So after yesterdays serious blog ( Thanks for all the private message guys of people who have been in the same boat) I thought I would discuss about the importance of using good shampoo and conditioner. Now for people who have only met me in recent years and have only known me working in education it may shock you to know that I was a hairdresser and beautician before I decided to go down the road of education. I loved being a hairdresser and one of the most common questions I would get asked is salon quality shampoo and conditioner really worth the extra cash. The simple answer to this is yes and not because I use to get commission on sales back then. I’ll tell you why most stuff that is sold in your super market is made from the stuff we wash our dishes with the only difference between the two is that you have more fragrance in them and a small amount of conditioner. Those two extra ingredients are worth about 2c a gallon and your paying roughly $5 more for it in a shampoo bottle. The difference between a salon quality shampoo is the quality of lack of a better word is the detergent that goes into it. Good quality shampoo has a sulphate free detergent in it that is a lot harder to make and so why the cost is more. I am a huge advocate for sulphate free shampoo’s and there is a strong reason why.
CANCER!
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate has been proven to cause cancer. While research on this is still new it is also very damning. You will also find this in nearly every cleaner in your house and those cleaners advise you to wear protective gear when using. For more info please follow link. http://www.healthy-communications.com/slsmostdangerousirritant.html So the way I see this is if we smoke there is a strong possibility we can get cancer, the same applied with shampoo. I don’t know many people who have not lost someone or known someone with cancer so why risk it. Another reason why is that quality shampoo and conditioner is better for the hair and is more cost effective. As it is concentrated you don’t need as much shampoo and conditioner for your hair. The other thing people are not informed about is washing your hair. I would say 90% of people I speak to have no idea how to wash their hair. Seriously, so here is shampoo 101. When you shampoo your hair you need to was it twice, not once twice and here is why, the active ingredients in shampoo are designed to clean the hair. So when we do the first shampoo the shampoo opens up the cuticle on our hair (look at above image). This is little fish scales that our on the outside of our hair so when we wash them the first time they all open up.
This shampoo is not designed to clean the hair just to get the cuticle open so once we do this we rinse and repeat with a second shampoo, this goes inside the cuticle and starts cleaning out all the dirt, oil and hair product on our hair. So when I see people putting golf ball size shampoo in their hands to do one shampoo I nearly die as you should only use the size of a 10 cent piece on both shampoo’s.
So what the conditioners job then? It’s to go in and close our cuticle back up again and smooth our hair out. Now contrary to popular belief for people who leave their conditioner for as long as possible to moisturise their hair, conditioner closes the cuticle within 3 seconds. Once it’s shut conditioner will stop working so there is no need to stand in the shower for ages and waste water. Also my other big problem with cheap shampoo and conditioner is that in contains silicone. Silicone is what give your hair that nice feeling that makes it feel soft but it’s artificial and not a reflection of your true hairs condition. I also hate this from a colourist point of view as it makes colouring hair a bugger to do. When you continually use this stuff it builds up on your hair and forms a nice little barrier so when your hairdresser goes to colour it the colour may not always turn out. The colour has to try brake through the build up of silicone and if this takes 10 minutes you have lost 10 minutes of processing time so the colour may be lighter than expected.
So my final point on good shampoos and conditioners are you spend good money to get your hair coloured so look after it or you might as well go buy yourself some washing up detergent and use that instead.
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