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Chlorine removal from hair/Swimmers’ Shampoo
Swimmers’ shampoo is marketed to remove chlorine and other minerals from hair. Could someone please highlight how chlorine is removed from hair and the chemistry behind it?
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3 Replies
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Generally these products use a chelant such as Disodium EDTA to assist in removing the chlorine. The theory rests on the properties of chelants to bind to metallic ions and to facilitate their removal.
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these shampoos often contain a small amount of sodium thiosulphate, or a similar reducing agent, to neutralise the chlorine - see Wikipedia for details
also, if memory serves, it makes isothiazolinone-based preservatives less effective, so you need to choose your preservatives carefully -
But I bet most of them are just marketing gimmicks. People would be hard pressed to tell any difference between a regular shampooing of chlorinated hair and a shampooing using one of these special shampoos.
Sure, we can demonstrate an effect in a lab but in real life, probably not.
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