Some natural shampoos don’t seem to lather a great deal. How can a shampoo clean the hair without a lot of lather?
Shampoos don’t need to generate lots of suds to clean hair effectively. Here’s what happens when you shampoo—detergent and soap molecules have two ends: a hydrophilic (water-loving) “head” and a lipophilic (oil-loving) “tail.” The oil-loving tails attach to the oil and dirt in your hair. When you rinse, the water-loving heads attach to the rinse water, so the oil and dirt are pulled out of your hair. When detergent molecules mix with water and align in a spherical shape, suds, or lather, are formed. Lather doesn’t really assist the cleansing process, except that it might make it easier for you to feel that your shampoo has been evenly distributed. We’ve been conditioned to like lather. But many shampoos rely on inexpensive, petrochemically derived detergents such as sodium lauryl / laureth sulfate, olefin sulfonate and cocamidopropyl betaine for their foam-building properties. These chemicals can dry out the hair and scalp, and may cause allergic reactions as well as environmental prob
