by DHA's DIY | Apr 3, 2022 | INCI: all about the ingredients, Natural Hair, Shampoo, Shampoo Alternatives, Sulfates
sulfate shampoo sulfate shampoo sulfate shampoo sulfate shampoo sulfate shampoo
Are sulfates good or bad?
What do they do to natural hair?
Does sulphate-free shampoo make hair greasy?
Sulfates are the most controversial ingredients in haircare, but most of us don’t know why we hate them so much.
Think you know all there is to know about these ingredients? Well here’s the whole truth about sulfates.
sulfate shampoo sulfate shampooSulfate Shampoo:
Why sulfates became one of the most hated ingredients
Think you know all there is to know about these ingredients? Well here’s the whole truth about sulfates.
Once upon a time, almost everyone washed their hair with shampoos powered by small, but potent cleansers. These frothy soap replacements were easy to rinse from the hair, produced tons of lather and left hair squeaky clean. They were nicknamed “sulfates” by formulators, but pretty much no one else had ever heard of them
Sulfates are often blamed for dryness in curly hair. Image by the Collab.
Until 2001, the year sulfates were officially designated Public Enemy No. 1. The alarm was raised by an influential curly hairstylist who had just dropped her first book. In it, she blamed sulfates for the frizz and dryness that many people with curly hair struggle with. And little by little, natural hair sites and beauty magazines started turning on the ingredients they had been using for years.
By the 2010s, strange words like “no poo”, “co-wash” and “CG-friendly” had crossed into mainstream beauty speak. Soon nearly everyone was asking, “Is that sulfate-free?” at the hair shop – whether they knew what sulfates were or not.
First off, ‘sulfate’ isn’t a single ingredient. When an ingredient has sulfate in its name, it means part of that molecule contains a little group composed of a sulphur atom joined to 4 oxygen atoms. Lots and lots of very different ingredients have sulfate groups – everything from natural minerals used to make plaster, to dyes, to magnesium sulphate aka Epsom salts – which by the way, can be very good for your scalp.
On natural hair, sodium laureth sulfate is a more moderate sulfate cleanser. Image by Edgar181.
But the sulfates people are usually talking about when it comes to hair are the kind that clean your hair; the anionic surfactants. These ingredients are molecules with a water-loving head and an oil-loving tail. Their superpower is that they can make two ingredients that usually hate each other – water and oil – join together. Sulfates use this superpower to work as cleansers, the most popular type in shampoos.
Not all ‘sulfate’ ingredients have any effect on your hair at all. Sodium sulfate is used in cosmetics to thicken the product itself, without actually acting on your strands. Others, like magnesium sulfate, are rarely included in haircare, but tend to show up in products with an emphasis on scalp care.
So even if you’re going ‘sulfate free’, don’t panic if you see the word sulfate on an ingredients list right after ‘sodium’ or ‘magnesium’. It’s not what people are talking about when they say ‘sulfate shampoo’.
What they are talking about are these ingredients:
- sodium lauryl sulfate
- sodium laureth sulfate
- ammonium lauryl sulfate
- ammonium laureth sulfate
These are the main four cleansing agents, called sulfates for short, which have become so controversial in recent years. So are they bad? Some sulfates are good to your hair, some are somewhere in the middle, and some can be pretty bad for hair. How can you tell them apart? We’ll get to that in a minute.
What does sulfate do to natural hair?
The main thing sulfates do to natural hair is cleanse it. The problem is, sometimes, they do this job a little too well. When sulfate concentration is too high in a shampoo formula, it can remove more from your hair than just the dirt, product buildup and grease you want it to remove.
At high concentrations, sulfates can strip your hair of its bound lipids – oils that are naturally stuck to your cuticle, and whose job is to sit tight on the surface and protect it. Over time, this leaves your hair dried out, brittle, frizzy and rough.
Scarily, the most overzealous sulphates actually create little holes in your strands, as they go deep to remove oil, leaving hair weaker and more porous. The sulphates that do this are the smaller, harsher sulfates, the ones with lauryl in their name – like sodium lauryl sulfate and ammonium lauryl sulfate.
Avoid using sodium lauryl sulfate on your natural hair. Image by Lucas Lenzi.
But not all sulfates do this. Laureth sulfates are chemically modified to be milder. The same goes for the lesser known myreth sulfates which are also bigger, way too large to penetrate the strand, and so way gentler, too.
If you’re planning on using a sulphate shampoo, formulas that say sodium laureth sulfate, sodium myreth sulfate or ammonium laureth sulfate on the label should be able to cleanse your hair without completely stripping it.
What’s the difference between sulfates and sulphates?
Nothing! Chemically, they’re exactly the same. Sulphate is simply the ‘British’ (Or Jamaican or Canadian or Australian…) spelling, while sulfate is the way it’s spelled in the US. We’ve used both interchangeably in this article.
What’s the best sulfate shampoo for natural hair?
The best sulfate shampoo for natural hair will contain a laureth sulfate or myreth sulphate, whether that’s sodium laureth sulfate, sodium myreth sulfate or ammonium laureth sulfate
The best sulfate shampoos contain laureth or myreth sulfate, as used in atrActiva Anti-Stress Shampoo.
Avoid lauryl sulphates if you don’t want to overcleanse or create minute cracks in your cuticle surface. While you might be able to get away with using them occasionally in a well-formulated shampoo, they shouldn’t be part of your regular natural hair regimen unless you have seriously robust hair.
A good sulfate shampoo won’t be too concentrated, either. If it’s well-formulated, the shampoo should be strong enough to remove stubborn residue, including product buildup, grease and pollution – but balanced, to avoid being too harsh on your hair.
One more thing; the ideal sulfate shampoo will also cleanse without leaving buildup. On low porosity hair in particular, which has the lowest tolerance for residue, it’s best to avoid any shampoo that dumps a ton of unnecessary ingredients on your hair that you can’t rinse away.
A residue-free cleanser will allow your conditioner the space it needs to work to maximum effect, instead of having to compete with bits of leftover shampoo. And most importantly, it means your scalp can breathe!
Shampoos we’ve tested that fit the ideal sulfate shampoo criteria include atrActiva AntiStress Shampoo, which recently won the Award For Best Clarifying Shampoo, and Capilo La Aplanadora Shampoo.
Both of these are deep cleansers, meaning they’re suited for use as clarifying shampoos to remove weeks of buildup, or as a once weekly cleanser if you use a fair amount of product.
A moderate cleanser for more frequent use is Silicon Mix Shampoo, which you can use multiple times a week without overcleansing.
