Why do the first five ingredients on a hair product matter?

I am here to save you from digesting too much information. The first five ingredients are all you need to know for three products: shampoos, hair conditioners and leave in conditioners. The water content of these varies according to manufacturer but generally ranges between 50 and 80 % of the the total weight (Cosmetic and Toiletry Formulations by E.Flick)



Lesson from Product labelling - The Law:  If you have purchased a shampoo or hair conditioner and the ingredient listing did not start with water, you should be suspicious and should check with the company if the list is accurate. 



So why do the first five ingredients matter?



Take a look at your hair conditioner bottle or tub. Half to more than
three quarters of that is likely just plain old water
. This says that water is the
main ingredient and there is physically no room to add much more.



Here is an example!! Let us take a typical formula for a dry hair conditioner































Ingredient


Percentage content

Water80%
Surfactant such as behentrimonium chlorideUnder 3%
Conditioning silicones (create slip in wet combing)5-10%
Humectant such as glycerinUnder 3%
Thickening products (to make the conditioner gloopy rather than watery). Includes cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol4-5%
Preservatives and FragranceEach Under 1%



As you can see, very little of the other ingredients are used (more detail on this later!).

There is something however missing from the list above. The marketing people know they cannot sell this hair conditioner unless the consumer is convinced it will work.



Therefore, they must brightly label the product proclaiming how it has an essential blend of wheatgrass and jojoba oil or how they have carefully added pomegranate and vanilla extracts to make your hair luscious.

A few drops of oil are added in and the product is now consumer ready. Often when you look for the jojoba oil that made you buy the product, it will be buried somewhere towards the bottom of the list (because it is nonsense).



In short, if you read the first five ingredients (you can include or exclude water), you are reading the main ingredients that have an actual effect on your hair. 



See the Q&A from this article - here 


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