Why we concentrate instead of dilute

Pick up almost anything in the aisle and the first ingredient is water. There is nothing sinister in that. Water carries, spreads and makes a formula pleasant to use. It also makes a bottle bigger, cheaper to fill and easier to sell by volume.

We went the other way, and it changed nearly everything downstream: the size of the bottle, how much you use, how long it lasts, and what we put on a lorry.

What concentration changes

A concentrated formula asks less of you per use. A few drops, worked in properly, rather than a palmful spread thin. The actives are not thinned out before they reach your scalp, and you are not paying to move water across the country.

It takes an adjustment. Most people use too much the first week out of pure habit — the bottle feels stingy right up until the point, weeks later, when it has not run out.

A smaller bottle that lasts longer is not a compromise. It is the result.

Less water, less of everything else

Dilution drags things in behind it. More water usually means more of what keeps water pleasant and stable: thickeners to rebuild the body you just lost, and a preservation system to look after all of it. Each addition is defensible on its own. Together they are most of the ingredient list.

Keeping the water out keeps that list short. A short list is not a slogan for us; it is what happens when you stop having to solve problems you created a step earlier.

There is a less glamorous benefit too. Smaller bottles are lighter to ship and use less material, and waste you never create beats waste you carefully recycle. That is the argument we find hardest to talk about and easiest to defend.

How to use a concentrate well

Start with less than instinct suggests. Apply to a damp scalp rather than dry lengths, and part the hair as you go so the formula reaches skin instead of resting on top of the hair. Work it in slowly; give it somewhere to go.

If it feels like the product is sitting on the surface, that is the sign you have used too much, not too little. Half the amount tomorrow and see how it feels. Almost everyone lands lower than they started.