sade087

If full-strength, inexpensive shampoos are harsh on hair, stripping off natural oils and leaving the hair without protection so that it can lose moisture and other vital components, then is the only solution to buy shampoos with mild detergents? What if they're all too expensive or smell bad? Can there be a compromise in a market in which vilifying ingredients and marketing the more-expensive alternative is lucrative and not necessarily beneficial to the customer? ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 As I tried to show in this post , yes and no. If a “mild” detergent is highly concentrated in a shampoo, it will still be harsh (cause the hair to swell and remove too much oil). It’s the same with hot peppers, a lot of red chilies (pretty hot) are going to make your eyes water as much as a little Serrano (super-hot). ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Yes, I know - some people don't use shampoo at all and it's much better if you shampoo every other day or less often. But some of us need to remove...

Everything I have read about amino acids in hair products has been conflicting. So I did a little digging and here’s what I found out. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 What Are Amino Acids: Amino acids are very small molecules, they’re not even “proteins” on their own, they’re the constituents of proteins formed from an amine group (nitrogen-containing, and all things proteinaceous contain nitrogen), a carboxylic acid group (carbon, hydroxide or “OH” and oxygen) and a side chain with a varied number of carbons, nitrogens, hydrogens, occasionally sulfur. To have a protein, you put these amino acids together. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2013 Where Are They: In hair, there are many amino acids (one source I have lists 20). The cuticle of hair – it’s multi-layered outer coating of “scales,” contains more amino acids than in the inner parts of the hair fiber - partly because proteins break down into amino acids and there is always protein being broken down at the cuticle. The outermost layer of cuticle (...