Shampoo is one of the personal care product that is must in today’s life due to reasons like dust pollution, hot and humid atmosphere and our working condition. In tropical countries, life without shampoo or any other hair and scalp cleaner may be miserable. This article is only on shampoo.
There are several brands and a variety of formulations of shampoo publicizing wide-ranging effect to different types of hair. It is confusing and many go for costly one considering it as a better product. High budget and very attractive advertisements in TV channels are equally confusing. Technically, there is little difference between a costly product and more cost-effective alternatives. In most of the cases cost is more due to operating cost and maintaining high degree of hygienic condition, and fat salary / perks / benefits to employees and advertisements.
Most of the shampoo will have more than 70-80% water and hardly 20-30% active ingredients like surfactants(detergents), foam boosters, fragrance, preservatives and even fillers. Shampoos may contain antistatic and detangling agents, thickening agents, humectants and conditioners.
Fragrance and lots of foam are the factors that anyone consider when purchasing a shampoo other than Brand name and cost. Most of the people prefer to have viscous product that generates lots of foam. Wise manufacturers use in their formulation viscosity boosters and foam boosters to attract consumers. Foaming takes place when detergent(s)/surfactants gather around air instead of oil. Hair with lot of oil requires excess shampoo to generate foam. There should be just enough lather to lubricate the scalp and hair. Excess foam mean too much of shampoo used and excess foam does not help.
Surfactants decrease surface tensions in liquids and let the formation of soap bubbles and lather. Surfactants like Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Alfa Olefin Sulphonate are the most widely used surfactants in personal hygiene products. These surfactants have excellent cleaning properties and can be easily washed from the hair but these may be harsh and irritating to some people. So, other surfactants and ingredients are added to reduce harsh effect.
Bare Facts:
The amount of lather / foam generated by a shampoo does not improve its capability to clean hair. Quality and properties of surfactants used determines the cleaning power.
Many Shampoos are good at cleaning hair but other claims on the labels are baseless and nothing but advertisement gimmick. Almost all shampoos fall short on what they claim. Many shampoos claim to repair or nourish damaged hair. Once hair is dead, it can’t be repaired. Shampoo can only provide temporary outcome to the look and feel.
Normally expensive products have longer ingredient lists. However, expensive shampoos don’t necessarily do better than inexpensive brands. Major ingredients in most of cases are same and special ingredient used in expensive one may not be effective or have any proven result.
Almost all, ’All natural’ or ‘Organic’ are publicity stunt to attract consumers. Many natural ingredients cannot even clean hair and the usefulness of organic plants or vitamins have never been proven. After all, dead hair cannot be repaired and usefulness of these unknown ingredients are doubtful.
Shampoos just clean your hair and do not work to rectify the defects of hair. Conditioning constituents, styling elements do work and sometimes these will help but effect may not be permanent.
In absence of adequate amount of preservatives, there may be fungal growth in shampoo. Please do not use such Shampoo. Fungal cannot be noticed in dark colour shampoos.
Shampoo with harsh surfactants should not be applied to children. Always use childcare products of reputed companies.
Shampoo in Gel form will always be packed in opaque container because old material may separate in different layers. Shake well before use. Gel shampoo does not have any special effect if not with conditioners. Formulators use chemicals to improve appearance of their products.
Head and Shoulders Dandruff Shampoo is good for Dandruff sufferer. Head and Shoulders has containing zinc pyridinethione, an ingredient that works to get rid of organisms that cause dandruff. According to experts, zinc pyridinethione is not always very effective, but causes the least amount of irritating side effects to most of the individuals.
Ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate(SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate(SLES) may cause cancer if level of 1, 4 dioxane is high. SLS & SLES are found in many reputed shampoo brand as surfactants. In actual practice quantity of 1, 4 dioxane may be negligible in shampoo. Surfactants manufacturers take adequate care to remove 1, 4 Dioxane from surfactants. To be in the much safer side one may switchover to some other brands for sometime that do not have SLS or SLES so that your exposure is limited. According to me, in case of any home care or personal care products it is better to switchover to other suitable formulations after sometime to limit exposure.
Shampooing frequency for normal hair depends on nature of hair and environmental condition. Straight hair may be washed every day for a shiny, healthy look. However, curly hair, becomes too dry if it’s washed too often so it is better to shampoo and condition every other day if hair is not spoiled due to environmental conditions. Twice in a week should be minimum frequency.
I do not use pure coconut oil but seems to be the best on the earth to take care of your hair but require shampoo wash quite frequently to get rid of oil. I do not have enough proven information to confirm usefulness of blends of coconut oil.
Application:
Please read instruction for special application. For normal application, use Warm or cold water to wet the scalp and hair because hot water may be drying to the hair and scalp. Take a small amount of shampoo to palm and rub hands together to evenly distribute shampoo to scalp and hair by palms over your hair. Massage gently with your fingertips and then rinse thoroughly. Give dome time to detergent to remove dirt from hair and scalp. It is not essential to repeat unless hair and scalp is very oily or applied something like hair dye or mehendi.
Conditioner is to be applied from the middle of the hair shaft down to the end of hair. Comb conditioner through hair to distribute product evenly. Leave conditioner on hair for a minute or follow instruction. Rinse thoroughly. Cold water rinse is best and will add shine to the hair.
For better health of hair, it is important to rinse hair and scalp thoroughly after applying shampoo and in almost all cases of conditioner.
~
Associated with these industries for some time so thought of sharing some information with you that is available to me from various sources. This article is based on shampoos available to common people.