People often complain: Why is the big-name shampoo that is popular all over the Internet, but I just spent money to buy a lonely?
What's the difference between a big-name shampoo for a few hundred dollars a bottle and an affordable shampoo for dozens of dollars? Let's have a good chat today~
Too long to see the version
If you look at the ingredients, there will definitely not be a 10-fold gap between a 20 yuan shampoo and a 200 yuan shampoo. In fact, the water content of both is 80%~90%, and in the remaining part, the most important ingredient is surfactant, and there is not much difference between different shampoos.
What is a "surfactant"?
First of all, it has to be explained - what is a surfactant?
The main purpose of shampoo is to remove dirt, which is mainly oil, and surfactant is the active ingredient to remove oil. Not only shampoos, but almost all cleaning products in daily homes rely on surfactants.
From the perspective of chemical structure, surfactants are generally amphiphilic molecules, that is, one end of the molecule is hydrophilic and the other end is lipophilic. Therefore, when the surfactant is placed between water and oil, it is like a peacemaker, combining water and oil that are not pleasing to each other, intuitively, it is a state of blending water and milk, and the interface between water and oil has disappeared.
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There is a deeper explanation for this phenomenon in physics, which simply means changing the surface tension of the liquid to make it "active", so it has the name of surfactant.
Because of this function, surfactants are the main ingredients in shampoos. When it comes into contact with the hair, the oil on the hair can be smoothly integrated into the water, and rubbing can further speed up the process, so that the dirt on the hair and even the scalp can be washed away.
There are many types of surfactants, and there are no less than 1,000 products that have been commercialized so far, and there are naturally differences between different surfactants.
The most traditional man-made surfactant is stearate, which has been around for thousands of years. By mixing animal fats and alkalis, saponification reactions can occur, resulting in stearate-based surfactants. For a long time, it was the main detergent used by humans to wash their hair, and nowadays, it is generally only soap or stearate. If you use it to wash your hair, it will cause damage to your hair due to its strong alkalinity, which is indeed very inappropriate.
Modern surfactants have eliminated some of the shortcomings of traditional surfactants, and there are also great differences in composition.
The ingredient list of shampoo packaging is usually arranged according to the amount of content, if you pay attention to the ingredient list, you can generally find terms such as "polyether", "polyoxyethylene" and "sodium sulfate" in the first several, which are the new generation of surfactant ingredients. They are characterized by their ability to stabilize under neutral conditions and their ability to remove dirt.
If it is a high-end shampoo, some more special surfactants will be added, especially some ingredients of natural plant origin. Indeed, there are some botanical ingredients in nature that have the ability to clean, such as the extract of the honey locust tree. However, these extracts often cannot be used directly, and they also need to be processed by extraction, refining, modification and other means. Their specific composition is also varied, in addition to fatty acid salts, there are also some amino acid-based surfactants.
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Although these special surfactants make the shampoo more premium, the actual washing effect is not so significant. So, to really compare different shampoos, you have to look at other functional ingredients.
What are the functional ingredients of shampoo?
If the entry-level shampoo is to wash the hair, then the advanced shampoo is mainly to have some more hair care effects, including anti-dandruff, nourishing the scalp, black hair, oil-removing and even baldness.
The structure of the hair is not as simple as it seems, it is closely connected to the hair follicles inside the scalp. If you look at hair growth as tree growth, it is not difficult to know whether trees grow well or not, it is important to take care of the trees themselves, and it is even more important to fertilize and water the soil.
Therefore, it is easy to understand that high-end shampoos pay more attention to the research and development of various nutritional ingredients. There are many types of these nutrients, and you also need to consider your actual needs when choosing them.
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For example, the ingredients that nourish the scalp are mainly some small molecule nutrients, such as amino acids, vitamins, etc., which can play a complementary role to a certain extent. However, it is important to note that these ingredients are mainly consumed through food. In particular, vitamins, B vitamins and vitamin E are all related to hair growth, but if the body itself is deficient, it cannot be replenished by shampoo. It's like planting a tree in a desert area, you can't just water it. Some high-end shampoos use plant extracts as nutrients, which may be more comprehensive in terms of functionality.
