INFEATURE Melisse Shaban
VIRTUOUS DON YOUR LAB COATS FOR THIS SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH IN HAIR. VIRTUE USES A NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN INNOVATIVE INGREDIENT CALLED ALPHA KERATIN 60KU TO REGENERATE HAIR, CHANGING CARE, STYLE AND TREAT REGIMENS FOREVER.
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eet Virtue - a prestige hair care brand that goes beyond care to biotech-based repair, as centred on the hero and multi-patented Alpha Keratin 60ku component. This pioneering technology changes the health and quality of hair, as the first and only ingredient of its kind. “Our difference is that we have technology with clinically proven results unlike anything else on the market. Virtue started with a technology that was never intended for use in hair care at all. Alpha Keratin 60ku is a patented form of a human keratin protein that was developed in the study of regenerative medicine to help severely wounded military soldiers – with beneficial applications for bone, tissue, and nerve regeneration,” explained brand founder Melisse Shaban. “By chance, it was also found to have enormous benefit for repairing hair,” she continued. “Contrary to other keratins you might have heard of, which are highly processed animal byproduct, this is a unique protein that is derived from human hair, and carefully extracted to remain whole and fully functional. Because it is essentially hair, it ‘sees’ cracks of damage, and goes where it’s needed to repave and heal the damage, giving you your healthiest, most beautiful hair. Lucky for us, it’s exclusive to Virtue.” The savvy component is developed to the size and shape of a full-form human protein, so it is more easily accepted by the body, and is therefore able to fill in and heal areas of damage and repair hair. This clinical development ensures a 67 per cent reduction in frizz, 95 per cent split end reparation, 22 per cent increase in thickness and 138 per cent increase in colour vibrancy. “Hairdressers that I have talked to are amazed at the difference Virtue makes in the health and quality of their clients’ 64 INSTYLE
hair, and clients love it too,” Melisse said. “Beyond the clinically proven health and damage-repair benefits, once clients start using Virtue, their hair feels different. It looks different. It has more shine, more strength and more bounce. Virtue really does give the best hair humanly possible.” This anchoring component has built a 25-product range across five product categories of Care, Correct, Create, Refresh and Curl. This extensive range encompasses even more tailored subcategories within these pillars. For example, Care is further broken up into specified focuses of Recovery, Smooth and Full in shampoos and conditioners, while Correct offers unique treatment options, Create is the styling suite, Refresh is used to detox and Curl focuses on defining this ever-important hair type completely. Within these categories, serums, masks, primers, pastes, treatments, gels, cleansing products and more are stand-out features. Importantly, all Virtue products are free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, synthetic colours and dyes. They are also gluten free, cruelty free and vegan, and are safe for colour treated hair. Melisse has developed the brand off the back of a multi-decade career that has seen her head major hair and beauty brands globally, and generate and elevate businesses across these sectors. Melisse established Virtue Labs as a high-tech bio-engineering base camp, set over 16,000 square feet in North Carolina, to develop and manufacture the Alpha Keratin 60ku ingredient herself, once she had discovered its game-changing properties. The immediate and continued success of the brand in America and beyond in the past few years has seen both Virtue and Melisse collect awards and accolades, while celebrity hairdressers and actual celebrities (Jennifer Garner is on the team) not just sing the praises of the product, but actually start to work for and with it. The products and technology can be seen everywhere