In recent times no shampoo movement has gained a trend. It is the abstinence from the commercial hair care usage. That includes giving away the shampoo and other regular hair care products. That makes most of us wonder what exactly to wash hair with. Should one go natural with no poo or worry about what is low poo shampoo?
What is low poo shampoo?
If you understand no poo well. Then, low poo is the one in-between no-poo and the regular shampoo.
That means a shampoo that is neither regular nor zilch on commercial cleaning agents.
Thus, low poo is in mid-way to chemicals and a natural cleansing lifestyle.
The regular shampoo contains detergents as cleansing ingredients. While the low poo has soaps as the cleansers.
This may not seem like a big deal to some. Or rather it would not make a difference to many. But soaps and detergents are a lot different.
Although both do the cleaning job. But what goes inside them do their jobs makes a lot of difference.
It is the individual ingredients in soaps and shampoos that make them distinct from each.
To understand the basic difference between the two. Let us take a look at what do they contain.
What does a regular shampoo contain?
If you look for the label of your shampoo bottle. Then, you will see “shampoo detergent based” mentioned on it. The term detergent contains several other ingredients.
Let us understand the detergent in a shampoo well.
What does the detergent based shampoo mean?
It is simple. You are using detergent to wash your hair. The manufacturers of your shampoo brand themselves tell you that.
So, now that you know that you are using detergent on your head. Then, you should know what stuff in particular.
The popular ingredients in Detergents are:
1. Surfactants
The compounds that bring two liquids closer. They are important to mix liquids that do not otherwise get along well. For instance. Water and oil.
So, when you wash oil. The surfactants help water to bind with the oil. Thereby, letting the fats in oil de-grease.
They also help liquids gel with solids. Foaming agents and emulsifiers are popular surfactants.
Examples – compounds of Ethoxylates, Sulfates, Amine Oxides, and Sulfonates.
In fact, a popular detergent brand does have its name derived from the word surfactant itself. Can you guess which one?
2. Chelating agents
These are the compounds that bind to certain elements. Their bonds are then helpful to remove superfluous ingredients. It removes odors as well. The chelating agents also soften water.
Examples – citric compounds like citric acid.
3. Alcohol
These are the spirits that find their application as antimicrobial agents. They may serve as solvents as well.
Examples – Ethanol
4. Bleaching agents
As their name suggests. They whiten the surface to which they get in touch. Some bleaches may have disinfectant properties as well.
Examples – Hydrogen peroxide, percarbonate
5. Artificial colors and perfumes
They are of course not from natural sources. That is, in fact, evident from their names.
Synthetic dyes and pigments form artificial colors and perfumes. A whole lot of petroleum derivatives form synthetic colors and odors.
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What is low poo shampoo made of?
The low shampoo contains oils. Though not oils in their original fatty states. Instead, oils turned into soap.
The process of saponification converts the oil to soap. Lye facilitates this conversion process.
Lye is either Sodium hydroxide or the Potassium hydroxide.
Yes, both of them are strong chemicals. But the soap making process ensures that there is no chemical in the finished soap bar.
Soap making involves the use of lye to break down the fats in the oil. This leaves the chemicals in the lye disintegrate as well.
Then, the fresh soaps go through a process of curing. Curing involves aging soap bars. Aging process lasts for 3-4 weeks.
During this time frame, the chemicals evaporate. Thereby leaving behind just the soap bars.
Only in the case of making low poo shampoos. The soap bars contain oils that are potent for the hair.
So, a low poo shampoo has one or more of the following organic carrier oils:
Hexane free castor oil
Coconut oil
Mustard oil
Pumpkin seed oil (good for making DHT blocking low poo shampoo)
Sesame oil
Unrefined cocoa butter
Unrefined shea butter
Unrefined beeswax
The essential oils inside a low poo shampoo are:
These are the popular oils common to a low poo shampoo. Though, there are a lot of other oils that are good for the hair.
A low poo shampoo can have any of those hair friendly oils in them. A look through the label of a low poo shampoo confirms the presence of these ingredients.
As you can see. The list of ingredients in a low poo shampoo is unlike the ones in regular shampoo.
Though, a regular shampoo may have some of the essential oils. But their base remains detergent. Thus, the slew of chemicals as listed under the garb of the word – detergent.
Thus, a low poo shampoo has oils.
While a regular shampoo has good oils along with detergents.
In Conclusion
The no-poo method to wash hair is sans chemicals. The regular shampoo has a lot of synthetic ingredients. A mere look at the label confirms the same.
Without a doubt, no poo is a healthy way to clean hair. But many people may find no poo recipes cumbersome.
That is when low poo comes to the rescue.
Low poo is the middle path to regular shampoos and no poo.
Low poo shampoos do not contain detergents like the regular shampoos. Rather they are much like the regular soaps.
They have high-fat content from the potent oils. Low poo shampoo contains hair-nourishing oils as the prime ingredients.
Then, the oils change to soap with the saponification process.
Saponification process involves the use of lye. That is much like how one creates soap bars.
The kind of lye decides the low poo shampoo’s state.
NaOH, a.k.a. the Sodium hydroxide makes a solid low poo shampoo bar. While, saponification with KOH, a.k.a. the Potassium hydroxide makes a liquid low poo shampoo.
Thus, a low poo shampoo is a mild soap meant for cleaning hair.
Also, they are convenient to use. Although they are common as soap bars. But are also available in a liquid form.
Depending on personal preferences. Or on the kind of hair problems one has. There are a wide variety of low poo shampoos to opt for.
If you know what is low poo shampoo made of. Then, it is easy to pick up the best-suited one for your hair type.
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