I hope you enjoyed this video! I didn't go into as much detail about water and hair as I wanted since it wasn't as strongly related to sulfates, but I did get to finally go into a bit of supramolecular chemistry which was my favourite part of my PhD 😊 What other hair topics would you like me to talk about?
Hi Michelle! Great video, as usual! I'd love to hear your perspective on anything around hair science! I'm pretty interested in which is more damaging: air drying or blow drying/diffusing? Also, is it really possible to use too much protein? Thanks again for the great content!
Hi Michelle hope you can tackle the following. Look forward to learning more! • What happens when you use a shampoo for dandruff? Vs a “regular shampoo”? Does the dandruff shampoo also clear off the normal gunk a regular shampoo might? Can/does the yeast become resistant to the active ingredient? I found nizoral stopped working for me after using it for years. Had to try something else. • Is there a real benefit to rotate between different types of shampoos? Was told by a hairdresser that they have a roster they rotate between, in part depending on the state of their hair. Conversely is there a cumulative benefit for using the same type of shampoo frequently and consistently? • I was told that conditioner should not be allowed to touch the scalp because it contains oils and proteins that clog up the pores in the scalp. Is that true? Would love explainers on conditioners, and what they are. Is there a benefit to using the shampoo + conditioner combo sold by brands as pairs? Perhaps they have been formulated to work together? Or is that just marketing to get buyers to buy from them twice? • What is a volumising shampoo? Can it really help to get more volume for persons with straight fine hair?
Hey it'll be super interesting if you look into whether or not hair actually needs "moisture" when water in hair tends to damage it. Like people are used to calling shining healthy hair "moisturized", but is that true ?
Would you please give a recipe for shampoo formulas?? Really want to make my own with good ingredients. Also, why is it that my roots are resistant to colouring....all hair closest to the scalp seems very hard to colour.?
What's best for hair shedding! I shed a lot and as I get older I feel freaked out that my hair will go too thin. So many products claim to help but is any of it true Michelle? I don't wamt to keep spending money on products that don't help or just make it worse. Is it just something that us older women will have to get used to? What can help thin hair! 😭😭 any tips would be welcome. I can't seem to find straight, helpful answers.
Hear hear! Especially one addressing the science (or lack thereof) behind "heat-protectant" sprays and serums. I have a theory they're complete bunk and just very clever marketing, even though every hairdresser seems to think they're essential. I've never been able to find out exactly what ingredient is supposed to be protecting the hair, and I saw a video in which someone's experiments suggested the heat-protectant's oils actually cooked your hair faster.
@@SchlichteToven I used to think that, too! I was like: 'oh, come on, it's just a marketing trick, to sell us yet another product'. But I fell on my face with that one. Apparently they do have a protective effect. Michelle definitely did a video about it at some point, that finally convinced me. Still not happy about it, though, because my hair generally does not like styling products. It's always either *less* shiny and soft or overly smooth and weighted down, when I put product in it. The money I spent on products, I ended up not liking over the last year 😢
Hair Stylist here. Thanks for this video, it's so hard to choose a brand or product line to stock in a salon because it can work beautifully on 80% of clients but do nothing or worse on the remaining 20%. Hair products are a nightmare to shop for and ingredient lists tell us nothing. It's very expensive because you have to actually try each one on multiple people, usually staff first 🤣
I always feel bad cause i try to support my stylist with whatever line they are selling but in reality the tresseme curl line is MADE for my hair and it’s about $5. The $40 shampoo always leaves my hair sticky and flat :(
@@AmandaBoysenberry when you find something that works ya just gotta stick with it. My favorite shampoo and conditioner were from te drugstore too… then it got discontinued 😭
A lot of hairdressers I've been to have a few different options, so they can pick the one most likely to suit each customer based on hair type, dyed or undyed, etc.
As somebody with curly/wavy hair, I have found that detangling my hair when it's wet tends to cause less breakage when paired with a conditioner. If I brush my hair dry, it tends to snag a lot more and I end up looking puffy. Silicone rich conditioners are the best at reducing breakage.
I have wavy hair, and it used to be quite frizzy and tangle easily. I learned a lot in the last few years (yay, curly-hair content creators on CZcams!), and cut WAY back on using heat on my hair, only shampoo 1-2 times a week (I can get away with this since I have a very dry scalp, but YMMV), and am in general much gentler on my hair than I was taught as a child. Having said that, I want to also point out that detangling dry (as opposed to wet, in-shower) but wavy/curly hair is SO much easier and less damaging if you use oil. I learned this first from de-matting dog fur, of all things. But it applies to human hair, nonetheless. Coconut oil, jojoba oil or grapeseed oil are my first choices.
I've been trying to find out why when I go to my cottage for a week or two and use the water there, my hair feels so much nicer and softer than at home, even though the water source of both city and cottage is ultimately the same river. It feels nice for the first wash back at home in the city, but by the second wash it's rough and frizzy again.
It's possible the water goes through different water treatment plants to get to your house vs. your cottage. Also, the pipes may be made of different material or the water spends less time in the pipes going to one place then the other.
YES! I have well water, and it’s very “hard” - lots of mineral content and especially iron, turns everything deep orange. Not good for hair. I use a “hard water shampoo” on a fairly regular basis now, and my hair is much better.
Hair science and culture is wild. I was once bullied in a beauty subreddit when I told people I shampoo everyday because my hair gets oily fast and my country is tropical and humid. Another instance is that I know women who sell their hair to be made into expensive wigs, and all they use is cheap shampoo that they wash daily. Granted I know Americans are a dominant demographic in most English-language forums but it does get tiring trying to talk about nuance of beauty and hygene on a cultural scale.
Oh I totally get you, I've also been berated when I've told people I wash my hair everyday. I live in America in a temperate region, but even in the winter my hair is noticeably dirty 24 hour after washing. People will try to argue that I should be using dry shampoo when it gets greasy, but in my experience, dry shampoo, even the brown tinted kind, looks terrible in my dark hair. It's frustrating when people act like they understand my hair better than I do.
It truly is difficult to have open conversations about hair in Western forum bit also irl. Years ago, when pretty much everyone or rather every girl in my social circle at school would wash their hair every day, I remembered the disgusted look they had on their faces when I let out how infrequently I wash my hair. So many of them were narrow-minded and blindly assumed everyone has an oily scalp when all my life, I’d never encountered anyone with those hair issues. Dryness and dandruff were all I knew of. I do wish people were kinder when having these conversations otherwise it feels like they're bulldozing other cultural and individual practices.
Hair discusses online are just unhinged! Someone was in an instagram post saying that hair oil caused dries and hair damage with discussing the nuances between different types of oils moisture vs oil or anything!
Talk to anyone with fine hair here in Florida. We HAVE TO WASH OUR HAIR! If I run outside, I have to wash my hair. I can’t not. I have friends up north who can go for a run, wipe themselves down, and go to work. I’m sorry. WHAT? I can’t even dry clothes outside because they end up damp and smelling funky. What makes people think I could exercise outside and not end up the same way. 😂
Another complication for shampoo is water hardness. I tried SO MANY shampoos to find my favorites. Then last year I moved and the water is so much harder. And my favorite shampoos perform so poorly now. And my hair is acting different because I think there is more mineral build up on it because of the hard water. It’s just all dizzyingly complex!!
This. I had great hair in my twenties, got married and moved, hair went to crap. (Also was chronically itchy.) Went to the west of Ireland and my skin calmed down and my hair fluffed up. Most of Connemara uses captured rain water. No mineral content. We bought a whole house water softener. It's not bathing in Irish rain, but it's worlds better. Laundry gets cleaner, too. Water from a whole house water softener will eat through the sacrificial anode in you hot water heater very quickly. Swap that sucker out every year so that your water heater tank won't leak.
I have this problem. What really helped me is rinsing my hair with something acidic in the shower as a last step. I use hibiscus tea since its easy and smells nice. Lots of people use apple cider vinegar or lemon water. It doesnt really matter because all you want to achieve is rinsing mineral buildup out of your hair with an acidic cleanser just like you'd use vinegar to clean limescale out of your bathroom 😂
I agree! I use only Olaplex but now I’m hearing a few negative effects on the bond building types of shampoo. I’m back to the beginning of my hair care journey lol
@@josieshepherd2483 just in general about the Olaplex formulas, I found out by tiktok that the products are designed for damaged hair, mostly in case of chemical damage like when you bleach or just dye it, and using it for a prolonged period of time on hair that don't really need to be rebuild may cause more harm than good, some people experienced hair loss and a lot of build up
Olaplex RUINED my hair. Caused it to go strawlike and break off and shed HUGELY. I was using it appropriately once per week. It's taken about 3 months after stopping to get the condition a bit better, but the breakage/shedding will take a while to grow back in
Misinformation in the health/beauty space really really frustrates me, particularly influencers "educating" with absolute shameful confidence on products based off no scientific reasoning or evidence whatsoever. I'm always relieved to see videos like this where someone is actually using REAL SCIENCE with genuine scientific qualifications to explain products properly.
I mean this in the best of ways - realizing how little we actually know gives me anxiety but also makes me feel less crazy! Because so many other people act as if they’ve cracked the code and they really haven’t! We definitely would like as many hair videos as you’re able to make!!
