Product Recall: Sun-In
It’s another ep of Product Recall! Take a trip down memory lane as Kate and Doree discuss the hair lightener Sun-In, which dangled the promise of perfectly “natural” blonde highlights to millions. Come along as we unpack its racially coded legacy and how it’s being discovered by a new generation of the blond-curious on TikTok and YouTube.
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Transcript
Kate: Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Kate Spencer.
Doree: And I'm Doree Shafrir.
Kate: And we're not experts.
Doree: No, we're two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Kate: And today we are bringing you another episode of Product Recall. This is a weekly episode where we dig deeper into the history of an iconic product and its impact. And yes, as we mentioned previously, we are taking requests for products to cover and recall
Doree: And you can do that by voicemail or text at (781) 591-0390 or email us at Forever35Podcast@gmail.com And I do just want to note that we will be posting all of the sources and some extra videos and links and such for all of these episodes at Forever35podcast.com. And I do also just want to plug before we get into it, just want to plug our live show.
Kate: So excited
Doree: Forever35 Live.
Kate: We are going to be snuggling together, virtually, digitally, if you will, but we'll be gathering to celebrate the five year anniversary of this podcast. We'll be doing bits playing games, maybe a giveaway or two,
Doree: Laughing.
Kate: We'll answer your questions.
Doree: Also, Kate, I hear
Kate: Theres a live chat
Doree: I hear there's going to be some exclusive merch that will only be available during the live show,
Kate: And there's an after party.
Doree: And there's an after party. I mean, get ready everybody, because this is going to be a wild time. So you can get tickets moment.co, moment.co/Forever35. They're $10. And yeah, hope to see you there.
Kate: Can't wait.
Doree: Now, Kate,
Kate: Lay it on me.
Doree: I want to ask you something.
Kate: Okay.
Doree: I want you to think back to the early nineties. You were a tween slash Teen.
Kate: Yeah.
Doree: If you could think of one or two iconic teen models of the time, who comes to mind?
Kate: Nikki Taylor and her sister, Chrissy Taylor. Okay,
Doree: Thank you.
Kate: Is that who you wanted me to say?
Doree: Thats who I wanted you to say.
Kate: There's nobody bigger in my heart.
Doree: Nobody bigger. Now, it's so interesting because the nineties we're the age of the supermodel, right? We have Cindy Crawford, we have Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell. They're these sort of larger than life.
Kate: Christie, Helena, like Stephanie
Doree: Amazonian, gorgeous women. And then we had Nikki and Chrissy Taylor, who were also gorgeous Amazonian women.
Kate: Yes.
Doree: But kind of a different genre.
Kate: They were like teen genre.
Doree: They were teen genre, and they were very fresh-faced all-American looking.
Kate: Every cover of Seventeen magazine featured one of these sisters.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: I mean, obviously the greatest tragedy of that time was when Chrissy died.
Doree: Yes. Chrissy died of an undiagnosed heart issue,
Kate: Which I think was brought on by her asthma inhalers
Doree: When she was 17.
Kate: So young. So awful.
Doree: It was awful.
Kate: So awful.
Doree: That's not what we're talking about today.
Kate: No, no.
Doree: But I do, I just want to kind of have this picture in our heads of Nikki and Chrissy who had this tanned skin, big smiles,
Kate: Real white girls from Florida
Doree: And sun kissed blonde hair.
Kate: Oh no. Which I've never had. This is going to be a therapy session for me brunette.
Doree: So Nikki's first Seventeen cover was in August, 1989.
Kate: Okay.
Doree: She was 14.
Kate: Okay.
Doree: Her blonde hair was in a bob with bangs.
Kate: She had a bob?
Doree: She had a bob.
Kate: Okay. I always think of her with longer
Doree: Hair. I know, me too. She looks kind of preppy, but effortlessly cool. And her hair is just kind of shimmering. And then three years later, Nikki and Chrissy had their first Seventeen cover together.
Kate: I know it together, know the cover.
Doree: And it was just that hair, that hair was it.
Kate: It was aspirational.
Doree: It was aspirational
Kate: And unattainable for just about everybody.
