      7 January 2010 at 12:09 pm

      The Suave “professionals” line is pretty unscented (or at least, not fruity, and doesn’t stick around). And cheap! For higher end stuff, Aveda usually has nice scents.

      Does anyone remember, back in the 80s, shampoos made to match those cheap knock-off perfume sprays?

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      • RusticDove says:
        7 January 2010 at 12:30 pm

        Yes, Aveeda has lovely products and I have used a shampoo and conditioner from them. I don’t always want to spend that much though. I remember the knock off perfumes that were around in the 80’s, but not the matching shampoos.

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      • miss kitty v. says:
        7 January 2010 at 1:37 pm

        Deja vu! Yes, I remember those! I think I even recall (stupidly) buying the Giorgio-scented shampoo and conditioner.

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        • greenel says:
          7 January 2010 at 6:10 pm

          I used Breck shampoo for YEARS and still wish I could find a shampoo with that same smell, to date myself ….in the 1960’s, what was it? It changed later …

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2010 at 1:00 pm

      Another nice one for anyone who missed it:

      http://perfumeposse.com/2009/10/18/good-smells/

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      • RusticDove says:
        7 January 2010 at 1:48 pm

        Ooh – I love the EO products and Marshall’s often has them. I splurge on their handsoap to use in the powder room.

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  3. Absolute Scentualist says:
    7 January 2010 at 12:56 pm

    I’d actually like to try the TIGI shampoo and conditioner, though I’ve found lots of drugstore brands I like for their simple but nice fragrances. I also own Angel’s mist for hair, face and body and have a decant of Clean’s hair mist and love both of them. I remember using the L’Oreal hair mists back in the ’90s. One of my favorite long-discontinued (I think) shampoo lines was called Outrageous. I don’t remember who made it, but the smell was fantastic and reminds me a bit of the original Divine perfume. It was wonderful stuff and the smell lingered in my hair for hours without overpowering everything else I wore.

    But yes, hair fragrances or spraying a bit of perfume in one’s hair is certainly nothing new. I remember a line from ‘It Was a Very Good Year’ from Sinatra mentioned a girl’s perfumed hair. While it might be trendy, I’m still buying the NR hair mist and I still want to try the Femme Fekkai Sensuelle hair perfume as well. I just wish the latter wasn’t so pricy.

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    • ggperfume says:
      7 January 2010 at 12:58 pm

      Revlon made Outrageous and then discontinued it, like everything else they’ve made that I particularly liked!

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      • Absolute Scentualist says:
        7 January 2010 at 3:18 pm

        From the research I’ve been doing, apparently Outrageous is still being made, just not for the US market. I might be wrong, so don’t quote me, but that does offer a little ray of hope if it’s true. It always made my hair feel fantastic, and I have the world’s most contrary hair, so that’s no simple feat.

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2010 at 1:01 pm

      I’d like to try the Fekkai too.

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      • Absolute Scentualist says:
        7 January 2010 at 3:20 pm

        I went to the Fekkai website and there’s a whole range of products with the Femme Sensuelle fragrance: shampoo, conditioner, hair spray and the hair EdP. The hair spray’s a medium hold and only runs about thirty bucks, while the hair EdP is three times that much.

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  4. AugustAmber says:
    7 January 2010 at 1:32 pm

    I’ve been spritzing perfume in my hair my whole life, doesn’t everyone?

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2010 at 3:09 pm

      I do it sometimes.

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  5. miss kitty v. says:
    7 January 2010 at 1:38 pm

    Strangely, I buy my hair products based on what they do for my hair, not how they smell.

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2010 at 3:10 pm

      I care about the smell more and more, although mostly in the sense that I want to scent to disappear shortly after my hair dries. I can’t use Aveda any more — it’s simply impossible to test perfume with all that scent wafting from the hair.

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    • Lizzie Love says:
      8 January 2010 at 12:52 pm

      Hmm. I hope it isn’t too late to post here, since, as a relative newcomer to perfume, I’m wondering what most people here use to wash their hair with.

      Like Robin I find that the intense botanical scent of Aveda products clashes with my perfume. I like what their products do for my (long, wavy/frizzy) hair, though.

      [[ahem ahem]] Testing, testing… anyone out there?
      What products do you use on your hair that you love & that don’t conflict with your perfume?

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      • Robin says:
        8 January 2010 at 5:28 pm

        Gosh, I use whatever…I mean, unless a scent is REALLY strong, it doesn’t tend to last past the blow drying. I did give up on Aveda, but otherwise don’t have much problem. If you’ve got long wavy hair, you may be wafting more scent than I am though! Mine is short at the moment, and when it’s long, I tend to keep it pulled back.

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  6. Kari says:
    7 January 2010 at 6:06 pm

    B&BW has had a haircare line that’s scented to match their Signature scents for several years now, as well. I’ve secretly always thought about buying a whole line just to see how long it would last if I used matching soap, lotion, shampoo, conditoner, perfume, scented car freshener, candle and reed diffuser. Er, never mind.

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2010 at 9:22 pm

      I did not know that! But yeah, please — not every single product, LOL…

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