Omg thank you for talking about the differences!! There's another cosmetic chemist who just straight up DENIES the difference between straight hair and kinky hair even though it's blatantly obvious. I remember growing up and seeing people with straight hair swim and how their hair would stick together when wet. I'm not a scientist but with my own eyes I could see that. My kinky coily hair does not do that ever! And like you said, our hair being wet helps us detangle and manipulate it better and with less breakage due to less combing force DESPITE the fact that water breaks the hydrogen bonds and weakens the core. Too many hair care people refuse to see nuance. Trying to detangle my hair dry will leave me bald. So even though hair is technically weaker when wet, doesn't mean that it's better and safer to comb it dry.
I have fine coily curly with very little damage and I can comb through and detangle dry with very little breakage. It all points to what was said in the video about every head of hair being different and needing to find out for yourself.
@@TheBaumcm It truly is. I have fine type 3 hair (the curls all range within 3). They thought of brushing it dry made me literally cringe because it would end up like a puff ball and more likely to tangle. I only did it a few times as a teen/young adult. Soaking wet with conditioner after finger brushing it is the only way for me.
TFW you've found a shampoo that is perfect for your hair and then you buy a new bottle and there's a big label on the bottle that says "new improved formula" and suddenly it's terrible for your hair... You think you've caught the unicorn, but it turns out it escaped and you have to start searching again.
Haha, combing curly hair while wet finally has the science behind it explained! I had straight hair till about 13, and it was really hard to brush when it was straight. Then it changed to about 3A curls, I think they're called. People would always give hair advice that was meant for straight-haired people, like you need to comb your hair every day! Which was hugely difficult and broke combs, then turned my hair into a giant puff. Combing while wet - no problem!
I'm an admin on a men's long hair group. People get stressed about "you must do this!" "Never do that!" Etc. My approach is always to just go with what works at the time. The only caveat I put in is that if you want to grow very long hair, then you have to be really really kind to it as the hairs age. That said, with shoulder-ish length hair, if someone wants to washbwith clarifying shampoo every day and that works for them, then to go for it.
When it comes to hair products in general there’s also the factors of hair density (amount of hair), coarseness (thickness of the individual hair strands), porosity (how much the cuticles lift for water to go in/ out of the strands). Plus then there’s still the scalp itself like oil production or if you have dandruff. The battle for finding hair products that work for you never ends 😅😅
This was really perfect timing because I've been trying to figure out hair stuff again lately. I just saw a video where a guy said you HAVE to shampoo twice and you HAVE to buy the professional shampoo because the drugstore stuff is watered down and won't do anything for you. Plus, I still see controversy about whether or not you should wash your hair everyday or not. While I'm skeptical about having to spend more to get a good shampoo, I wish I had some real answers from someone I trust! Thanks for this video, it was a good start to my search.
More healthy to not wash every day. Like explained in the video, your hair gets weaker when wet which means it is more prone to damage, so getting it wet everyday unless you have to is bad.
@@kattkatt744 but I get oily everyday and no matter how long I try not to wash, if I don’t do it everyday, I’m looking gross. I watch Dr Dray and she says that it’s fine to shower everyday if you tolerate it. I trust her but she’s a dermatologist and not a chemist so I’m just looking for more ideas.
I know I'm just a random person but maybe this can help: if you have an oily scalp/hair, washing as much as daily can be good for you. But otherwise you can even wash once a week or less, depending on personal preference. That's what dermatologists say. And as for "professional" vs drugstore, there's not a lot of difference, it's mostly marketing, like with bougey skincare. It might be worth investing a little though if you have a specific condition like dandruff or have bleached/colored hair. But find something within your budget. And you probably don't need a 10-step routine. You can just use Shampoo and conditioner, heat treatment or leave on cream/oil if you need to use heat tools or have curly hair. And that's the basics. You might not even need conditioner if you have very short hair ("men's" haircuts). Search for recommendations of products from people with hair similar to yours.
I'm planning to do a video on professional vs drugstore shampoos - I did do an IG reel on the topic a while back but I obviously couldn't fit too much in it!
I'm so tired of the sulfate-free, silicone-free, paraben-free BS. my garnier leave-in conditioner was reformulated to be silicone free and now it's much, much, much worse. and the previous formulation only had amodimethicone, which is amazing for hair and doesn't build up. but no, they'd rather listen to internet trends than science. it pisses me off because garnier already has a very wide selection of everything-free "natural" products (and some of them are good! i use their solid shampoos and "food" hair masks), so they really didn't have to come for the rest of their lines like that 😭
@@primordialmeow7249 fructis is one of garnier's lines. the "food" masks I mention above are from it, actually. but garnier has other lines. the leave-in conditioner I was talking about is from their original remedies line. anyway, just further proves my point that they already had a very wide selection of products, they didn't need to reformulate that one. if it ain't broke, don't fix it
I hate this bs too 😠 The heat protectant i used to use also got reformulated to be silicone free and other frees and I didn't realize until I got hair damage because it is no longer effective for high temps
I've noticed some flavorings in sodas and candy and other junk food are not as good ever since the "natural" trends lol. Like I swear apple soda don't taste the same..... Oh and every gum has to be sugar free now wtf? Is that some helicopter mom bs or where did that come from??? That tiny tiny piece of sugar ain't gonna kill nobody!!!!! There has already been sugar free options for DECADES. JUICY FRUIT IS DISGUSTING NOW
The hair food masks got reformulated too, and they SUCK oh my god. They took out most of the oils from the banana one… used it twice and my hair is straw
the amount of conflicting information that gets spread around about haircare products is truly staggering, even among people you'd think are qualified like hairdressers, one minute an ingredient is good and necessary, the next it's evil and will make all your hair fall out. So well informed and science based information like this is so helpful.
This is a pretty good start to hair science! You have to do a video on the poor demonized silicones haha I know you did a blog post about quats and cationic surfactants, but if you can, I would love to hear more about them and about conditioners in general, and how effective they are vs leave-on conditioning products. I'm also curious about the science behind "heat protectant" products. I have my doubts about whether they actually do anything. (Oh I also saw somewhere that drying your hair with a hairdryer makes it last longer without oils, prologuing the time between washes. I think there's like one single study on it though.) Salon vs drugstore formulas/products would be a good topic too, as so many hairstylists want to sell you their expensive products so bad and they sunk on drugstore ones so much (as if everyone had the income to buy the expensive counterparts).
Apparently they can be really helpful for higher porosity or more damaged curly hair!! My hair is low porosity and wavy so I can’t speak to that but anecdotally I’ve head people say that they work really well for them. And I’ve seen manes by Mell talk about this before
@@em6644 I have the same hair type as you and I use the Garnier Whole Blends Honey Treasures shampoo and conditioner which have waxes and silicones as very prominent ingredients in their formulations. So far it’s been great for my hair, helps it stay nice and smooth and aids in keeping flyaways to a minimum; it also keeps my hair moisturized without weighing it down like a lot of other products do (especially ones that don’t have silicones and instead rely on a ton of oils to keep hair soft and moisturized). I use these with my other products and routine and my hair turn out great afterwords.
Being a professional hairdresser who prides himself in the chemical aspect of my career I have to admit that even I fell for the "SLS/SLES is really bad for you" mindset. Unfortunately no job comes with the guarantee that there wont be some sort of bias due to how the people who pay us influence our perceptions. That aside, glad to see people smarter than me cover these topics, what we are taught at school is incredibly limited despite my school being really good (I studied in Sweden).
Love love LOVE that you are talking about hair science! I've followed you since before the pandemic. Mad respect for your thourough, science backed and unapologetic analysis when it comes to skincare. Excited to see you diving in to haircare ! More please ! Keep it up ❤🎉❤😍😍😍
I’m so excited you are tackling hair care. This is a much needed video. Good hair care information is so hard to come by. And seems to be way more difficult to understand because there are so many variables. Thank you for this video.
This is kinda off topic, but I absolutely ADORE your background. Like, the lego flower, the volumetric flask with the fairylights, the molecule model. It's all just *chef's kiss*
From now on I'm going to call surfactants "pink tadpoles". On a serious note, I love this video and it confirms what I thought about the whole shampoo and conditioner stuff. I have curly hair and have encountered the "Curly girl method" plenty, tried it for a year, and found that it did nothing for my curls with more effort than usual. Besides them recommending going sulfate free, they also don't want silicones because allegedly they don't come out without... sulfates! Well, I now use a sulfate free shampoo (just because it happens to be, not intentionally) with a silicone conditioner and I'm doing just fine. I hope you'll do more hair videos! Because this was so interesting!!
I’m not a pro but it’s something about the silicones creating layers on hair and somehow causing breakage with time. I also don’t get why should anyone choose shampoo according to their hair type and not the scalp type, like… that’s where we use it. Why everything’s so complicated with hair 🥲😹
@@rian5574 The way I read it, it would cause build up and make your hair heavier so your curls would form less and also cause damage in a way. I've honestly never noticed this and had some of my best curls when I didn't do anything besides using random shampoo, conditioner and mousse 😂 (which all had sulfates and silicones). Sadly my curl type has changed due to hormones and those products don't really do it for me anymore. The best I've found is a high end hairdresser brand but it's a lot of money 🥲
The silicone thing is based on old school silicones which adhered more tightly. There are new ones that are more water soluble and can be washed away more easily. As with nutrition and exercise, there is truly no one size fits all approach. You have to figure out what products work together, long term. I have coily curly hair which is also fine with very little damage. I need very little extra moisture and use a water based pomade instead of a gel and my hair loves it. I double wash and then condition once or twice a week and it works for me OVER TIME. Curly girl left my hair flat, snarly and with serious dandruff.
