Shampoo for Colored Hair Ingredients
If you color treat your hair, you may be stripping it of its natural oils and moisture, as well as damaging strands and creating frizz and "flyaways." There are many shampoos on the market for colored hair---and the ingredients in these shampoos can help hair stay healthy, full, and strong, and make the color last longer. Does this Spark an idea?
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Basic Ingredients
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Shampoo for color-treated hair usually contains the same basic ingredients that most all shampoos share. The main ingredients in shampoo clean dirt, dandruff, pollutants, and oil from the hair without stripping the hair of all its natural oils.
Common ingredients in shampoo include ammonium chloride, ammonium lauryl sulfate (a cleaning agent), glycol, sodium laureth sulfate, and sodium lauryl sulfate. Most shampoos also contain fragrances and naturally derived additives.
Maintaining Moisture
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The dyeing process---particularly if you're coloring your hair at home---can dry out hair, especially at the delicate ends. Lightening the hair, in particular, often creates dry, damaged tresses. If you're lightening your hair, you'll want to use a shampoo that's moisturizing to keep hair healthy and soft. The best moisturizing shampoos for color treated hair work by keeping hair pH balanced. Look for a shampoo that contains a gentle sulfate, such as tricedeth or sodium myreth.
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Adding Shine
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After a few washes, colored hair can appear dull and lifeless. To remedy this problem, look for a shampoo with citric acid or another mildly acidic additive to smooth the hair's surface and make it appear soft and shiny.
Taming Flyaways and Frizz
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Cocamidopropyl betaine is another chemical that can help with the problems of color-treated hair. This chemical protects dry, colored hair from static electricity and acts as a humectant---a substance that attracts moisture from the air.
What to Avoid
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Two common ingredients in shampoos---sodium laureth sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate---can strip dyed hair of coloring. If possible, try to use a shampoo that doesn't contain either of these ingredients. And while they're not harmful to your hair, "natural" additives to your color-friendly shampoo (such as avocados, essential oils, and even "satin" and "pearl extracts" in some shampoos) often don't actually have beneficial effects on your colored hair.
Many shampoos also contain artificial colors and fragrances, which don't help clean hair, and in some cases, can cause allergic reactions.
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