Keep the current beauty!  Aging care brand PLARMIA was developed for the UNIQUE-PIECE generation. Among all the products under PLARMIA brand, the “Clear Spa Form”, carbonic acid shampoo has been an amazing product hit from day 1 of its release.  In our last interview with Mr. Kawagoe, a chief researcher of the haircare developing team, explained the background history of the product development. In today’s interview, he will talk about the difficulties the met while developing the product and their commitment for developing the product.

Yumi:

What was the difficulties while developing the product?

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

We knew that hair looses strength and firmness with age, but it was difficult to come up with solution to diminish a sense of discomfort with it.  Just creating a product to give  firmness would not satisfy hair dressers and customers would not be satisfied.

 

Yumi:

You are right.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

We spent a lot of time to find out customers’ benefit and added value to our new product. It had to be a special product different from other products.

 

Yumi:

I see.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

We had case study with people using beauty essence which we had been developing for 3 months, and checking every 2 weeks. During the case study, we had response from people not only about the change in the actual hair condition but also positive message that they got more confident about themselves.

As a conclusion, we realized that “age beauty” keeping the current one was a more important message than “anti-aging,” and that what our customers were looking for was not necessary instant result but real ones when people become truly beautiful from the inside.

 

Yumi:

The product should be one that we can use on a continuing basis.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

That is right.  We wanted to create a product which our customers can use on daily basis to grow healthy and beautiful hair for long term rather than a product which aim for instant result.  This idea became our philosophy for developing the new product.

 

Yumi:

What differentiate PLARMIA from others is that it is first aerosol carbonic acid shampoo.  What made you to focus on carbonic acid?

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

We were advised from hair salon that they had been studying “how hair conditions changed with age.”  According to them, when women become older, hair turn into 3 types of mixed hair.

 

Yumi:

What are the 3 types?

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

First is the original hair type, the second one is thin and fluffy, the third one is frizzy after being damaged by hair coloring, these 3 types of hair coexist on aging women.  In addition, thin and fluffy hair grows on the top part of the head, so aging hair grows from top to bottom, according to  hair salons.

 

Yumi:

That idea comes from the experience of hair dressers at the salon.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

Yes, this theory was proved by our research with 300 people, that made us realized how hair dressers and hair salons understand their clients based on their experience. With their advise, we thought that if we stimulate blood circulation on the top of head, it could prevent people to have 3 types of mixed hair.

 

Yumi:

I see.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

We decided to use carbonic acid to stimulate blood circulation directly, which is a different method than hair restoration tonic.  When we apply carbonic acid to the scalp, it goes into our blood vessel and increase the amount of oxygen, therefore, we thought that if we were including carbonic acid into shampoo which we use everyday, it would prevent hair to be damaged with age.

 

Yumi:

This is the reason why you blended carbonic acid with shampoo.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

To explain it in a simple way, using carbonic acid changes the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in blood increasing the last one, with blood lacking of oxygen. So blood starts to produce more, and as a result, it stimulates blood circulation.

 

Yumi:

That is interesting.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

Carbonic acid can create thin bubbles, so it also has a cleansing effect.  Since it is an acid, it can clean and get rid of alkaline which is brought by color and perm products.  As a result, protein level is normalized, so scalp and hair stay clean and healthy.  It also has a moisturizing effect.

 

Yumi:

Wow, it is good for everything!

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

Carbonic acid itself does not have a moisturizing effect, it spreads itself all over body 20 times faster than oxygen, so it is a high osmosis agent, also with other ones.

 

Yumi:

I understand.

 

Mr. Kawagoe:

At the beginning, our company’s directors disagreed with us about developing shampoo, however after our research on carbonic acid being effective to prevent people’s sense of discomfort with their hair, they agreed to work on carbonic acid shampoo.

 

(To be continued)

 

Clear Spa Form, an aerosol shampoo, from PLARMIA brand