Does sulfate-free shampoo makes hair greasy?
Since the backlash against sulfates began, sulfate-free formulas have become more popular. Unfortunately, some sulfate-free shampoos do leave hair feeling greasy. Sometimes, it’s because they’re based on milder cleansing agents which can struggle to remove greasy buildup already on the hair.
And because these cleansing agents are so mild, they might have to be used at a higher concentration, which can be drying to the hair and scalp – causing your scalp to overcompensate by producing more oil.
Sulfate-free shampoos can leave hair greasy as they contain weaker cleansers. Image by Barbara Asboth.
The last reason why sulfate-free cleansers can leave your hair greasy might be disturbing for anyone avoiding sulfates because of their rep as harsh cleansers: Some sulfate-free shampoos contain cleansing agents that are actually harsher than most sulfates.
To mask their effect, manufacturers often include a lot of conditioning ingredients in the formula so you can’t actually feel that your hair is drying out. These ingredients can build up on your hair, leaving it feeling greasy instead.
That said, there are sulfate-free shampoos, for example, Halka Baba de Caracol Sulphate- Free Shampoo, which don’t do any of the above. Good sulfate-free shampoos will clean hair well without overloading it with grease or overcleansing it, but in practice, it’s very tricky for formulators to get the balance right, which is why it’s so hard to find a good sulfate-free shampoo.
Are sulfates safe for your health?
There are studies out there which link sulfates to skin cell damage. However, these tend to be based on sulfates used at higher concentrations, and leaving the ingredient on your skin, which you wouldn’t ordinarily do with shampoo.
The safety of every ingredient is “dose-dependent” and even sulfate-free cleansers and conditioning agents have maximum levels above which they should not be used in products for safety reasons.
That said, the evidence for lauryl sulfates and irritation is pretty compelling. These cleansers can be pretty harsh even with normal use, because of the way they disrupt the epidermal structure. They’re often used to purposely induce contact dermatitis in scientific experiments, for example.Finally, like any other ingredient, some people can be allergic to sulfates. If you are, definitely don’t use them..
Are there naturals who use sulfate shampoo?
Despite the widespread fear of sulfates in the natural community, there are tons of naturals who use sulfate shampoo. Some of them are recent re-converts to sulfate shampoos, like Jonell Sequira, others, like NappyFu – who has a really informative video on the topic – never left.
There are a couple of major reasons why they do. Since people with natural hair tend to use a lot more styling butters, oils and custard or pudding-type stylers, they tend to need better buildup removal than people with other hair types. The ingredients in these products can be hard to remove with co-washes, hair teas, or sulfate-free shampoos.
The rich butters used by many naturals can be hard to remove with co-washes, clays and sulfate-free shampoos. Image by Crishna Simmons.
Can you use sulfates on low porosity hair?
You can definitely use sulphate shampoos on low porosity hair. Sulphates are great at removing the type of debris that other cleansers leave behind. They’ll pick up a lot of the product residue these alternatives miss, as well as more of the usual stuff like dirt, sweat, sebum and pollutants.
When you have natural low porosity hair – especially 4C hair, which tends to have super low porosity – this level of effective cleansing has especially high value.
Why? The surface of low porosity hair is less absorbent and more prone to buildup, so shampoos that don’t effectively remove surface residue can actually block the effects of conditioners, interfere with styling, and affect the way hair feels. Since they’re so good at this step, sulfates can eliminate this problem, making low porosity hair easier to condition, moisturise and handle
Sulfates: One thing you should never do
Warning: sulfates are potent cleansers. Skipping conditioner afterwards, even if the sulfate shampoo you used says “2-in-1” or “moisturising” on the label, is a no-no. Following sulfate shampoos up with a good conditioner is a must if you don’t want your hair to dry out.
And since they clean the surface so well, treatments – especially moisture treatments – usually work better after using a sulfate shampoo than other cleansers, so there’s no excuse to skip conditioner, ever.
In fact, when you’re using such powerful shampoos, it’s even more important to have a washday routine that’s super gentle and kind to your hair.
Use this washday checklist to make sure you’re treating your curls as gently as they deserve, whether your cleanser contains sulfates or not.
by DHA's DIY | Mar 31, 2022 | Cowash, Natural Hair, Shampoo Alternatives
Are you co-washing or just co-rinsing? Or none of the above?
It’s a distinction that can flummox newcomers and natural veterans alike.
But not knowing the difference could mean doing your hair a disservice.
Co-wash: The Process
One of the first passages into nurturing the full possibilities of your natural texture, or simply taking more gentle care of your hair is the co-wash: washing your hair with conditioner instead of shampoo.
However, the cleansing is not in simply applying conditioner to the hair. Co-washing is a process – if you do it right, your hair will come out both conditioned and clean at the other end. Get it wrong, and you could be left with musty hair and buildup that’ll have you scrambling for the first bottle of clarifying shampoo you can get your hands on.
Cleansing with conditioner
The gentler surfactants, cleansing agents, in conditioners remove dirt from your hair without stripping it the way shampoo can all too easily do. While the conditioners themselves double up as cleansers, however, the method is still intended to be a two-step, rather than a 2-in-1, with the co-wash conditioner replacing the shampoo alone, not the shampoo and the conditioner.
Why? Well, those particles in the conditioner that do the cleansing work and the conditioning work are usually one and the same.
If applied to dirty hair, those same surfactants are too busy forming micelles with the dirt and grime on your strands – and rolling off your hair with them once you rinse – to do much in the way of conditioning.
On cleaner hair, the conditioner can adhere to the surface of your hair better, instead of just hooking onto the dirt, and thus can provide your hair with the thorough conditioning it needs.
Co-rinse v co-wash
If you simply rinse-condition-rinse what you’re doing is a co-rinse. This only provides a shot of moisture and emolliency to your hair – it doesn’t cleanse. Without working the conditioner into your scalp to lift away dirt, smoothing the resultant lather down to the ends, leaving it in for a couple minutes to do its work, and then rinsing thoroughly, you’re not cleansing your hair enough to call it co-washing. However, this is perfectly fine to do between washes when all you want is an intense dose of moisture, smoothness or combability.
Step by step: an effective co-wash
To perform an effective co-wash, you have to recognise the difference between the cleansing power of the conditioner you’re currently working with and the shampoo you were probably raised on. The surfactants in the conditioner are much less powerful. While they are often superior at removing oil-based debris compared to those used in conventional shampoos, what you gain in gentleness you tend to lose in potency. This means that the conditioner usually needs a lot of assistance from you in getting your hair clean.
To get your hair clean with conditioner, you need to start by rinsing thoroughly.
