Dan Hodgdon | Keys to Healthy and Beautiful Hair From the Founder of Vegamour
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If you’re tired of struggling with hair loss or using harmful chemicals that end up creating long-term problems, stay tuned because you’re about to find the solution for you. In this episode, Dan Hodgdon shares actionable steps to support healthy, beautiful hair and explains why he created Vegamour’s 100% vegan beauty products.
Key Takeaways From This Episode
How to identify quality beauty products
Causes for poor hair health
4 lifestyle tips to support healthy hair
Benefits of exercising outdoors
Plant-based hair products that smell delicious
Disclaimer: All of the information and views shared on the Live Greatly podcast are purely the opinions of the authors, and they are not medical advice or treatment recommendations. The contents of this podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician or qualified health professional for any recommendations specific to you or for any questions regarding your specific health, your sleep patterns, changes to diet and exercise, or any medical conditions.
Vegamour did send me free products to try which I loved!
About Dan Hodgdon
Dan Hodgdon is an emerging leader in the clean beauty movement, helping to shape the future of a massively influential industry. As CEO of VEGAMOUR - one of the world’s fastest-growing hair brands - the Los Angeles-based executive has created a first-of-its-kind line of plant-based hair-wellness products for women, revealing entirely new possibilities at the intersection of sustainability and science.
Founded in 2016, VEGAMOUR takes a uniquely holistic and science-driven approach to hair health, formulating all its products with non-toxic, organic, wild-harvested ingredients used in amounts clinically proven to boost hair density and volume.
Connect with Dan
Website: www.vegamour.com
Instagram: @vegamour
Facebook: Vegamour
Use code HELLO20! and get a 20% off on your first purchase at www.vegamour.com.
If you are struggling with feeling overworked or overwhelmed, access the Top 10 Stress Management Tips for the Overworked free right now.
Kristel Bauer, the Founder of Live Greatly, is on a mission to help people awaken to their ultimate potential. She is a wellness expert, Integrative Medicine Fellow, Keynote Speaker, Physician Assistant, & Reiki Master with the goal of empowering others to live their best lives!
Follow her on:
Instagram: @livegreatly_co
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LinkedIn: Kristel Bauer
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To learn more about Live Greatly's transformative online courses for personal development and self-improvement, to discuss collaborations and partnerships, or to book Kristel as a speaker or consultant, click here.
Episode Transcript
Dan (Teaser)
Making sure that we eat the right food and we stay a little away from those carbs and those sugars, which also produces insulin resistance and try to stay in healthy foods and eating healthy fats. There's all kinds of foods that we can actually incorporate, which helped promote hair health as well.
Kristel (Guest Introduction)
If you're interested in the clean beauty movement and you want to have healthy, vibrant hair, you're going to gain a ton of value from today's episode with Dan Hodgdon.
Dan's an emerging leader in the clean beauty movement and he's the CEO of Vegamour. Vegamour takes a unique holistic science driven approach to hair health. They use non-toxic organic ingredients clinically proven to boost hair density and volume. We're going to be talking about what goes into hair loss.
What goes into hair health, how you can support vibrant, healthy hair. I am so excited about this episode. Let's jump right into it and welcome Dan to the show.
Dan:
Thank you. It’s an honor to here.
Kristel:
For sure. So to start, I would love to hear a little bit about what got you interested in starting Vegamour and what really inspires you and you know, if you could just share a little bit about yourself and some of the things that you're currently working. on.
Dan:
Yeah, no, absolutely. I'd love to. So it started a really long time ago. Actually, I come from a long line of, of new England dairy farmers, believe it or not. And my dad of the family in Vermont, where he's from was the only one who, as he likes to say, managed to escape the farm life.
Uh, and he did that by joining the Navy when he was 17. And he went on to become an engineer and he had a career that took him and us in a family all over the world. So we lived from Southeast Asia to middle east to Australia. I asked them, okay, Formative years abroad, but you know, my dad wanted me to have, when you live overseas or not as a kid, you're not allowed to get like a newspaper route.
