Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Is your shampoo damaging your hair?



There may be almost no more satisfying feeling in the whole world than concluding your day with a prolonged, hot shower. The water's steamy, whilst your head is enveloped in dense, luxurious lather. You truly feel recharged and clean. But if your goal is to grow longer hair, healthier hair, or to just make your hair grow faster, the dense lather that you always assumed was so great for your hair may in fact be damaging it.

The lather
you end up with from your shampoo is mainly caused by ingredients known as sulfates. They are available in several versions that are usually used in shampoos, but inspite of which variety might be present in your brand, each will serve the same purpose--To breakdown the surface tension of water and allow your shampoo to more easily and effectively cleanse your hair. Sulfates are robust detergents; in reality, more condensed forms of the same sulfates present in your shampoo are also used for tasks like degreasing engines. They let the grease and grime in your hair to be broken up and washed out without difficulty. The question is, are sulfates good for your hair? Do you really need that lustrous lather to effectively wash your hair?

The answer is, in short, not at all. We've all been trained by marketing hype to believe that, unless your shampoo generates a high amount of lather, you aren't getting your hair clean enough. Sulfates are simply a low cost detergent thrown into shampoo so as to help it penetrate more deeply. While they do result in a speedier, more intense clean, the lather they yield is not vital to having healthy hair, and in fact, sulfates can lead to injured hair, scalp, and follicles.

The trouble with sulfates is that they can be hugely harmful to to your hair, particularly when combined with the long, overheated showers we all like so much. Sulfates can strip your hair and scalp of the sebum they need as a way to stay effectively hydrated. Gradually, this can lead to fragile, easily damaged hair, or hair that is frizzy. If you color your hair, they may make the color diminish much faster with every shampoo. This in turn results in more excursions to the hair salon to re-apply color, and as mentioned in other reports, too much treatment of your hair is harmful to to it's health.

Perhaps surprisingly, sulfates might cause your hair and scalp to become TOO oily. It seems counter-intuitive, but here's the reason: Whenever your hair and scalp come to be dry from your usage of sulfates, the body will cue itself to manufacture even more natural oils to eliminate the lack of moisture. If you already have problems with oily hair, this increase in sebum production can be overwhelming to the overall health of your hair and scalp, causing issues such as clogged follicles.

If
you are able to get away with washing your hair less often, sulfates may not be that bad for you. All the same, they may be particularly harmful for certain people and hair types. People who have wavy hair will most likely benefit from staying away from sulfates, since their hair will generally be more dry by it's very nature. Wavy hair doesn't allow oil to travel along the hair shaft as quickly as straight hair, so these people will naturally have problems with frizz, split ends, and dry hair on the whole. African Americans also have naturally drier hair, and should take particular care to use sulfate-free shampoos and conditioners. Men and women who suffer from dry scalp, hypersensitive skin, dandruff, or excessively oily hair should likewise think twice about trying a sulfate free hair care routine.

Luckily, these days it is easy to find and review sulfate free items online. By utilizing more natural substances such as aloe, honey, etc, sulfate free products and solutions can help you clean your hair while not excessively dehydrating your scalp. In addition to the many sulfate free shampoos and conditioners available, there are DIY hair cleaning tricks out there. Lots of use ingredients such as apple cider vinegar or baking soda. Try out a few to see what works in your case. If you simply need to have a thick lather any time you shampoo your hair, make every effort to make use of a shampoo more infrequently.

Even though it's true that sulfates excel at quickly cleaning away dirt and grease from your hair, the side effects of making use of them in your shampoo generally outweigh the advantages. If you are interesting in growing your hair faster, protecting against dry scalp,weak hair, frizz, split ends, or simply moving to a more all natural way of living, think about making the move to sulfate free shampoos and conditioners. Your hair and scalp will most likely give thanks.
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