Are You Using the Right Shampoo & Conditioner for Your Texture ? (5-minute read)
February 24, 2023
5-Minute Read
Normal Healthy Skin, Scalp, & Hair
Normal healthy pH of skin, scalp, and hair is slightly acidic to:
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preserve their structural integrity and
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prevent infection and colonization by disease-causing microbes.
So, anything that disrupts this balance has the potential to damage skin, scalp, and hair.
Why 2-in-1 All-in-One Shampoo-Conditioner Blends Don't Work
2-in-1 all-in-one shampoo-conditioner combos:
- are marketed for the user's convenience,
- are chemically ill-equipped to effectively clean and condition hair because shampoos and conditioners are chemically OPPOSITE, so the chemistry of the shampoo neutralizes the chemistry of the conditioner (and vice versa), so they can't effectively do their respective jobs. Here's why...
Shampoos vs. Conditioners (a Difference of Chemistry Determines Function)
Shampoos are alkaline detergents made of a substance that is amphoteric, i.e.:
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fat-soluble on one end to trap dirt and product buildup AND
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water-soluble on the other end to make it easy for water to dissolve the soap and carry away the dirt and product buildup from hair, scalp, and skin.
They're often more alkaline than healthy skin, scalp, and hair AND are designed to strip oils from hair. Most are chemically designed for naturally straight hair textures which grow from scalps that rapidly produce sebum (the oily lubricant secreted by sebaceous glands that lubricate hair). Hence, they tend to strip naturally coily textures (whose scalps tend to NOT overproduce sebum), leaving them feeling excessively dry. Moreover, most shampoos on the market are currently made from synthetic materials and are far more alkaline than what melanated skin, scalp, and naturally coily (DNA-textured) hair can tolerate. They tend to excessively dry out our scalp & coily hair, leaving both feeling like dry autumn leaves, which leads to itchy skin & scalp as well as hair breakage. In addition, by changing the electrical charge on hair strands, they lift the cuticle (the outer layer of hair strands), which changes the angle at which light strikes and is either refracted or reflected from hair strands, which often makes hair appear dull.
Conditioners are fatty acids that reestablish the healthy pH of both scalp and hair after shampooing. They :
- help close the cuticle (the outer layer of your hair shaft), which
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make hair feel smoother, softer, and
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affects how light reflects or refracts off your hair strands.
Refraction & Sheen vs. Reflection & Shine
Refraction & reflection concern how light "bounces" off a surface. In the case of hair strands, reflection is determined by the shape of the hair strands and the smoothness of the cuticle:
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Coily hair strands tend to be shaped like ribbons (i.e. flat like toothpaste squeeze out of a tube) because their follicles are elliptically shaped and have a closed or partially open cuticle, resulting in the scattering of light across their surface. The scattering of light by the cuticle of coily hair is known as "sheen" and refers to refraction (bending) of light upon striking the hair shaft at an angle different than the when it approach the hair.
- Conversely, straight hair strands tend to have a round shape (like a pipe) because their follicles are shaped that way, and may have a closed or partially opened cuticle, resulting light bouncing across their surfaces more uniformly. Reflection refers to the transmission of light away from the hair strand at the same angle of approach.
Watered Down vs. Creamy Conditioner
Use of the proper conditioner for your hair texture maximizes light's refraction from coily hair and reflection from straighter strands. Specifically:
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straighter textures can use conditioner that is more watered down,
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coily textures need conditioners that have a higher free fatty acid concentration (i.e. conditioners that are like creams or lotions and are slightly more acidic) to prevent our strands from drying out and hence increasing the refraction of light.
What Makes Our Shampoos & Conditioners Right for Coily Textures
If you want to keep your hair on your head (or beard), then you need to change BOTH your shampoo and conditioner to types that are best suited for your texture and do NOT damage your scalp & hair. We have what you need.
We make our creamy Detangling Shampoos / Facial & Body Wash of plants that :
- are LESS alkaline than the ingredients in most shampoos currently on the market.
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feels like a creamy conditioner but gently lifts dirt & product buildup WITHOUT stripping coily strands leaving them feeling stripped like dry leaves, AND
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detangle naturally coily textures.
- leave your scalp and hands feeling moisturized.
We make our
silky smooth Multi-Duty Conditioner :
- of plants that restore normal healthy pH to melanated skin and naturally coily hair to restore the integrity of the outer layer of the scalp and coily hair strands to prevent dehydration,
- of plant fats that impart an extra creamy texture (rich in free fatty acids like a silky wintertime lotion) to enhance moisture retention,
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highly concentrated (low water content) and WITHOUT fillers to ensure that a little goes a long way.
Why We Use High-Quality Plant- & Mineral-Based Ingredients
We use high quality ingredients because we know you value you scalp & strands like we value ours. The high quality ensures that your precious strands are treated gently and fortified.
How to Use Our Conditioners Based Upon Your Hair Texture
For coily textures, you can use our Multi-Duty Conditioner full-strength or in no more than a 50:50 or 60:40 ratio mixed with distilled water (water being the higher number).
However, if you have multiple textures in your household, our conditioner can be diluted to 70:30 ratio with water (water being the higher number) for straight textures.