-
Hard water and conditioner
Hello experts and mentors,
I am in a bit of a fix re my hair conditioner. It is a very simple and poor formula with a non-ionic base of fatty alcohols and few oils. The active as usual is Cetrimonium chloride (using 30% aqueous solution) and I have around 1.5% active in my formula. The issue is that the efficacy is greatly tapering off in hard water and given the set of conditions I have right now I can tweak this formula only to make it work. I was thinking to add a chelate so that I have a little defense against the hardness and my conditioner can have better efficacy.Appreciate comments and opinions. -
8 Replies
-
Yes, you could try a chelating agent like Tetrasodium EDTA.
-
Chelator is the first thing I would try. Also, what is the final pH?
-
@Microformulation The final pH is between 5-6 and guess I didn’t put myself clearly, the water used for rinsing off the hair after applying the conditioner is very hard. Am I right in slightly increasing the quantity of the active and adding a chelate?
-
You should lower the pH of the formula. Typically, conditioners have a pH range closer to the isoelectric point of hair ~pH = 4
-
I’ve found that when all other things are held equal, the lower the pH of the conditioner, the smoother the hair feels. I’d suggest a pH of 4 as the upper limit of your specification.
-
Thanks Perry and Bobz, is it ok if I use a buffer to achieve this pH??
-
They beat me to it, but your pH is pretty high. That needs to be addressed and could be a quick fix.
-
@Microformulation sure thing, I would bring the pH down and see how it performs when washed with hard water.
Log in to reply.