Every single aspect of Soho had hours and hours of thought and planning put into it and choosing our retail product line was not any different.   From the day that we decided to open Soho, I new we had to find the best hair care products in the world for our clients.  My sister and I literally spent weeks searching and sent hundreds of emails to product companies around the globe.  We were fortunate to stumble upon Sojourn, a brand new product line that at the time was not yet even available in Canada.  After reading about the product line and speaking with the Sojourn chemist, I knew we had to have it.

The qualification process to carry the product was not easy, but I’m so proud to say that we are the very first salon in Canada (and to our knowledge still the only) to carry Sojourn!

After 14 years in the hair industry, I have the opportunity to use and educate clients on just about every single kind of hair care product under the moon. I have NEVER used anything like Sojourn. Our clients are raving about it and we’ve had a difficult time keeping it on the shelves. There is not a day that goes by that a client does not jump out of their seat with excitement from the way that their hair feels after using Sojourn.

Elan Sassoon is the man behind Sojourn, his father, Vidal Sassoon, is the best-known hair stylist in the world. With years of knowledge, experience and influence in the hair industry, Soho clients now get to experience the ultimate in fine hair care.  The 15 products, which clearly list the pH range of 4.5 to 5.5 on the front of the bottle, are made with Keratin protein, the exact same protein found in human hair. This is what makes Sojourn so special.  The only way to fix dry and damaged hair is to replace the lost Keratin. The majority of hair care products are not infused with Keratin because of the protein’s cost.  It is common to hear product manufacturers talk about soy protein, a cheap alternative to Keratin and truly just another marketing ploy. Every single one of the Sojourn products has Keratin cashmere protein that rebuilds, moisturizes, conditions and protects.

Sojourn contains cystine amino acid (which is what your hair cuticle is made of), which is one of the main building blocks of the Keratin complex. The combination of Keratin cashmere and cystine amino acid prevents hair breakage and split ends.  The products are 100 percent biodegradable with a net-zero environmental impact, and contain no sulfates (which are drying, harsh for the hair, cause eye irritation, allergic reactions, and hair loss) formaldehyde (which is a toxic chemical), denatured alcohol (which causes the hair cuticle to become rough and end up drying out the hair), parabens, (preservatives added to beauty products to keep them from growing bacteria and to increase their shelf life), salt (which has the effect of thickening the mixture, and is added to each batch in the amount needed to raise the viscosity to a specified level) or artificial colors or dyes.

Please check your shampoo, conditioner and styling products. Check to see if the products have a pH level of 4.5 to 5.5, that’s the natural pH of your hair and that’s what all products should be at. If the pH is not 4.5-5.5 on the bottle, saying the product is pH balanced means nothing; it could be balanced at a 9 or even a 10.

So why should you care?

After a colour or highlights, the hair’s pH can be a 9, 10, or 11, to open the cuticle, the color molecule is added into your hair, and then the colourist brings the pH back down to a 4.5 to 5.5 range to close the cuticle. You spend $130+ on colour and the next day you wash your color out because your products don’t fall in the pH range of 4.5-5.5, which keeps your cuticle closed.

These are just a few reasons to use Sojourn. If you are a client of Soho and are using Sojourn, we’d love to hear your comments below!  If you would like to learn more visit the website at www.SojournBeauty.com.  To watch a great interview with Elan Sassoon click here. 

Thank you for reading!

Carole Lemire
Sohohair.ca
Soho Facebook Page

Sojourn featured in the August 2010 – Vanity Fair magazine.