Why are there so many ingredients in shampoos? What are they for and are they actually safe?
In: Chemistry
Mainly three different types of ingredients:
1. Surficants (basically soap) – these break down oily deposits on the scalp and hair allowing them to removed by water. There’s usually a main surficant and 1 or 2 co-surifcants, each do a slightly different job.
2. Stabilizers and emulsifiers – these keep the surficants (and other ingredients) from settling out (like oil and water). While not exactly in this category, there might be viscosity boosters to make it “slicker.”
3. Fragrances and colors – make the shampoo look nice and smell nice.
Then there’s water, which is most of what’s in the bottle. Might be pH adjusters and preservatives in there too. And if it’s anti-dandruff or shampoo + conditioner, there’ll be other ingredients as well. Some shampoos also contain micro-plastics, which are inert but give a little scrubbing effect (and are bad for reasons apart from safety to the user).
Is it safe? To wash your hair with, absolutely yes. To pour over pancakes? Almost certainly won’t kill you, but you’ll have a bad day. Some of the ingredients are toxic in high enough concentrations and amounts, but you won’t see those levels in a bottle of shampoo.
There are 3 main components to most liquid household products:
The stuff that does the job (in this case the soap that provides a non polar surface to grab oils, while polar water grabs the rest).
The stuff that makes it liquid (almost always just water)
The stuff that keeps the stuff that does the job in the liquid instead of precipitating out (there are tons of things that this could be).
“Is it safe” depends. Its totally safe to put in your hair, but isn’t safe to eat (neither is a bar of soap). Water is unsafe if you have too much of it, so the context and use matters a lot.
There are strict regulatory bodies that ensure the safety of anything you are supposed to ingest (in the US it is the FDA (food and drug administration). And regulatory bodies on non consumable products that require safety labels to be put on all consumer products with instructions and risks.
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