Drench your hair in warm water for 2-5 minutes, making sure you open up unexposed sections of your hair and scalp to the flow of the water, especially if you have particularly dense hair, to ensure no part goes untouched.
Next, apply a generous amount of conditioner – usually a palmful, some hair may need more – to your scalp.
Using the pads of your fingertips, massage this into your scalp all over, from your hairline to your nape, gently but effectively lifting dirt and debris from your scalp. This should take a minimum of 2 minutes. Next, squeeze this lather down to the ends of your hair. If there’s not enough, then quickly dip your hair under the water and apply some more conditioner. This will help ensure you get a good dense foam that’s easy to spread through your strands and thoroughly cleanse your hair.
Next, leave the conditioner in your hair to do its work for at least 2-3 minutes. Remember, the cleansers in conditioner lack the power of those in shampoo and so they need a little extra time and effort to get the job done.
After letting the conditioner do its magic, now it’s time to rinse the hair thoroughly, for a few minutes, to ensure every last drop of dirt and debris-saturated conditioner is removed.
Now you have clean, co-washed hair, the perfect canvas for the moisturizing and smoothing your hair needs. To make sure your hair gets adequate conditioning, follow your cleansing step with a separate application of conditioner. You can use the same conditioner you used to co-wash, or, for more intense conditioning, select a richer conditioner or even a treatment.
What about leaving my co-wash in?
It is common to leave in conditioner to help tame strands as they dry. However, if you do this with the same application of conditioner you used to wash your hair, then your hair isn’t clean. Not only is this not co-washing, it’s also a tad unhygienic, as all of the dirt you’ve removed from your scalp just remains stuck in your hair. This will eventually accumulate, causing dullness, brittleness and tangling, and might lead to you relying on clarifiers much more than your delicate strands would prefer.
If you want to get the benefits of leaving conditioner in, provided that works for your hair type, then rinse all the conditioner you used to co-wash your hair out, and only then reapply the conditioner you want to use as your leave in.
If you only want to leave in some of the conditioner, then you can rinse it out partially and then proceed to styling. But don’t make the mistake of leaving in the grime-laden stuff you’ve just used to clean your scalp and hair.
And remember: only do this with conditioners that you know for sure are safe to leave in. Often the permitted levels of ingredients like essential oils and certain surfactants are a lot lower in leave ins, because of the risk of irritation. So unless you get confirmation from the manufacturer that a conditioner is fine to leave in, it’s best to assume it isn’t.
Getting it right feels so good!
Co-washing can be a lifesaver for fragile or damaged hair, whether curly, straight or somewhere in between – as long as you get it right! Sometimes, the so-so results from making the mistakes listed above can be misleading, and leave you thinking this gentle method is not for your hair. Getting it right means you can stack up the benefits for your hair, leaving you with strands that feel smoother, are stronger, and grow longer.
To make sure you get all those benefits of gentler cleansing, just use this washday checklist.
Image Credits
|Lucy Loomis| Jaime |Jef Harris |Steven DePolo|
by DHA's DIY | Mar 31, 2022 | High Porosity, Low Porosity, Natural Hair, Natural Methods, Shampoo Alternatives
These days, hair trends spread like wildfire on social media.
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But most information isn’t passed on by experts, and many people who share fail to check the facts first.
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All this means the fallout from dodgy beauty remedies and dangerous natural hair trends can be pretty bad.
Dangerous natural hair trends:
These viral hair trends could destroy your natural hair
Back in the day, most natural advice online could be found on large haircare forums with thousands of threads dedicated to curly hair. These forums were the main hubs of haircare information, bubbling with different curly hair perspectives. These days, hair advice is more diffuse, with the sources scattered across the Internet, including social media sites like YouTube and Instagram.
One downside of this is that we can end up in social bubbles, where the information spread into each community is less likely to get checked. That makes it easier for harmful trends to take root and do some serious damage before they get debunked.
Like the following trends currently circulating online. None of them are worth losing your hair over – feel free to avoid them like the plague.
Hair Myth #1: “Use dishwashing liquid instead of shampoo.”
This scam is currently being peddled all over the Internet by a host of unscrupulous bloggers and Instagrammers. Aiming to stoke controversy and thus increase engagement and stack influencer cash, these individuals advocate replacing your shampoo with dish soap to save money.
Apparently, we’ve been getting tricked all along – shampoo and dishwashing liquid are the same thing, the only difference is the price tag and the bottle.
Some have even posted videos of themselves using dish soap to wash their hair.
Some social media influencers advise followers to wash their hair with dish soap. Image by Marco Verch.
One of the hooks they use is to claim that dishwashing liquid has the same ingredients (sulfates) as shampoos. They even go for an emotional touch, pointing to videos of cute ducks rescued from oil spills being washed clean of crude oil with a popular dishwashing liquid. It must be safe if the ducklings can use it, right?
Not right. There’s so much wrong, we had to put together a whole article to warn people of the dangers of washing their hair with dishwashing liquid. Here are a few reasons why it’s not that smart: For one, dishwashing liquid and shampoos don’t have the same ingredients: dishwashing liquids use a harsher detergent (sodium lauryl sulfate) than the type of cleanser commonly used in shampoo, sodium laureth sulfate.
The amount of surfactant used in dish soap is several times higher than shampoo, and it can also trigger contact dermatitis.
Dishwashing detergent is several times harsher than shampoo. Image by DreamS Hair Salon圓夢髮藝
And while certain posters claim using dishwashing liquid hasn’t damaged their hair, it’s worth questioning whether they really know that for a fact. The sodium lauryl sulfate in washing-up liquid not only strips oils indiscriminately, it erodes the surface of your hair. This happens every time you use it, on a microscopic level, so you won’t see the damage until it accumulates.
But what about the baby ducks? Dishwashing detergent did a fine job of removing crude oil from ducklings, but is that relevant to you washing your hair with it? The ducklings weren’t getting scrubbed with detergent as part of their weekly bubble bath – it was a desperate, one-off intervention to remove crude oil from their feathers and save their lives.
Grebe partly covered in crude oil following oil spill. Image by Ingrid Taylar.
If you have anything as thick and sticky as crude oil, or even as unctuous as the contents of a greasy, deep fryer to remove from your hair, it might make sense to use dishwashing liquid.
But if the level of grease this detergent is designed to remove isn’t there, it’s coming for your strands instead.
The spreaders of this misinformation don’t mind trying every trick in the book to get more traffic. The end goal is to entice companies to pay them to shill on their behalf – and they definitely don’t care if your hair has to suffer to get them there.