You can't get a work visa. So like he would always send me my summer campus being sent back to his family farms in Vermont. So like, I was sort of like lent out as a indentured servitude as manual labor. And so I would bounce around from my uncle's farm to my cousin's farm, to my grandparent's farm. And so from the time of like, I guess nine or 10 years old till like I was 18.
But I growing up in a city, I didn't know where our food came from. It came from the grocery store. And so, but being on the farm and these are new England farmers where they basically grow or raise everything that they consume. And so it was really important, like where you plant the crops each season, you have to rotate, we didn't have money fertilizers or things like that.
You know, synthetic fertilizer, chemical fertilizers.. So we had to basically like work with the land to produce everything that would be also the winter. So we can, the vegetables, we had a potato cellar in, for me, it was this really fascinating coming from like Bangkok and then like going to, to Vermont every summer.
And like, we take the best seeds from the best tomatoes and save those for next year and plant those we'd take the best apples can implant those. And so over the years you would see this, you know, the crops and the different strains. It was very. From one year to the next, the flavors were different and the growth patterns were different.
And because you're working with an ecosystem there that the balance is very important for producing positive results. And so I kind of like learned from that experience. Like if you take care of the land, the land she’ll take care of you, but it's, you have to really respect her and have patience and learn from what the land can teach you.
So that was sort of like developed my interest in agriculture, which later turned into like, you know, from living abroad. And I would always like, kind of. And see how other people were raising things and growing things. And it's just like, I don't know. I just was really, really enamored by how different cultures would produce different crops.
And, you know, usually using centuries like rice terracing in Bali that were centuries old and passed down from generation like my family's farm, but that kind of led to, uh, an interest in biodiversity is sustainable agriculture, regenerative, agriculture. And I ended up setting supply chains for what turned out to be mostly beauty companies around 2005, 2006, when clean beauty was just kind of getting a little bit started, was mostly in the spa industry using paraben-free preservative free skincare and body care products.
And so I would work with different cultures and in places like Southeast Asia, primarily. And, um, would set up supply chains for beauty companies for natural botanical actives. And so it eventually led me to Southern Africa, Madagascar, where I set up a rather large supply chain for African botanical oils, like marula oil, Bevo bobs and Minea.
And that seemed to be very interesting Wells for hair companies. And I was, you know, it was super exciting for me to be able to like see the impact that was having on cause we would work in partnership and fair trade partnership with like thousands of women, because they're the ones who are actually do most of the work in that part of the world.
The men in that part of the world consider themselves lawyers and like work is not really like, it's kind of beneath them. The, so the women are the economic backbone. So we form fair trade partners. Like in Northern Namibia with 5,000 women, um, who like sustainably harvest marula and baobab and Kalahari melon seed oil for us, which we intern like help distribute throughout the cosmetic world.
My issue with it when I started doing more research into the science of these actives. They really had amazing properties. That oil is highly it's antimicrobial it boosts microcirculation, it's anti-inflammatory, it's actually enter follicular means it can penetrate like the hair follicle and it actually can penetrate down to the upper level of the dermis.
And so all of these things are conducive to like hair growth and hair health. And so I would advocate my art clients to like, you know, why don't you, where are you using? Is it like 0.0, 2%? You know, rather than at their actual, at the levels where they would actually have an impact or might you go to the trouble of making them by little later?
Instead of just like, and it was, they were using them for marketing claims. And so you would have like a big picture of a marula tree on a, on a dishwashing soap bottle but there's like 0.0, zero 3%. And again, it was in cosmetic industry kind of does the same thing. And I was like, if we could educate these beauty companies to use these in quantities that were actually where they could actually have an impact.
And if you've made them bioavailable. So they could actually get down to where they needed to get and to do their job. You have a significant impact on skin health and or hair health. And, but nobody was really interested in that. They just, you know, for the marketing claims and I get it, the bottom line, the vegan one for me was sort of like, it was sort of like just approved to those guys.
