Today's hair

I know I've been using the vertical-braids-to-braided-buns style a lot lately, but I want to show today's style off:
In my opinion they got absolutely perfect today.

Practice makes perfect, yay!
Smooth and round without that cannonball-effect, almost identical in size and just touching each other.

Head & Shoulders review

A while back, I bought a Head and Shoulders shampoo to help with my seasonal dandruff. I've been putting off writing a review because I wasn't so impressed. 

I used it twice and... It was okay, I guess?

It removed the flakes, but not more than any other shampoo or CO wash. And the flakes returned at the same speed as usual.

Now looking into the ingredient list, I found something weird: My Head & Shoulders Classic Clean has a completely different ingredient list than any other Head & Shoulders Classic Clean ingredient lists I found online. I found one list at an Aussie blogger, some US webshop sites, a Canadian webshop site and of course a list at Korean COSDNA. None were identical. They started off pretty similar, with the first 5-7 ingredients being the same, but then differed. COSDNA didn't even recognize it as a Head and Shoulders product. Odd. Euro zone regulations for the ingredients maybe?

Here is the US version:

It has Zinc Carbonate listed as ingredient #5. 

Here is my ingredient list for comparison:

Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycol Distearate, Sodium Citrate, Parfum, Dimethiconol, Piroctone Olamine, Sodium Benzoate, Dimethicone, Citric Acid, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, TEA-Dodecylbenzenesulfonate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide, Trideceth-10, Sodium Salicylate, Triethylene glycol, Propylene Glycol, CL42090, CL 17200

But wait. It get's weirder.

The active ingredient according to Head and Shoulders themselves is Pyrithione zinc and the shampoo is supposed to contain 1 % of it. 

Now, I've been staring at this ingredient list for longer than I'd like to admit, but I just don't find it. In fact, find nothing even related to zinc in it.

Nope, the dandruff-fighting ingredient is just not there.

So what's my takeaway from this?

Simple: The Eurozone Head and Shoulders Classic Clean shampoo is not an anti dandruff shampoo. 

Going to take a closer look at the ingredient list:
Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycol Distearate, Sodium Citrate, Parfum, Dimethiconol, Piroctone Olamine, Sodium Benzoate, Dimethicone, Citric Acid, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, TEA-Dodecylbenzenesulfonate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide, Trideceth-10, Sodium Salicylate, Triethylene glycol, Propylene Glycol, CL42090, CL 17200

COSDNA analysis says:

26 ingredients in total
For acne-triggers, we have one 5, one 3 and two 1´s. The 3 and 5 are ingredient number 2 and 3. And I'm tempted not to include water here, which would make it ingredients one and two!
For potential irritants, the same two ingredients score a 2 each. Also not good.
Safety is fairly decent though: 16 greens, 8 in yellow and 2 in green to yellow.

But the main problem is in the Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate.
This is not even a nice ingredient list for a normal shampoo. This is harsh and irritating.

Sodium Laureth Sulfate is the first cleansing agent on the list, and milder than the Lauryl-version. Common abbreviation is SLES.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is the infamous harsh cleanser that can be used to de-grease engines. It's a detergent and foaming agent and often abbreviated as SLS. It is simply unnecessary in a shampoo, when there are so many gentler ingredient options.

Sodium Chloride is good old table salt to thicken the formula.

Sodium Xylenesulfonate is a surfactant stabiliser. 

Cocamidopropyl Betaine is a surfactant, hydrophilic thickener, cleaning agent and foam booster, which seems really unnecessary after SLS and SLES?

Glycol Distearate is an emollient and emulsifier. 

Sodium Citrate is a pH adjuster and the antioxidant they advertise for on the bottle.

Parfum is fragrance.

Dimethiconol is an emollient.

Piroctone Olamine is a preservative.

Sodium Benzoate is a preservative.

Dimethicone is an emollient.

Citric Acid  is a pH adjuster.

Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride is an antistatic.

TEA-Dodecylbenzenesulfonate is a surfactant.

Hexyl Cinnamal is a synthetic fragrance linked to allergic reactions.

Linalool is a synthetic fragrance linked to allergic reactions. Unfortunately this ingredient is really common in hair products!

Tetrasodium EDTA is a preservative.

Sodium Hydroxide is a pH adjuster. 

Trideceth-10 is an emulsifier.

Sodium Salicylate is a preservative.

Triethylene glycol is a solvent.

Propylene Glycol is a solvent.

CL42090 is a pigment.

CL 17200 is a pigment.

So on the ingredient list we have:

4 preservatives

3 fragrances

2 pigments

Yea... This seems necessary?! 

In conclusion: The Head & Shoulders Classic Clean shampoo found in the Euro zone is not an anti dandruff shampoo. It's simply a rather harsh and irritating cleansing shampoo.

Be aware. Everyone in the Eurozone, check your ingredient list. You might not get what you paid for.

Today's hair

The three stacked buns from yesterday gave me an idea: What if I took the top braid and wrapped it in a figure 8-shape around the two bottom buns?

Good things:

It did seem to flatten the bun-construction while maintaining that almost faux-hawk kind of effect I liked.

Bad things:

The braid base was just too messy to give an honest impression of how this would look.

I might have to try this again on some "newer" braids.