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As I was singing in the shower this morning (“Evidence” by Faith No More), I started thinking about the nature of washing our hair. Here are my thoughts… Do we need to rinse and repeat? Not usually. If your hair is especially greasy, yes, but otherwise, no. (Although I’m contradicting Homer who said, “Always repeat”.)...
How do we modify a conditioning shampoo to be more suitable for oily hair? What’s the goal for an oily hair shampoo? To remove the sebum and other stuff in your hair without stripping it. We could use some really harsh detergents to accomplish this goal – SLS, for instance – but this will only...
What makes a conditioning shampoo conditioning? The conditioners, of course! A shampoo without conditioners is called a clarifying shampoo and it’s intended to remove styling products (although I used it when my hair was extremely oily as they don’t tend to contain moisturizers, either). The shampoo we made yesterday would be considered a clarifying shampoo...
Clarifying shampoos are generally used to remove build up and not condition our hair. They’ll help remove styling product build up and cleanse your hair well. Ironically, one of the best ways to remove above normal levels of silicone build up (from anti-frizz and heat protecting sprays) is to use cetrimonium chloride, a cationic conditioning...
If you want to make a basic or clarifying shampoo, just leave out the dimethicone and conditioning agents. That’s really what defines a clarifying shampoo. You can leave in all the lovely film formers – proteins, aloe vera – and the moisturizers, but you leave out the conditioning agents. (I tend to do this as...