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After finding an honest and natural hair brand that has absolutely no nasties – my hair has never looked better. Despite the transition it had to go through, including detoxing from damaging ingredients, meant all my scalp and hair problems have dwindled away. You may be asking, but how? Because every hair company prides themselves on looking after hair? Not true in the slightest. It is all marketing honey. Let’s unpack it…

Being transparent, I was none the wiser in how products affected my hair, until I worked on the relaunch of the A’kin range. Then I realised a lot of products labelled ‘healthy for hair’ were in fact not, despite looking appealing. The ingredients list of many mass market products is filled with ‘crap’ [a bunch of damaging chemicals] – including manmade ingredients formulated to give the illusion of healthy hair, when in fact it has lasting negative effects.

Now I am no ingredient genius, but here’s what I know:

• ‘Sulphates’ are the ingredients that create the luxe bubbles that we associate with cleaning. They are cleaning, but they also damage the hair, and can strip the scalp of natural oils. The sulphates most found are sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulphate (SLES).
• ‘Parabens’ are used as preservatives in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, that prevent bacteria from growing; to increase shelf life – this ingredient can be a hormone disrupter depending on the paraben, and can irritate the scalp. Parabens look like methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, and ethylparaben.
• ‘Silicones’ are included to make your hair look and feel silky smooth; but in fact, they can build up on the follicles and prevent moisture of the natural hair. Keep an eye on dimethicones, cyclomethicone, amodimethicone, and cyclopentasiloxane.
• ‘Alcohol’ is a damaging ingredient that promotes quick absorption of the ingredients, but also means it dries your scalp out. One example is ‘rubbing alcohol’ found in cosmetics as SD alcohol, ethanol or ethyl, isopropyl and methanol. An alternative is organic alcohols which while more expensive are much better for the scalp.
• Lastly, ‘fragrances’ – the one thing that is a red flag, when it comes to fragrances, is that hair care companies, don’t have to list the ingredients, that go into that fragrance, so… enough said. Natural fragrances are derived from organic ingredients, so are a much better alternative. Synthetic fragrances to look out for include aldehydes, esters, ketones, hydrocarbons, and phenols.

Let’s talk marketing buzz words, and I can say I still get fooled by these words, but it is something I am more aware of. Ticking the ‘marketing buzz words’ box doesn’t always mean good for your hair and scalp. It isn’t like you can put, “packed with parabens and silicones” on the front.

A few buzz words to note are:

• Non-Toxic
• Clean
• Safe
• Chemical-Free
• All Natural
• Hair Growth
• Repair
• Nature Derived
• Chemical Free
• Botanical Formula
• Patented Formula 

They are often placed on the front of the packaging. The reason these words are ‘marketing words’ is because most of these things are impossible to achieve. I have already said these can be in place for us to make a quick decision, while deflecting from the harmful and not good-for-our-hair ingredients.

Signs your haircare is failing you and you need to investigate are is scalp issues such as:

• an oily scalp
• increased sebum secretion
• compromised scalp barrier and scalp flaking or dandruff
• itchy scalp, and up to more severe conditions like seborrheic dermatitis

Aside from a dry, irritated, and itchy scalp, damaged and frizzy hair is also a key factor.

Scalp health and hair health is paramount to people’s wellbeing and quality of life. As with anything health related, what you eat and drink, really does make a difference to the health of your scalp.

Then, we have brands that are labelled natural, and are filled with botanical ingredients that do a powerful job for your hair, and its overall health. A’kin for example has done over 30 years of research alongside chemists and adhere to strict testing standards. This is to guarantee product safety, which plays a key part in their range proving to be healthy for the hair – and let me tell you, they work. 

To wrap up, I know it can sound overwhelming, but all you need to do is whip out your device, and research the ingredients list found in your products. Know what to look out for and dive into the history of that product, to see if they are kind on your hair, or not. Once you get familiar with the ingredients, and marketing words, perfecting your routine is as simple as reading the back, and finding a range that ticks all the boxes… not just one.

