Are You Longing for Better Hair? Then Be More Savvy When It Comes to Shampoo Ingredients as Well as Your Technique!

There are many reasons you may have dull, lifeless hair from diet, health, weather to the shampoos you use.  Some of those factors are harder to control, but shampoo and how you wash your hair can make all the difference.

The kindest thing you can do for your hair is to read shampoo labels and check the ingredients.  Products that have sodium laureth sulfate or sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) in the list are harsher ingredients since they can strip the hair of its oils unlike a gentler sulfate-free formula. You may be shocked but sodium laureth sulfate or sodum lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) that you may have been washing your hair with are typical ingredients in dish detergents as well!  

Believe it or not, how you wash your hair can also affect how shiny and healthy it may appear.  Instead of vigorously scrubbing the hair from roots to the ends, you should concentrate lathering only the roots, the area where the natural oils accumulate.  

The hair from the midshaft to the ends tends to be drier.  Therefore, overworking that section of hair only adds brittleness.  Focusing more attention shampooing the roots won’t leave those midshaft to end hairs unwashed since shampoo does reach them, only more indirectly once you rinse.  According to one hair stylist, this is more that sufficient to clean the hair.

Another hair stylist I interviewed told me women over shampoo.  He recommends washing the hair two to three times a week and no more.  Every day shampooing can damage and turn the hair dry and coarse.  If you feel your hair is dirty, he suggested a dry shampoo in between shampoos. You may also want to try sprinkling on some baby powder or cornstarch, which also can substitute as a wonderful dry shampoo.