Beauty News: Important Information for Salon Professionals from Patrick McIvor

This is a turning point for our industry. A non-professional was able to buy "professional-use-only" products and make a how-to video via YouTube that recommended using those products to lighten/bleach and tone her hair, while completely ignoring the manufacturer's instructions. Her video, which included harmful and dangerous information received 1.2 million views. As a salon professional, I created a video pointing out why what she did was unsafe. Now my video has been removed from YouTube, and I have been threatened with legal action. Things really need to change.

The challenge here is that she (and people like her) are making “how-to” instructional videos using products that legally they should not be using, products meant for licensed professionals only. Then they are demonstrating and instructing their use in dangerous ways that the manufacturer would never recommend. There is something wrong with this. If you agree, NOW IS THE TIME to take back the Social Network from harmful misinformation by untrained non-professionals. These videos are NOT meant as entertainment; these videos are intended to be informative, instructional how-to videos, and they are making improper claims, while misinforming the public that uses YouTube to search for information.

I think it's cool that people want to share, and I said it at the beginning of my video, but when information being shared is dangerous and unprofessional and when professional-use only products are demonstrated in ways that they are legally not intended to be used, we NEED to stand up and say something! Google needs to change its policy and allow professionals to share when something is WRONG. There is no dispute that what was shared in this girl's video was wrong and did not follow manufacturer's directions, yet under the auspices of copyright protection Google is disseminating information that is clearly dangerous. Google needs to become more “Wiki”-like in its policies and allow a professional’s video to help protect the public from verified dangerous misinformation. To do this they need to allow professionals to use the disputed videos that are posted as a platform for rebuttal, especially because the video's intent is to be public knowledge and information. How else can we protect the viewer if we cannot show videos that are clearly harmful to the general public? The bottom line: Google is not protecting the public and is hiding behind a law that was not meant for the YouTube era where YouTube is used to search for information.

IF YOU AGREE PLEASE SHARE. I want more than 1.2 million shares from true salon professionals around the world, so stand up and “Like” and “Share” this!

Now is the time for us to say that it’s wrong for non-professionals to share dangerous ideas and information in these how-to videos! I know - I am a salon professional.

—Patrick McIvor