Hair myth #2: “Use bleach to clean your scalp.”
You might have seen the tragic news reports about people in poorer countries being duped into giving their sick children bleach water to drink as a supposed cure-all. Back in the West, droves of people with Google at their fingertips have decided that bleach will cure all that ails their scalps. This myth is spreading through social media, as ever, helped by sketchy posters hoping to use controversy to propel them to Internet fame.
Household bleach is chemically different and much harsher than that used in salons. Image by Afromztoa.
Hair myth #3: “Use keratin straightening to smooth and strengthen your hair.”
Now here’s a myth that gets pushed through hairdressers and online. It’s yet another example of how a little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing. We all know that hair is made of keratin and that tiny pieces of keratin can be used to temporarily repair damaged hair. Keratin straightening is not the same thing.
Keratin straightening, aka keratin smoothing treatments, aka the Brazilian Keratin Treatment, is a semi-permanent way of straightening hair using a combination of chemicals and heat. Initially, the main ingredient in these formulas was formaldehyde, but after some well-publicised cases of hairdressers and clients becoming seriously ill from the fumes, a lot of the products were banned. Manufacturers started reformulating with other aldehydes at lower concentrations.
Keratin straightening smooths the outside but destroys the inside of hair strands. Image by Angela Litvin.
While they do contain keratin, it’s very unlikely keratin is what’s giving hair its initial smooth, strong appearance following the process. That smoothness comes from the intense blowdrying and ironing, and the aldehydes forced onto the hair at high temperatures. This creates an illusion of strength with an unnaturally glossy coating. That coating wears off over the following months.
After a few treatments, the damaged fibre becomes more apparent and getting more treatments won’t hide the thinness of the destroyed hair shaft.
This is definitely not the way to go if your aim is stronger hair..
You can build up the health, shine and strength of your hair naturally, by alternating protein and moisture treatments on a regular basis. Go for actual conditioning treatments which don’t chemically alter your hair, whether at home or in the salon.
Check out our article on the best types of deep conditioning treatments for healthy hair.
Hair myth #4: “Using texture softeners won’t damage your hair.”
Similar to the BKT conditioning claims, this is another piece of marketing hype that comes straight from the manufacturers. Texture softeners are basically watered down relaxers, smothered in conditioner and grease. Read the labels and see for yourself: most contain common relaxer ingredients, such as calcium hydroxide and guanidine carbonate.
Texture softeners are similar to relaxers and can damage children’s hair. Image by Carsten ten Brink.
Texture softeners don’t get hair all the way straight, but they work in exactly the same way as relaxers; by breaking the bonds that hold your hair together, leaving you with fewer curls. They pose similar risks for scalp irritation and permanent damage as relaxers, especially on a child’s delicate scalp.
These products are often pushed at stressed, time-poor mums who don’t realise they’re giving their children a relaxer on the low. Their marketing is designed to make you think the only way to soften your child’s hair is to alter it to look like someone else’s.
But if you’re struggling to make your child’s hair softer or more manageable, you don’t need to change the texture. What you do need is a solid routine and some serious hydration from more powerful conditioners than the one you’re using.
Good conditioners and routines will make your child’s hair easier to handle. Image by Tregg Mathis.
These two elements are all it takes to give your child softer, manageable hair – hair that will grow longer, too. You won’t need to worry about scheduling touchups or dealing with chemical damage to your child’s scalp or hair, either.
Hair myth #5: “Use oils as heat protectants instead of silicones.”
Silicones got hit by the same bandwagon that decided to take out sulfates. Despite all the misinformation surrounding them, silicones are not bad for your hair.
You should avoid non-water soluble silicones when you’re on a No Poo routine because conditioner won’t be able to remove them from your hair, which will lead to buildup. But silicones themselves don’t actually damage your hair.
When it comes to heat straightening, they’re much better at protecting your hair than oils. One silicone in particular, dimethicone, resists heat up to 300 degrees Celsius (that’s 450 degrees Fahrenheit). Most oils have low heat stability and smoke points, which means they break down at normal straightening temperatures and can’t protect your hair. You might even be increasing the level of heat your hair is exposed to by using certain oils.
Hair myth #6: “Use baking soda to clarify your hair and scalp.”
Baking soda has a much higher pH than the natural pH of your scalp. Image by Eva Octel.
This has been a popular one on the Internet for a while. Pushed as an alternative to sulfate shampoos for people on ‘No Poo’ routines, baking soda is touted as the gentle way to clarify.
Hair on No Poo needs to be clarified every so often because washing your hair with conditioner only is not enough to remove all residue from your strands. Baking soda’s job is to clear the buildup once it gets too crazy.
The irony is, baking soda is a lot harsher on your scalp and hair than the average sulfate shampoo. Baking soda has a pH of 8.3 while your skin’s natural pH ranges from 4-6, making it way too potent for your scalp and seriously drying to your hair, too.
For some reason, over a decade on, the Internet still can’t shake this myth.
How to spot fake beauty advice online
Not everyone sharing information online has your best interests at heart – and even more innocently don’t know what they’re sharing. The best we can all do is try to verify information we receive – which is why this post links to actual scientific research.
Check the facts for yourself – then share your knowledge to save family and friends getting hoodwinked by the latest hype.
dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends dangerous natural hair trends
by DHA's DIY | Mar 31, 2022 | Shampoo, Shampoo Alternatives
In Part 1 of this 3-part series, we showed you what using a high pH shampoo or shampoo bar does to your hair.
And in Part 2 we showed you how to how to pH test your shampoo.
Here’s why even baby shampoo will usually give a high pH result – and exactly what you need to do if your shampoo pH turns out to be high…
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What pH is too high for my hair or scalp?
The ideal pH for shampoo would be 3.67 – the pH of your hair, but shampoos this acidic are rare. For your scalp, the right pH is around 5.5. In a recent study, scientists considered a high pH shampoo to be anything above 5.5.
What if my shampoo’s pH is high?
Don’t panic. If you get a high reading that doesn’t mean you have to toss your shampoo in the bin. A high pH shampoo that cleans your hair really well has one very important use: clarifying.
So in most cases, you can keep it in your stash as a deep cleansing shampoo. Still, if you shampoo your hair a couple times a week or more (especially if you’re lighthanded with product usage) then it’s better to find a shampoo with a lower pH for regular use.
Baba de Caracol Sulphate Free Shampoo is a low pH shampoo.
But don’t start fretting over the ills you’ve visited upon your hair because you unknowingly used a high pH shampoo.