Would you make a video about shampoo bars? They’re so easy to travel with and better for the environment because they require so little packaging, but I wonder if they’re as effective at washing hair as traditional shampoo.
THIS! I would love to use them again but everytime I tried it ended up as a disaster. Brushing my hair was a painful mess, including ripping out lots of hair. It looked greasy, didn't feel clean, plus my scalp got itchy and flakey. I tried being gentle, I used eco friendly conditioners as well, nothing worked. I do think we have great scientific knowledge and lots of abilities that make living more eco friendly not as hard as one might think. As she said in the video, hair science is, of course, a mess. But I really don't want to give up on eco friendly hair care. It doesn't have to be a 10/10, but a 7 or 8/10 would be nice :/ PS: The problem was not so much the looks for me (my hair is as straight as can be and I need to use smart hairstyles to illuminate volume, though those are difficult as well since my hair is so straight that most styles wear down or I start losing hair clips after a few minutes. But having a greasy itchy scalp is something unenjoyable beyond the aesthetics.)
I think the early ones were awful, but newer ones are comparable to a decent liquid shampoo. I was very skeptical, but now use a shampoo bar made by a local small business and actually find it works better for my hair than the liquid shampoos I've used in the past. I even notice the difference when I wash my hair just once with a liquid shampoo! This particular bar actually seems to contain something that really soothes my scalp (I have eczema and dry skin) to the point where I no longer use the expensive specialist shampoo for my scalp. Basically, I think it's a similar argument to liquid shampoo - they're all different, so it's about finding what works for you. Similarly, it depends how you apply it - I ignore the instructions to rub it straight onto the hair for instance and instead lather it in my hands first, as my hair is very fine and tangles easily.
I tried some LUSH ones years ago. Revolting. Coated my hair, made it limp and stick together and look awful. Actual normal bar soap I used once or twice in a pinch on the other hand was fine. I void these bar shampoos like the plague.
I tried a LUSH bar shampoo when I had cobalt blue hair that I'd washed once, went on a trip and forgot my shampoo. There was a LUSH store down the street from where I was staying so I got a sample. It stripped 80% of the color out of my hair in ONE shampoo! I could see all my lovely deep blue dye coming out in the suds and ended up with bright aqua hair. This was the equivalent of about THREE WEEKS of NEARLY DAILY shampooing with my usual shampoo. (Matrix Biolage Color Care under the Kirkland Special label.) I went back and complained that maybe they should have a disclaimer this wasn't for use on vivid hair colors. They insisted that it is "all natural" so there is no way it could strip color. I think they blamed it on blow-drying or something unrelated. @@littleblackpistol
I've been trying to follow science-based hair experts for a while now, but you STILL managed to educate me here. This is amazing, please do more! Even if every video just amounts to "eh, it's complicated, it depends on these 18 factors" it'll still be fascinating to hear
Yes!! Thank you so much for this video! I've heard so many ingredient, product and technique mixed reviews with some people saying they are ok while others say they're the worst! I find it much harder to understand hair science because there are so few professionals/trusted sources while there are many dermatologists and studies when it comes to skincare.
I’ve been looking for some type of commentary/CZcams video series format on the topic of hair science since 2007. Sad that it took this long, but so happy to have finally found _something_ on the subject. Thank you. This is exactly what I’ve been searching for.
I LOVED this video! As a wavy haired person, my hair does so much better (less breakage, less frizz) when I detangle my hair wet with a huge dollop of silicone-free conditioner in my hair. I used to detangle with a wide tooth comb when it was dry and that never worked - lots of frizz, breakage and poofiness.
I have spent a whole afternoon looking at Amazon, Sephora and Ulta! All the options, claims got me so confused! Your video cleared all my confusion! Thank you so much!
Thanks for this breakdown, it was super informative! I would love to see more hair science videos. I fully agree about hair being more complex than skincare - I struggled with acne a lot in the past but with fairly minimal trial and error I found what works for me and have been mostly fine ever since. Hair is the complete opposite lol, I’m always trying new stuff and can never seem to find what works well for my thin, fine, oily, yet wavy hair 😅
1 view! I have never clicked so fast to see a video! I love and appreciate your work and helping me understand products and hair, skin and bodycare. Thank you!
When I turned 60 three years ago, gray hair started coming in, so I have it professionally colored now. But every shampoo takes out about two shades of color and everyone is asking why I died my hair red. It’s supposed to be my natural cool light brown! I only wash it weekly, with a color-safe shampoo, I don’t get it. (It doesn’t say sulfate-free).
I love this! Would like to see some videos on hair product ingredients for specific conditions (e.g., hair fall, dandruff, damage) - what ingredients or routines actually help improve things.
thank you! this video has alleviated some stress and explained the frustration i've been having with my hair for the last 6 months. when your hair changes, none of your products work anymore and i've been so confused about whether it's from bleaching, age, hormones, products and what i can do to get back to what i'm used to. i don't have the patience to go through another style routine overhaul after discovering i actually had wavy hair after 30+years of living. i've only just gotten used to it i don't want to change again😭
I love science!!!! Thank you! This was very helpful. I struggle to understand things but you explained everything so well and the added pictures helped too.
I don't think it's their fault necessarily! I've noticed that even cosmetic chem textbooks and hair scientists who work in the field say things that aren't 100% correct, and I've gotten things wrong as well! It's a complex and evolving area. I would judge them on how they respond when they receive new info though, and whether they continue to repeat the incorrect info...
@@pcaul8156 but also, experience is biased. It is influenced by so much more that just a product or a situation. Does not mean a study is wrong, it just mean that you as an individual might experience things differently.
A truism is rarely do people admit they are wrong. They just take the new, updated facts, and incorporate those new facts into reasoning for why X works or doesn't work because Y (Y was wrong a year ago and now Y is the new, more accurate info.)
I really appreciate you, Michelle, and I always give your videos a thumbs up, and have been subscribed from the first time I watched one of your videos. I also mention your channel to others as often as it is topical. You are doing us all such a service!
Wow, Michelle, I absolutely loved your video! You did an amazing job explaining hair science in a way that's easy to understand. I've always found it to be a headache-inducing topic, so your video was a breath of fresh air. I was especially relieved when you mentioned that foaming isn't necessarily related to cleansing power, but I have to admit, I still prefer my cleansers to foam (again gut feeling lol). Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us!
I get what you're saying about foaming but I think the issue is not that non-foaming shampoos don't clean the hair, but that they are so much more work to spread through the hair without using a ton of product, especially if your hair is thick or greasy. The dishwasher detergent doesn't foam but it also takes a lot more time and water and energy than we would use manually distributing shampoo through our hair. Also when you have to put more effort into spreading shampoo through the hair you seem to end up with a lot more tangles in the process.
Yeah, this is also kind of my feelings on the subject. Foam gives me a tactile reference point for how much of my hair is actually washed. I can never be 100% sure everything has properly defused in a low-foam formula, which makes me want to use more shampoo than is probably necessary to compensate.
Yep, it can help with distribution, but I was focusing strictly on the cleaning and lifting mechanism here (I've mentioned the distribution benefit in a few other videos in the past when talking about foam). Another way of explaining my point is - if two shampoos foam the same, they still might have very different cleaning performance. Also interestingly dishwashers actually use a lot less less energy and water overall than handwashing!
I'd argue that the dishwasher is still doing more work. It's just way more efficient with its energy inputs. It's using a lot of steam to loosen the dirt and pressure to knock it off the dish. Hand washing a dish requires more hot water because most of us can't stand the temperature that the dishwasher works at and don't have an enclosed vessel to keep the heat from escaping.
I wish my landlord would've installed one--they do pay for hot water so it would affect their operating costs and save $$ in the long run. But my building is nearly all studio apartments and they probably don't want people saving up dirty dishes until it's full, or running it daily. (We're supposed to wash dishes after every meal to avoid pests.)
I'm SO happy my favorite and most trusted skincare scientist is diving into hair care too. It's a maze figuring out this stuff on our own, so it's a relief to hear your sensible opinions and explanations about this topic. I hope you make a series out of it! Keep up the good work! ❤
Only just discovered your work thanks to someone calling out a blatantly incorrect statement in a video about sunscreens who suggested you explain it well. Ironically a Google search from their comment led to the singular result of the founder of a skin care brand who calls herself a "cosmetic chemist" yet spoke incredibly anti-scientifically in her 8 min video describing sunscreen in her products. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even have a BSc and clearly doesn't understand some basic things. Obviously it wasn't difficult to eventually find you and it is so refreshing to have someone who actually understands the science and seeks to communicate that in explaining how things work or don't work. Even being able to describe the lack of scientific understanding of a subject is refreshing compared to the tsunami of straight out myth propagation that one finds on the internet. Thank you for that and please keep up the great work.
