Zuppy
New Member
The scoop on suds
While shampooing, have you ever glanced at the bottle and wondered: What in the world does Hydroxypropyl Trimonium Honey do for my hair? Well, we have. So we bought a handful of shampoos and asked a hair-product-development consultant for the real purpose of ingredients you may encounter in the shower. Here’s his take:
Ammonium laureth sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate: They clean and add lather.
Citric acid: It adjusts the pH.
Cocamide DEA, cocamidopropyl betaine, lauramide DEA: They add to the lather’s richness and volume.
DMDM Hydantoin, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, methylchloroisothiazolinone: Preservatives.
Panthenol: It’s supposed to condition but is unlikely to provide a discernible benefit.
Propylene glycol: It can keep shampoo clear and homogenized and prevent freezing.
Sodium chloride, ammonium chloride: They thicken the product.
Tetrasodium EDTA: It helps the preservative do its job and removes trace metals from ingredients and hair.
Water: It dissolves and dilutes.
Colorants: They make a shampoo look attractive and make the presence of, let’s say, strawberry extract more believable.
Kiwi fruit extract, passionflower extract, hydrolized wheat protein, chamomile, aloe barbadensis extract, thiamine HCl: At the low concentrations in shampoo, and for the brief time of shampooing, they’re unlikely to have any function but to help sell the product.
The products we bought cost from $1.40 (for a 15-fluid-ounce bottle) to $11 (13 fluid ounces), but there’s no need to spend a lot: Our past tests have shown that any shampoo is likely to clean hair just fine, and there’s no need to pay a lot for special conditioning.
Oh, about Hydroxypropyl Trimonium Honey: It’s a compound that tends to cling to hair after rinsing, to ease combing. “The honey part of the molecule,” our consultant says, “is present to make the ingredient sound more natural, attractive, and unique.
While shampooing, have you ever glanced at the bottle and wondered: What in the world does Hydroxypropyl Trimonium Honey do for my hair? Well, we have. So we bought a handful of shampoos and asked a hair-product-development consultant for the real purpose of ingredients you may encounter in the shower. Here’s his take:
Ammonium laureth sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate: They clean and add lather.
Citric acid: It adjusts the pH.
Cocamide DEA, cocamidopropyl betaine, lauramide DEA: They add to the lather’s richness and volume.
DMDM Hydantoin, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, methylchloroisothiazolinone: Preservatives.
Panthenol: It’s supposed to condition but is unlikely to provide a discernible benefit.
Propylene glycol: It can keep shampoo clear and homogenized and prevent freezing.
Sodium chloride, ammonium chloride: They thicken the product.
Tetrasodium EDTA: It helps the preservative do its job and removes trace metals from ingredients and hair.
Water: It dissolves and dilutes.
Colorants: They make a shampoo look attractive and make the presence of, let’s say, strawberry extract more believable.
Kiwi fruit extract, passionflower extract, hydrolized wheat protein, chamomile, aloe barbadensis extract, thiamine HCl: At the low concentrations in shampoo, and for the brief time of shampooing, they’re unlikely to have any function but to help sell the product.
The products we bought cost from $1.40 (for a 15-fluid-ounce bottle) to $11 (13 fluid ounces), but there’s no need to spend a lot: Our past tests have shown that any shampoo is likely to clean hair just fine, and there’s no need to pay a lot for special conditioning.
Oh, about Hydroxypropyl Trimonium Honey: It’s a compound that tends to cling to hair after rinsing, to ease combing. “The honey part of the molecule,” our consultant says, “is present to make the ingredient sound more natural, attractive, and unique.