Given how high pH in hair products can get (hint: relaxers at 12.5-13.3), a high pH shampoo is not going to be that high. The most alkaline shampoos in the Brazil study were about 9.
That’s just slightly higher than baking soda (at 8.3) which astonishingly is often used as a “gentle clarifier” in place of sulfate shampoos (it’s not).One more thing to keep in mind: your shampoo technique, and your whole washday method can affect the impact of a high pH shampoo on your hair. Making sure you know
how to wash natural hair gently can limit some of the harshness.
What you should do right after you use shampoo with a high pH
If you’ve used a high pH shampoo, you’ll need to readjust your hair’s pH to get it acting right.
Luckily, this is pretty simple. To bring your hair’s pH down to a lower level, you need to follow up with a low pH conditioner, preferably one loaded with positively-charged (cationic) ingredients. This is because alkaline shampoos increase the negativity of your hair, which starts the static-frizz-tangle cycle that eventually leads to breakage.Using a low pH, positively-charged conditioner will neutralise the static, which will in turn smooth your cuticles and calm your frizz.
atrActiva Multivitamin Treatment lowers the negative effect of high pH shampoos on your hair.
The drier, the more tangled or the frizzier your hair is after using a high pH shampoo, the more powerful of a conditioner you’ll need.A rich treatment like
Silicon Mix Bambu or
atrActiva Multivitamin has the right blend of positively-charged conditioners that bind well to your hair strands, with the correct consistency and slip to help you get your hair super-soft and tangle-free.
Application tips: Be sure to apply the treatment all the way down the strand to make sure you restore the pH all along your hair fiber. You can use your fingers or a wide tooth comb but you’ll get best coverage with a brush like this.
Don’t use a cationic conditioner if you’ve shampooed your hair with a lauryl sulfate containing shampoo though.
You’re good to go if you’ve used a laureth sulfate shampoo – the two ingredients are very different.
I use a shampoo bar, will the pH affect my hair?
Shampoo bars are often used in the natural hair community as a gentle alternative to shampoos. Only they’re not. Shampoo bars are soap. To be more specific, they’re made from superfatted soap which basically means they’re soap made with a ton of oils. But that’s still soap.
Most shampoo bars are soap, which always has an alkaline pH.
Superfatted soaps don’t feel like regular soap – they feel way gentler because they’re full of emollients. But the oils are reacted with lye just like regular soap. While their high oil content can make them feel good on the outside of the hair, most of these bars still have a high pH: 9-10 on average, like any other true soap.That means underneath the conditioned, smooth outer layer, what the soap is actually doing is slowly lifting the cuticle and swelling your hair fibre. The pH definitely has a damaging effect on your hair over time.
Some people are able to mitigate this with a great conditioning routine, but this may not be enough for your hair.
My dermatologist prescribed a high pH shampoo and it’s ruining my hair. Should I stop using it?
If you’re using a prescription shampoo for a scalp issue you might not have a lot of options until you’ve run your course of treatment.
Often, with certain scalp issues, you’re not even allowed to use conditioner to reduce the ill effects of these harsh shampoos, because it can exacerbate some conditions.
But if your hair is really suffering, speak to your doctor about it. There might be an alternative treatment option with a lower pH which won’t be quite as harsh on your hair.
Surprisingly, dermatological shampoos often have very high pH values. Some researchers put the blame on the way skincare is taught in medical schools, which doesn’t prioritise ‘cosmetic’ aspects like hair.
What about baby shampoo – isn’t that supposed to be gentle?
Technically, baby shampoos are neutral; they have a pH of around 7, since most are designed to be ‘tear free’ and 7 is actually the pH of your tears.
But just because they’re gentle on the eyes, doesn’t mean they’re gentle on the hair. Your hair freaks out at pH 7 – which is way higher than its favourite 3.67. As far as your hair’s concerned, baby shampoo has a high pH.
Baby shampoo Image by Dahlak Tarekegn.
And baby shampoo’s neutral pH might not even be as gentle on the scalp as we’d like to think – studies show that a pH of 7 can cause scalp irritation.That said, in a baby formula you can be reasonably sure that manufacturers have thought of that – most are formulated with a careful mix of conditioning ingredients to mitigate the effects of this slightly too high pH on the skin. And your skin’s acid mantle is naturally equipped to readjust the pH back down to its natural 4-6, within a few hours.
But that won’t be enough to make up for the effects of baby shampoo on your hair. The higher the pH goes, the more your hair’s cuticle scales start to open. And unlike your skin, your hair can’t auto-adjust the pH back down to optimal levels, so those scales stay that way until you do something to close them.
Because of this, if you have coloured hair, you should go out of your way to avoid using these shampoos. On dyed hair, baby shampoo can cause quicker colour fade – thanks to colour molecules escaping through your wide open cuticle.
Using a high pH shampoo on dyed hair can cause colour fade. Image by Ree.
So is an alkaline pH always bad for your hair?
There are definitely reasons why sometimes you’ll want a more alkaline cleanser.
Dishwashing liquids (which we DON’T advise you to use on your hair) are pretty alkaline for a reason: a higher pH tends to make detergents better cleaners.
Most detergents are based on negatively charged cleansing ingredients. The high pH makes them even more negative, which makes it easier to attract and rinse away greasy residue.
By the way, your shampoo is a detergent.
So if you have really greasy hair or tend to use a lot of product and need to clarify every so often, then you might actually want a shampoo with a higher pH.
High pH shampoos cause cuticle lifting which increases volume on flat hair. Image by Bennie Lukas Bester.
Highly alkaline shampoos also work out for people with straight, flat hair who don’t mind a little cuticle lifting in exchange for some volume.
But of course, that alkalinity also makes shampoos harsher. So if your hair doesn’t get that much buildup, you cleanse it frequently, and don’t need the extra volume, you probably do not want to use a high pH shampoo that often. To find out how to create a washday routine that won’t damage your hair, download this free Washday Guide.
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by DHA's DIY | Mar 31, 2022 | Shampoo, Shampoo Alternatives
Is it safe to wash your hair with dishwashing liquid? The short answer: It won’t kill you, but it could ruin your hair.
This trend might save you money in the short term but beware. Here are 6 good reasons why washing your hair with dishwashing liquid is a bad idea.
Plus: 2 exceptions where it might actually make sense. . .
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Is it safe to wash your hair with dishwashing liquid?
Every so often a questionable beauty trend goes viral, spreading its way through social media and ruining hair and skin everywhere. Every so often, these dangerous haircare trends get recycled and now it’s washing your hair with dishwashing liquid. . .again.