What a unique video! It's difficult to find any science based videos about hair. My husband has very delicate and dandruff prone scalp and all shampoos are bad for him. Since he started using conditioners to clean his hair the itching and dandruff disappeared. Before we started to investigate what to do with his scalp I never realized the conditioners can also clean your hair. It would be great to see some material about conditioners.
Wow this is the best "hair video" I've ever watched. Thank you for explaining the complex science behind shampoos and making me feel more informed and less confused going through life! 😅
This video couldn't have found me at a better time! I've been struggling for years with my hair and it hasn't made sense to me why my hair is so "different". I feel a lot less pressure to know that hair science isn't an easy thing :P One thing that struck me though, when and how did hair scientists come up with the general formulas we have today? Like, what made them think of the common ingredients in use today? Thanks again for the great video! 🤩
Thank you for this! I've definately seen more hair "care" content on social media. Nice to know it isn't as simple as people make it seem. It makes sense that the overall formulation matters more than individual ingredients. I've stuck with moisturizing and smoothing hair care even though I have straight/fine Asian hair. Volumizing hair care leaves too much product behind. Can you do content about types of hair styling products? The difference between mouse, gel, hair spray etc.
Nice intro to the confusing world of hair care! I personally like the grid method of categorizing hair texture from 1a to 4c. It's a very simplified version of reality, but at least gives a place to start a discussion. It's also the best groupings I've seen for predicting how a your hair will react to a method or product.
She pretty much addressed that in this video! The drugstore stuff just typically has stronger sulfates and silicones, I believe. So it depends on your hair type.
I never knew your channel before, but I love knowing more about hair generally, and I think an interesting video idea would be about hair that doesn't absorb product at all, like you buy products of all types but it doesn't hold shape, it has knots easily all the time and it's always dry, usually only one area of the head and people with wavy or curly hair (usually curly hair, but who knows right?) get this a lot, most of the times it's natural, you're born with this. I would love a video like this!
Great video. I really appreciate the speed of your speech, it made it very easy for me to follow what you’re saying. (My mind tends to wander if people speak too slow for my impatient brain, or too quick for me to translate it in my head) And this was very informative and interesting 💜
As someone who has experimented with the Curly Girl Method for the past few years, I find this video SO interesting!! I always ask follow up questions on forums I follow about how people come to their conclusions about why hair behaves the way it does and if I do get a response, it is usually less than scientific. Please do more of general hair science!!
Yeah, the CGM is a great starting point if you are starting to embrace your curly hair. The problem I had was the dogma against silicones and sulphates.
This was fascinating to watch! I have fine, wavy to curly hair and I’ve STRUGGLED to find shampoos and conditioners and other styling products that work well with my hair. It’s so frustrating to hear that there isn’t enough research into hair science, but it makes sense that a lot of hair tutorials on CZcams don’t work well for me - what works for some people doesn’t work well for everyone, even with other people with fine hair
Fine, thin coily here and same problem. My hair gets weighed down to wavy really easily, like if I comb it out wet, the weight of the water is enough to pull it straighter. Trial and error has been the name of the game for all of my 44 years, especially being adopted into a family of straighter wavies who said, just brush it! I got my revenge because they’re all curly now😂. I’ve found I need less product than they recommend because I have less hair, like toddler sized ponies, so dimes rather than quarters, and I like using water based pomades, rather than gels, because they can be rewet and restyled with less fuss, and are generally lighter and weigh my hair less. Fewer products, and less of them, drying it sooner with cool air diffuser, and following Manes by Mell for her 3 step process, inserting what works for me in each of the categories, has done well for me. Also, Pantene has a great leave in “curl (re)shaping lotion” that is really light but gives good slip, and Hask has a “curl care 5 in one” that is also pretty good.
I really love this! Thank you! My cousin is a nerdy, science-loving hairdresser, and she has taught me a great deal of what you mentioned here - not on the same level of scientific detail, but in essence. She's taught me a lot, and I 100% attribute it to her that this video actually didn't seem that confusing to me. It had a lot less "new to me" information than it would have been if I didn't have her so close in my life throughout her entire education and years of apprenticeship. I'll send this video to her! Idk how much "new to her" information it will have, but perhaps she can send it to some friends and colleagues and keep it as a "hair science explained (relatively) simply" source lol
Hi Michelle! I'm really grateful to James Welsh since he mentioned you in one of his videos and said you're the best, and I'm not a scientist, but I do feel like you know your stuff and you don't bs like most people on CZcams. I'd love to hear what you think about Nivea, Dove, Frudia, Ziaja. Thank you for the amazing content!
Love this video, I just wanted to add that I tried the Pantene Colour protect pro-v after dyeing my hair, and it stripped more red out of my hair, and was drier than my pre-dye shampoo and conditioner, so sometimes u can’t even go with the what the marketing tries to tell u. About the only firm rule I can think of is conditioners/hair masks, the more damaged your hair, the more moisturising ingredients u need. I have slightly wavy hair, so don’t know how it applies to curly hair either.
Yes, thank you! I’ve been feeling this way for years. I have VERY fine curly hair, and most generic hair products are made for thicker straighter hair and doesn’t work for me. But the “curly girl” stuff is too heavy and weighs my hair down. I have had to do a TON of experimenting. And the line with the highest proportion of products that work for me is the JVN line, I think because he has similar hair texture to me. Most people aren’t testing hair products on hair like mine.
I am similar. I have a lot of fine, wavy hair and a scalp prone to sebborheic dermatitis. Lots of stuff is too heavy, coats and weighs down my hair and makes my scalp itch and bleed. Other stuff is too harsh and make it dry and brittle. It's a real balancing act tbqh. And it all changes even more as you age!
Thanks for this! Do I have any clue what I should look for in a shampoo now? Nope! But at least I know the industry doesn't know either :P I always get annoyed when stylists condemn all easily available hair products and proclaim salon products are better, because they can rarely give you any good reason why.
It's because they either have a sales commission or a sales quota on the salon products. I kept being told to stop using "Kirkland Special" shampoo and ignored them because I adored it and my hair looked great. Turned out that was Matrix Biolage Color Care back in the day (1990s through about 2010).
I would love to see a video about the hard water effects on skin and hair! I have started looking at some info about scalp buildup from calcium in hard water. I also saw that it can cause acne because of how the hard water reacts with oily skin which is what I have. My water test kit showed that my water is the hardest level on the strip of colors.
Thank you that you share your knowledge on sulfate shampoo. I appreciate it a lot! And I would love to know more about silicones in shampoo too if you can cover that.
I hope you enjoyed this video!
I didn't go into as much detail about water and hair as I wanted since it wasn't as strongly related to sulfates, but I did get to finally go into a bit of supramolecular chemistry which was my favourite part of my PhD 😊
What other hair topics would you like me to talk about?
Hi Michelle! Great video, as usual! I'd love to hear your perspective on anything around hair science! I'm pretty interested in which is more damaging: air drying or blow drying/diffusing? Also, is it really possible to use too much protein? Thanks again for the great content!
Hi Michelle hope you can tackle the following. Look forward to learning more!
• What happens when you use a shampoo for dandruff? Vs a “regular shampoo”? Does the dandruff shampoo also clear off the normal gunk a regular shampoo might? Can/does the yeast become resistant to the active ingredient? I found nizoral stopped working for me after using it for years. Had to try something else.
• Is there a real benefit to rotate between different types of shampoos? Was told by a hairdresser that they have a roster they rotate between, in part depending on the state of their hair. Conversely is there a cumulative benefit for using the same type of shampoo frequently and consistently?
• I was told that conditioner should not be allowed to touch the scalp because it contains oils and proteins that clog up the pores in the scalp. Is that true? Would love explainers on conditioners, and what they are. Is there a benefit to using the shampoo + conditioner combo sold by brands as pairs? Perhaps they have been formulated to work together? Or is that just marketing to get buyers to buy from them twice?
• What is a volumising shampoo? Can it really help to get more volume for persons with straight fine hair?
Hey it'll be super interesting if you look into whether or not hair actually needs "moisture" when water in hair tends to damage it. Like people are used to calling shining healthy hair "moisturized", but is that true ?
Would you please give a recipe for shampoo formulas??
Really want to make my own with good ingredients.
Also, why is it that my roots are resistant to colouring....all hair closest to the scalp seems very hard to colour.?
What's best for hair shedding! I shed a lot and as I get older I feel freaked out that my hair will go too thin. So many products claim to help but is any of it true Michelle? I don't wamt to keep spending money on products that don't help or just make it worse. Is it just something that us older women will have to get used to? What can help thin hair! 😭😭 any tips would be welcome. I can't seem to find straight, helpful answers.
We would really appreciate a serie on hair science covering different topics
Hear hear! Especially one addressing the science (or lack thereof) behind "heat-protectant" sprays and serums. I have a theory they're complete bunk and just very clever marketing, even though every hairdresser seems to think they're essential. I've never been able to find out exactly what ingredient is supposed to be protecting the hair, and I saw a video in which someone's experiments suggested the heat-protectant's oils actually cooked your hair faster.
@@SchlichteToven If I'm not mistaken, I think Michelle wrote a blog post on heat protectant sprays years ago.
@@SchlichteToven
I used to think that, too! I was like: 'oh, come on, it's just a marketing trick, to sell us yet another product'. But I fell on my face with that one. Apparently they do have a protective effect.
