The Blog Experiment - pH and your hair!
Please see part 1 - Sodium Hydroxide: Is lye always lye or is that a lie?
Mikimu has given me a much needed excuse to do something scientific even if it is just mildly scientific.
So what is pH?
Well the picture to the right (pardon the camera phone quality, I still haven't charged my camera!) shows you a commercial litmus paper test that my hubby purchased. It shows you pH on a scale from 1-12. pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a solution is. pH 7 is regarded as neutral. Everything below 7 is acidic and the lower it is the more acidic it is. Everything above pH 7 is basic (or alkaline) and the higher it is, the more basic it is.
The pH test is a good measure because it makes 'scientific sense'. The scale is logarithmic which means the actual difference between pH 7 and 6 is quite high numerically, however it is relatively meaningless if you want to perform a reaction. Many chemical reactions require substantial differences for example in part 1 we perform a reaction with NaOH ( pH12 -13) with HCl (pH 0-1 ). Another example is relaxer, hair is at a pH of around 5 and relaxer is at a pH of 12-13.
So on to the experiment!
The litmus paper is a way to measure the pH of a solution. The paper changes colour depending on pH and you then compare the paper to the colour wheel. Well the only product that I could find with sodium hydroxide was my herbal essences hello hydration intensive mask (deeply in love with this stuff). I tested a new jar (for science!! lol ) to make sure that it was not contaminated. I just tested the other stuff because I could and because my hubby got a bit carried away and started pH testing other stuff like his aftershave and deoderant and bleach and pretty much everything else in the bathroom lol.
So the results show that pretty much all the hair products in my bathroom are between 6 and 7. As a scientist, this is not really much of a difference. Hello Hydration Intensive Mask has sodium hydroxide and is actually slightly acidic at pH 6, which throws out the idea that NaOH in a products renders it to be of a high pH value.
For comparison value, I placed some high and low pH substances from my husband's 'experiments'.
Why are these hair products generally around pH 6-7 and hair is at pH 5?
The reason is greater than hair. Cosmetic scientists make these products for at home use. They have to consider these products may enter your eyes or mouth. They have to consider the product may wash over your body in the shower. For these reasons, a near neutral product makes sense. Professional products for use in salons may not take these factors into consideration as the user should have gloves (for relaxers - pH 10-12 or for porosity treatments - pH 2-4) and should be careful not to keep the products on hair and protect the scalp.
Your thoughts?
Category Article Hair Science - pH, Sodium Hydroxide
Random Posts
-
Pyramid Escape 2 is the next version of Pyramid Escape v1.35 and in these map you can play with all your friends to escape from the pyrami... -
Java is a OO programming language and can use it freely. Java run on the Java virtual machine (JVM). If you like to programming with java fi...
-
I liked posting the future menu last weekend so I will do so again this weekend. Last week mixed micelles won over the behentrimonium (which...
-
Here is an excerpt from Carla's email to me, 'I have just found your blog and spent hours reading it over the past week. I find it v...
-
Here's a lovely announcement from a lady with a lovely name! Sunshine (see her blogs here and here ) is starting a social network for n...