For example, many shampoos will add some ingredients to prevent hair loss, and the more representative one is minoxidil. Clinically, there is indeed a lot of evidence that minoxidil is effective for seborrheic alopecia, but in shampoos, the actual effect will still be different from the drug. Therefore, for this need, the choice should be made under the guidance of a doctor.
When it comes to hair color, shampoos are limited in what they can do. On the one hand, the inability of hair follicle tissue to synthesize melanin is affected by many factors, including the lack of nutrients mentioned above, on the other hand, modern people's life is stressful and irregular sleep, which will also cause young whiteheads. Therefore, it is not easy to darken your hair if you need to use shampoo.
In the case of shampoos, some of the functions that can be directly appreciated are oil control, antibacterial, and hypoallergenic.
There are many substances that can reduce the production of oil by the scalp, among which selenium sulfide and salicylic acid are the more common ingredients. While they do work, they are inevitably irritating. Therefore, when actually using it, you should choose according to how you feel after washing.
If you live in a hotter area and are more likely to sweat, then antibacterial is also necessary. The selenium sulfide and salicylic acid mentioned above also have certain antibacterial properties, but if they are really a hard demand, they are not enough, but some hard-core antibacterial agents should be added. For example, quaternary ammonium is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent that is effective not only against bacteria, but also against many fungi, and is itself a surfactant. Some people have a frequent itchy scalp or even ringworm due to fungal infections, so you may want to choose this type of shampoo at the same time as treatment.
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Allergies are also a common occurrence in the process of using shampoos, but since the allergens of each person are very different, it is impossible to directly judge this from the ingredients. Manufacturers of high-end shampoos will have some advantages in anti-allergic issues through continuous research and development, such as acid and alkalinity control, and the choice of other additives such as thickeners and defoamers, which may be more nuanced. Therefore, if you have allergies, it is also worth putting more thought into the selection of shampoos.
In general, in terms of the function of shampoo, high-end shampoos generally pay more attention, but whether it is worth it or not depends on the judgment of consumers themselves.
2 "pits" of shampoo fooling people
Once we see the skeleton of the shampoo, we also know what ingredients can meet our needs. The core function of shampoo is to cleanse.
Everyone's hair quality is different, and smart people know that as long as they choose the right one for themselves, it is more practical than pursuing a brand. In shampoo products, there are also a lot of IQ taxes that are easy to step on the pit that affect the price.
(1) The more foam, the better the cleaning effect?
Many people will notice that the more shampoo they use, the more foam they have, and if there is no foam, it means that the hair has not been washed. This design idea can be traced back to the era of the rise of "liquid soap" a hundred years ago. At that time, people came into contact with this novel detergent for the first time, and they were not sure whether it was good or not, so the merchant added a foaming agent to make users feel that it was a lot foamy, and naturally accepted a setting: the more foam, the better the cleaning effect.
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In fact, foam is not directly related to cleanliness, just like the effluent discharged from many factories can also have a lot of foam. Therefore, there is no scientific basis for judging the quality of shampoo based on the foaming volume, and consumers should pay attention to it. However, because people can intuitively feel this, shampoo manufacturers will still pay attention to the problem of foam, through the blending of foaming agent and defoamer, to achieve the relationship between residual oil and foam in the hair, consumers also form a fixed mindset, feel that the hair is not washed if there is no foam.
(2) Silicone-free and non-irritating?
Another common marketing point is "silicone oil". Silicone oils are mainly silicone additives, which have very low surface energy, in other words, silicone oils make hair particularly smooth and soft. According to the current research, there is no basis for the harm of silicone oil to the hair (you can review the previous article "Is the "silicone-free shampoo" worth buying?). You'll understand after reading it! But shampoo manufacturers will still launch more expensive silicone-free products.
summary
20 yuan and 200 yuan shampoo, if you want to talk about the difference, there must be, mainly reflected in some personalized functions, such as anti-hair loss, antibacterial, etc. But whether these differences are worth paying so much money to buy still depends on the actual needs of consumers themselves. After all, for some people with allergies, the feeling of washing an itchy scalp overnight is really not as pleasant as spending a little more money.
Source: Popular Science China
Author: Sun Yafei
Editor: Guan Chao
Reviewer: Pu Rui