Relative to skin care, consumers' understanding of hair care knowledge is much scarcer. If you want to choose a shampoo that suits your hair, you will face a variety of shampoo products, such as silicone-free shampoo, non-sulfate shampoo, amino acid shampoo, anti-off shampoo, anti-dandruff shampoo and many more. Faced with so many products, most of the small partners may be forced to do so, do not know how to choose. Following the advertisement of the merchant, I tried and tried again, but I could not find a suitable shampoo product.




I feel that it is necessary to put aside the hype, objectively evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each type of product, and let consumers rationally choose products that are suitable for their own hair quality. Write "no silicone oil and silicone oil shampoo" today.








About "silicone oil"


As long as you have a little understanding of skin care or hairdressing, you should have heard of "silicone oil", but what is silicone oil? There is no harm, and most of the small partners may not be very clear. Before we start analyzing "silicone shampoo", let's take a look at the properties of silicone oil.




Silicone oil generally refers to a linear silicone product that remains liquid at room temperature. It is not a product but a generic product. Polydimethylsiloxane, cyclic polydimethylsiloxane (such as D4, D5, D6), emulsified silicone oil (usually used in shampoo), and the like are often used in cosmetics. If a component is found to contain "silicone" in the ingredient list, this component is basically a "silicone oil".




The silicone oil has a stable structure and is not easily degraded, and it is not easy to react with other substances under normal conditions. At the same time, the chemical bonds are flexible, easy to move, low surface tension, smooth skin feel, and waterproof but breathable. These properties of silicone oil make it widely used in skin care, color cosmetics, and protective products.




Silicone oil does not exist in nature, but is synthetic. Many small partners may worry that the safety of silicone oil is not guaranteed? Will it be teratogenic, carcinogenic and genotoxic? Will it cause hair loss?




The most widely used polydimethylsiloxane in silicone oil, the current research believes that it is basically not absorbed by human skin and gastrointestinal, almost no acute toxicity, no irritating effect on the skin, irritating to the eye, May cause mild conjunctivitis or uphthalmitis. There is no evidence that polydimethylsiloxane is teratogenic, carcinogenic and genotoxic. There is reason to believe that under normal use, it will not cause health hazards.




In general, safety is guaranteed for silicone oil itself. There are only some silicone oils, some impurities are mixed in the refining process, and some magazines may have safety problems. However, the products of regular manufacturers generally do not have to worry about this problem, and the security is guaranteed.




Formulation of shampoo products


Each shampoo product contains a variety of ingredients, for the average consumer, it is difficult to determine the basic characteristics of a product through these ingredients. I found a recipe for a shampoo product, as follows:








Through the above picture, we can clearly understand the basic composition of a shampoo product. There is no doubt that shampoo, the largest amount of water is added, accounting for 70-80%. The second most important addition is the surfactant for cleaning foaming. It is also well understood that shampoos, like facial cleansers, are primarily cleansed, and the amount of surfactant added is of course greater. According to the characteristics of the surfactant, a sulfate-free shampoo and an amino acid shampoo are classified. For this type of shampoo, write an article later.




The third place in the addition amount is the hair conditioning agent, which is added in an amount of 1-5%. Hair conditioning agents mainly include silicones, quaternary ammonium salts, oils, compounds, proteins, and the like. These ingredients are mainly to nourish the hair, leaving the hair soft and smooth. Among them, the most commonly used ones are siloxanes, which are commonly known as "silicone oils".




The latter assistant, functional efficacy, appearance modifier, suspension stabilizer, pH conditioner, preservative, and flavoring agent are added in a small amount, and are not discussed in this article.




Understand the formula of shampoo products, you will be in the chest, and will not be fooled and misled. Below we analyze the silicone-free shampoo and silicone shampoo.








Silicone shampoo


Through the above analysis, we know that shampoo containing "silicone oil" can be called silicone oil shampoo. If the ingredient list finds the word "silicone" in a certain ingredient, it can basically be judged that this shampoo is a silicone oil shampoo. So, why do you want to add "silicone oil" to shampoo products? This starts with the structure of the hair.




