Some Interesting Haircare Facts!

Hi everyone!  *waves* This is a really long post, so I apologise in advance. I also may have put this in the wrong place, or it may be entirely inappropriate for me to post this at all, in which case I am sorry and am prepared to see it deleted.

As I wrote in the "Introductions" thread, I have been lurking on this forum for quite some time. The advice here has helped me bleach my dark hair while minimising damage and saving money. I learned so much stuff from my research on the web, that I thought sharing it here would be a good thank you gesture. Since I can't send everyone chocolates!

About two years ago, I started following the Curly Girl method to protect my bleached hair. In researching different ingredients to avoid/love, my search brought me to the Beauty Brains, Chemists Corner, Science-y Hair blog and the blog Point of Interest. Those are my sources for what I write below.

Not all sulfates are as harsh as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. You don't have to avoid them all. The order from harshest to weakest sulfate goes like this: SLS, SLES, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate. The more surfactants there are in a shampoo, the less harsh it will be. Some surfactants are mildness enhancers. In the shampoos I make for myself, I use the surfactants C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine and Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate. It's a good cleanser, but doesn't strip my hair of everything.
Some sulfate surfactants are cationic, (positively charged), and are used in conditioners, not shampoos. The conditioners I make for myself use the cationic quaternary compound Behentrimonium methosulfate. If I saw that on a label as a CG method follower, I would have avoided it. But I know now that it's actually a conditioning ingredient.

If you've used K-pak or any other protein treatment with keratin and your hair goes crunchy, you might want to try a different protein. Keratin is a low molecular weight. Other low molecular weight proteins are Silk, Corn and Soy. If you haven't tried them, you might want to, they might be better suited for you than keratin. Or you could try high molecular weight proteins such as Wheat and Oat. My hair, which is medium thickness, fairly porous and started going grey early, (at 17!  *ott*), loves oat, keratin and silk, in varying doses, but goes brittle with wheat or when I use too much of each. I haven't tried corn or soy yet. I'm planning on getting some hydrolysed milk protein soon, they say it's as good as animal/human keratin! FYI, if you're vegan and you didn't know, you probably don't want to use commercial keratin treatments, since it usually comes from sheep's wool.

As a final note, there was a post here ages ago about Lush using SLS in their conditioners. I'm very late to answer this, but for anyone still wondering: SLS when combined with ceteryl alcohol, (a fatty acid), makes a cheap, easy to use emulsifier. It's a weird emulsifier to use in a conditioner, because there are so many other conditioning emulsifiers that are kinder for hair. I asked them in an email why they used it, but they just said it was a "trade secret". I understand that, but it's still a weird choice. My cynical hypothesis is that it's a cost cutting measure. I found this emulsifier on a soapmaking site for a lot cheaper than BTMS25, which is the conditioning emulsifier I use. I don't want to hate on Lush, I love their green principles, but they are charging a lot of money for something that doesn't work as well as a £1 conditioner and they obfuscate their ingredients with marketing phrases. I want the myth that you get what you pay for to die. In hair care, that's usually bull. Expensive doesn't mean more effective, and cheap doesn't mean it's crap. 100g of tailor made shampoo and conditioner costs me roughly £3 to make. The bottles to put them in are the most expensive "ingredient".

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this. If anyone has any questions or more info to add, please feel free! I'm always looking to learn more. I might not comment again, because I have pretty bad social anxiety, (writing this is making my hands shake), but I will do my best to come back and participate more.  *1*
ostrijj (Amy)