A Swiss study warns about so-called “repairers” shampoos that protect their hair little or nothing, but are full of silicones and plastics
They are called “repairers” because they have the miraculous purpose of remedying damaged hair. Tints, wild folds and various cottons, you know, do not benefit the hair and that is how there is a tide of variants of washings that promise the impossible: restore vitality to the destroyed hair. But is not so. Do repair shampoos really work?
According to a survey conducted by a Swiss magazine, in fact, many products that are on the market in reality are not able to guarantee to “protect” the hair and, in addition, almost all contain unwanted substances.
This is the monthly K-tipp, which tested 12 brands of shampoo very common carrying out a specific analysis: how much hair, despite the shampoo, they break while combing?
Analyzes
For the analyzes, 12 shampoos were subjected to four separate laboratory tests at the SGS Institut Fresenius of Taunusstein, in which several points were taken into consideration:
Fragrances: 26 fragrances with increased allergic potential must be declared at 100 mg / kg on shampoo bottles. In the evaluation, K-tipp subtracted 0.1 point from 100 mg / kg for weakly allergenic fragrances, one point for strongly allergenic fragrances
Efficacy: to evaluate the effectiveness, the experts have applied every five-part shampoo leaving it in pose to act for two minutes. After they rinsed and combed with a machine that simulated 20 thousand brushing
Polycyclic aromatic compounds: considered hazardous substances for health, the shampoos that contained them had a penalty of 0.5 points
Dioxane: suspected of causing cancer, no traces of dioxane in any product were found in the analyzes.
The results
The repair shampoos tested differed greatly from each other in their protective effect.
Depending on the product, it ranges from 0.4% of broken hair (“Salonplex Reparatur Revolution” by Syoss) to 9.1% (“Cien Pro Vitamin Shampoo Repair & Care” by Lidl). In comparison, moreover, 4.3% of the hair was broken with locks of hair washed only with water and the products in which the hair fell more than when washing with water have received an insufficient evaluation and are: the repair shampoos Guhl, Herbal Essences, Kérastase and Lidl.
Overall, only 7 products passed the test: their use would not cause breakage during brushing. Among these appear some brands such as Fructis, L’Oreal and Nivea, while two Pantene and Kerastase have been rejected.
The presence of silicones
As expected, 9 of the 12 products analyzed contain plastic silicones, which cover the hair as a protective shield and make it easier to comb, but in the long run they weaken the hair even more.
The brands of shampoos that do not contain silicones are:
- Rausch
- Kérastase
- Pantene Pro-V
But they still contain critical fragrances.
In light of this, the fact that we must rely only on products with an impeccable INCI and, why not, rely on the dear old natural remedies also for the care of our hair.
