I want to use this space to think about how we navigate our world via signs, pictures, codes and things and concepts in general.
One thing I've been thinking a lot about recently is about the consistency and colour of items like shampoo and conditioner. We still think that shampoo is about taking things off your hair i.e. dirt, grease and grime and it is most often clear or transparent. Conditioner by reverse is about adding stuff, providing nurishment and nutrition (although that's strictly speaking not true) and it is most often creamy. What is about the codes associated with transparency and creaminess that makes fits with these modes of action? It's the same for liquid soap and hand cream by the way.
I think it must be to do with water and fats, if you go back to the basics. Water washes stuff away and fats add things, like the original furniture polish and cream in food.
The reason I thought about this is I recently washed my hands with handcream!! The container wasn't see through so I couldn't see what was in it and the labelling wasn't immediately clear. It made me start to wonder about how you could shift the paradigm? By making a really clear conditioner? What claims could you make for it? Or are we fundamentally doomed to always have conditioner that is creamy and shampoo that is clear