Shampoo/Conditioner Guide: Common-Sense Selection Guide

Hair-washing methodology is greatly debated. Hair stylists say one thing, doctors say another, and still shampoo companies say yet another.

So let's take it down to basic common sense. I saw one company that, in the directions for washing hair, said, "apply rubbing it into hair rinse then reapply until shampoo foams up in hair." That company is out to rob you blind. Common sense says that since shampoo only foams up in clean hair, the minute you have used enough to make it foam then you have used too much. Which is exactly what the company wants you to do so you have to buy excessive amounts.

Another way they get you is to water it down so it takes more to clean your hair. Then they also make the dispensing hole so large that it makes it hard to get just a little. While there is the exception, most companies who make shampoo, do anything they can to sell you more than you really need. After all increased use, equals increased sales for them.

The best way to tell if your hair is really clean is the squeaky clean test. If your hair squeaks while running your hands over your hair pushing the water back then your hair is clean and free of oils. Ready to be nourished with conditioner.

Another way they get you to use excessive amounts is to mix the conditioner with the shampoo. By doing this they are adding oils to your hair while the shampoo is trying to remove them. This makes the shampoo less effective and your hair never is spotlessly clean, thus you need more to clean it and it is harder to tell when it is clean so the natural tendency is to extremely overuse in this case.

A mistake lots of people make that costs them extra is applying shampoo and getting in a hurry to rinse it out without giving it time to work. Thus they have to apply shampoo several times before they get their hair clean. No matter how much you use it takes 30 to 60 seconds for it to work on dirty hair. Absorbing the dirt into the shampoo to carry it off with it.

With so many low quality products out there people get used to using so much that they are always extremely overusing shampoo. Then being so used to overusing shampoo they tend to think they need just as much conditioner and really extremely overuse the conditioner also. Truth is you do not need much of either if they are quality products and you need even less conditioner, and overuse of conditioner just means that you end up with more clean oil in your hair, so it grabs more dirt quicker and you have to wash your hair more often.

All this is stuff that the shampoo companies are just as happy if you don't know it, as your mistakes just help to increase their profit. But if you stop to think about it a little common sense will help set you right. Don't count on the companies doing it as your mistakes make them money, thus some are purposely rather vague about the way they word their directions on the bottle, just so you will tend to make mistakes.

So how do you tell a quality shampoo from the rest. Well to start with it won't be mixed with conditioner. A small bottle will cost you more as your not buying water in the sale. It will tend to have a very small dispensing hole comparatively cause you won't need much to do the job when it is pure shampoo. My short (conservative length) hair takes about 2 to 3 pin heads size drop to do the job. Longer hair may take as much as size of a tack head to do it, and even less conditioner. The job of conditioner is to neutralize any of the mild acid (shampoo technically is a mild acid) left behind, that you used to clean your hair called shampoo and then leave some nutrients behind to help your hair grow healthy and protect it. A good conditioner will replace the natural oil your scalp emits to help protect your hair with an oil that carries nutrients to your hair, thus washing your hair is kind of like changing the oil in your car. You wash it to take the old dusty dirty oil out of your hair and then condition it in order to replace that oil with fresh clean oil to protect your hair against friction damage from combs or brushes.

While I am sure there are probably a few top quality brands out there I am only aware of one. That is from "Usana". It is made to pharmaceutical manufacturing standards. Which means they accurately have all ingredients in there in their pure form and are not off by more than 1/2 of 1% where as the normal food grade standards most companies use allow them to be off by up to 20%. Thus their shampoo and conditioner's are very concentrated. They also tend to be rather high priced comparatively due to their high quality standards. But in my opinion they are well worth every penny.