India

It is easy to get overwhelmed by the landscape of communications especially when it continues to evolve. There is no distinct line, nowadays everything has become intertwined and when navigated correctly, it becomes an opportunity for businesses to reach a wide targeted audience. The team at bare.pr have put together some ways and tips to help make the journey more seamless.

Create an integrated approach

Gone are the days of streamlined approaches where a business focuses on just one strategy, integrated 360 campaigns create a complete approach to getting the most out of the narrative and create a cohesive stream of communication. This allows businesses to be consistent in their messages and reach a range of target audiences in a way they respond best to.

Social media

The role of social media in a changing communications landscape is extremely powerful as long as the brand understands the different social media platforms, what their audiences are on each of these and how best to approach the audience. If enough research is done and they tailor their approach, it opens an extremely valuable tool to communicate with these audiences by allowing conversation and letting the audience feel heard. Authenticity and a personal approach are what people are after in 2024 so ensuring this opens up deeper relationships.

Social media also allows people to go direct to the company, news and updates to be communicated in real time and more exposure to people that business wouldn’t typically reach. It provides insights and data which is invaluable and can allows them to be shared and tagged showing real connections and real reviews by their publics. Social media opens up a forum for businesses to become their own crisis management, align with creators and collaborate with people who explode creativity offering a new take on key messages beyond the branding campaigns.

AI

AI has meant more time for brands to focus on creation, strategy, and tailoring. Taking the stress and admin out of the job and allowing them to go further with research and messaging. Despite not being 100% accurate it is a great starting point for ideas and creativity.

Managing misinformation

Despite misinformation being more prominent than ever, thanks to the platforms we have now brands can speak on issues instantly and conversate where they can. Communication is still the most foundational skill in the whole landscape that will always need a human touch in order to create relationships. Speak up and speak truth!

Build relationships

Brands must know their audience, whether that is a client, customer or media – to build it you must actively listen and ask questions, understand them and how they like to be approached, pay interest in their lives and choose the channel they prefer. Beyond this, you must use strong emotional intelligence which leads to effective communication and relationship building. This includes empathy and human emotion, knowing how to deal with conflict and being aware of yourself and your part to play in the conflict. Effective communication is the key to business success and takes work and tweaking depending on the person or audience.

Know your brand

Lastly and most importantly to navigate the communications landscape you must know your brand. Businesses must cement their brand values throughout all their strategies and confirm their role in the business landscape. You must decide if you choose to stand for social issues or prefer to stay away, how you deal with things and what your approach will be to any challenges that come your way. You must decide what defines your business – whether that is price, experience of brand, methodology, diversity, shaping the future for generations to come or staying on brand. Once that is determined and stays consistent throughout, the business will thrive within the landscape.

Opinion: Mark your calendars if you haven’t already, International Women’s Day is coming up on Friday 8^th of March. You may be thinking this is just another blog post from a company trying to do their due diligence when in fact it isn’t; we are here to call those people out.

When I got asked to write this blog post firstly, I could not tell you when the day was on the calendar and then I thought… but why?? We don’t see people continue to advocate any day other than on this date. We have our say then like everything else it gets lost and forgotten until it comes up again a year later.

Now we aren’t saying we don’t do our part because we do, we are a team of all women who work predominantly with woman owned or run businesses. Our entire work is based around relationships and trying to lift our clients, small businesses and woman wanting to grow, so in our everyday work we champion woman in every aspect.

Since 1975, this day has allowed us to see how far we have come as a sex, but it is also confronting and highlights what our goals are moving forward. The focus has always been equality for women; from voting to the gender pay gap – women have faced multiple challenges and damn we look good while doing it! But what has been done since then?

I am a Gen Z and in my generation people are constantly jumping on the next trend (look at TikTok as an example), there is just so much going on and the information overload means nothing gets focused on deeply – unless of course it is your life’s mission. It’s just society; things get forgotten and people jump to tick the box and feel like (or portray) they are doing good. I can’t speak for everyone but most people under 25 don’t what to think about IWD as there isn’t enough being shown, maybe it is just because woman achieving and making power moves don’t like to gloat unlike men.

