What you need to know about shampoos

Web MD wrote a detailed article about shampoos, their ingredients, and how these ingredients help or harm your hair. I summarized today’s article as relevant to my readership and added some comments that I thought may shed more insights into the content. The most important takeaway here is to be careful about claims as to what any particular shampoo will do for you. If you look at the ingredients on the shampoo label, you will see the items discussed below.  Educate yourself, especially if you have particular hair problems. Everyone reading this should know that the hair grown from the head is not alive once it appears from the scalp; it is dead tissue like your fingernails.  We want to do things for hair to make it look and feel better, fuller, and more vibrant, but we certainly can’t give it life.

1. Carrying agents: Shampoos contain water, which dissolves ingredients within the shampoo. Water, when used in a commercial shampoo product, should be safe.
   • Some manufacturers add alcohol, propanol, ethanol, isopropyl, and propyl alcohol, all of which can make your hair dry or brittle
2. Thickeners are chemicals like glycol distearate that drive water into the substance of the hair shafts. The additional water absorbed within the shaft causes the hair shafts to increase their diameter or thickness. When you want a thickening agent, look at the ingredients listed below, and then you will know you are buying the right product. Common hair thickeners include Stearic acid, Gelatin, Xanthan gum, Carnauba wax, Stearyl alcohol, and Cetyl alcohol, which usually seals the water in the hair shafts.  
   • People with thinning hair:  I am always asked what I can do about this problem as surgery is rarely a solution for men and women with diffuse thinning, regardless of cause. The answer is here, in the use thickening agents described in this section.  The commercial manufacturers have known about this for years and have produced products that address thickening the hair shafts using appropriate additives as discussed here.  
3. Surfactants are ingredients that make shampoos act like detergents. They increase suds production, and the better the surfactant, the better it cleans the hair, dirt, wax and debris from your hair. It can also address the wax buildup, which many people call clogged pores. The lather tends to make your hair dry because it washes off the protective oils that the body produces to protect your hair. 
4. Surfactants to look for include Ammonium lauryl sulfate, Sodium laureth sulfate, Ammonium laureth sulfate, Sodium trideceth sulfate
5. Emollients balance the effects of surfactants, helping keep moisture in your hair and protecting it against brittleness. These lubricants make your hair silky and are necessary to counterbalance the surfactants discussed above. Emollients include aloe vera, vegetable oils, mineral oils, and silicone. They allow your hair to hold onto the water it acquires when you shampoo your hair. Because they are lubricants, they make your hair shiny. Dimethicone is the most common emollient.
6. Preservatives stop mold from growing in your shampoo. The most common preservatives are sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate.
   • Another group of preservatives are called Parabens, which include Methylparaben, Isopropylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Butylparaben, Propylparaben
   • This second group has been associated with claims that they can produce cancer.
7. Some people want only natural ingredients. These shampoos include essential oils like peppermint, lemon, and lavender, certified-organic ingredients like aloe, Coconut oil, Organic hemp, Organic honey, Chamomile, Olive, and Plant oils like geranium or jojoba oil. These products have many of the characteristics outlined above.
8. WebMD suggested that people avoid the following ingredients for the risks outlined:

1. 1. Sulfates: they increase skin sensitivity and strip hair of their natural oils, causing dryness
   2. Parabens: they increase the risk of skin cancer
   3. Phthalates: they are dangerous to the environment and cause hormonal disruptions
   4. Formaldehyde: is carcinogenic and easily absorbed by the skin
   5. Dimethicone: it prevents moisture from entering the hair and clogs pores over time
   6. Retinyl palmitate: causes itching, scaling, and peeling
   7. Alcohol: makes your hair dry and brittle
   8. Toluene: can hamper the immune system and cause congenital problems
   9. Imidazolidinyl: irritates the skin and eyes

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