February 2009 Archives

As part of Avlon and Syntonics' long-term social commitment to the global community, I wanted to talk a little about a microfinance website that you may have already heard of, called Kiva.

Kiva is a not-for-profit website where you can fund loans to entrepreneurs around the world in a peer to peer fashion, meaning that you can pick and choose who receives your loan and follow their updates as they pay you back.

I think now is more of an important time than ever to support microfinancial institutions, as the tightening of the global credit markets could have a negative boomerang effect on many deserving entrepreneurs. A quick look at the risk statistics shows that surprisingly only 2.2% of loans end up defaulting. Moreover, if the field partner distributing your loan has a rating of four or five stars, Kiva claims a 0% default rate.

I will continue to fund as many loans as possible, so if you'd like to track my loans, feel free to check my lender page or even join The Avlon Team in helping fight global poverty.

I wanted stylists to get a glimpse of what our newly updated package of the KeraCare Humecto Creme Conditioner 8 oz. bottle will look like.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Avlon will now be filling the thicker and richer formula, that can be found in the 5 lbs. bucket, in the 8 oz and 16 oz sizes.

So please be sure that you are carrying the newest versions of the Humecto products. Hopefully you guys will now have an easier time to retail Humecto to your clients.

One thing to remember when dealing with different hair types is the susceptibility to carry electrostatic charges. Generally speaking, untreated African descent hair develops a highly negative electrostatic charge (-25.4 KV/m), but in contrast, Caucasian hair develops a very low positive electrostatic charge (+6.6 KV/m).

The relatively high negative charge acquired by dry African descent hair during combing may be due to the extraordinarily high degree of pulling force required to pass the comb through the mass of entangled hair fibers. This relatively high electrostatic charge produces a "balloon effect" and contributes to a higher degree of hair unmanageability.

Sources: 

Syed, A.N., Kuhajda, A., Ayoub, H., Ahmad, K., and Frank, E. (1995). African American Hair: Its physical properties and differences relative to Caucasian hair. Cosmetics & Toiletries Magazine. 110:46

Robbins, C.R. (1994). The physical properties and cosmetic behavior of hair. In Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair. New York: Springer-Verlag, p.348

Based on feedback that we received from you, the stylists, Avlon has decided that it was time for a change regarding the KeraCare Humecto Creme Conditioner.

Over the years, stylists conveyed to us that they preferred the thicker and richer formula that was present in the 5 lbs. bucket as opposed to the formula present in the 8 fl. oz and 16 fl. oz sizes.

In accordance with the times, Avlon has decided to change the 8 fl. oz and 16 fl. oz formulas to now feature the same thicker and richer formula found in the 5 lbs buckets. We will add some sort of imagery to the bottles to make sure you will be able to tell that the bottles contain the revised and thicker formula.

Most importantly, thanks for the feedback and we look forward to your future comments.