Doree: So when Nikki was first on the cover of Seventeen, August, 1989 for me, that was right before I started seventh grade.
Kate: Oh, little 12 year old Doree.
Doree: Little 12 year old Doree. A real tricky time in one's life, I think pretty much universally across the board. And so when a friend at school told me about this product
Kate: No
Doree: Called Sun in.
Kate: You didn't, didn't put it in your hair.
Doree: I was like, well, I mean, okay, it's this cheap spray that I can get at CVS for like $3 or $4.
Kate: I'm scolding you. But I also did this.
Doree: And the whole gimmick is that I sprayed in my hair and then I just have to go out into the sun or blow dry it with a hair dryer. I did not do this, but you could just get the same effect, blow drying it allegedly. And then my hair would turn blonde
Kate: Because wasn't it also just like lemon juice?
Doree: We'll get to that.
Kate: Okay. Okay.
Doree: But Kate, as I would say, countless brunettes before and after me have learned, yourself included, it sounds like.
Kate: Yeah.
Doree: Almost universally. Sun interns, brown hair, a brassy shade of orange.
Kate: Yep.
Doree: It's not cute.
Kate: No, no. It wasn't the look we were all going for.
Doree: It was not the look.
Kate: look what Nikki had on the cover.
Doree: It was not what Nikki or Chrissy had. And I was pretty devastated. Because not only was I not blonde,
Kate: what was it?
Doree: It was like a brassy, clearly super fake looking orange.
Kate: Yeah, I remember that well with my hair.
Doree: That then just had to grow out. So today, Kate, we're going to be talking about Sun In.
Kate: Does Sun In still exist?
Doree: Sun in still exists.
Kate: You could buy sun in?
Doree: You can buy Sun In.
Kate: Holy shit.
Doree: Sun in has had a lot of twists and turns in its product history. But yes, you can buy sun in today. Now I mentioned 1989.
Kate: Yes.
Doree: Which was the year that Nikki and, Nikki was first on the cover of Seventeen with her blonde hair. And so I would like to play for you a commercial
Kate: Oh boy.
Doree: From 1989.
Kate: Okay.
Doree: For sun in.
Kate: Okay.
Commercial : Don't wait for the sun to lighten your hair. The summer might end before the highlight today. Get natural highlights as soon as tonight. Then little sun end. Do your hair right. Leg channel for softness, a super flair, a new natural lemon. Put sun in your hair. A little spritz. Present the sun, the rest for natural and summer hair. Sun Ins the best. Don't wait for the sun to get your hair bright. Get natural looking highlights as soon as tonight. Put sun in your hair. Do your hair right.
Kate: What the hell was that?
Doree: Okay. So I mean, first of all, we have a clearly white woman rapping
Kate: That was like the top, that rap from Teen Witch. Do you know that rap?
Doree: No, but I believe you.
Kate: I think it's from Teen Witch. What was that?
Doree: It's like a beat that you get by pressing a button on the synthesizer.
Kate: Right, your keyboard that your parents bought you at Bradleys or.
Doree: Yes, yes.
Kate: Oh boy, that was rough.
Doree: That was rough. And we'll link to it on the website, but
Kate: Also, what lies?
Doree: Total Lies all. And it's just all pictures of super platinum blonde hair.
Kate: Right. Which again, that is a small part of the population. Who's going to actually be able to use this product.
Doree: Yes. So I play that commercial just to highlight the sheer ubiquity of Sun In during this time period. It was a very specific period of late eighties through I would say maybe mid nineties.
Kate: Well, It also kind of plays into this whole obsessive tanning, like Baywatch, just that kind of culture.
Doree: Yes, exactly. So I was going to mention, actually have Baywatch written down here as another example of this kind of All American in quotes. Look, and of course this is a look that only white people can achieve, right?
Kate: Yeah. I mean, all American is code for a blonde white person, right?
Doree: A thousand percent.
Kate: Or I mean just a white person.
Doree: A thousand percent. So Sun In, I think Hit did hit a crest of popularity. Yes. Kate,.
Kate: I have a question. Is Sun In part of a larger company, does someone,
Doree: We're about, we're getting to that.