Michelle definitely did a video about it at some point, that finally convinced me. Still not happy about it, though, because my hair generally does not like styling products. It's always either *less* shiny and soft or overly smooth and weighted down, when I put product in it. The money I spent on products, I ended up not liking over the last year 😢
Yes! 🙋♀️
I'd be interested in what different oils and natural extracts supposedly do for hair, since they're always the hero ingredient of every product!
Hair Stylist here. Thanks for this video, it's so hard to choose a brand or product line to stock in a salon because it can work beautifully on 80% of clients but do nothing or worse on the remaining 20%. Hair products are a nightmare to shop for and ingredient lists tell us nothing. It's very expensive because you have to actually try each one on multiple people, usually staff first 🤣
I always feel bad cause i try to support my stylist with whatever line they are selling but in reality the tresseme curl line is MADE for my hair and it’s about $5. The $40 shampoo always leaves my hair sticky and flat :(
@@AmandaBoysenberry when you find something that works ya just gotta stick with it. My favorite shampoo and conditioner were from te drugstore too… then it got discontinued 😭
A lot of hairdressers I've been to have a few different options, so they can pick the one most likely to suit each customer based on hair type, dyed or undyed, etc.
As somebody with curly/wavy hair, I have found that detangling my hair when it's wet tends to cause less breakage when paired with a conditioner. If I brush my hair dry, it tends to snag a lot more and I end up looking puffy. Silicone rich conditioners are the best at reducing breakage.
Yes! Lots of conditioner helps reduce the friction 😊
I have wavy hair, and it used to be quite frizzy and tangle easily. I learned a lot in the last few years (yay, curly-hair content creators on CZcams!), and cut WAY back on using heat on my hair, only shampoo 1-2 times a week (I can get away with this since I have a very dry scalp, but YMMV), and am in general much gentler on my hair than I was taught as a child. Having said that, I want to also point out that detangling dry (as opposed to wet, in-shower) but wavy/curly hair is SO much easier and less damaging if you use oil. I learned this first from de-matting dog fur, of all things. But it applies to human hair, nonetheless. Coconut oil, jojoba oil or grapeseed oil are my first choices.
@@JeanieD It's much easier to detangle my curly hair when wet with a gob of conditioner. But it's very thick and coarse.
Detangling conditioner is the best! I use the scruples detangling conditioner when my hair is long or heavily bleached and it is a life saver!
My hair can respond differently depending on the day sometimes.
Another factor is the kind of water you have. That has a significant impact, especially if you colour your hair.
I've been trying to find out why when I go to my cottage for a week or two and use the water there, my hair feels so much nicer and softer than at home, even though the water source of both city and cottage is ultimately the same river. It feels nice for the first wash back at home in the city, but by the second wash it's rough and frizzy again.
It's possible the water goes through different water treatment plants to get to your house vs. your cottage. Also, the pipes may be made of different material or the water spends less time in the pipes going to one place then the other.
Yeah my uncles had really hard water that destroyed kettles and washing machines .. my hair adored it!
YES! I have well water, and it’s very “hard” - lots of mineral content and especially iron, turns everything deep orange. Not good for hair. I use a “hard water shampoo” on a fairly regular basis now, and my hair is much better.
Also, some elements used in pipes that fall off and get to water, can turn colored blonde hair green
Hair science and culture is wild. I was once bullied in a beauty subreddit when I told people I shampoo everyday because my hair gets oily fast and my country is tropical and humid. Another instance is that I know women who sell their hair to be made into expensive wigs, and all they use is cheap shampoo that they wash daily. Granted I know Americans are a dominant demographic in most English-language forums but it does get tiring trying to talk about nuance of beauty and hygene on a cultural scale.
Oh I totally get you, I've also been berated when I've told people I wash my hair everyday. I live in America in a temperate region, but even in the winter my hair is noticeably dirty 24 hour after washing. People will try to argue that I should be using dry shampoo when it gets greasy, but in my experience, dry shampoo, even the brown tinted kind, looks terrible in my dark hair. It's frustrating when people act like they understand my hair better than I do.
Yeah people get crazy
It truly is difficult to have open conversations about hair in Western forum bit also irl. Years ago, when pretty much everyone or rather every girl in my social circle at school would wash their hair every day, I remembered the disgusted look they had on their faces when I let out how infrequently I wash my hair. So many of them were narrow-minded and blindly assumed everyone has an oily scalp when all my life, I’d never encountered anyone with those hair issues. Dryness and dandruff were all I knew of.
I do wish people were kinder when having these conversations otherwise it feels like they're bulldozing other cultural and individual practices.
Hair discusses online are just unhinged! Someone was in an instagram post saying that hair oil caused dries and hair damage with discussing the nuances between different types of oils moisture vs oil or anything!
Talk to anyone with fine hair here in Florida. We HAVE TO WASH OUR HAIR! If I run outside, I have to wash my hair. I can’t not. I have friends up north who can go for a run, wipe themselves down, and go to work.
I’m sorry. WHAT? I can’t even dry clothes outside because they end up damp and smelling funky. What makes people think I could exercise outside and not end up the same way. 😂
Another complication for shampoo is water hardness. I tried SO MANY shampoos to find my favorites. Then last year I moved and the water is so much harder. And my favorite shampoos perform so poorly now. And my hair is acting different because I think there is more mineral build up on it because of the hard water. It’s just all dizzyingly complex!!
This. I had great hair in my twenties, got married and moved, hair went to crap. (Also was chronically itchy.)
Went to the west of Ireland and my skin calmed down and my hair fluffed up.
Most of Connemara uses captured rain water. No mineral content.
We bought a whole house water softener. It's not bathing in Irish rain, but it's worlds better. Laundry gets cleaner, too.
Water from a whole house water softener will eat through the sacrificial anode in you hot water heater very quickly. Swap that sucker out every year so that your water heater tank won't leak.
One thing you can do for hard water is get a water softener. I have seen some pretty cheap attachments online versus dealing with the hard water
I have this problem. What really helped me is rinsing my hair with something acidic in the shower as a last step. I use hibiscus tea since its easy and smells nice. Lots of people use apple cider vinegar or lemon water. It doesnt really matter because all you want to achieve is rinsing mineral buildup out of your hair with an acidic cleanser just like you'd use vinegar to clean limescale out of your bathroom 😂
So true my hair looks softer and less puffy when I visit Greece here in Canada it always looks puffy unless I put products in it
Get a shower filter.
as a hairstylist, this was HUGELY interesting. i would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the science of Olaplex, K18, and other bond builders!!!
I agree! I use only Olaplex but now I’m hearing a few negative effects on the bond building types of shampoo. I’m back to the beginning of my hair care journey lol
@@kerinocella6106what negative things have you heard about bond building shampoos I just bought some now im nervous to use it
@@josieshepherd2483 just in general about the Olaplex formulas, I found out by tiktok that the products are designed for damaged hair, mostly in case of chemical damage like when you bleach or just dye it, and using it for a prolonged period of time on hair that don't really need to be rebuild may cause more harm than good, some people experienced hair loss and a lot of build up
Olaplex RUINED my hair. Caused it to go strawlike and break off and shed HUGELY. I was using it appropriately once per week. It's taken about 3 months after stopping to get the condition a bit better, but the breakage/shedding will take a while to grow back in
@@twoleftfeet9626 Same here. Really bad stuff.
Misinformation in the health/beauty space really really frustrates me, particularly influencers "educating" with absolute shameful confidence on products based off no scientific reasoning or evidence whatsoever. I'm always relieved to see videos like this where someone is actually using REAL SCIENCE with genuine scientific qualifications to explain products properly.
I mean this in the best of ways - realizing how little we actually know gives me anxiety but also makes me feel less crazy! Because so many other people act as if they’ve cracked the code and they really haven’t! We definitely would like as many hair videos as you’re able to make!!
Omg thank you for talking about the differences!! There's another cosmetic chemist who just straight up DENIES the difference between straight hair and kinky hair even though it's blatantly obvious. I remember growing up and seeing people with straight hair swim and how their hair would stick together when wet. I'm not a scientist but with my own eyes I could see that. My kinky coily hair does not do that ever! And like you said, our hair being wet helps us detangle and manipulate it better and with less breakage due to less combing force DESPITE the fact that water breaks the hydrogen bonds and weakens the core. Too many hair care people refuse to see nuance. Trying to detangle my hair dry will leave me bald. So even though hair is technically weaker when wet, doesn't mean that it's better and safer to comb it dry.
I have fine coily curly with very little damage and I can comb through and detangle dry with very little breakage. It all points to what was said in the video about every head of hair being different and needing to find out for yourself.
@@TheBaumcm It truly is. I have fine type 3 hair (the curls all range within 3). They thought of brushing it dry made me literally cringe because it would end up like a puff ball and more likely to tangle. I only did it a few times as a teen/young adult. Soaking wet with conditioner after finger brushing it is the only way for me.
TFW you've found a shampoo that is perfect for your hair and then you buy a new bottle and there's a big label on the bottle that says "new improved formula" and suddenly it's terrible for your hair... You think you've caught the unicorn, but it turns out it escaped and you have to start searching again.
