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This is a short-looking list but read carefully, for some brands or some lines within a brand, the pH range is for multiple products. Some brands are not forthcoming with their pH range, either by direct request or looking through safety data sheets. pH is given in a range because it may vary from batch to batch or product to product, though the pH needs to be in a specific range in most cases in order for preservatives to be effective and the product to be stable on the shelf. Hair is at its least vulnerable between about pH 4.5 and 6.5. Outside that range, it is more vulnerable to damage. Lower pH products don't necessarily force cuticles to "close" - for some people the opposite can happen - hair-swelling in very-low pH can cause cuticles to pop up. It's likely safe to keep products in this range if you have delicate, breakage-prone or damaged hair. If there is a product you are interested in, leave a comment. I won't post the comment, but I will try to look up...

Hello Everyone - just popping in to say I'm working on the Comments section. I tend to get about 2-3 "spam" comments per actual comment, so I "moderate" comments before they appear or you'd have to read through a page full of spam-advertising for hair transplant clinic and the like. Recently I have not had time to do any of this, and to make matters more annoying, the "spam load" seems to have increased significantly. Please bear with me while I sort this out.

There are plenty of "how to make flaxseed gel" videos on YouTube, right? I made this video to show you how to tell whether you're going to get a thin, easily strainable result or a thick, difficult-to-strain result. Because flax seeds are a natural product and how they behave when heated can vary based on seed variety and growing conditions, storage time and conditions, your water, how fast you get to the stove when you hear the seeds boiling, how low you turn down the heat when they boil - you need more cues than just timing. Thinner flax seed gel : Boil the water and seeds about 5-8 minutes. The gel will thicken over the heat a little. Gel will hang in thin threads from your stirring utensil (see the video). The gel will strain quickly and easily. This gel will provide some support for your hair, shine, all the good things flax seed gel can do. This thinner gel is good for thin or fine hair, hair that is easily weighed down or tends to be low porosity. Thicker flax seed...

First of all - this is not my technique. It was named by Melissa Stites, hairstylist and owner of There Once Was A Curl salon in Southgate, Michigan. Squish to Condish is a conditioner-rinsing method for which you can find Ms. Stites text here  on her blog - which she has generously shared and it is helpful to so many people. This technique is meant to leave some conditioner in the hair and achieve excellent hydration and lubrication . I often recommend this technique, so I've had to think quite a lot about why it works so well. You can find videos on YouTube demonstrating the technique. I use un-glamorous words like hydration and lubrication for hair. Because they seem most literal and accurate to me. When hair is hydrated - meaning it contains a certain percentage of water - it is flexible. Dehydrated hair becomes inflexible, which is part of what we mean when we say hair feels dry or, "like straw." Flexible hair is more pliable. It can be shaped when wet. It has s...

Greetings blog-readers! The blog has been quiet because while I have ideas for blog posts, they generally take more hours to carry out than I have to write them.  This is not intended as medical advice and does not replace a consultation with a doctor. Use any and all treatments at your own discretion - or ask your doctor or pharmacist. Nor does it replace buying half a dozen dandruff shampoos and handing them off to a family member or friend when they don't work for you. Alas. I buy these products myself - this is not a sponsored post. Everything you see here should cost less than $25. I have an entire page dedicated to itchy, flaky, bumpy scalp products because so many of us encounter those problems from time to time, or on a more or less constant basis. What kind of scalp problem do I have?  My skin falls into the " atopic dermatitis/eczema " category. Also " seborrheic dermatitis ." I don't see those things as separate entities, there is overlap, even ...

Greetings! The blog has been very quiet lately. Life gets busy, busy, busy. I keep reading how many people experience problems with oils. Some people's hair never met an oil it didn't like. And for others, their hair has a problem with all but 1 or 2 oils. Occasionally we try an oil and get such a bad result, we want to swear off all oils. But then you're probably missing out on some beneficial, inexpensive effects. Here's my quick assessment checklist for whether your hair gets along with an oil or not. Don't worry that somebody else's hair does really well with an oil that makes yours look and feel awful. We're all as different as we are the same. Skin and hair chemistry vary subtly from person to person. Good oils for your hair: A good oil for your hair will look and feel good when you apply it - maybe adding a little sheen, a smoother feel, ease of detangling. And it will still have that sheen and smoothness hours later. You may need to re-apply the oil...

UV protectants are ideal for active people, for going to the beach where sand and water amplify UV radiation, and especially helpful for gray hair which tends to discolor (usually turning yellowish) in sunlight. Any hair benefits from UV protection because direct sunlight increases hair's porosity. Sunlight tends to make your hair's cuticles shrink and fuse together - like "shrinky dinks" or similar to what happens to hard plastic placed in a hot oven. That means tiny pores are opened up where the cuticle used to cover the hair. This takes only 200 hours in the sun - half an hour a day for just over a year. Brown to black hair tends to fade both lighter and reddish in the sun and blonde hair and red hair lose color. Highlighted hair tends to become "brassy" and gray/white hair can turn yellowish as well. One may not blog about summer and sunshine without invoking a beach scene. Here you go. The Ingredients: These are all UV light absorbers - the word "p...