Kate: Ok, we're about to get to that.
Doree: So Sun In was launched in the 1960s. The exact date seems to have been lost to history. I could not find exactly when Sun In launched. And it always promised to give you the effect of a beautifully, naturally highlighted blonde hair at a fraction of the price of the salon. That was always part of the pitch. You don't have to go to the salon and get hundreds of dollars worth of highlights. You can just spray this in, spray this bottle, spray this bottle. And if anything, this will look more natural
Kate: And even the name like Sun in, it's that idea that if you're just out in the sun long enough. Your hair is going to lighten to the perfect shade.
Doree: Yes, exactly. And the way that Sun In works is it's, the major ingredients in it are lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide.
Kate: So that's the real work horse.
Doree: Lemon juice does actually lighten hair.
Kate: Well, I have put straight up lemon juice in my hair too.
Doree: Yes. I mean, did it lighten your hair?
Kate: Yes.
Doree: Yeah. So that does actually work. But the hydrogen peroxide is kind of the real driver of it and the light. So the lightner is activated by sunlight or a hair dryer. And that was something that sun in liked to talk about that you can use sun in the winter too. You don't need the sun to use sun in, you can just use your hair dryer. So that was always kind of part of their pitch, if you will. Now, Kate, we are going to take a little break and when we get back, I'm going to tell you all about the company that started Sun In.
Kate: I cannot Wait.
Doree: And what else they produced?
Kate: Oh my God. Oh no.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: Okay,
Doree: Okay.
Kate: Okay.
Doree: Buckle up. All right. Be right. Be right back. Okay, we're back.
Kate: Okay, I'm ready. Okay.
Doree: So I want to take you back to the 1940s.
Kate: Oh, not the sixties. Okay.
Doree: The forties, not the sixties. Okay. The forties. All right. There is a Yale graduate named Richard Nisson Wishbone Harris.
Kate: Tell me, is he from the Wishbone Salad dressing family?
Doree: No, his nickname, his childhood nickname was Wishbone because he liked that part of the chicken.
Kate: Oh, well that's sweet.
Doree: Yeah.
Kate: That's a big nickname though.
Doree: It is a big nickname.
Kate: Come on Wishbone, let's go to the store.
Doree: His reputation was that he was said to have been described by his former Yale classmates as the guy who could talk 20 million bucks out of thin air.
Kate: Oh. So he's like a regular George Santos.
Doree: So, well, what I was going to say is he sounds a lot like another George Bunting from last week.
Kate: Yeah, yeah. He does these men,
Doree: Men who are I will say, marketing geniuses who either develop products or
Kate: Steal products.
Doree: Come into them, come into products, and then turn them into these juggernauts. Yes. So he is one of those people. And in 1944, he has a company called TonI, t o n i. Okay. And it's a hair products company, and he develops a home perm.
Kate: Oh God.
Doree: He builds up the home perm market into a 20 million industry.
Kate: Holy shit.
Doree: In three years.
Kate: And this guy, he's young.
Doree: He's young. I don't know exactly how old he is in 1944, but he's pretty young. Is this, I don't think more than 30.
Kate: And he just got into this because he saw it was a money maker we're assuming
Doree: I believe so.
Kate: So he never felt like a passionate about hair.
Doree: And he's like a marketing genius. They start sponsoring radio they start sponsoring commercials, but then also you know how in the forties and fifties programs would be sponsored by companies on the radio.
Kate: Yes.
Doree: So Toni starts sponsoring a lot of these shows, and they develop this iconic ad called witch Twin has the Toni
Kate: Oh,
Doree: And the ad has identical twin sisters who have identical looking curly, wavy, or wavy hair. But one twin had her hair professionally and spent a lot of money and spent a lot of money. And then the other twin used a Toni hair, home hair perm. So at the time, if you got a professional perm, it was like $15, which in 1950 was It's a lot of money. A lot of money. Or you could spend $2 Oh, geez. And get the Toni kit, which included waving lotion and plastic curlers. And it was unclear. It was kind of like, maybe she's born it, maybe she's Maybelline. Yeah, maybe it's Maybelline, but more kind of a, almost a blind taste test, if you will.