Haha, combing curly hair while wet finally has the science behind it explained! I had straight hair till about 13, and it was really hard to brush when it was straight. Then it changed to about 3A curls, I think they're called. People would always give hair advice that was meant for straight-haired people, like you need to comb your hair every day! Which was hugely difficult and broke combs, then turned my hair into a giant puff. Combing while wet - no problem!
I'm an admin on a men's long hair group. People get stressed about "you must do this!" "Never do that!" Etc. My approach is always to just go with what works at the time. The only caveat I put in is that if you want to grow very long hair, then you have to be really really kind to it as the hairs age. That said, with shoulder-ish length hair, if someone wants to washbwith clarifying shampoo every day and that works for them, then to go for it.
When it comes to hair products in general there’s also the factors of hair density (amount of hair), coarseness (thickness of the individual hair strands), porosity (how much the cuticles lift for water to go in/ out of the strands). Plus then there’s still the scalp itself like oil production or if you have dandruff. The battle for finding hair products that work for you never ends 😅😅
And water. Is the water soft or not?
And then as soon as you find good products, they get discontinued and you have to start all over.
This was really perfect timing because I've been trying to figure out hair stuff again lately. I just saw a video where a guy said you HAVE to shampoo twice and you HAVE to buy the professional shampoo because the drugstore stuff is watered down and won't do anything for you. Plus, I still see controversy about whether or not you should wash your hair everyday or not. While I'm skeptical about having to spend more to get a good shampoo, I wish I had some real answers from someone I trust! Thanks for this video, it was a good start to my search.
Saaaame!!!
More healthy to not wash every day. Like explained in the video, your hair gets weaker when wet which means it is more prone to damage, so getting it wet everyday unless you have to is bad.
@@kattkatt744 but I get oily everyday and no matter how long I try not to wash, if I don’t do it everyday, I’m looking gross. I watch Dr Dray and she says that it’s fine to shower everyday if you tolerate it. I trust her but she’s a dermatologist and not a chemist so I’m just looking for more ideas.
I know I'm just a random person but maybe this can help: if you have an oily scalp/hair, washing as much as daily can be good for you. But otherwise you can even wash once a week or less, depending on personal preference. That's what dermatologists say. And as for "professional" vs drugstore, there's not a lot of difference, it's mostly marketing, like with bougey skincare. It might be worth investing a little though if you have a specific condition like dandruff or have bleached/colored hair. But find something within your budget. And you probably don't need a 10-step routine. You can just use Shampoo and conditioner, heat treatment or leave on cream/oil if you need to use heat tools or have curly hair. And that's the basics. You might not even need conditioner if you have very short hair ("men's" haircuts). Search for recommendations of products from people with hair similar to yours.
I'm planning to do a video on professional vs drugstore shampoos - I did do an IG reel on the topic a while back but I obviously couldn't fit too much in it!
I'm so tired of the sulfate-free, silicone-free, paraben-free BS. my garnier leave-in conditioner was reformulated to be silicone free and now it's much, much, much worse. and the previous formulation only had amodimethicone, which is amazing for hair and doesn't build up. but no, they'd rather listen to internet trends than science. it pisses me off because garnier already has a very wide selection of everything-free "natural" products (and some of them are good! i use their solid shampoos and "food" hair masks), so they really didn't have to come for the rest of their lines like that 😭
Fructus products are good too.
@@primordialmeow7249 fructis is one of garnier's lines. the "food" masks I mention above are from it, actually. but garnier has other lines. the leave-in conditioner I was talking about is from their original remedies line. anyway, just further proves my point that they already had a very wide selection of products, they didn't need to reformulate that one. if it ain't broke, don't fix it
I hate this bs too 😠
The heat protectant i used to use also got reformulated to be silicone free and other frees and I didn't realize until I got hair damage because it is no longer effective for high temps
I've noticed some flavorings in sodas and candy and other junk food are not as good ever since the "natural" trends lol. Like I swear apple soda don't taste the same..... Oh and every gum has to be sugar free now wtf? Is that some helicopter mom bs or where did that come from??? That tiny tiny piece of sugar ain't gonna kill nobody!!!!! There has already been sugar free options for DECADES. JUICY FRUIT IS DISGUSTING NOW
The hair food masks got reformulated too, and they SUCK oh my god. They took out most of the oils from the banana one… used it twice and my hair is straw
the amount of conflicting information that gets spread around about haircare products is truly staggering, even among people you'd think are qualified like hairdressers, one minute an ingredient is good and necessary, the next it's evil and will make all your hair fall out. So well informed and science based information like this is so helpful.
This is a pretty good start to hair science! You have to do a video on the poor demonized silicones haha
I know you did a blog post about quats and cationic surfactants, but if you can, I would love to hear more about them and about conditioners in general, and how effective they are vs leave-on conditioning products. I'm also curious about the science behind "heat protectant" products. I have my doubts about whether they actually do anything. (Oh I also saw somewhere that drying your hair with a hairdryer makes it last longer without oils, prologuing the time between washes. I think there's like one single study on it though.)
Salon vs drugstore formulas/products would be a good topic too, as so many hairstylists want to sell you their expensive products so bad and they sunk on drugstore ones so much (as if everyone had the income to buy the expensive counterparts).
Yes, this! Are silicones actually evil for curly hair?
Apparently they can be really helpful for higher porosity or more damaged curly hair!! My hair is low porosity and wavy so I can’t speak to that but anecdotally I’ve head people say that they work really well for them. And I’ve seen manes by Mell talk about this before
Actually I think Michelle already has a video on silicones! Hopefully you can find it
@@em6644 I have the same hair type as you and I use the Garnier Whole Blends Honey Treasures shampoo and conditioner which have waxes and silicones as very prominent ingredients in their formulations. So far it’s been great for my hair, helps it stay nice and smooth and aids in keeping flyaways to a minimum; it also keeps my hair moisturized without weighing it down like a lot of other products do (especially ones that don’t have silicones and instead rely on a ton of oils to keep hair soft and moisturized). I use these with my other products and routine and my hair turn out great afterwords.
She has some relevant videos there:
"Busting hair care myths! Build-up, silicones and more"
"The Science of Shampoo and Conditioner"
Being a professional hairdresser who prides himself in the chemical aspect of my career I have to admit that even I fell for the "SLS/SLES is really bad for you" mindset. Unfortunately no job comes with the guarantee that there wont be some sort of bias due to how the people who pay us influence our perceptions. That aside, glad to see people smarter than me cover these topics, what we are taught at school is incredibly limited despite my school being really good (I studied in Sweden).
Love love LOVE that you are talking about hair science! I've followed you since before the pandemic. Mad respect for your thourough, science backed and unapologetic analysis when it comes to skincare. Excited to see you diving in to haircare ! More please ! Keep it up ❤🎉❤😍😍😍
Great video! The curly hair community is built on singling out ingredients in haircare so we need more people like you
I’m so excited you are tackling hair care. This is a much needed video. Good hair care information is so hard to come by. And seems to be way more difficult to understand because there are so many variables. Thank you for this video.
I think this is the best, most clearly-researched, well-informed video I've seen in months! Thank you!
This is kinda off topic, but I absolutely ADORE your background. Like, the lego flower, the volumetric flask with the fairylights, the molecule model. It's all just *chef's kiss*
From now on I'm going to call surfactants "pink tadpoles".
On a serious note, I love this video and it confirms what I thought about the whole shampoo and conditioner stuff. I have curly hair and have encountered the "Curly girl method" plenty, tried it for a year, and found that it did nothing for my curls with more effort than usual. Besides them recommending going sulfate free, they also don't want silicones because allegedly they don't come out without... sulfates! Well, I now use a sulfate free shampoo (just because it happens to be, not intentionally) with a silicone conditioner and I'm doing just fine.
I hope you'll do more hair videos! Because this was so interesting!!
I’m not a pro but it’s something about the silicones creating layers on hair and somehow causing breakage with time.
I also don’t get why should anyone choose shampoo according to their hair type and not the scalp type, like… that’s where we use it. Why everything’s so complicated with hair 🥲😹
@@rian5574 The way I read it, it would cause build up and make your hair heavier so your curls would form less and also cause damage in a way. I've honestly never noticed this and had some of my best curls when I didn't do anything besides using random shampoo, conditioner and mousse 😂 (which all had sulfates and silicones). Sadly my curl type has changed due to hormones and those products don't really do it for me anymore. The best I've found is a high end hairdresser brand but it's a lot of money 🥲
My hair looked awful when I tried the curly girl method. I use silicones and a sulfate free shampoo because sulfates irritate my scalp.
The silicone thing is based on old school silicones which adhered more tightly. There are new ones that are more water soluble and can be washed away more easily. As with nutrition and exercise, there is truly no one size fits all approach. You have to figure out what products work together, long term. I have coily curly hair which is also fine with very little damage. I need very little extra moisture and use a water based pomade instead of a gel and my hair loves it. I double wash and then condition once or twice a week and it works for me OVER TIME. Curly girl left my hair flat, snarly and with serious dandruff.
Would you make a video about shampoo bars? They’re so easy to travel with and better for the environment because they require so little packaging, but I wonder if they’re as effective at washing hair as traditional shampoo.
THIS! I would love to use them again but everytime I tried it ended up as a disaster.
