Monday, March 4, 2013

How can I tell if an ingredient will stick to my hair?

How can I tell if an ingredient will stick to my hair?
Rozy’s request…In the post about cadavers you Brains said “Only if the keratin is chemically modified to stick to hair” so that got me wondering… how do I find a product with this kind of keratin? #leavesarahbellumalone The Beauty Brains respond: First of all, let’s explain the Sarah Bellum reference for the rest of our [...]

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Rozy’s request…In the post about cadavers you Brains said “Only if the keratin is chemically modified to stick to hair” so that got me wondering… how do I find a product with this kind of keratin? #leavesarahbellumalone

The Beauty Brains respond:
First of all, let’s explain the Sarah Bellum reference for the rest of our readers. In another recent post (on natural products) we might have made a wee little joke about Sarah sleeping around. Rozy was kind enough to jump to her defense by creating the hashtag above.  Not to worry, though, Sarah is a good sport and she knows we’re just kidding. Nonetheless, I’m sure she appreciates your kind thoughts. (Assuming she’s sobered up enough to read the blog today.) Anyway, on to Rozy’s question…

Chemical modification

When we say “chemically modified to stick to hair” we’re usually talking about an ingredient that’s been quaternized. That means it has a positive charge attached to it. (Remember that damaged hair has a negative charge and, since opposites attract, a positively charged conditioning agent will attach to hair where it needs it the most.) These kinds of ingredients are used in rinse off conditioners (as opposed to leave on products) so all the conditioning goodness doesn’t just rinse down the drain.

Most of the time a quaternized ingredient will have the suffix “-ium” as in quaternium ammonium compound (sometimes called “quat” for short.) For example, one form of quaternized keratin has the name “Laurdimonium Hydroxypropyl Hydrolyzed Keratin.”

By the way, if anyone is so inclined, feel free to start the hashtag #giveRightBrainaraise.”

Image credit: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/


Source: thebeautybrains.com

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