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Frederick County TV watchers may be surprised Monday by the location of a segment on the Discover Channel series "Dirty Jobs" - Middletown organic products business Terressentials.

When the network contacted Terressentials co-owner Diana Kaye about doing the show more than two years ago, she thought a friend was playing a trick on her.

"They called us and kind of caught us by surprise because we weren't familiar with the show," she said. "I was so convinced it was a joke that I called the Discovery Channel to verify that the woman who called us about it was really with them, which she was."

At first Kaye, 49, and co-owner Jim Hahn, 52, were unsure about whether they should participate with the show, fearing embarrassment. But Discovery Channel producers eventually convinced them.

"Dirty Jobs" is a reality television show hosted by Mike Rowe, who is from the Baltimore area. Each episode features three dirty, difficult or disgusting jobs, at which Rowe spends a day working as if he was a hired employee.

In the past, the show has featured Rowe working as a shark repellent tester, a worm dung farmer, a sewer inspector, a hot tar roofer, a chimney sweeper and an animal skull cleaner.

Since Rowe encounters dirt and grime in gross ways in nearly every episode, the concept for Monday's show is that it would be interesting for him to use it to clean himself. That's where Terressentials comes in. The company makes a product called Pure Earth Hair Wash.

The hair wash (not shampoo – Kaye and Hahn do not like to associate their organic product with conventional synthetic shampoos) is created using imported Moroccan clay as the main ingredient. When the clay mixes with water, it creates a gel that cleanses hair, and, as such, the episode is able to involve dirt but actually be about cleanliness. Every step of creating the hair wash, from mixing the clay to adding essential oils, to bottling it, is sanitary.

"It was a lot of fun because we get dirty a lot on the show, and it's a very ironic show we did at Terressentials because, yes, we're using dirt, but we're using it to get clean. Who knew dirt could be used to clean yourself?" explained "Dirty Jobs" field director Dave Barsky. "It's not one of the dirty jobs you think of immediately, it's one of those ones we call ‘who knew.' It's ironic, actually, and a plus is it actually works. In fact, I've used it every day ever since we shot. It actually works better than other shampoos."

After making the shampoo, Kaye gave Rowe's hair a salon-style washing with Pure Earth Hair Wash. The filming took an entire day in August 2006, but Kaye, Hahn and Barsky all said the experience went swimmingly, and that the crew and the Terressentials employees took a liking to one another.

"I had fun the whole day," Hahn said. "We cracked jokes the whole day, whether or not the camera was on."

Kaye and Hahn said the show's broad appeal helped them bring their message about helping the environment and our bodies through the use of safe, organic products to a group of people who they might never be able to reach.

Waiting two years to see the show has been nerve-wracking, Kaye and Hahn said, but when it first ran in June, they found that it worked out really well.

"It was scary, I have to say. You don't know what they're going to do and you have no control over the editing. But they made us look pretty good," Kaye said. "It's like Andy Warhol said, you get your 15 minutes of fame, and that's exactly how long this is."