I've been trying to use only natural products for the past couple of years and my conclusion is that just because a shampoo is sulfate free it doesn't make it good. I'm starting to think that a right ph balance and some moisturizing ingredients could be more important. My reasons:
1) I have used some extremely gentle sulfate free shampoos who didn't remove my previous products (gel or butter or oil, shampoooing twice or 3 times... and with buildup caused by only natural products). This caused my hair to be less receptive to moisture because of the buildup. If I need to clarify so often, then it means I'm pretending to clean my hair and if everytime my products progressively work less and less... I am wasting product.
2) some sulfate free shampoos have a very high ph value which raises all the cuticles and gives me tangles and I believe they can be more stripping than a ph balanced moisturizing sulfate shampoo, as long as you DC well afterwards. I read on the NaturalHaven there can be no noticeable difference if the ph of products we apply is between 4 and 7... but I have noticed in the ph database of this forum that some shampoos like AO green tea have a 9.5 ph (relaxers are at 13).
3) those soap based shampoos (AO, castile soap...) are very tricky with hard water: they solidify on my hair and coat it, so basically they make it dirty instead of cleaning. I could believe in them only considering vinegar rinses afterwards. But the vinegar rinse is tricky as well. all apple cider vinegars are not created equal, some organic ones have a ph of 4, but some other ones are way too acidic and have the ph of lemon, which is drying and bleaching. so these soap based shampoos require you to find the right vinegar, the right water for your final rinse (distilled / spring), and the proper diluition amount which will also require you to buy ph strips. the upside is you do it once and keep your formula forever, but is all that weekly extreme opening and closing of cuticles healthy in the long term?
Won't the cuticles get weaker and weaker with all that unnatural gym?
So my idea of the perfect shampoo (which I haven't found) is:
- with or without sulphates
- it must clean
- ph balanced
- some moisturizing ingredients
- I must be able to remoisturize effectively afterwards
- I don't like silicones in a shampoo because I don't want them to give me the impression that my hair is moisturized when it's being stripped.
) . I've also used store bought sulfate frees that were so bad it was scary. My point - don't believe the hype - it is not about sulfates or lack thereof, it's about the person (or team) who develops the product hitting the right formula that works for a given hair type and that formula may or may not involve sulfates.