That you could do this. You could create stuff that a product that could make a significant, measurable, visible impact if you use them at the right, right percentages and the right formulations. And actually our kind of secret is using more than one. It's not a, you know, because hair health is, is contingent upon so many different underlying issues.
And so what can we, what are those issues and how can we other plant actors that can solve for them? And if they use it in use in tandem at the right ratios, they have assimilated more impact than just a single approach was typically how we approach things now. And so, and it can be done profitably. And so I didn't have very much money to start this.
And then we just went on. Back before there was such a thing as D to C and, you know, we started advertising on paid social and social media and people would try the product and they would see results and it kind of spread by word of mouth. And so, I mean, a few years ago, yeah three to four people last year, we’re able to get six people early last year.
Now we're like close to 40 or 50 and we just launched last month. So I think I've proven that my thesis, if you will, but, and I'm, I'm really excited to continue doing what we're doing. And as, as the company grows, as awareness grows around this holistic botanical active natural approach you know, holistic approach to hair wellness, as we're calling this category now, That other companies will see what we've done and follow suit is my hope.
That's my dream. And you know, some of us, our platform as big more the platform to advocate for the proper use of natural botanicals in place of chemicals for, you know, we can do so much with the technology that's available today with plant actives that is actually is superior or assist exceeds the performance for things that were, we used to use, like, you know, minoxidil or which I think was discovered sometime when the Nazis and, and their V rocket program in the late forties in or Finasteride, which was things done.
We can stil smoke on airplanes. That's how all these technologies are or prostoglandin which isn't other lash products, which has known those products are made with known carcinogens. I mean, they work, but like they also have negative side effects. So like my all contention was your body used to know how to do this.
Are there plant actives that exist in nature? Can we harvest them? Can we find the best strains? Like we used to find the best tomatoes, trains when Marin was farming and use those to create like highly concentrated proteins that we can work performed together in tan and formulate and to produce these results, which again, have no negative side effects.
So I'm sorry. That was a really long winded explanation I've been talking.
Kristel:
So that you sound like a scientist. And so you are creative, scientists, farmer, you know, all of these different things. You're going to bring it together. Just want to backtrack for a moment. So for you listening those addicts, you were talking about like minoxidil that's Rogaine crack.
Dan:
Yes. That would be an minoxidil is, is basically, it was a blood pressure medication.
So it helps to boost microcirculation, but they can do that. Finasteride is. Right. Exactly right.
Kristel:
Yeah. So, yeah. So for you listening, you know, you might've been like, well, what are those? So those are just some common treatments for hair loss. And what I love that you're doing is you're trying to give people benefits without those negative side effects.
And another thing that really stood out. Sharing your background was kind of felt like there was like a secret to the beauty industry where you can use a really low level of an ingredient and then put it on your label. And I've never really thought about that. I've never really thought about, well, how much of this marula oil or something is in this real oil that I'm buying or, you know, whatever it is.
So is that something that is a really common thing and how can the listener be educated when they're buying beauty products to try and make sure they're buying things that are actually good for them.
Dan:
The a great question and a lot to unpack there. It is true. I mean, we live in the beauty industry, right?
Which I'm a part of. I mean, typically you've never really had to actually really do anything. And most of the time we use delivery systems like creams or lotions to, for our moisturizers. And those are, they don't exist in nature. They're emulsified. And emulsifications that actually have a different pH balance than your skin.
So when you're putting it on your skin, you're stressing your skin. So I think in terms of like it's a whole spectrum of, you can look at the ingredient list on any cosmetic product, right. If you look at the ingredient list, they list it in the order of quantity on the ingredient list. So if, if it says this rural oil and the product, and it's already at the end, at the end of it, of that list of ingredients, you know, they just use a tiny little bit, just, you know, again, for the marketing claim, vitamin C retinol, these are all things that typically the producers of these actives, and I'm a producer of like, multifactors.