That’s right, a few social media ‘beauty gurus’ are once again pushing dishwashing liquid as an alternative to shampoo – and plenty of people are lapping it right up.
Dishwashing liquids now boast natural ingredients like shampoos. Image by Deb.
According to their claims, shampoo and dishwashing liquid are basically the same thing; both of them have the same ingredients and both of them will get your hair clean. Only difference is, one is cheaper and gets your hair way cleaner – so the story goes.
If you feel your eyebrow rising, then that’s just your good instincts. Since including this craze in our list of dangerous trends, we’ve gotten a few questions so decided to break it down to the nitty gritty. Here’s exactly why ever letting dishwashing liquid touch your hair is (mostly) a pretty bad idea.
Is dishwashing liquid the same as shampoo?
Dishwashing liquids aren’t the same as shampoos. The consistencies are different, so is the foamability, plus the fact that dermatologists advise that you wear gloves when using one of them in case it dries out your skin.
Unlike the bad science being pushed on social suggests, the ingredients in these two products are not the same. Here’s are some shampoo formulation examples from a cosmetics ingredient manufacturer. Now here’s one for dishwashing liquid.
As you can see, different ingredients. For one, most dish detergents are formulated with sodium lauryl sulfate. This ingredient is their primary surfactant, the one that does the heavy duty cleaning work.
Sodium lauryl sulfate shampoos are now extremely rare thanks to the anti-sulfate campaign, which rightly got formulators to swap them for the gentler sodium laureth sulfate.
Dishwashing liquid almost always contains another potentially drying ingredient: sodium chloride (salt). Other common ingredients include SD alcohol and cocamide DEA – which isn’t compatible with certain haircare ingredients.
The concentrations of the main surfactants are also different. Dishwashing liquids have more heavy duty cleaning to do, so they contain a higher amount of surfactant than shampoo.
Then there’s the fact that there’s A LOT of variability in the shampoo category. Unlike dish detergents, which tend to have more or less straightforward formulas, shampoo formulations vary widely.
Shampoo ingredients vary based on their purpose. Clockwise from top left: Halka Baba De Caracol Sulphate-Free Shampoo is for mild to moderate cleansing; atrActiva Anti-Stress Shampoo is a deep cleanser; Silicon Mix Shampoo is a moisturising cleanser; Capilo La Aplanadora Shampoo is deep-cleansing.
Shampoos are formulated to clean different hair types, to different degrees, under different conditions and often impart other unique benefits – which means a ton of different ingredients and concentration levels. Given the extent of this variation alone, it’s impossible for dishwashing liquid to be “just like” shampoo.
Is one type of dishwashing liquid safer than the others?
When it comes to dish detergent, you’ll find that many formulas are pretty much the same across brands. Cheaper ones will contain more water, but there’s far less variability overall.
This isn’t a huge surprise. After all, dish detergents are built to wash dishes, which are way less complicated and variable than hair. Most dishwashing liquids follow the same simple formula: primary surfactant, secondary surfactant, thickener, pH adjuster, hydrotrope, preservatives and water.
Certain Instagrammers urging people to try dishwashing liquid have declared one brand superior to the others. They claim it’s gentle because it’s been used on rescued ducklings to remove crude oil after oil spills. But that doesn’t make it gentle enough to use as shampoo – and there’s no indication of the manufacturers ever advising people to use their product in this way.
Different brands of dishwashing liquid are often very similar. Image by Kai Hendry
While some innovative formulas do contain conditioning ingredients to make them softer on your hands, or different surfactants to make them more environmentally friendly, there’s a limit to how gentle dishwashing liquid can be and still be good at its job. If it wasn’t harsh enough to lift the grime off greasy pots and pans nobody would buy it.This is why even dishwashing liquids that are marketed as safer – milder and more ecofriendly – are still much more concentrated than even a clarifying shampoo.
“But I just used dishwashing liquid to wash and my hair was fine.”
The effects of using such a strong cleanser on your hair happen at a microscopic level so don’t expect to see most changes right away, unless your hair is very damaged or sensitive. The effects are cumulative though, so you will begin to see the impact on your hair after using it a few times.
Just so you can make your own informed decision on whether to use it or not, here’s exactly what happens when you use a typical dishwashing liquid to wash your hair:
1. Dishwashing liquid dries out your scalp and hair
This is the most obvious ill effect. Sodium lauryl sulfate is an extremely powerful cleanser. It’s great at dissolving all kinds of oils – including the ones that keep your skin and hair moisturised. Once it rips away these natural moisturising lipids, your skin loses hydration rapidly.
Dishwashing liquid removes hydration from your hair and skin. Image by Anna Shvets.
Because it usually contains sodium lauryl sulfate, dishwashing liquid can exacerbate dry scalp, leaving it flaky and irritated. And if you have an oily scalp, your sebaceous glands may start to overcompensate for the huge loss of sebum – and give you even more oiliness to deal with.
The salt in dish soap (used as a cheap way to thicken the formula) will also seriously dry out your hair. Anyone who’s ever been to the beach knows salt air alone is enough to leave your hair looking like tumbleweed – and a dip in the sea without preparing your hair adequately can leave it dehydrated for weeks after.Then there’s the SD alcohol in some dish detergents: it’s highly astringent so dissolves your natural oils with ease. If there’s enough in the formula, it could also swell your strands till they fracture.
2. Dish soap removes the outer coating from your hair
Your cuticle’s job is to protect the inner layers of your hair. But did you know that there’s a layer on top of the cuticle that protects the cuticle itself? That’s your epicuticle, and it’s made up mostly of lipids, which provide a chemical surface barrier for your hair.
Since it’s so good at breaking down oils, using sodium lauryl sulfate regularly will eventually completely remove this protective layer. Once it dissolves the epicuticle, it gets to work dissolving the entire cuticle, including the cell membrane complex – the ‘glue’ that holds your hair together.
3. Dishwashing liquid can trigger dermatitis in your scalp
The main ingredient in most dish detergents is so irritating that scientists regularly use it to trigger contact dermatitis for experimental purposes.
When used to wash hair, sodium lauryl sulfate has been shown to set off another skin condition: atopic dermatitis. It turns out the salt in dish detergent isn’t just drying: mixed with the sodium lauryl sulfate in the formula it becomes a serious irritant. The problem is rinseability: these formulas rinse pretty easily off of dishes. Rinsing it off a human being is another story.
Harsh surfactants in dish soap can trigger flaking, and irritation in the scalp. Image by FMVBIBLO
As soon as the sodium lauryl sulfate-salt combination gets in contact with keratin – the stuff your hair and the outer layers of your skin are made of – it sticks to it. That’s creepy, but also pretty ironic, considering that the social media users who push dishwashing liquid think they’re getting their hair cleaner. In reality, they’re actually creating more buildup.
