Wednesday 30 May 2018

That new-hairstick-love


I love the new WoodArtJewelry stick!
It's so smooth and pretty.
The curve follows my skull while still having room for the updo around the edges for it, so nothing gets pulled or pinched. So comfortable! More hairsticks should copy its shape...

Sunday 27 May 2018

Investigating that "velcro" effect...

I wanted to do a mini CO scalp wash today since I had a small amount of flakeys where my part had been yesterday. I had a bit left in the Inecto super moisturising coconut conditioner and decided to use that up. 
Even though I was careful to not leave it on for too long (Spoiler: I did not like this conditioner when I used it last time!) and just needed it as a "base" for a quick scritching to get rid of the flakes, I still got that "pissy hair" effect from it.
My hair also absolutely hated the Inecto marvelous moisture argan conditioner from the same line, and Lovea Conditioner Shea butter conditioner.
Time to compare ingredients and see if I can find a culprit...

Inecto super moisturising coconut conditioner
Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearalkonium Chloride, Cetrimonium Chloride, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Inecto marvelous moisture argan conditioner
Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Stearalkonium Chloride, Arganisa Spinosa (argan) kernel oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Lovea Conditioner Shea Butter
Aqua (Water), Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter, Panthenol, Parfum (Fragrance), Methyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Ceteareth-20, Bht, Magnesium Nitrate, Pantolactone, Ci 19140, Ci 15985, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Methylisothiazolinone, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.
The Inecto's of course has a lot of repeat ingredients, but Lovea has a few as well:

Inecto super moisturising coconut conditioner
Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearalkonium Chloride, Cetrimonium Chloride, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Inecto marvelous moisture argan conditioner
Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Stearalkonium Chloride, Arganisa Spinosa (argan) kernel oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Lovea Conditioner Shea Butter
Aqua (Water), Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter, Panthenol, Parfum (Fragrance), Methyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Ceteareth-20, Bht, Magnesium Nitrate, Pantolactone, Ci 19140, Ci 15985, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Methylisothiazolinone, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.

  • Cetearyl Alcohol and Cetyl Alcohol are both oil soluble fatty alcohols that are used as surfactants. So, in the same family, but slightly different. 
  • Cetrimonium Chloride is a preservative, nonionic surfactant and antistatic according to COSDNA. It is used to prevent static and build-up in the hair. It is present high up on the list in all three products. 
  • Since I have coarse hair, I'm suspicious of the oils/butters in all three products. Especcially since they are so high on the list. Coincidence? Or a trend?

Cetrimonium Chloride seems like the obvious culprit according to this: It's the only repeat ingredient in all three products, and very high up on all lists. Actual ingredient #2 and #3 in the conditioners.

But here is the problem: It's also on the ingredient lists for products I like, such as:
Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate Repair conditioner. Pretty far down the list, but still there.
L'Oreal Elvital anti-breakage. Again, pretty far down the list.
And really high up on the list (Actual ingredient #1!) on two of my favorite leave in-conditioners: L'ANZA Keratin Bond protector and conditioner.

So now I feel like I'm back to square one. 

Maybe the problem is in an ingredient-family, and not in a single ingredient, such as the cetearyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol. There could be more examples like this on the ingredient lists, but I don't know enough to recognize it unless they have almost the same names. It could also be the oils/butters. 

I guess there is nothing to do but keep watching for products that has that weird effect, and keep comparing ingredient lists for them?