Barber's no sap on skin products

By Wendy McLellan

Health Reporter

You'll have to excuse Helmut Gollner if he seems a little exited.

In fact, he is down right giddy. After 40years of concocting hair products, mostly over the sink at the back of his barber shop, Goll-ner is on to something big.

“It's incredible,” said Gollner, who is having a tough time keep-ing his grin under control, “I feel I am blessed.”

Gollner, 56, has invented a rem-edy for irritating skin conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis and rosacea, made from tree and plant essences.

He uses tree sap — Douglas fir, hemlock, birch, alder, spruce and cedar — to make his products, called Botanical Therapeutics.

“Customers would come in very frustrated because they [had] tried everything and noth-ing worked,” he said.

“I started testing and had trials and tribulations, but people were delighted.”

It began four years ago with a cream he experimented with on customers at his Vancouver bar-ber shop, the Hair Boutique.

He perfected his recipe and added a shampoo, conditioner, moisturizing cream, soap, hair spray and skin cleanser.

With the help of his son, Anthony, Gollner distributes the products through health-food stores in B.C. and across the country. In a few months, he may go international.

“To tell you the truth, I am

Skin Care Product line - new remedy for irritating skin problems such as eczema, psoriasis and rosacea

Staff photo by David Clark

Helmut Gollner (right) and his son Anthony with products developed for skin care.

blown away,” he said. It is very rare to have something take off.”

Gollner invented his first hair tonic at the age of 16, when he was an apprenticing barber in Munich. Now he has thousands of formulas.

The idea of using tree sap came after he found an old sliver of soap made from tree tar under a sink in the shop. The label said the soap was effective in treating dry skin, and that was enough to set Gollner to work.

For the next few months, he

studied the healing properties of tree essences, consulting experts in Europe and local aboriginal botanists.

He gathered his own tree sap for experiments, heading into the North Shore woods on his moun-tain bike to look for trees. He scraped the tree' excess sap into plastic bags and took it to his shop to mix.

“It's very smelly and very sticky, but I love it,” Gollner said. “And it's not that easy — the trees don't produce an over-

abundance of sap every year. You have to really look.”

He still goes out looking for trees on sunny weekends, but he also buys sap harvested along the west coast from Oregon to Alaska.

Although he still experiments at his shop, he now mixes and bottles his formulas at a small North Vancouver warehouse.

So many people call and send letters now,” he said.

“I am in awe.”

“It has been mind-boggling.”