Our Story

Our story 👋

Jennifer Peterson
Vacaville Founder & Creative Director, "boy mom", and beauty industry vet.

Vaca + Ville means "Cow Town" and is a nod to our founder’s hometown, Kansas City, Missouri. Los Angeles is home these days, but Jennifer still believes in keeping things simple. Inspired by simplicity, Jennifer created a premium, eco-friendly, anhydrous shampoo full of good stuff, and none of the bad.

“I’ve been in the beauty industry a long time and wanted to address the growing concern about the environmental impact of the products we put out on the market. But we need to be honest – no one will sacrifice great hair to be more sustainable, so performance was a priority.”

As a clean beauty brand, our promise is you don't have to sacrifice great hair in order to be eco-friendly. Our evolutionary formula will have you LOVING YOUR HAIR.

We’ve also addressed scalp care and hair growth concerns. Our powder-to-lather shampoo features botanical ingredients clinically proven to help prevent hair loss + stimulate regrowth.

What is anhydrous shampoo? 🤔

Evolutionary haircare
Anhydrous shampoo is a powder-to-lather formula. Besides conserving water, anhydrous formulas take less energy to manufacture, are concentrated and more stable, use less packaging material, cost less to ship, and are travel friendly!
How to use
Make sure your hair is thoroughly wet. Dust powder shampoo across your wet palm and rub your hands together to activate powder into a creamy lather. Apply starting at your scalp, moving outward to your hair. Leave on for 3 minutes to get the full benefit of scalp health and hair growth ingredients. Rinse, towel dry, and follow with Leave-in Conditioner + Detangler.
Full of good stuff, none of the bad
1 of our full size bottles of shampoo = four (8.5 oz) bottles of traditional shampoo! Anhydrous means less water aka saves water. Our formulas are vegan, gluten-free, cruelty-free, sulfate-free, paraben-free, safe for color treated hair, made in USA and travel-friendly.

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Eco-friendly packaging 🌎

Vacaville has partnered with Oceanworks®, the world’s most robust Plastic Action Platform. Oceanworks® specializes in procuring hard to access ocean and at-risk plastic and are focused on reducing demand for new plastic.

Their vision is to accelerate the transition to a world without plastic pollution.

We share that vision and are committed to using eco-friendly packaging to help make it a reality.

Less plastic ♻️

REDUCE
Our anhydrous shampoos are concentrated, so they use a much smaller plastic bottle than traditional shampoos. One 1.76 oz Vacavillle shampoo is equal to approximately four 8 oz bottles of traditional shampoo.

REUSE
Our bottles are 100% Oceanworks® PCR plastic. Our caps are 30% Oceanworks® PCR plastic.

RECYCLE
Once the product is finished, separate the cap from the bottle and toss them in your curbside recycling bin.

FAQ

What does "anhydrous" mean?

Anhydrous means "contains no water". There are many benefits to anhydrous formulas.
1. Less energy to manufacture
2. Concentrated, more stable formulas
3. Less packaging material
4. Cost less to ship
5. They're travel friendly!

How do I use Vacaville anhydrous shampoo?

Make sure your hair is thoroughly wet. Dust powder shampoo across your wet palm and rub your hands together to activate powder into a creamy lather. Apply starting at your scalp, moving outward to your hair. Leave on for 3 minutes to get the full benefit of scalp health and hair growth ingredients. Rinse, towel dry, and follow with Leave-in Conditioner + Detangler.

How do I use Vacaville leave in conditioner?

After washing your hair, towel dry and let air dry a bit if you like, then squeeze a dollop into your palm. Disperse the conditioner across your palms and work through damp hair. Do NOT rinse out. If your hair is longer, make sure to concentrate on the middle to ends of hair where you need more conditioning and detangling. Comb through with your favorite detangling tool. Our conditioner is formulated to protect against heat and styling damage, but feel free to let your hair air dry, too, for a frizz-free finish. Vacaville conditioner also helps your natural curls and waves maintain that fresh-off-the-beach look to perfection. Pro tip: if your hair is long, use your favorite detangling tool to comb your hair BEFORE showering. Hair is less fragile when it's dry, so doing this before shampooing will help the detangling process and is more gentle on your hair.

Why is our conditioner NOT anhydrous?

While anhydrous formulas are great for shampoos, they’re not ideal for conditioners, so we opted to make a really amazing lightweight leave in conditioner and detangler. It truly works for all hair types, even fine hair. You'll get heat protection and a powerful detangler and frizz fighter all in one product.

Are Vacaville products travel friendly?

YES! You can take either size of our shampoos on an airplane. Our minis are the perfect option for both shampoo and conditioner in your carry-on bag. Bon Voyage!

How many washes will I get from one bottle?

It will vary from person to person, but you'll get about 7-8 washes from a mini and 28-32 from a full size bottle. These are highly concentrated formulas, so don't be alarmed by the small size–it's part of what makes them so sustainable.

How is Vacaville packaging sustainable?

We use Oceanworks® PCR plastic for our packaging. Our bottles our 100% PCR, and the caps are 30% PCR. The caps are a lower percentage due to the extra durability needed to ensure the hinge mechanism has long-lasting functionality. Because our formulas are anhydrous, they save water, take less energy to manufacture, and are highly concentrated, so they use less packaging material and cost less to ship.

How do I recycle Vacaville packaging?

Our packaging is made from Oceanworks® PCR plastic and can be easily recycled again using your curbside recycling programs. Simply separate the cap from the bottle (they are 2 different kinds of plastic) and throw them in your recycling bin.