Washing your hair removes the natural build-up of dead skin cells, dirt, oils, and hair care products you have previously put into your hair. By washing your hair on a daily or semi-weekly basis you can have clean and healthy hair. If you tend to have dry hair, you want to wash your hair less frequently. If you tend to have oily hair, you want to wash it more often to remove the excess oils.
If you choose to shampoo your hair daily, it is important to use a pH-balanced mild shampoo. Using a good pH-balanced shampoo insures that it will not strip off your hair’s natural oils and dry out your hair. It is also important to occasionally switch shampoos to remove build-up left by your favorite shampoo and conditioners.
What is Shampoo?
Shampoos are simply liquid soaps with various things added to them. Most shampoos contain water, detergents, foaming agents, fragrances, stabilizers, preservatives, conditioning agents, and colors. A think or thin shampoo has nothing to do with its cleaning power; it is simply a matter of the other ingredients it contains.
How Do You Choose a Good Shampoo?
Studies have been done and shown that people generally choose their shampoo based on its appearance (color) and smell. This is the worst way to choose a shampoo!
A good shampoo should clean your hair and be easy to rinse out. Your hair after a shampoo should be smooth and manageable and not feel dry.
In choosing the shampoo that is right for you, it is important to choose one which will work with your hair type and will not damage your hair with too much detergent. If you tend to have oily hair then you will want to use a shampoo labeled for oily hair. These shampoos will contain a higher concentration of detergent to remove the excess oil from your hair. If you tend to have dry hair then you want to use a shampoo for dry hair, which will contain less harsh detergents.
People often ask if the more exotic shampoo ingredients often added to shampoos today have any real benefit to their hair. Generally the answer is “no” because they are usually washed away by the detergent in the shampoo! However, some ingredients such as amino acids and panthenol can survive the detergent and stay behind to give hair body and shine.
The best thing you can do when deciding on a shampoo for your hair is to choose one which is right for your hair type. This insures that your shampoo will have the right detergent to clean your hair but not strip off its natural moisture in the process.