I go to the same trade shows they're called in cosmetics and they're all over the world. And it's the same guys and the same people that attend them every year. And they kind of walk the show that looks at new activists and they look for the clinical studies that the manufacturer has on the actives. And they always try to show it at 1% or less that in vivo or in vitro studies that can produce you some people in these studies were able to achieve these results. \
And so that's all the, usually the really manufacturers looking for, oh, here's a clinical, they don't do their own. That's like, oh, I've got this one. You're going to stand behind this. So I'm going to go and manufacture with this at 1%.
And I can back up basically how beauty companies manufacture products. They say I'm going to make a face cream and here's the packaging for it. And it's going to have to cost $3. That's the most, most it can cost us and we're going to sell it for $90. And so the formulator like uses the ingredients for the ingredient story.
Cause it's a story that you're telling and then they back into like, how do you get there? If they were able to use 3% and produce better result, but it would cost more than that $3. They're not allowed to do it. In fact, they would probably be fired if they came to the company and said like I made when she, when it's going to cost three 50, but it performs much better.
No, that's not there. It's about the profit margin basically. And I think there's enough profit and to do it correctly. But you know, we're also a small company we're not owned by a multi-national beauty conglomerates. So again, where it sits in the ingredient list is we'll give you a sort of a, an idea.
The rate, what percentage of using, but also more important than that even as is the source of the mural oil oil is a very difficult thing to produce. Imagine like an apricot and inside the apricot, it's a pit. And so you have to like peel that the apricot, get the meat off, dry that pit in the sand, and then you have two choices.
You can either crush it with like a roll or a press to get out the little seeds which have the oil in it or, but if you do that, there's an enzyme in that's in that seed matter called lipase in that lipase, it's a seed it's supposed to germinate and become a tree well that when you rub that together, by crushing it, it actually creates starts the germination process.
And that oil will start, go into a state of rancidity. And so that oil, that ruler, which is beautiful oil when it starts to germinate and go in that state of rancidity is actually. Dealing with free radicals. So it's actually aging rather than anti-aging right. And so if you find like marull oil and it's like, whatever is $7 a bottle, you know that what they've done is they've crushed it in mass.
They've taken it. And they've boiled that marulal oil at 250 degrees centigrade to get all the yeast, bacteria and mold out of it and water, and they rush, play flesh, detergents, and solvents through it. And what comes out of this clear liquid. That looks like Vika, basically. And you add a little vitamin E to go for all to it, and then they call it Marula.
I mean, technically, yeah, it was marulal. The very little, what was it that made it interesting as a, an active, as a botanical is left. So like your staircase is gone. Your leg ACS is gone. Your mega three, six, and nine fatty acids are all done. We use a different process. We call, press everything. We have a release.
Hold filtration process, which brings it down to like 0.01 microns, which is pharmaceutical grade, but without pressure and without heat. So we preserve all of those beautiful ingredients. There's actors that are in that oil. And so, and that's what we add to our products. So there's very, a huge difference between an industrial produced marula oil versus our marula oil.
Kristel:
Wow. Okay. So that it's so sneaky. Like when you were describing that, I was like, Ooh, it makes me upset. And it's interesting, like thinking about putting a rancid oil on your face too. And I know I bought oils on occasion. That haven't smelled good. And that's been kind of my key, like something's not quite right here.
Cause it made, it just was gross.
Dan:
Absolutely right. If you smell it, it smells a little bit like yogurt. Okay. Throw it away. It is not, that's mastered oil and it's filled with free radicals and it's basically soon as you put on your face, you're starting to struggle. Opposite of what it's supposed to.
Kristel:
Okay. So for you listening, if you have any oil sitting in your cabinets, should you share that you check those out and I want to segue a little bit into how people can support their hair. And also if you have any insights into skin, and I know lifestyle is a huge factor in addition to the ingredients that you're using in your products.
So I would love to know your take on that whole arena of lifestyle and how it impacts hair and skin.
Dan:
Yeah. So one of the things. When putting together this, this company and this line. Well, you know, I did a lot of research on hair health and, and I should also say that I'm a sophomore engineer by training and education and in my early career.