Kate: And you're like, why wouldn't I go with Toni?
Doree: Right. Exactly. And then also, once you bought the Toni kit for $2, you could buy a Toni refill, which was a bottle of waving lotion for a dollar.
Kate: I'm in
Doree: So, it obviously made sense. So in 1948, Wishbone sells Toni to Gillette.
Kate: Oh boy.
Doree: He cashs in and oh, he also invented White Rain shampoo.
Kate: Wishbone did?
Doree: Yes. Which is still for sale today.
Kate: Yes.
Doree: Its out at the drug store.
Yes, yes.
Kate: White rain.
Doree: So his whole thing, and this plays into, I think the development of Sun In his whole thing seems to be he was all about making products for things that you could do at home more cheaply than at the salon.
Kate: I mean, that makes sense.
Doree: Right? Like, he saw this niche and really leaned into it. So at some point in the sixties, and I believe at this point, again, the corporate history was a little murky here, but it seems as though Wishbone is no longer at the company that he started.
Kate: Wait who did he sell to, again,
Doree: Gillette.
Kate: Gillette.
Doree: But they seem to be continuing in the same sort of vein. They invent Sun In. So
Kate: So, this is Wishbones, living in Key West, having the best time.
Doree: Well, he started another company with his son,
Kate: But Wishbones done with hair.
Doree: He's out of the picture is out of the picture when it comes to this. Yes.
Kate: Okay. But Gillette over at Gillette, they're like, what else can we do?
Doree: But over at Gillette, they're like, this is amazing. He conjured this home perm industry out of nothing. And so then the Toni Division of Gillette starts developing other products, one of which becomes Sun In. And it's funny, when last week when we were talking about Noxzema, you were saying that there were certain words that you saw throughout history. And the thing with Sun In is it just always leaned. Even though you could use a blow dryer, it was always like sun lightened hair really plank that it looked natural. That was always its big thing. And that
Kate: And that you could just spray it in and then go for a walk.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: It was easy if I remember.
Doree: Yes, exactly. So but their advertising was also always kind of interesting because there was an ad in the early seventies, a print ad where you just see a smiling blonde woman in profile, and then there's a man in the background.
Kate: It's always a man,
Doree: And it says, he'll see you in a whole new light. get it?
Kate: I feel like the Yes, the more we're, we're going to do these product recall episodes and everything we're going to find is that everything is marketed about getting the attention of men, to women to get men's attention.
Doree: Oh, totally.
Kate: That's just going to be the running theme.
Doree: And then there's in small print, it's like just spray sun in under the sun and see what happens to your hair. Maybe even your life,
Kate: Maybe even your life? Because you sprayed lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide on your hair. And you know what? That would work on me. I would buy that probably tomorrow.
Doree: So that was the thing that was always playing on, always this very attractive blonde woman who frankly was probably already blonde.
Kate: Of course. Also the woman in the picture, her hair is professionally dyed. I mean, we know this, right? Obviously it's all a scam.
Doree: One Hundred thousand percent. So in 1974, the company, the division of Gillette, is bought by a Tennessee company called Chatham. And they also, they make some other products for women that are, I should say, marketed to women, one of which is Dexatrim, the diet pill.
Kate: Ew. Oh God.
Doree: Yep. But they also make Pamprin
Kate: Which is a favorite of yours, which is a favorite of mine.
Doree: They make a lot of those brands that by their name like Cortisone 10. Oh yeah. Gold Bond. Oh, Unisom Kaopectate.
Kate: What? Chatham?
Doree: Yeah. So they, yes. They make all of these brands. And Chatham starts kind of tinkering with the formula. So in 1987, they add a conditioner.
Kate: Ooh that sounds nice.
Doree: And then in 2000 they add some botanical extracts,
Kate: Of course, because everybody was high on botanical extracts in 2000.
Doree: Yes, exactly. But they never, the main ingredients stay hydrogen peroxide and lemon juice.
Kate: Are they just squeezing? Is there a factory that's just squeezing lemons?
Doree: Great question. I don't, that I do not know.
Kate: I would love to see the production of Sun In and how much is actually real lemon juice and how much is just
Doree: Totally. They produce another ad in 1990 that I'm going to play for you.
