When it comes to baby products, we so often only limit the usage for babies or toddlers. If you broaden the spectrum slightly by giving your adult self a chance to use baby products, you’re in for some delightful results. I say this because I personally used one product on myself recently, a baby shampoo, and I’m in love with the results! Baby shampoos are made using far less chemicals than adult shampoo contain.
Many adult shampoos contain an ingredient called sodium lauryl sulfate, which is a cleaning agent. Sulfates, however, can dry your hair, so many people look for alternatives. Since baby shampoos are formulated to be gentler, it contains amphoteric surfectants instead, which are also cleaning agents but are less harsh than traditional sulfates. So, a baby shampoo will clean your hair, without leaving it so dry.
On the contrary, if you’re someone who uses a lot of chemicals on your hair, then it’s best to give baby shampoo a miss, because amphoteric surfectants are milder than sulfates and therefore, it may not be so effective in cleaning your hair, roots and scalp.
A few key mentions before I share my experience using baby shampoo to wash my hair.
- I have normal conditioned long hair. So results may vary for those having oily or combination hair.
- The shampoo I used is Drypers Baby Shampoo. Again, results may vary with other baby shampoo brands.
As for my personal verdict, here it goes:
My hair feels so much softer
Have you ever caressed a baby’s hair after a good shampoo session? They’re cottony soft and smells great. That’s exactly how my hair felt, and still feels. To my surprise, even with lesser chemical formulation, my scalp and roots were clean and oil-free after the wash. The shampoo lather well and I didn’t need to shampoo my hair twice, although the formulation is gentle. It rinsed well and guess what, I didn’t even use conditioner post wash. Feels great giving your hair a break from all the harsh chemicals!
Far less tangles on my long hair
My impulsive initial judgement post washing would be that my hair would be left in many unmanageable tangles which will end up breaking my hair, not leading to a good start, or so I thought. To my complete surprise, it did otherwise! Like I said, I didn’t use conditioner (also because I didn’t want to tamper the results) and it was much easier to detangle any jumbles.
It didn’t dry out my hair
One would automatically conclude that extra chemicals would results to softer and shinier hair. Incorrect. In my case, due to the inexistence of sodium lauryl sulfate, it didn’t dry out my hair, even after 2 days post washing. So that’s a huge bonus point. A key point to mention here, I always air-dry my hair. If you use a hair-dryer, I feel it could leave your hair a bit drier.
Hair feels silkier
I generally have wavy straight hair, but post washing with baby shampoo, it left my hair a little silkier. Combing is so much easier and hair looks great in a high ponytail up do!