And so I kind of, again, maybe the reason we came with this approach is because we don't really know. We're not from this industry. We kind of, so I approached hair health as a same way as I would approach like an engineering program. And so typically what we do is we reverse engineer like to get to where we want it to go.
So the first thing we do is like, well, what are all the underlying like, causes of poor hair health? And so it turns out it's not, one it's not just microcirculation. Right? DHT is just, it's not just stress there's, it's not just like that our antigen or growth phase like becomes shorter as we age and are intelligent or hibernation phase becomes longer as we age.
And I sort of like, I sort of, kind of wanted to understand why when we're children may have beautiful, like hair, full heads of hair, long lashes, big bushy brows, and like what happens to us? Understanding the physiology of it. And then looking to see, like, what are all these underlying root causes, rather than just trying to treat the symptoms, which is typically what those other products like Finasteride, minoxidil, even prostaglandin.
And what if you were to like, look at the underlying root cause rather than just trying to cure this, you know, treat the symptoms, but also treat the symptoms. But like let's rather than if you just treat the symptoms, the underlying root cause is still there. So, and basically it looks the same to your podcast.
I know you're into integrated medicine, functional medicine. And I'm a huge advocate of that. And so that was the approach that I took. And, you know, I spoke with chemists physiologists, nutritionists physicians to, to try to really understand this found out that it was, it's a myriad of, it's not a fusing that a single cause it's usually multiple causes.
So if there's multiple issues, you need a holistic solution and holistic is very misused word. I find it actually means comprehensive. And so holistic means a comprehensive approach and looking at not just the symptoms, but addressing the underlying root causes of which there are many. And so what I did is I began to study, you know, how can we increase the micro RNA 33 that's required to increase the, the antigen or growth phase?
How can we reduce the amount of micro RNA, 21, which is what like increases the telogen phase? How can we produce IGF one? How can we produce as the dermal papillae. Is the root of the hair follicle. How do we, since the messages, the growth messages to the hair follicle, as we age, it becomes like the cellular matrix starts to like atrophy and becomes weak.
How can we strengthen that? How could we like create you use plant phytoestrogen to make the follicles themselves ready to receive those messages and grow? How can we reduce like DHT production as our bodies change, as we grow older, our estrogen levels decrease our antigen levels go up. And so that testosterone is oftentimes converted into DHT, which can be very harmful for hair.
And so w w w what, and is there a way to do it without changing what our body's naturally supposed to? As we age, we are producing the most estrogen and impressive for just producing more testosterone. So is there, we're not going to change that hormonal change, but what is the thing that converts testosterone to DHT?
It's the five offer reductase and inside is a way that we can neutralize that with the plant active so that it no longer enables the testosterone to be converted to DHT. So it was like a software approach, basically like a software problem. And then through like plant active solutions at it, and then working with some amazing, talented chemist again, in a single formula, can we put all these different actives and bind them with the right peptide at the right ratio so that they can attack all of these different issues simultaneously on their own they're fantastic.
But what if we would have it together? The impact is far more efficacious.
And so that was kind of the approach we took to the product. But then looking at, again, going back to the root causes, that's like, if you have like a hair wellness pie chart, like imagine the products would be like 50% of the pie. The other 50% is like just lifestyle. We tend to treat ourselves. There's a lot of awareness around like wellness now.
And I think that's really wonderful. And, you know, we find people like, you know, they're taking yoga classes, they're eating organic foods or drinking mineral water from BPA free plastic bottles. And yet, and we use clean cosmetics. We use clean skincare, we use clean color cosmetics, and that's wonderful, but what do we put on our hair?
We don't think about our mean, it's the last thing we think about, you know, we have 15 different products that we put on our face for preserving our skin. But we dye our hair, we bleach our hair, we curl it, we straighten it. We put chemical products like gel or mousse or other binders to make it stand up.
We're going to make it stay down. We are completely torturing and abusing our hair. And we wonder when we're in our thirties, like, whoa, what's going on with my hair. And it's not because we're basically torturing it. And again, as all this care that we go into, like the other areas of our life with, with regards to like, you know, focusing on wellness, putting some shampoo with Silicon, which makes your hair look and feel great, but it's dehydrating your hair and it's clogging up your pores and it's blocking your CV production, which is it creates scalp issues and also impairs hair growth.
