Hairdresser's shampoo experiment shows why you should never buy cheap products

If you've been to the hairdressers recently and spent a small fortune to have your hair coloured and cut, the idea of handing over any more of your hard-earned cash for products to maintain your luscious locks might be painful.

But one expert has shown why it will definitely be worth it to part with the money in the long run. Hairdresser and beauty salon owner Rachel Trach from the US shared a video on social media explaining why you should always buy professional salon shampoo and conditioner if you can.

The video shows Rachel conducting an experiment on some coloured hair extensions, using two different types of shampoo - Unite 7 Seconds Shampoo which costs £19.95 and Tresemmé's 24 Hour Body Shampoo, which is £5.24 for 900ml at Boots. In the clip, she has two cups of water and adds a squeeze of the different shampoos to each cup.

two glasses of water one with shampoo in

TWo glasses with purple hair extension in, one has a darker colour

She mixes them with a spoon, before adding a hair extension that has been dyed a deep shade of purple. First she places an extension in the glass with the Unite shampoo and gives it a wash. The water turns a misty, grey colour as she does so. Rachel then repeats this step with the Tresemmé cup and within seconds the colour has seeped out of the strands, turning the water vibrant purple.

She captioned her post: "Did my own little experiment. Professional Salon Product VS. Drug store product." Her video has since gone viral, garnering 17,000 comments and being shared over 78,000 times. Many were shocked by the results, with one person writing: "No wonder my hair is like it is."

Another said: "Oh my god!" A third branded the whole thing "crazy". Someone else replied: "Ohhhhh that’s bad." A fifth joked: "Holy cow. So imma need to buy some real shampoo from you." However others weren't convinced by the experiment, with some claiming they'd used cheap shampoo for years and never had any problems.

"I use Tresemmé regularly and it never looks like that nor brings any colour out of my hair," proclaimed a different user. A second agreed, adding: "I have used Tresemmé a lot and neverrrr my colour faded like that!!!"

A version of this story was first published in October 2020.