This is bad for your hair, but it’s the consequences for your skin and body that are most worrying. The fact that you can’t rinse dishwashing liquid off fully means it has more time to stay on your skin and potentially cause irritation.
The safe level for sodium lauryl sulfate in leave on products is very low; 1%. The level in dishwashing liquid is several times that. If the residue it leaves behind exceeds that 1% concentration, or you use this stuff repeatedly and it starts to accumulate on your skin, it could potentially be toxic.
4. Washing up liquid creates buildup when you use it in hard water
Sodium lauryl sulfate loves to form complexes with the metal ions that hang out in hard water. This creates more buildup, aka surfactant residue, which sits on your hair, slowly dissolving your strands, even when you’re not shampooing.
The damage this causes leads to chronic breakage, which could get in the way of your hair growth goals, as well as worsening other problems with manageability and shine. The residue sits on your scalp too, causing dryness and potential irritation.
Hard water ions bind to surfactants in dishwashing liquid creating irritating buildup on skin and hair. Image by Hustvedt.
5. Dish detergent creates buildup inside your strands that breaks it from the inside out
There is a third type of buildup dish detergent can create on your hair. Washing up liquid can get all the way into your strands; its main cleanser is small enough to actually penetrate the hair fibre.
Not only does sodium lauryl sulfate essentially break into your hair; the accomplices it recruits to join its efforts are pretty shocking – your conditioners.
After clarifying your hair, your strands will be extremely thirsty and in need of a good conditioner. But that’s exactly what you shouldn’t give your hair if you’ve just washed it with dishwashing liquid.
Most modern conditioners contain cationic surfactants – ingredients with a high positive charge that are designed to bind to your hair’s surface. Most dishwashing liquids contain sodium lauryl sulfate, a strongly anionic (negative) surfactant.
When you go back and forth between a surfactant with a strong negative charge and one with a strong positive charge, you run into a problem.
The strong opposite charges do what opposites usually do: they attract. Dishwashing liquid’s surfactant grabs your conditioner’s surfactant and drags it inside your hair.
Together, they form a cationic-anionic complex inside your strand. Now you have something inside your strands that’s probably worse than the buildup you were trying to remove when you broke out the dishwashing liquid.
Normal tightly-curled hair cuticle on the left; severely scale lifting on the right. Image by Jae Hong Ji, Tae-Sik Park, Hae-Jin Lee, Yoon-Duk Kim, Long-Quan Pi, Xin-Hai Jin and Won-Soo Lee.
This buildup is insoluble, so it’s hard to rinse out and even trying to wash it out with the strongest detergent you can find is only going to make bad matters worse. The more you do that, the more this independent layer of residue builds up inside your hair shaft.Once it gets high enough, it starts to make your strands swell and buckle, and scale lifting starts to happen. This is when your cuticle gets peeled back from the inside out. It’s the beginning of crazy breakage for those strands.
When is it OK to wash your hair with dishwashing liquid?
If dish detergent does all of this destructive stuff to your hair, can there ever really be a good reason to use it?
There are a couple of scenarios where dishwashing liquid might be your only or best option to remove something extremely tenacious from your strands. Make no mistake: your hair will take a hit for using it, but as a one-off under extreme circumstances, it might be worth it:
Like on extremely greasy hair. We’re not talking the levels of grease your scalp can produce, even if you left it unwashed for months. But say a slicked-back style attempt with large amounts of pomade, beeswax or Vaseline goes horribly wrong.
Dishwashing liquid is more concentrated so can cut through product grease more easily than most shampoos. Image by Andi Whiskey.
If the grease is thick enough, even a clarifying shampoo might not be able to cut through. Try that first. If it doesn’t shift, then dishwashing liquid might be your only option to remove the grease.
Using dishwashing liquid to lift colour from your hair
Another time where dishwashing liquid could come in very handy is in a dye job removal emergency.
Say you dyed your hair, the colour didn’t come out as expected and now you can’t bear to look at yourself in the mirror. If you move quickly, you can probably get most of the colour out – by washing your hair several times with dishwashing liquid, immediately. The dish soap’s surfactants get all inside the hair strands and basically drag the colour molecules out for you.
In either of these scenarios, bear in mind that dishwashing liquid is going to damage your hair if you decide to use it. And as dry and thirsty as your hair might feel afterwards, using conditioner could make bad matters worse.Outside of these two predicaments, there’s no logical reason to ever use dishwashing liquid to wash your hair. You can get seriously filthy hair clean with a clarifying shampoo based on sodium laureth sulfate, which doesn’t react so crazily to salt, cations or hard water – and it’s way gentler on your hair and skin. Try atrActiva Anti-Stress Shampoo and you’ll see what we mean.
6. Dishwashing liquid is not safety tested for personal use
That takes us to the main reason why you shouldn’t be using dishwashing liquid to wash your hair: the safety testing. Many people don’t realise this, but cosmetics are more heavily safety tested than food. Household products that are not intended to be used on the body do not go through anywhere near such rigorous testing, and that includes dish detergent.
So even if you’re currently sporting the worst hair colour mistake possible or you accidentally emptied a whole tin of pomade onto your hair, you should probably think twice about using dish detergent to wash your hair.
For the safer way to wash your hair, check out our washday guide.
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by DHA's DIY | Mar 30, 2022 | Dry Hair, INCI: all about the ingredients, Low Porosity, Shampoo, Shampoo Alternatives, Uncategorized
Just because you’ve given up sulfates, doesn’t mean washday becomes a haircare utopia. Sulfate-free shampoos come with their own set of problems.
Here’s how to spot the biggest ones and how to choose the best sulfate-free shampoo for your hair.
What are the problems with sulfate-free shampoo?
Since the backlash against sulfate shampoo began, sulfate-free formulas have become more and more popular. At first, they seemed like the solution in the search for gentle but effective cleansing alternatives. But one major problem reared its head almost immediately: the grease.
Does sulfate free shampoo makes hair greasy?
If you could swear your new sulfate-free shampoo made your hair greasy, seconds after you washed it, you’re not alone. A lot of sulfate-free shampoos do leave hair greasy. Why, exactly? It depends on what is in that shampoo – and what’s on the hair.
Many sulfate-free shampoos are formulated with ultra mild cleansing agents like decyl glucoside or coco glucoside. These are great for not stripping delicate scalps and hair, but their mildness is also their weakness. Since they’re so gentle, these cleansers are simply not strong enough to remove the product buildup many people have on their tresses.