However, what I have noticed, is many brands mark the day to talk about what they are doing to celebrate, but that is it! Once the day passes there is no follow through, and the efforts only stand until people forget a week later. It projects as lip service, show face and then forget about it!

What got me thinking is, are we doing enough as a society to profile this? If brands want to play their part, it is time to start pulling them up and holding them accountable. As women we need to keep pushing them to be better, as a consumer, as a client or as employee.

2024 is the year for transparency and we believe it is ok for brands to be honest and admit that they don’t know what to do to make change. We would have more respect for that than to promise the world and give no follow through.

The global theme this year is ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.’ We know times are tough, but businesses have the responsibility to do their part in making sure the pay gap closes. Continue to challenge where you can and as an individual support woman-owned businesses or businesses following through with what they say, to boost their sales and support fellow change-makers.

Let’s make this year the year we stop the lip service. Not only for the recent generations but for the future generations of woman to come.

Much love,

India

After the year 2023 was, 2024 will introduce even more shifts for the PR industry. We see communications practitioners diving deeper into what we do done and expanding the remit to meet the changing landscape. After looking into our glass ball, these are the changes we will foresee that will start in 2024.

Authenticity and transparency

“We are sick of the bulls**t” is a catch cry reverberating among GenZ.

Purpose and values will further come to the forefront as Gen Z increase their purchasing power.

This year will see people start making more of a statement about buying preferences – what and from where as their honest thoughts as authenticity and transparency demands grow.

Meaningful connections with brands and their audience will be the driver of sales and with AI-generated content becoming more prominent, authenticity will be integral to standing out. People need value and when it comes to PR practitioners, we will be placing more human emotion and connection into communications.

Authenticity, transparency and connection will take focus in every aspect of the communications landscape, which takes us to these next points:

AI will not be taking over

We all know AI is not going anywhere, however we predict there will a shift to greater awareness of automated writing and messaging from previous hype.  The result? People will be more aware of those using it and steer far far away. 

It would be easy for PR practitioners (if done right) to use AI to take over most of their communication writing but, let’s be real, you can tell the difference between a real human to a computer.

Using AI to write defeats the communication purpose, AI is not able to impart human connection, warmth and empathy the way a person can. The more people who use AI, the more resources get reused and the more the content becomes similar.  

Brands and social media  

Third-party wording for brands is so 2022. With connection being top of mind, this year we will see more brands move to a personalised relationship with their followers.

Instead of the typical ‘at xyz’ we will start seeing more ‘we’ as they include their audience into their community. Long time coming we say…

Brands will also further increase their use of social media in the age of immediacy by becoming their own reputation manager. Expect to see more live content and the re-sharing of consumers’ posts as brands focus on inclusivity rather than aesthetics. By piquing people’s attention, getting personal with content and creating conversation an engaged audience will naturally follow.

Posting daily, having a key spokesperson, getting involved with trends and showing personality, answering comments, and collaborating with like-minded individuals will be key factors to success this year.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is still having its day with the rise of TikTok accounts.  We foresee another dynamic shift with the preference coming back to authenticity and engaged tight community preferences over high follower numbers alone.

Social media attention spans will remain very low, with this creators will need to capture attention by infusing creativity into their everyday content.  This could bring more ‘trends’ and a shift in effectively engaging an audience – we could see the moral of the story evident in the opening seconds.

Brands will look to loosen the brief and let creators create what feels right for their audience as they become accustomed to what resonates on TikTok and this will move to other social platforms.  Creators will value the creative freedom and going a bit ‘off the brief’ to create authenticity, emotion and energy ultimately delivering results. 

Climate Crisis

Expect to see even more of a deep dive into tackling the climate crisis. Scrutiny is rising so ensuring that the planet is at the forefront will be key, and if it isn’t we will start to see brands being challenged to do better from multiple sectors.