So this part of our head that our scalp is our part valuable organ, our skin, but it's also our most absorbent organ, because it has to have room for the follicles to grow. So like anything that we're putting into our hair, Is actually going down through our, into our pores and into our bodies.
And so I liken it to like going to going to the gym or going to doing soul cycle, like seven classes a day, and then like eliciting the rest, which is fantastic. A little excessive, but like, that's a lot of calories you burn, but then. For the other seven hours, like eating ice cream all day, yet you will never catch up.
And so like all these other things that we're doing to our body to make sure that we're thinking healthy and fit, we completely undo them by pouring these chemicals, these silent products, these shampoos and conditioners with dilates and synthetic fragrances and parabens. And, and you know, when we don't have to do that.
And so I was like, there's gotta be another way. They have to actually perform these products need to perform as well. Like your hair has to feel amazing, but what can we do to like using the actors that we know that we are working with an African and working with other parts of the world, what can we do to put together these amazing actors?
And so that it's clean. And, but to go back to your other part of your question lifestyle, I mean, stress is. Issue with, uh, especially now during COVID we've found a lot of people have come to us and found us by we've been talking about stress and its impact on hair loss for years. And when COVID started, a lot of people really started experiencing that inexperienced, a lot of hair shedding.
And so much of that is there are some things you can, we have supplements for that that helped reduce stress and anxiety and help promote sleep. But the real thing, the best thing for you to do is to, is to start a meditation practice, to make sure that you're getting enough sleep seven to eight hours a day minimum, because if you don't get enough sleep, and again, I say, that's your biggest lifestyle change.
That's the biggest impact on health overall is getting enough sleep. I need to listen to my own advice. I don't, it makes such a huge impact if one hour less than that is your cortisol levels spike didn't even have to be. You don't have to be, have any fear or anxiety in your life to have like cortisol, coursing through your veins from lack of sleep.
And that cortisol causes insulin resistance, which causes like inflammation, which causes telogen, effluvium, which is an early shutting of your hair. And then your scalp becomes inflamed. And when the new hair tries to grow back up, it's being suffocated and something was called follicular miniaturization.
And that follicle dies before it's fully formed. And this creates this vicious cycle. So sleep would, I would say be the number one lifestyle. The second thing would be combating stress would be meditation practice, 12 minutes a day. Studies have shown like lowest cortisol levels considerably after just like a period of three weeks.
Something I got to. Yeah. During COVID myself was I no longer could do exercise classes indoors. So I would do yoga classes outside in the park. And then I would take a little walk afterwards and I would smell these amazing Cyprus, Eucalyptus,Verbena and there are studies that show that they call it.
They called forest fading, but, but exposure to nature, it reduces our cortisol levels and our adrenals that the generalized, it also improves our in boost our in case or natural killer cells, which helps boost our immunity. When you are full of cortisol, when a medulla part of your brain is driving, this cortisol is great when you need to escape a dangerous thing.
It's your fight or flight hormone, but today more and more, we sort of are always living in this constant state of fear. And when that doesn't subside, not only do you lose your hair, but you also, it also more prone to cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, type two diabetes. And these are all things that can be not easily adjust a bit.
You sit within our power by making some simple life, making sure you get the bed on time, turning those screens off an hour before you go to bed. Yeah, I'm sure you've, you've had people in several guests on your show. Talk about the same thing, and I know that this is one of your practices as well, but that sleep is so important.
Exercise and it doesn't have to be really good. It could be a walk around the block, but getting that gets your blood circulation. That's microcirculation help circulate oxygen and blood around your scalp and your follicles. And also when we sweat, when you perspire that sweat coming out of our poorest helps like unclog the block seed that accumulates there on the top of this making sure that we eat the right food.
