Interested in keeping your most visible assets in their peak condition, for life? Odds are, that if that describes you, you have been to a few beauty salons and health spas in your time. If you have, you no doubt have taken note that no matter how many different places of beauty you have gone to, they all seem to carry lines of products that are what many people consider "brand name". They are professional products developed by professional beauty companies.

Now, the problem with these types of products is that just as with any other brand name products, they tend to cost more than the run of the mill products that you might find at a place like Wal Mart. And just as with any other brand name products, you have probably heard the line that the only difference is the price and that no label is worth that money.

Well, the truth is that just as is the case with clothes, professionally developed skin and hair products from a reputable company are more likely to work, and work longer, than their cheaper counterparts. The evidence is in the cost, a cost that is higher because of the greater effect of the professional products. Let's take a look at a couple of the key cost areas.

• Research: Beauty is big business in our society, and the better a product a company can turn out the more money they stand to make. Good products that are truly effective come from companies that spend the time (and time means money!) to find out the different reactions that ingredients have with skin and hair tones and chemical makeup. All that research costs money and that money is part of the higher cost of the professional product.

• More ingredients: More often than not, professional products will contain a few more ingredients than cheaper brands, and that too has to be accounted for in the cost. Note that more ingredients doesn't necessarily mean a longer list; generally professional products will have fewer individual ingredients and instead include more effective ingredients for skin and hair.

• Higher quality ingredients: One way in which cheap hair and skin products make up the difference is by adding a lot of ingredients to their formula, which are actually nothing but filler. They are the junk carbs of the beauty world; professional products have ingredients that truly work and in a higher ratio, no filler needed!

So next time you go into a beauty spa, don't turn up your nose at the high prices. More often than not, the professional products will be much more effective when it comes to your goals for your skin and hair!