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Expand your Knowledge: Surfactants

Posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 by Arman Zulhajar

Last week, I highlighted one of the surfactants in conditioner which prompted a question....given SLS is a surfactant, are surfactants really good?



The best analogy I can give is the apples and oranges story. Both are a type of fruit but each is different and useful for its own reason.



Surfactant is found in shampoo and conditioner. However, the type usually found in shampoo is intended to clean and the one found in conditioner is intended to deposit. The key difference between the two types is



1. Size or Length

2. Charge (Negative in shampoo and Positive in conditioner)



 









So how can the same surfactant behave differently? 


Well, let us be clear, the surfactant is not the same! Remember apples and oranges. Our apple is the shampoo surfactant like SLS, SLES, ALS and their purpose is to remove oil and wash hair. Our oranges are things like behentrimonium chloride, behentrimonium methosulfate and stearamidopropropyl which are designed to deposit onto hair, smooth the cuticle and create softness (see the pic!)










Do note that while conditioner pretty much always has large positively charged surfactants, shampoo does not always have a negative small surfactant. Some sulfate free shampoos utilise surfactants that are larger and have no charge or have a variable charge depending on pH - however that is a story for another day. 



So are surfactants bad? In my opinion, no, they are vital to cleaning and maintaining hair! 


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