We stay a little away from those carbs and those sugars, which also produces insulin resistance and try to stay in healthy foods and eating healthy fats. Those there's all kinds of foods that we can actually incorporate into our daily diet, which helped promote hair health as well.
I could go on and on and on. I will pause. As I learned all these things, I'm like, oh my God. It's. So the choices we make in our daily lives can have such a huge impact. And I just didn't realize, I never realized how something that I take for granted asleep or just a little bit of movement, or just taking some time to just breathe.
And there's all kinds of breathing techniques that we talk about that can also in a pinch, like, you know, just in a couple of minutes, like really lower that stress levels.
Kristel:
Awesome. Well, this has been extremely helpful. We are coming towards the end, but I didn't mention how much I love your products. You sent me some to try and we were talking before I started recording about the amazing smells and that was something that has stood out to me.
And this was the one that you sent. It's the grow line and the shampoo and conditioner smells incredible. It was like you said Tangerine. So I got like orange.
Dan:
Yeah. At Bergen, my, uh, Pixie it's, uh, again, that was inspired by every Easter. We go up to Ohio just because it's pixie season and it's the Pixies are these little, like tiny little oranges, almost like Mandarin oranges that are super sweet.
Thousands of acres like planted with them. And it just, you know, you walked through your ride, your bicycle through, it smells like heaven, and there's a science around, you know, a wellness therapy and how essential oils, like I said, the reason why we go forest bathing is those, those EOs that we smell from the Cypress tree or from a eucalyptus tree, those EOs are filled with like, you know, properties that lower our cortisol levels and boost our natural killer cells.
Not everyone can has access to a park or forest, and there are people like you that live in Chicago and in the winter time, it's really accessible. That will one, can we. Yeah, little things, actions we can take that make a huge difference. You know, when we're in our showers, it's probably the one time in our, in our, in our day that we don't have our mobile phones with them somewhere, not being distracted by, you know, all these electronic messages and things like that.
That's a wonderful moment to incorporate these natural EOs into the, in our product. Know, the one you have is, is the, is the Brigham pixie. And another one is inspired by my yoga classes, which is eucalyptus and the, in the verbena and the highest incidence, which is a, it's more of a calming rather than invigorating scent.
And those molecules actually affect different parts of our brain and create different can release dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin the feel-good hormones that actually also boost our natural immune system. So I thought in that shower, you take that, whatever, wherever you are in the world, you can pour that into your hands and just like take a long, deep breath.
I mean, it's all you can do in this moment. In this present time is one, you don't have to meditate for hours. It's just one breath. And if you take a pause, inhale that and let them know. The user, the bergamot, the pixie, the neroli blossoms that let that take you on a momentary journey and let that discourse through your, into your brain and into your body.
And then fortunately, as you mentioned, you get, you get to take a little bit with you during the day, because it tends to kind of stay in here because it is an essential oil. So that's my little, my little cherry on top of, of the entire Vegamour line up.
Kristel:
Yeah, take a little vacation every day in the shower. I love it.
And so at this point, I'm going to ask one last question close, and I'm going to put links in the episode detail. So if you want to learn more, if you want to try out the products, you know, check that out and I've really enjoyed them so far. So this has been super fun. And the last question that I have for you, Dan, is knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to yourself when you were starting your company Vegamour so that was 2006, right?
Dan:
Now 2016, actually. Yeah.
Kristel:
So what advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now.
Dan:
You know, follow your heart and make sure that you're doing something that you love, because if you're doing something that you love, it never really feels like work. And I don't know, I don't know if that was intentional, but it ended up being there for me because I think I don't sleep enough because I'm always excited to wake up and like, I can't wait to start the next day because what new discovery going to happen?
So if it doesn't feel like work, if you're passionate about what you're doing and you really believe in it, like, you know, holds true to that, don't compromise on your dreams or your passions and, you know, try to do, if you can, if you're fortunate enough to do something you love, because again, you'll always wake up every day excited to go to work because it's not really work.It's fun.
Kristel:
It was incredible. Well, thank you so much, Dan. This has been so much fun.
Dan:
Thank you. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.