Commercial: You were such a beautiful baby. Let Sun in baby you now. Stay baby blonde with Sun In. Only Sun In has Silkenall. So your hair not only looks baby blonde, it feels baby soft. Baby yourself. Put sun in your hair.
Doree: Okay. So couple things here. First of all, they're playing up this new conditioner with the Silkenal, right? As though that's going to make up for dousing your hair with hydrogen peroxide. And the second thing is this whole thing of taking yourself back to when you were a baby, I just find very interesting and in the commercial, which will link to the first image you see is a blonde child frolicking on a beach. And I don't know, it reminded me a bit of some of the Noxzema commercials that you like the one where the woman is, I use Noxzema when I was 15. Yes. And now I'm 30. And this feels like a kind of similar thing. And then just the language baby yourself.
Kate: They say baby five times in that ad.
Doree: It's like, literally infantilizing.
Kate: Yes.
Doree: Yeah. So that's what we're dealing with right now in the late eighties, early nineties. And
Kate: This is when you and I are all trying to get that. Also, it should be noted, both of us were born with black hair.
Doree: Oh, totally. Yeah.
Kate: We weren't prancing on beaches with blonde hair.
Doree: Totally. I was never, I wasn't blonde as a child.
Kate: No, me neither.
Doree: Now my son was, which is kind of odd.
Kate: But you've been secretly spraying him with Sun In since day one.
Doree: Yes, Exactly. But let's take another little break and, cause I have a few more things to talk about when we come back. The first thing I want to do is show you an ad that ran in 2000 in Teen People.
Kate: Ooh, Okay.
Doree: So they were still, I would say even by 2000, they were still pushing Sun In. I mean, 2000 was when they added the botanical extracts. So this was a sort of infamous ad that they ran.
Kate: Oh my god.
Doree: Okay. And there's a very, very attractive blonde woman with curly hair. This is the only Sun In ad I've seen that has a curly haired person in it.
Kate: She's got luscious locks.
Doree: Shes got luscious high, beautifully highlighted curly hair. And it says four out of five girls you hate ask for it by name.
Kate: What the does that mean? They ask for Sun In by name.
Doree: Yes. Sun in the original stop hating them, start being them with original sun and spray hair and super streaks gel.
Kate: That is a dark ad.
Doree: Isn't that dark? This is like, that's
Kate: That's bizarre.
Doree: Yeah. So I feel like we've talked a lot about the male gaze when it comes to these products, but this seems to be specifically playing on the female gaze in a mean girls kind of way. And this ran in teen people. So this, this is very specifically targeting teenage girls saying the popular girls are using Sun In and don't you want to be like them?
Kate: This is giving me anxiety flashbacks. It's so cruel.
Doree: It's so cruel. It's pretty fucked up. So that was the vibe they were going for in the year 2000,
Kate: Which all makes sense. I feel like that's on brand with what that time period was like.
Doree: Yes, 100000%. So in 2009, they sell to the pharmaceutical company, Sanofi.
Kate: I've never heard of it.
Doree: And then in 2017, they sell to a company called Focus Consumer Healthcare. And they, Focus Consumer Healthcare has supposedly lowered the level of peroxide. They have added chamomile, aloe and other botanical extracts, to help condition the hair as it lightens. And then another thing that they've been doing is they've been trying to get influencers to post about Sun In.
Kate: Wow, Okay.
Doree: So there was a couple years ago, there was this kind of funny renaissance on TikTok where people were trying Sun In, and you'd have the odd person who was like, Sun In is great. But I would say the vast majority of the videos were like, this turned my hair orange or this was bad.
Kate: And were they being sent product or was it kind of this people trying out old products?
Doree: I think it probably, well no, I mean you can buy it now.
Kate: Some people being like, oh, what's this stuff?
Doree: I think it was probably a combination of both. I feel like a lot of times what happens with these things is it's initially influencers who get sent the products and then regular people are like, I want to try this too. There's a hair influencer named Anna Primavera who did a lot of ads for them on TikTok and she doesn't really talk in the ads, so it's not that exciting to play. But she just prs around and talks about how great puts words on the video that say how great Sun In is. But then we also have a lot of TikToks from hairstylists warning about Sun In. So I'm going to play one of those.
