Pocatello woman’s new hair product taking salon industry by storm
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POCATELLO
Local woman’s hair product gaining traction around the globe
POCATELLO — As a former stylist, Camie Parsons has heard just about every female hair complaint in existence, and she’s dealt with her own hair woes as well.
The 46-year-old Pocatello woman invented a patent-pending hair product designed to “change texture and color in the same appointment while repairing damage,” according to the website. It’s called Iuveni (the Latin word for young).
The product launched in January, and salons and schools throughout eastern Idaho are starting to carry it. Parsons shows what it does in the video above.
In a conversation with EastIdahoNews.com, Parsons recalls a situation years ago that prompted her to find a solution that many thought was impossible.
“I had a client come in who wanted her hair permed. I’m feeling her hair, and I asked, ‘What have you done to your hair?’ She said, ‘Nothing,’ and I asked her again, ‘What did you do to your hair?'”
The woman told Parsons she had bleached her hair and then colored it back to its original color.
“I wasn’t going to perm her hair because I know what happens when you perm bleached hair,” Parsons says. “It’s well known that if you do that, you will destroy it. Every female knows it.”
Still, the woman went home and permed it herself.
When she returned to Parsons’ salon several days later, the woman had what Parsons describes as “snot hair.”
“I went to wash her hair, and you could take it and stretch it. It was like mucus,” Parsons recalls. “The only thing we could do was cut it off, and there were a lot of tears in the salon that day.”
Unsatisfied, Parsons went to work on finding a different solution. As a graduate student at Idaho State University, she took lots of chemistry classes and did experiments with hair.
There was significant progress in her research over time.
“I permed and colored the same hair 14 times through the course of a semester before I could notice damage,” says Parsons.
She came up with the initial formula in 2016, which earned her a cash prize in a competition for student investors. It also attracted the interest of someone from Harvard Business School.
With a business plan in place, the product was gaining momentum with consumers. Then in 2020, everything came to a halt and Parsons nearly lost it all.
“(The Harvard investor) brought in his friend to be CEO, and it went badly. Then COVID hit … and I thought, ‘Is this really going to die?'” Parsons says.
Parsons refinanced her home to buy back the business. With a new team of investors, Parsons is happy to have a product on the market that customers are excited about.
Companies in China, Taiwan, Mexico, England and Germany have reached out wanting to learn more.
“It’s so humbling and amazing. I feel like I won the lottery,” says Parsons.
Parsons explains the science behind Iuveni and how to use the product in a presentation to salon owners. Those interested in learning more can send an email to support@teamiuveni.com or fill out the form on the website.
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