Walk down any hair care aisle and you will see dozens of products claiming to contain botanical extracts, plant oils, and natural ingredients. But here is what most brands will not tell you: how an ingredient is extracted matters as much as the ingredient itself.
The majority of botanical extracts in commercial hair care are obtained through heat-based or solvent-based extraction. These methods are fast and cheap, but they come at a cost — they degrade the very compounds that make plants effective for hair care.
What Is Cold Extraction?
Cold extraction is a process that obtains active compounds from plants without using high heat or chemical solvents. By keeping temperatures low throughout the extraction process, the full spectrum of beneficial molecules — proteins, vitamins, antioxidants, and essential oils — remains intact and fully functional.
This is the method used for every Evera product: shampoos, masks, conditioner, GA Liquid Gloss treatment, and Mousse No.10.
What Heat Destroys
When botanical ingredients are exposed to high temperatures during extraction:
- Proteins denature — Heat changes the shape of protein molecules, reducing their ability to bond with hair keratin and repair damage
- Vitamins degrade — Heat-sensitive vitamins like Vitamin C and certain B vitamins break down, losing their antioxidant and strengthening properties
- Essential oils evaporate — The volatile aromatic compounds that give botanicals their scent and therapeutic properties dissipate at high temperatures
- Antioxidants oxidise — The very compounds meant to protect against oxidation are themselves oxidised by heat exposure
Why Most Brands Use Heat Anyway
The answer is simple: cost and speed. Heat-based extraction processes can be completed in hours. Cold extraction takes significantly longer and yields smaller quantities of active extract. For mass-market brands producing millions of units, the economics favour the faster method — even though the resulting extracts are less potent.
Evera's choice to use cold extraction across the entire range is a deliberate quality decision. It costs more and takes longer, but the difference in ingredient potency is measurable — and your hair can feel it.
Cold Extraction + Organic Sourcing
Cold extraction works best with high-quality starting materials. That is why Evera sources certified organic botanicals — plants cultivated without pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilisers.
Organic plants develop stronger natural defence compounds (phytochemicals) because they cannot rely on synthetic protection. These phytochemicals — the same compounds that benefit hair — are more concentrated in organic plants, which means cold extraction yields a richer, more potent extract.
Key organic botanicals in the Evera range include:
- Organic calendula in the Blonde Line
- Organic indigo and boxwood in the Dark Line
- Organic henna in the Red Line
- Organic fenugreek across all colour lines
The Hydrolysed Protein Connection
Cold extraction is especially critical for Evera's hydrolysed vegetable proteins — the structural repair backbone of every formula.
These plant proteins (from rice, quinoa, and oats) are enzymatically broken down into tiny peptides and amino acids small enough to penetrate the hair shaft. If heat were applied during this process, the proteins would denature — changing their molecular structure and preventing them from bonding with hair keratin.
Cold extraction preserves the precise molecular structure needed for these proteins to bypass the cuticle, reach the cortex, and fill the gaps that cause weakness, breakage, and dullness. This is the mechanism behind Evera's core promise: hair that is genuinely repaired, not just coated.
How to Tell If a Brand Uses Quality Extraction
Unfortunately, most brands do not disclose their extraction methods. Here are indicators of quality extraction:
- Ingredient position on INCI list — Active botanicals listed early (higher concentration) suggest quality sourcing
- Organic certification — Organic processing standards often require gentler extraction methods
- Price point — Cold-extracted organic ingredients simply cost more than heat-processed equivalents. If a "botanical" shampoo costs £3, the extraction method was almost certainly heat-based
- Fragrance complexity — Products with nuanced, layered scents (like Evera's top/heart/base note profiles) indicate that volatile aromatics were preserved through gentle extraction
