When it comes to styling dogs, it’s not uncommon for groomers to overlook one of the most important aspects of the task: the bath. There are literally hundreds of choices in products to get your pups clean, fresh, and healthy. Each company has ideas about which ingredients are necessary for optimum results, and each product mixes different with everyone’s water. To say that choosing a product that is a perfect fit is a challenge is, indeed, a gross understatement!
I’m no stranger to trying multiple products. Other shops I worked for had a myriad of different products from different companies, just because so many of them offered different results. Volunteering at the shelter gave me a little more freedom to try out even more. Some were touted as basic clean, some as magical elixirs that would take care of anything the dogs could get into. The results were absolutely staggering: everything from being total overkill to not being efficient enough!
In 2013, I discovered a unique line of shampoo called Super Coats. Indeed, it was super! The idea was centered around a back-to-basics approach, with a focus more on the skin type: neutral, oily, or dry. While dogs cannot alter their coat types once they are fully grown, their skin condition can change, based on a multitude of factors. Diet changes, stress, weather, allergies, etc., all have impact upon the condition of the dog’s skin.
Since opening Bath to Bows LLC in 2014, the Super Coats line (consisting of Derma Pure, Derma Relief, and Derma Renew) was always my system. It took a lot of the guesswork out of bath time and made for the perfect road map for healthy skin, which in turn led to healthy coat. So why did I find myself needing to make any change?
It was about 2018 when updates were made to the primer of the group, Derma Pure. The idea was good enough: increase the dilution ratio to make the product stretch farther and help groomers increase their bottom line. However, the changes to the formula made the final product extremely thick and gloppy – more so than most hair gels! The bath system, which runs solely on gravity, was unable to pull the thick stuff straight from the gallon jug.
For several years – yes, years – I experimented with different dilution ratios for the product to work efficiently with the bath system. The results were as varied as the ratios themselves. One week, a 1:1 ratio was enough to get from Tuesday through Saturday. The next week, I’d be mixing up more on Wednesday night. I kept track of the additional use of Derma Relief and Derma Renew to see if that affected my use of Pure, and they didn’t make a large impact overall. Not only that, but I had to constantly keep an eye (or rather, a nose) on the diluted shampoo to make sure it didn’t spoil. Again, the results were varied. Mixing up the thick product also proved to be an endeavor. I was convinced that I would get totally ripped, lifting and vigorously shaking the gallon bottles multiple times a week! Indeed, this was not ideal… and I didn’t get ripped either.
Fast forward to September of 2022, when I discovered that my flea and tick shampoo (from an outside line of products, and I won’t say which one) was going to begin using DMDM hydatonin as its preservative… which is basically formaldehyde, a known carcinogen! Preservatives such as propylene glycol and parabans often get a bad rap, but they are significantly less harmful.1 There are those who will say it is not a big deal, but I will not use a product that has heightened potential to be dangerous, especially when there are better alternatives available!
I reached for my shampoo distributor’s catalog to look for a replacement. Then, I started browsing the other brands, just out of curiosity. That’s when I saw Hypo Clear by Wild Animal! When I compared it to Derma Pure by Super Coats, I was surprised to find that the formulas were nearly identical: limited ingredients, no harmful preservatives, gentle for sensitive skin. I asked my distributor for a sample, and upon trying it for the first time, I knew my shampoo lineup was about to change!
As stated above, Hypo Clear is a limited-ingredient formula. It is the ideal shampoo to use for all primer baths. There are no volumizers, texturizers, softeners, etc., only a light clean scent which is non-offensive to dogs, as well as their owners! For the first six weeks, I tried the sample on multiple skin types and coat types, while also keeping in mind owners with allergies and sensitivities. The results spoke for themselves. All the dogs left clean, bright, comfortable, and happy; several owners also made it a point to call and say that they approved of its use!
I admit, I was a little apprehensive about using Relief and Renew with Hypo Clear, only because the lines were slightly different. However, both shampoo lines come from the same parent manufacturer: Laube. Upon trying treatments for difficult skin, I found that they all played nicely together, and yielded excellent results.
Also, Hypo Clear has a slightly higher dilution ratio, at 50:1. Despite it being higher than Derma Pure, the ratio has little effect of the product’s viscosity, which allows the bath system to pull it straight out of the gallon – no more pre-mixing EVER!!
It looks like Hypo Clear is here to stay, as it’s proven to be an integral part of caring for your dogs’ skin. It’s possible that that Derma Pure may return if there are more adjustments made to its formula, but at this point in time, that’s going to be a very big “if”. And that’s not a bad thing at all!
- Pros of Hypo Clear
- No more premixing shampoo
- High dilution ratio means every gallon lasts longer
- Unparalleled cleaning power, yet gentle for all skin types
- Fresh clean scent that is neither overpowering nor offensive to skin
- Cons of Hypo Clear
- I don’t get to talk to my distributors as much. Still love y’all at S&S!
- The Eco Well. “A Guide to Cosmetic Product Preservatives”. theecowell.com. May 11,2019.
Bath to Bows LLC 