Friday 22 January 2016

Salicylic acid

I just used the Rainforest brilliant shine conditioner in a mix with VO5 and it was pretty good. Of course it was only a mix, but it still seemed good. I looked the ingredients up and Bodyshop have them listed on their website: Points for that!
COSDNA's analysis of it is pretty  good.

But I was extremely confused over the product containing salicylic acid!

I know why salicylic acid is used in skincare products: It makes cells in the upper layer of the skin shed faster, and helps clogged pores return to normal. So it's an exfoliator that also works in the pores.
But is that an effect you want on your hair?

My first thought was uh. No, not really.


A little more research revealed that salicylic acid is used in shampoos to treat dandruff for the same reasons. And that yes, you might actually want this in your hair product.

Hmm.
Since I dont use shampoos, maybe this is why I haven't realized this before.

Since I tend to get a bit of dandruff around autumn because of the change in humidity and temperature, maybe I should actually use this particular conditioner to CO?

I haven't seen any conditioner (Well, any product actually) containing salicylic acid before, so it's worth a shot.


1 comment:

  1. Out of all the products for dandruff, I found this to be the worst/least effective of my scalp. It's also very drying. I don't use conditioners with it, but shampoos I found not helpful. I went towards zinc based shampoos (head and shoulders) for management and tea tree oil seems to be working for me currently-although that drove my scalp crazy for the first few uses.

    Dandruff is a fungus that grows below the scalp. Temperature, stress, diet, hormones can all affect it. Since you don't wash with shampoo, you may have a build up of oil that it likes come the change of temperature--hard to really say. I tried going the less shampoo route and my scalp was sooo unhappy. I went back to daily shampooing and what a difference. My scalp is almost dandruff free (I have a few interesting patches on my scalp that rotate).

    For really bad times, I used to reach for Nizoral, which works, but a) I can't use now due to color treated hair and b) the smell will kill you. Nizoral was the least disgusting medicated shampoo. And the reason is must sit on the scalp is to allow it to get below the scalp to fight the fungus, where the fungus lies.

    Now, I was chatting with my hair dresser and she said conditioner doesn't aid the scalp--it is for the hair appearance only--unless it is otherwise indicated. She said shampoos are more designed for scalp issues/treating scalp issues. She was right. I used reg conditioner on my scalp and it made it a gunky mess(I only condition my length), but I used a product from I.C.O.N that was designed for scalp issues, and the conditioner is far thinner and peppermint scented and WOW! You could feel it tingle on your scalp and what a happy scalp I had! (Peppermint brings circulation to the skin).

    One way to try this theory of salacylic acid is to take an asprin and crush it and mix into your fav conditioner. Cheapest way to test this :) Hope this helps!

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