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“Actives” in shampoo bars a waste?
A lot of experienced members claim there is no point to adding good ingredients to shampoo bars since it washes away but I have had very good experiences with my shampoo bar where I added keratin, aloe, panthenol, oats, etc. My hair feels so much nicer. But I don’t want to waste money. What is the real science behind this? I would love to add niacinamide to my shampoo bar.
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6 Replies
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If something is water soluble, unless it’s a big molecule (like a water soluble polymer which could actualy form a coacervate and deposit on hair), it will remain solvated by water and just remain like that (and of course, go down the drain) rather than interacting with your hair. If your product is a leave on, the story can be different.
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Is there a scientific explanation of why adding these things makes hair feel nicer despite it washing away? I want to make an effective product and better understand so I can for lack of a better word, smarter. For example my favorite shampoo and the only one that works is the Shikikai color reflect. The main ingredient is vegetable glycerine which is how I began making hair care. By adding it to my shampoos, my hair became less dry but with so many other ingredients, my science isn’t exact. Is “feel” different from actual efficacy? How would it be measured if I subjectively feel that the additional active type of ingredients I use make my hair look and feel nicer even when there is no science to back that up?
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I suspect your main problem is that we can’t measure subjective feeling. But in shampoo as in so many facets of life, instantly “feeling good” takes precedence over other criteria like a healthy scalp or reduced long term hair loss.
I think your best course of action is to test out your actives by elimination: use only one active at a time, for two weeks, before switching to another and observing the change. Do thison as many people as you can persuade. Just because we don’t have scientifically tested proof of the efficacy of an ingredient, it doesn’t invalidate the observed experience of, say five people in your immediate vicinity.
Good luck!
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“A waste is relative” Are you doing it for marketing or actual benefit. The best way to know how if your active makes sense in a product is to do a little research on the active and how it actually functions. The more experience I gain the more I realize the stuff that does the actually heavy lifting in many products are the things with the long names we hate to add to our labels in fear of consumer disdain. Actives are awesome but vary so much. I love working with them but depending on what you are actually using, in shampoos, I’d say focus on the marketing benefits. I prefer actives in skincare and leave-ons.
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That is part of my research. Because of some experience in making products that changed my skin and hair forever, it was simple and cheap. You don’t need much so I figured the marketing bit was valuable. So I might actually market, simple is better. Lol.
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Hi again,
I know exactly what you mean and it is pointless buying expensive actives if you really want them to work, although as the previous fellow mentioned you can add it to the formula in very small amounts for marketing reasons only. Out of the ingredients you mentioned I know that Nicotinimide B3 is a winner and has a lot of research behind it. I would drop the panthenol B5, oats are usually a good edition making the hair soft, then a lot of shampoos add a load of silicones. You may have heard about these amazing compounds that all us chemists love. However, in the sustainable natural world we live in, maybe you could use a Natural Silicone Alternative which has the same or similar effects as silicones. For example iso amyl laurate (doesnt sound very nice?), in my years of formulating I know one thing you can give me the most organic ingredient in the world but if the name sounds like something that jumped out of a nuclear plant, then no one will pick it up off the shelf. Others include esters like Shea Butter esters, cetiol C5, all the large companies have a few of these on their lists. There are also others things you can do easily to take it from just another formula, to wow how did they afford to use that active????? cheers Cath
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