Updated: May 2018. It's the unofficial start of summer this weekend in the Northern Hemisphere. For a lot of us, that means humid weather and frizzy hair - whether the dewpoint is high (above 50°F/10°C) or it's foggy, dewy or rainy. Raindrops on a Monarda leaf. In the last decade or so, the creative folks who make cosmetics ingredients have developed ingredients that withstand high humidity better than some of the older ingredients for providing "hold." They are slowly working their way into products in a variety of brands. These ingredients are polymers - film-forming, even hold-providing. The performance of the product as a whole is the sum of its parts - so you do want to look for these ingredients if you really need to keep your hair together in high humidity - but keep in mind that just because they're in a product doesn't mean the product will suit your hair or your hairstyle. What is humidity-resistance?  It means a product is less likely to lose it...

Please remember that this information can and should never replace the care and advice of a physician. If you experience hair thinning, seek consultation with a medical professional who listens and will physically examine your scalp. If you take medications on a regular basis, always check for interactions between medications and supplements. Be aware that scalps can be sensitive to any and all treatments and products, including natural ones. Scalps that are losing hair may be more sensitive than scalps in which hair density is stable. This post has lots of links. Where I can link you to a full article, I did. Otherwise, I linked to abstracts, which contain a summary of the study's contents. Updated: September, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Androgenic alopecia is the clinical term of male and female pattern hair loss. It’s one of those diagnoses of exclusion. If you don’t have telogen effluvium (hair loss following an exposure t...

This is essentially a recycled and updated post from 2011. Recycling is good, right!? Build-up from hair products is usually 2 things: - Oily residues like actual oils and butters, creamy ingredients like Cetyl alcohol and other emollient ingredients. - Cationic ingredients that bond to the hair. When they're good, they're very good and when there is too much, you feel "build-up." Here I’m referring to 2 classes of chemicals: Quaternary cationic surfactants and cationic polymers. First off, cationic means something has a net positive charge (+). Hair has a net negative charge at the pH environment in which it usually exists (somewhere between pH 4.5 and 5 is average). Opposites attract (positive and negative) when it comes to hair and conditioner. More-damaged hair (the ends, heat-styled, sun-damaged, chemically relaxed, permed, highlighted) has more negative bonds and will bond with or "adsorb" more cationic ingredients. But it also loses them more quickl...

If you're not already aware of it, and I assume you are if you're reading this, some people avoid silicone-based ingredients in hair care products for various reasons. Some people get a slick, fake-hair feeling in their hair, or a heavy, limp feeling. Silicone build-up's feel (if your hair gets any at all) depends on which silicone you've been using. If you don't use shampoo - you wash your hair with conditioner for example - your hair is more likely to accumulate silicones because you are not washing them off with detergent between applications. If you used them very rarely though - would it matter? Don't avoid silicones if they don't cause problems for you. For real. Silicones are reversible. They wash out. You'd think they were permanent, based on some of the bad press they get. They can even be removed with non-detergent ingredients if you dare not let a single bubble near your hair (blog post about that is coming up soon). "Silicones" refe...

The only vegetarian protein recipe treatment I have listed on this blog is for beer, which you can find here  along with an explanation of why it works. I like that treatment because it gives you a very noticeable result with one treatment, whether you leave it in or rinse it out - no conditioners. The products in the list below may or may not meet your preferences for natural or organic or any particular ingredients or manufacturing practices you wish to avoid, but the protein sources are plant-based. How to make a protein-containing product (of any kind) MORE strong/intense: 1) Leave it on for more time (5, 15, or 30 minutes - if your hair really loves protein, maybe 60 minutes). More time allows small, penetrating-size proteins to soak in, medium-size proteins more time to bond with hair. 2) Use heat. Heat causes wet hair to swell slightly - creating more surface for proteins to bond with and allows more "soaking in" of small proteins How to make a protein-containing produ...

Do you have hard water? The best way to find out if you have municipal water is to check your annual water report, where hardness is frequently reported. Your water treatment facility may also have water quality data online. If you cannot find hardness, give them a call and ask - but not just about hardness - ask about the pH of the water also! Why? Read on. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2016 If you use well water, find your location and hardness on this map from the United States Geological Survey (or your state or country may have its own maps) or consult a "water hardness map" for your country or region.  Calcium and magnesium ions (an ion is a mineral with an electric charge) are the most common minerals in water. It is minerals that give water its hardness. Those minerals come from aquifers - porous stones through which water flows - or are picked up in streams and rivers. I did some digging into a 2011 article published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science 1  to find this informa...