◆ Hair structure


We can see with the naked eye that the hair is a cylinder with a smooth surface, but under the microscope, the structure of the hair is another scene. I found a picture of the hair structure, as follows:








As can be seen from this picture, the hair can be divided into three layers, the outermost layer of which is the epidermis layer (hair scale layer), which mainly contains 8-10 layers of overlapping, hard layered hair scales (hairy skin), similar to Tiles on the roof. These "tiles" overlap each other to wrap the entire hair, protect the inner layer of the hair; determine the appearance and brightness of the hair; in the case of alkali, hot scales open, in case of acid, cold hair scales closed; mass accounted for 10%.




The hair is out of this "tile" structure, and when cleaned, it feels very rough and not smooth. In addition, the hair is negatively charged, and with this hair scale structure, it is easy to absorb dust and dirt.




◆ The role of silicone oil


As a light, smooth and breathable grease, silicone oil can form a protective film on the surface of the hair, wrap the hair, make the hair smooth, soft and shiny. It also prevents moisture from evaporating and prevents hair from drying out. The film formed by silicone oil in the hair has a porous structure and cannot "clog the pores" as some people speculate. Because of the excellent efficacy of “silicone oil”, silicone oil has been added to most shampoo products on the market.




There are some “silicone-free shampoos” on the market. In order to promote their own products, many crimes of silicone oil are listed. For example, safety is not guaranteed and may cause cancer. Long-term use of silicone oil shampoo will cause hair loss; silicone oil shampoo may clog pores, etc. Wait. These "crimes" are not supported by persuasive literature. Afterwards, it proved to be a "terrorist show" to promote "silicone-free shampoo" manufacturers. The earliest manufacturers in China that promoted “silicone-free oil shampoo” were hit by countless faces and the products were not really promoted.




However, silicone oil is not without its drawbacks. When we wash our hair, some silicone oil is deposited on the hair. Although the shampoo itself has a cleansing effect, it will wash off a part of the silicone oil, but it will deposit on the hair as the number of times of use increases. more. After a typical hair wash for 5 to 9 times, a dynamic balancing process will be achieved.




If the hair itself is oily, and the silicone oil deposited on the hair, the hair will be more oily. The more shampooing, the conditioner containing silicone oil, the greater the amount of silicone oil deposited, the more the hair washes the oil. In addition, too much silicone oil adheres to the hair, causing the hair to sag, no fluffiness, and more and more easy to stick ash. For small partners with thin hair, the feeling will be more obvious, the hair will collapse and stick on the scalp. . These are the biggest problems with "silicone shampoo".








Silicone-free shampoo


In shampoo products, if silicone oil is not included (the word "silicone" is not found in the ingredient list), it is "silicone-free shampoo". Silicone-free shampoo was first promoted from the West. Mainly because of the fineness of Westerners' hair. If shampoos containing "silicone oil" are used, silicone oil deposits on their hair, causing the hair to collapse, the hair is completely unrelenting, and lacks fluffiness. The "silicone-free shampoo" does not have this problem.




Another advantage of “silicone-free oil shampoo” is that there is no deposition of silicone oil, which can better clean the scalp and hair and keep the hair dry. For small partners with hair oil, you can try "silicone-free shampoo", which can solve the distress of washing your oil. You can feel the skin is very smooth when you wash it with “silicone-free shampoo” for a while and then use “silicone shampoo”.




“Silicone-free shampoo” does not contain silicone oil. It does not form a protective film on the surface of the hair. The outer layer of the hair is exposed to the outside. The hair carries a negative charge, the hair is dry, lacks smoothness, and is easily stained. . Although there are many components of the bagged silicone oil, however, at present, it is not a perfect substitute for the role of silicone oil.




In summary, "silicone shampoo" can make hair soft, smooth, and shiny, but it is easy to cause hair, scalp greasy, hair flat collapse, suitable for rough, dry hair. "No silicone oil shampoo" is clean, the hair is fluffy, it will not collapse and stick, but the hair is easy to dry, rough, lacks smoothness, suitable for soft hair and more greasy hair. Mixing two different types of shampoo is a good choice.