Could Enemies Be Lurking in Those Friendly Jars?

 Hey hun! you good?

I wanted to let you know that lately, I’ve been taking extra minutes  to inspect every hair or skin care product I lift off a shelf. Did you ask why?..

Well, Alcohol is my reason lol. The kind of alcohols present in hair products is vital to hair health and progress.

In Chemistry, there are Short Chain alcohols (volatile alcohols) and Long Chain alcohols (fatty alcohols). The former posses very few carbon atoms in their chain structure, thereby making them highly soluble in water and can leave hair or skin feeling dry, whereas the latter has longer carbon atoms in their structure, making them less soluble and more fatty (containing oils and lipids). Fatty alcohols are used in the manufacture of skin moisturisers and hair conditioners to give them slip and make hair softer.

Okay, don’t shoot me just yet, forget i ever mentioned Chemistry in the first place, just be on the look out for the following  when next you shop a hair or skin product:

Hair/Skin Friendly Alcohols                                

1. Behenyl alcohol
2. Cetearyl alcohol
3. Cetyl alcohol
4. Lauryl alcohol
5. Myristyl alcohol
6. Stearyl alcohol

Hair/Skin Unfriendly Alcohols

1. Ethanol
2. Isopropyl
3. Propanol
4. Propyl
5. SD Alcohol
6. SD Alcohol 40
7. PABA
8. DEA
9. Paraben
10. Sulfates
11. Phthalates

In addition, there’s a group of neutral alcohols present in hair product but have no effects whatsoever. They are the Benzyl alcohol and Propylene alcohol.     Benzyl is just a preservative that is necessary for the shelf life of a product while Propylene is a humectant. Humectants are hydrophilic (water loving) alcohols that draw moisture from the atmosphere and then trap this moisture in the hair or skin. A good example is glycerine.

From now on, please  look behind those beautiful jars for details on the ingredients.

Did you enjoy this post? Is there something you’d like to add? Please drop your comments below.

✌

Olaedo.