The web site I've been waiting my whole life for

[serinde]

The Beauty Brains: cosmetic scientists explain what the fuck is actually in that shampoo/foundation/whatever you've got in your paw at the drugstore, and what it does. Example: The Four Basic Types Of Shampoo.

Hallelujah.

Comments

[nancaurelia.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Aaaah!

[sweh.livejournal.com]

Four basic types, with a gazillion variations on perfume and other gunk.

I try and stick with ultra-basic Head'n'Shoulders. Works for me :-)

[caelfinn.livejournal.com]

This looks great thanks. There is also makeup alley (www.makeupalley.com) which is good for reviews and stuff.

Speaking of shampoo, there is also the outrageous idea that you shouldn't use it at all. There is a movement of people who use only conditioner and some others who use water only and maybe a little oil as conditioner.

[must-sew-faster.livejournal.com]

I went 'no poo' for about three months, using VO5 clarifying conditioner for the 'wash' portion and Suave Naturals in coconut for the conditioner conditioner. It worked OK for me, except my hair started getting 'drier' for some reason (I think because my scalp stopped producing oil since it wasn't getting de-greased by the SLS). Also, my tub drain was getting way backed up from all the conditioner going down the drain.
Then I discovered shampoo bars (see below).

[must-sew-faster.livejournal.com]

Two comments: when I used to make blood components at a small local blood bank, the plasma that was grossly lipemic (full of fat-looked like milk shake instead of golden and clear like it should be) got tossed into a bin under the counter. That stuff was sold to cosmetics companies, who cooked it down and utilized the protein portion of the blood in their products.

The other thing is that most shampoos contain SLS (sodium laurel sulfate) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_lauryl_sulfate or ammonium lauryl sulfate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_lauryl_sulfate which are basically heavy duty industrial cleaners. The good thing is, they clean hair and they are cheap. They also foam like crazy, and American love foamy cleansers. The bad thing is, they can really strip your hair of oil and dry it out (they also might be toxic, but that's up for debate). Drying out your scalp with shampoo can actually make your hair greasy as your scalp tries to compensate by making more oil. In my case, shampoo dries out my hair to the point that I have to put the oil back with heavy duty conditioners and coconut oil.
I have recently discovered the joys of shampoo bars, which are basically ol' fashioned soap rather than detergent (bath bars like Dial are actually also detergent).
http://chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com/shambar.htm sells a variety of these shampoo bars, but I've also gotten them at faires and off of Ebay.
Tim likes the fact that his hair doesn't look oily two hours after he washes it if he uses a shampoo bar, and I've found that I can actually not use conditioner yet I can still get a comb through my wavy thick coarse hair. I like one step options, and I really like not clogging up my drain with a ton of slimy conditioner.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, I just got back from giving blood. Hurray!

Interesting what you say, there. I have been trying to figure out why I have dry scalp & skin, yet my hair gets greasy after about hour 36 and I get a light dusting of pimples every other week.

[must-sew-faster.livejournal.com]

Pimples on your scalp?
The thing that started my whole quest for better hair care was the fact that I was getting huge oozy pimples on my scalp.
I traced that back to the fact that Pantene contains huge amounts of dimethicone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydimethylsiloxane
as a hair conditioner. Basically it coats your hair, laying down the scales and makes it super-slippery. In my case, it also clogged my pores. It's the key ingredient in any 'frizzy' hair shampoo, from the cheap stuff to the salon stuff.
I went cold turkey from 'cones. As a results, I no longer had scalp acne, and backne, but my hair looked even frizzier than ever. Then I went 'no poo' (see above), and now I'm on the shampoo bars. So far, so good.

[caelfinn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have heard about the Chagrin Valley Shampoo bars too. I haven't tried them yet. One thing to keep in mind with them is if you have hard water you have to do a vinegar and water rinse after you wash or you will end up with soap scum in your hair. NYC water is pretty balanced but there are other parts of the country where this is a big issue.

[must-sew-faster.livejournal.com]

Yup, I couldn't live without my big plastic bottle of 'sour water' as my daughter calls it. It is an old Arizona Iced Tea gallon jug...one cup of white vinegar to a gallon of water. It's always fun in the middle of winter to pour a quart of cold water over my head!

I started doing vinegar and water rinses when I was doing conditioner only; it kind of cuts the build up of sebum along the scalp and it tends to keep my frizzies a little more tame. It's supposed to lock the scales back down on the hair and restore the pH to a lower level.

I don't use apple cider though, just white, because for some reason the smell of apple cider vinegar just reminds me too much of the smell of fast-food garbage cans.

[auntiemisha.livejournal.com]

I've been using Dr Bronners soap (lavender) after having some really bad reactions to shampoos/soaps. But I like the sound of shampoo bars, maybe I will look into that!

[must-sew-faster.livejournal.com]

How do you like the Dr. Bronner's soaps? I was thinking of ordering their Baby Mild soap for my kids' hair, since my daughter is prone to eczema on her scalp.

[shechameleon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for giving me one MORE thing to worry about. Like I needed to be distracted from my quest to eradicate high fructose corn syrup from my house (do you know how difficult that is??).

[must-sew-faster.livejournal.com]

No doubt...high fructose corn syrup is in frozen pizzas! Bread! Tomato sauce! It's basically in every processed food out there. So you either have to make everything from scratch, or bring your reading glasses with you to the grocery store...

[sbp.livejournal.com]

It's the science bit!