Commercial: Don't bleach your hair after using Sun In or a hair lightener, anything that says hydrogen peroxide as the first ingredient. And it is a hair lightener that you spray or put into your hair and then apply heat. This product is made for you to go spray it on and then go sit outside. The reason why most stylists will not touch your hair if you have Sun In, it's because of this. This all happened in a matter of minutes with bleaching 20 volume.
Doree: And what she's doing is she's showing some hair that basically disintegrated
Kate: It like falling. She's just pulling it out.
Doree: So there's a bunch of videos like that. And there's also some stuff on YouTube where people are testing out Sun In, there's an influencer hair stylist named Brad Mondo who tested Sun In
Commercial: Today. We're exploring the wonderful, horrifying, scariest world ever. The world of Sun In.
Doree: Okay. So you get the vibe. Yeah, I think people are like, why?
Kate: Well, what you just showed though was interesting because in that previous TikTok of the hairdresser pulling out the hair, She had a product from Sun Bum.
Doree: Yes.
Kate: So there are other Sun In like products on the market.
Doree: Yes. There are other Sun In like products on the market. Hair lighteners is what they call them. So that is the deal with Sun In, I mean, I think what's interesting is there will always be a market for things that you can do at home more cheaply than going to a salon. I mean, that's why box hair dye and home waxing strips,
Kate: And all the home nail kits that we now see.
Doree: The home nail kits. Yeah, exactly. And that just seems to be what Sun in has always been about. And again, something that has always only been for a pretty small segment of society, but one that was meant to be aspirational.
Kate: Yeah. I mean it's about asimulation ultimately too, is it not?
Doree: Yep. And before we wrap, I just want to show you this ad from the early seventies when they had another product called Sun In Tan Spray.
Kate: What?
Doree: I was saving this for the end, because you were talking at the beginning about how the late eighties, those were the ages of people trying to get the deepest, putting baby oil on their skin to get a deep tan and having a reflector and going to tanning beds. And so it seemed like they didn't make this for very long, but they had a suntan spray that promised to tan your skin deeper, darker faster.
Kate: Oh god.
Doree: So it was like a one-stop shop for this whole sunkissed look, all of which was activated by the sun. Actually, I think it's interesting. I hadn't even thought about the fact that I chose this as my first one. And Noxzema, which I didn't even know
Kate: it's a sunburn remedy,
Doree: Was first used as a sunburn remedy. So it's very interesting. Yeah.
Kate: Wow. Where do we think Wishbone ended up?
Doree: Well, I actually know where he ended up. So he stayed, he got $6 million from the sale to Gillette and then, which at the time was a ton of money. Still is a ton of money. But in 1948 was, that's so much money. And he stayed on to run Toni within Gillette, but he left in the late 1950s. So he left before Sun In was developed. But this article that I found says Harris's most lasting contribution to Gillette may have been his paper mate acquisition in 1955.
Kate: What?
Doree: Yes. And then Gillette's built a stationary division around that. And then in 2000 they sold it for $750 million.
Kate: Oh my goodness.
Doree: So after Gillette, he started a fire and burglar alarm maker that he ran with his son. And that was acquired by Honeywell in 2000. And then the kicker of this article is the Exels of Wishbones Past would have to raise their expectations for him. Harris became the guy who could talk 1.9 billion out of thin air.
Kate: We could learn a lot from Wishbone.
Doree: I mean, where is our documentary on Wishbone?
Kate: I would love to know where he is now. I mean, well we, he's probably buried somewhere now, but I mean, good lord.
Doree: Good Lord. Good Lord.
Kate: I like that Yale got a lot of free sponsorship for this podcast in this podcast episode.
Doree: Well, Kate, this has been really fun.
Kate: Thank you for taking us on this journey.
Doree: I hope you learned a lot
Kate: I loved this. I did. It was fascinating.
Doree: And yeah, we'll talk to you all again soon. And again, just a reminder, if you have suggestions for products you want us to recall, hit us up.