Ultra mild cleansers found in some sulfate-free shampoos are not enough to remove heavy product buildup. Image by Demorris Byrd.
They also require more work in terms of lathering to remove dirt, oil and grease. If you’re accustomed to the easy sulfate cleansing experience, you might not realise you now have to put in that work. That’s one more reason why going sulfate-free can leave hair greasy.
Another reason for the oiliness is that to make up for this lack of strength, a lot of manufacturers like to up the surfactant concentration. This can defeat the purposely of using mild cleansers since higher concentrations are harsher on your hair. The overcleansing causes your oil glands to overreact, spewing tons of sebum to remoisturise your panicking scalp – hence the greasiness.
One more thing you may have noticed: many sulfate-free shampoos also contain tons of conditioning ingredients. This is to create a shampooing experience that feels less like you’re shampooing and more like you’re conditioning your hair. All too often, this leads to crazy buildup. There’s a fourth, more sinister reason, too…
Sulfate-free shampoos can be harsher than sulfate shampoos
Most people think that sulfate-free automatically = gentler for your hair, but it isn’t that simple. Lots of sulfate-free shampoos are made from milder, gentler ingredients, but many aren’t. One of the most common ingredients in sulfate-free shampoos is a cleansing agent called olefin sulfonate. Olefin sulfonate’s role is to replace the cleaning function that sulfates play in conventional shampoos – and it does a very good job of it.
Some sulfate-free cleansers are just as harsh as the strongest sulfates. Image by Pimthida.
It’s so good at what it does that olefin sulfonate actually cleanses better than the sulfate most commonly used in shampoos today, sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). But that’s not a good thing.
Sodium laureth sulfate has all but replaced sodium lauryl sulfate in sulfate shampoos.
The ‘eth’ in its name is the clue; sodium laureth sulfate is chemically modified, ‘ethoxylated’ to be milder than the harsh sodium lauryl sulfate which sparked the whole sulfate backlash.
Olefin sulfonate is every bit as harsh as the original sodium lauryl sulfate.
The level of clean delivered by both olefin sulfonate and sodium lauryl sulfate is unnecessary for cleansing hair, even if you use tons of greasy oils and butters or hard-to-remove silicones like cyclopentasiloxane.
Sodium laureth sulfate is enough to get these out without completely stripping your hair. Sodium lauryl sulfate and olefin sulfonate, on the other hand, are so eager to remove oil and grease they burrow into your strands after them, leaving holes in your hair shaft.
Sometimes, sulfate-free manufacturers load shampoos with emollients to cloak the harshness of this cleansing agent. For some hair, these emollients are enough to buffer the worst effects. But on more fragile hair types, olefin sulfonate can lead to dryness, brittleness and problems with length retention. These extra ingredients can also leave oily or waxy residue on the hair, storing up buildup problems for later.
Many sulfate-free shampoos contain high levels conditioning ingredients. Image by Ian Dooley.
And while all the added oils and fatty alcohols can stop your hair from feeling frazzled when you’re using your olefin sulfonate-based shampoo, at a strand level, this ingredient can still do all the damage that sodium lauryl sulfate does, can since its molecules are around the same size.
Point blank: Just because a shampoo says sulfate-free doesn’t mean that it’s milder or gentler or better for your hair.
Are sulfate-free shampoos bad for your hair?
Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom if you do decide to go sulfate-free. Choosing a milder cleanser makes sense if you have delicate hair and are not using products which require a strong cleanser every single time you wash your hair.
Baba de Caracol Sulphate Free Shampoo cleanses effectively yet gently.
There are sulfate-free shampoos out there which clean hair well without overloading it with grease or overcleansing it – Halka Baba de Caracol Sulphate Free Shampoo is one of them.
Keep this in mind: the only way to tell if a shampoo, sulfate-free or otherwise, is good for your hair is to look at the whole formulation. At the very least, that means a)making sure that key drying ingredients aren’t there, so no sodium lauryl sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate, olefin sulfonate, or salt (sodium chloride) on the ingredients list, and then b) trying it out and seeing what it does to your hair.
Formulations work as a whole, and the exact amount of each ingredient is not stated on the ingredients list. So don’t just rely on a lack of ‘bad ingredients’ on the back of the bottle. Trying it out will give you a feel for how concentrated or potent the shampoo actually is.
Sulfate-free shampoos are suited for which hair type?
Most sulfate-free shampoos aren’t designed for a particular hair type; they are offered as a gentler cleansing alternative to sulphate shampoos, suited for all hair types. That said, you can find specialist shampoos out there for particular needs; some sulfate-free shampoos are designed for curly hair, or damaged hair. You can even find a sulfate-free shampoo for hair loss or hair growth.
Sulfate-free shampoos work best if you do not use a lot of product on your hair. Image by Mike Fox.
Having said that, some hair types do tend to do better on sulfate-free shampoos than others. People with oily hair often find sulfate-free formulas less suited to their hair, as do many people who use a lot of styling products.
Since many sulfate-free shampoos are based on gentle cleansing agents, they might not be enough to remove buildup for some people – especially people who tend to use a lot of product, or whose product options include styling butters and creams, which tend to leave difficult residues. Few sulfate-free cleansers can remove non-water soluble silicones, either.
Additionally, the high levels of conditioning ingredients in some sulfate-free shampoos, and the kinds of conditioning ingredients used, can also be a problem for people with oily or low porosity hair. These ingredients can create a lot of residue for oily hair or low porosity hair both of which are more sensitive to buildup.
Are sulfate-free shampoos expensive?
Even when you look at sulfate vs sulfate-free shampoos in the same brand, the sulfate-free formula is often more costly. This is because the ingredients are often more expensive and the R&D required to make a sulfate-free shampoo that works, balancing effective cleansing and mildness could be very costly – all of that will show up in the price.
Sulfate-free shampoos can also work out to be expensive just for the fact that they are not as powerful. Often this means that people have to use a lot more shampoo to get the same results they would get with a sulfate shampoo.
Sulfate-free shampoos can also work out to be expensive just for the fact that they are not as powerful. Often this means that people have to use a lot more shampoo to get the same results they would get with a sulfate shampoo.
But if you’ve found your ideal sulfate-free shampoo, and it takes your hair right to that equilibrium between cleansed and not stripped – it may well be worth it.
Just remember to make sure your washday routine is gentle enough overall; damage from rough handling can be as bad as any harsh shampoo; sulfate or sulfate-free.
Use this checklist to make sure your complete washday routine is kind to your delicate curls.