Brushing my hair was a painful mess, including ripping out lots of hair. It looked greasy, didn't feel clean, plus my scalp got itchy and flakey. I tried being gentle, I used eco friendly conditioners as well, nothing worked.
I do think we have great scientific knowledge and lots of abilities that make living more eco friendly not as hard as one might think. As she said in the video, hair science is, of course, a mess. But I really don't want to give up on eco friendly hair care. It doesn't have to be a 10/10, but a 7 or 8/10 would be nice :/
PS: The problem was not so much the looks for me (my hair is as straight as can be and I need to use smart hairstyles to illuminate volume, though those are difficult as well since my hair is so straight that most styles wear down or I start losing hair clips after a few minutes. But having a greasy itchy scalp is something unenjoyable beyond the aesthetics.)
I think the early ones were awful, but newer ones are comparable to a decent liquid shampoo. I was very skeptical, but now use a shampoo bar made by a local small business and actually find it works better for my hair than the liquid shampoos I've used in the past. I even notice the difference when I wash my hair just once with a liquid shampoo!
This particular bar actually seems to contain something that really soothes my scalp (I have eczema and dry skin) to the point where I no longer use the expensive specialist shampoo for my scalp.
Basically, I think it's a similar argument to liquid shampoo - they're all different, so it's about finding what works for you. Similarly, it depends how you apply it - I ignore the instructions to rub it straight onto the hair for instance and instead lather it in my hands first, as my hair is very fine and tangles easily.
I tried some LUSH ones years ago. Revolting. Coated my hair, made it limp and stick together and look awful. Actual normal bar soap I used once or twice in a pinch on the other hand was fine. I void these bar shampoos like the plague.
I tried a LUSH bar shampoo when I had cobalt blue hair that I'd washed once, went on a trip and forgot my shampoo. There was a LUSH store down the street from where I was staying so I got a sample. It stripped 80% of the color out of my hair in ONE shampoo! I could see all my lovely deep blue dye coming out in the suds and ended up with bright aqua hair. This was the equivalent of about THREE WEEKS of NEARLY DAILY shampooing with my usual shampoo. (Matrix Biolage Color Care under the Kirkland Special label.) I went back and complained that maybe they should have a disclaimer this wasn't for use on vivid hair colors. They insisted that it is "all natural" so there is no way it could strip color. I think they blamed it on blow-drying or something unrelated. @@littleblackpistol
I've been trying to follow science-based hair experts for a while now, but you STILL managed to educate me here. This is amazing, please do more! Even if every video just amounts to "eh, it's complicated, it depends on these 18 factors" it'll still be fascinating to hear
Can you suggest some experts that you follow? Thank you 😊
Yesss! discussions around hair care is so rife with fearmongering and myths, i was hoping you'd get into it to help us navigate through all of that
This was incredibly insightful. Will be a lifelong suscriber
Love, love the content about hair science. Thank you for putting so much work into it.
Yes!! Thank you so much for this video! I've heard so many ingredient, product and technique mixed reviews with some people saying they are ok while others say they're the worst! I find it much harder to understand hair science because there are so few professionals/trusted sources while there are many dermatologists and studies when it comes to skincare.
I’ve been looking for some type of commentary/CZcams video series format on the topic of hair science since 2007. Sad that it took this long, but so happy to have finally found _something_ on the subject. Thank you. This is exactly what I’ve been searching for.
ME TOO.
I LOVED this video! As a wavy haired person, my hair does so much better (less breakage, less frizz) when I detangle my hair wet with a huge dollop of silicone-free conditioner in my hair. I used to detangle with a wide tooth comb when it was dry and that never worked - lots of frizz, breakage and poofiness.
You are the best and the only one I trust on the internet! I would love more hair related content from you!
i loved this video!! would love a series focusing on haircare products and methods and and hair science
I have spent a whole afternoon looking at Amazon, Sephora and Ulta! All the options, claims got me so confused! Your video cleared all my confusion! Thank you so much!
Thanks for this breakdown, it was super informative! I would love to see more hair science videos. I fully agree about hair being more complex than skincare - I struggled with acne a lot in the past but with fairly minimal trial and error I found what works for me and have been mostly fine ever since. Hair is the complete opposite lol, I’m always trying new stuff and can never seem to find what works well for my thin, fine, oily, yet wavy hair 😅
1 view! I have never clicked so fast to see a video! I love and appreciate your work and helping me understand products and hair, skin and bodycare. Thank you!
When I turned 60 three years ago, gray hair started coming in, so I have it professionally colored now. But every shampoo takes out about two shades of color and everyone is asking why I died my hair red. It’s supposed to be my natural cool light brown! I only wash it weekly, with a color-safe shampoo, I don’t get it. (It doesn’t say sulfate-free).
I love this! Would like to see some videos on hair product ingredients for specific conditions (e.g., hair fall, dandruff, damage) - what ingredients or routines actually help improve things.
thank you! this video has alleviated some stress and explained the frustration i've been having with my hair for the last 6 months. when your hair changes, none of your products work anymore and i've been so confused about whether it's from bleaching, age, hormones, products and what i can do to get back to what i'm used to.
i don't have the patience to go through another style routine overhaul after discovering i actually had wavy hair after 30+years of living. i've only just gotten used to it i don't want to change again😭
I love science!!!! Thank you! This was very helpful. I struggle to understand things but you explained everything so well and the added pictures helped too.
I love this video so much! Would love it if you did more of these
More of all this!!! I love your skincare information but hair care knowledge would be 🤯😍
I’m so thankful you did this! ❤ you’re a voice of truth that really helps us sift through the noise
I would really love a more deeper longer complex talk about curly hair cause girl I’ve been waiting for this one
This is really interesting. I can't tell you how often I've heard hairdressers say 'don't use supermarket shampoo. It coats your hair'. 🙄
Looking forward to watch the hairfluencers explain why they’ve been spreading false information all this time 😅
I don't think it's their fault necessarily! I've noticed that even cosmetic chem textbooks and hair scientists who work in the field say things that aren't 100% correct, and I've gotten things wrong as well! It's a complex and evolving area.
I would judge them on how they respond when they receive new info though, and whether they continue to repeat the incorrect info...
@@pcaul8156 but also, experience is biased. It is influenced by so much more that just a product or a situation. Does not mean a study is wrong, it just mean that you as an individual might experience things differently.
A truism is rarely do people admit they are wrong. They just take the new, updated facts, and incorporate those new facts into reasoning for why X works or doesn't work because Y (Y was wrong a year ago and now Y is the new, more accurate info.)
This is the first video of yours that I have seen. I really enjoy your approach. I really like learning about the science behind formulating.
This video answered so many of my questions. Namely why I could never find good shampoo and hair science videos like I could for skincare
I really appreciate you, Michelle, and I always give your videos a thumbs up, and have been subscribed from the first time I watched one of your videos. I also mention your channel to others as often as it is topical. You are doing us all such a service!
Wow, Michelle, I absolutely loved your video! You did an amazing job explaining hair science in a way that's easy to understand. I've always found it to be a headache-inducing topic, so your video was a breath of fresh air. I was especially relieved when you mentioned that foaming isn't necessarily related to cleansing power, but I have to admit, I still prefer my cleansers to foam (again gut feeling lol). Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us!
I get what you're saying about foaming but I think the issue is not that non-foaming shampoos don't clean the hair, but that they are so much more work to spread through the hair without using a ton of product, especially if your hair is thick or greasy. The dishwasher detergent doesn't foam but it also takes a lot more time and water and energy than we would use manually distributing shampoo through our hair. Also when you have to put more effort into spreading shampoo through the hair you seem to end up with a lot more tangles in the process.
Yeah, this is also kind of my feelings on the subject. Foam gives me a tactile reference point for how much of my hair is actually washed. I can never be 100% sure everything has properly defused in a low-foam formula, which makes me want to use more shampoo than is probably necessary to compensate.
Yep, it can help with distribution, but I was focusing strictly on the cleaning and lifting mechanism here (I've mentioned the distribution benefit in a few other videos in the past when talking about foam).
Another way of explaining my point is - if two shampoos foam the same, they still might have very different cleaning performance.
Also interestingly dishwashers actually use a lot less less energy and water overall than handwashing!
I'd argue that the dishwasher is still doing more work. It's just way more efficient with its energy inputs. It's using a lot of steam to loosen the dirt and pressure to knock it off the dish. Hand washing a dish requires more hot water because most of us can't stand the temperature that the dishwasher works at and don't have an enclosed vessel to keep the heat from escaping.
I wish my landlord would've installed one--they do pay for hot water so it would affect their operating costs and save $$ in the long run. But my building is nearly all studio apartments and they probably don't want people saving up dirty dishes until it's full, or running it daily. (We're supposed to wash dishes after every meal to avoid pests.)
Thank you for educating us! Your knowledge and humor is much appreciated.
This is AMAZING, informed and credible and legit not fake science, thank you
Amazing video 👏👏! Thank you for being so knowledgeable and concise relating lots of information! I enjoy your content & video ❤
Instant sub. This is such a hot topic im literally boiling tea rn. Ur much needed❤ We love a science backed educator.
I'm SO happy my favorite and most trusted skincare scientist is diving into hair care too. It's a maze figuring out this stuff on our own, so it's a relief to hear your sensible opinions and explanations about this topic. I hope you make a series out of it! Keep up the good work! ❤
Only just discovered your work thanks to someone calling out a blatantly incorrect statement in a video about sunscreens who suggested you explain it well. Ironically a Google search from their comment led to the singular result of the founder of a skin care brand who calls herself a "cosmetic chemist" yet spoke incredibly anti-scientifically in her 8 min video describing sunscreen in her products. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even have a BSc and clearly doesn't understand some basic things. Obviously it wasn't difficult to eventually find you and it is so refreshing to have someone who actually understands the science and seeks to communicate that in explaining how things work or don't work. Even being able to describe the lack of scientific understanding of a subject is refreshing compared to the tsunami of straight out myth propagation that one finds on the internet. Thank you for that and please keep up the great work.
What a unique video! It's difficult to find any science based videos about hair. My husband has very delicate and dandruff prone scalp and all shampoos are bad for him. Since he started using conditioners to clean his hair the itching and dandruff disappeared. Before we started to investigate what to do with his scalp I never realized the conditioners can also clean your hair. It would be great to see some material about conditioners.
As if I needed one more reason to love this channel. More videos on hair, please!
Wow this is the best "hair video" I've ever watched. Thank you for explaining the complex science behind shampoos and making me feel more informed and less confused going through life! 😅
This video couldn't have found me at a better time! I've been struggling for years with my hair and it hasn't made sense to me why my hair is so "different". I feel a lot less pressure to know that hair science isn't an easy thing :P One thing that struck me though, when and how did hair scientists come up with the general formulas we have today? Like, what made them think of the common ingredients in use today?
Thanks again for the great video! 🤩
That was such an amazing video! Thanks, we know way too little about the real beauty science
AMAZING!! I would love more information about this topic 🫶🏼
would love a video on maintaining hair colour as well as hair health, love your colour!
fantastic!! I sort of new this but never with so much detail and this makes so much sense!!
Thank you for this! I've definately seen more hair "care" content on social media. Nice to know it isn't as simple as people make it seem. It makes sense that the overall formulation matters more than individual ingredients. I've stuck with moisturizing and smoothing hair care even though I have straight/fine Asian hair. Volumizing hair care leaves too much product behind.
Can you do content about types of hair styling products? The difference between mouse, gel, hair spray etc.
And about the difference between finishing spray, hairspray and sheen spray?
Also, the hardness of water people have effects shampoos too.
Yep, and it affects conditioners and bleaching and sun damage... it's a lot 😩
Loved the video. Very interesting content, and your videos are nicely put together
Amazing! I will watch every single hair video you make.
Nice intro to the confusing world of hair care!
I personally like the grid method of categorizing hair texture from 1a to 4c. It's a very simplified version of reality, but at least gives a place to start a discussion. It's also the best groupings I've seen for predicting how a your hair will react to a method or product.
Super informative and simple enough to understand thanks !!
Could you pls do a video on Drugstore vs salon shampoo. Are drugstore really worse than salon ones? Thanks! ❤
She pretty much addressed that in this video! The drugstore stuff just typically has stronger sulfates and silicones, I believe. So it depends on your hair type.
I've found it to be hit or miss. I've spent a fortune on salon products I've hated and $5 on drugstore products I've loved.
This is actually pretty interesting to me as a forensic scientist with a special interest in trace evidence. Good idea for a forensic project!
Please do more hair(care) centred videos! This is so interesting!
Love this one yay for Labmuffin doing shampoo xxx
I always enjoy your videos. And I love you even more with the 'sploosh' references.
Omg, everybody should be aware of this! Why don't they teach this in biology classes??
This doesn't count as biology because hair is dead once it leaves the scalp 😉
Love this, the whole sulfate debate was always so confusing
I never knew your channel before, but I love knowing more about hair generally, and I think an interesting video idea would be about hair that doesn't absorb product at all, like you buy products of all types but it doesn't hold shape, it has knots easily all the time and it's always dry, usually only one area of the head and people with wavy or curly hair (usually curly hair, but who knows right?) get this a lot, most of the times it's natural, you're born with this. I would love a video like this!
Great video. I really appreciate the speed of your speech, it made it very easy for me to follow what you’re saying. (My mind tends to wander if people speak too slow for my impatient brain, or too quick for me to translate it in my head) And this was very informative and interesting 💜
This was really interesting. As someone trying to strip black out of their hair, a vid on hair colour removers would be cool.
I would also love to know what to look for when trying to find a MAXIMALLY color-stripping shampoo lol
Thank you Michelle as always.
As someone who has experimented with the Curly Girl Method for the past few years, I find this video SO interesting!! I always ask follow up questions on forums I follow about how people come to their conclusions about why hair behaves the way it does and if I do get a response, it is usually less than scientific. Please do more of general hair science!!
Yeah, the CGM is a great starting point if you are starting to embrace your curly hair. The problem I had was the dogma against silicones and sulphates.
This was fascinating to watch! I have fine, wavy to curly hair and I’ve STRUGGLED to find shampoos and conditioners and other styling products that work well with my hair. It’s so frustrating to hear that there isn’t enough research into hair science, but it makes sense that a lot of hair tutorials on CZcams don’t work well for me - what works for some people doesn’t work well for everyone, even with other people with fine hair
Fine, thin coily here and same problem. My hair gets weighed down to wavy really easily, like if I comb it out wet, the weight of the water is enough to pull it straighter. Trial and error has been the name of the game for all of my 44 years, especially being adopted into a family of straighter wavies who said, just brush it! I got my revenge because they’re all curly now😂.
I’ve found I need less product than they recommend because I have less hair, like toddler sized ponies, so dimes rather than quarters, and I like using water based pomades, rather than gels, because they can be rewet and restyled with less fuss, and are generally lighter and weigh my hair less. Fewer products, and less of them, drying it sooner with cool air diffuser, and following Manes by Mell for her 3 step process, inserting what works for me in each of the categories, has done well for me. Also, Pantene has a great leave in “curl (re)shaping lotion” that is really light but gives good slip, and Hask has a “curl care 5 in one” that is also pretty good.
I love your channel thank you so much for all the content you make
I really love this! Thank you! My cousin is a nerdy, science-loving hairdresser, and she has taught me a great deal of what you mentioned here - not on the same level of scientific detail, but in essence. She's taught me a lot, and I 100% attribute it to her that this video actually didn't seem that confusing to me. It had a lot less "new to me" information than it would have been if I didn't have her so close in my life throughout her entire education and years of apprenticeship. I'll send this video to her! Idk how much "new to her" information it will have, but perhaps she can send it to some friends and colleagues and keep it as a "hair science explained (relatively) simply" source lol
HELPFUL VIDEO. thanks so much for your sharing. This answered my question clearly
Hi Michelle! I'm really grateful to James Welsh since he mentioned you in one of his videos and said you're the best, and I'm not a scientist, but I do feel like you know your stuff and you don't bs like most people on CZcams. I'd love to hear what you think about Nivea, Dove, Frudia, Ziaja. Thank you for the amazing content!
Thankyou so much. Really appreciate your practical knowledgeable content. Please keep it up
Love this video, I just wanted to add that I tried the Pantene Colour protect pro-v after dyeing my hair, and it stripped more red out of my hair, and was drier than my pre-dye shampoo and conditioner, so sometimes u can’t even go with the what the marketing tries to tell u.
About the only firm rule I can think of is conditioners/hair masks, the more damaged your hair, the more moisturising ingredients u need. I have slightly wavy hair, so don’t know how it applies to curly hair either.
Yes, hair care science! I'd love to see you discuss lamellar water at some point, but I don't know that there's enough research on it currently
Yes, thank you! I’ve been feeling this way for years. I have VERY fine curly hair, and most generic hair products are made for thicker straighter hair and doesn’t work for me. But the “curly girl” stuff is too heavy and weighs my hair down. I have had to do a TON of experimenting. And the line with the highest proportion of products that work for me is the JVN line, I think because he has similar hair texture to me. Most people aren’t testing hair products on hair like mine.
I am similar. I have a lot of fine, wavy hair and a scalp prone to sebborheic dermatitis. Lots of stuff is too heavy, coats and weighs down my hair and makes my scalp itch and bleed. Other stuff is too harsh and make it dry and brittle. It's a real balancing act tbqh. And it all changes even more as you age!
Thanks for this! Do I have any clue what I should look for in a shampoo now? Nope! But at least I know the industry doesn't know either :P
I always get annoyed when stylists condemn all easily available hair products and proclaim salon products are better, because they can rarely give you any good reason why.
It's because they either have a sales commission or a sales quota on the salon products. I kept being told to stop using "Kirkland Special" shampoo and ignored them because I adored it and my hair looked great. Turned out that was Matrix Biolage Color Care back in the day (1990s through about 2010).
I would love to see a video about the hard water effects on skin and hair! I have started looking at some info about scalp buildup from calcium in hard water. I also saw that it can cause acne because of how the hard water reacts with oily skin which is what I have. My water test kit showed that my water is the hardest level on the strip of colors.
I got more confused. Great video. Thanks.
Would love a video on drugstore recommendations based on good ingredients (and your favourites too) 💁🏼♀️
Thank you that you share your knowledge on sulfate shampoo. I appreciate it a lot! And I would love to know more about silicones in shampoo too if you can cover that.