How Do pH Levels in Hair Care Products Affect Your Hair?
We believe that the pH of your hair products is essential because it can help to create an environment where your hair can thrive. A healthy pH balance can help to strengthen your hair, increase moisture levels and promote growth.
Hair proteins have a pH level of around 3.7. This interacts with its surrounding environment and can significantly affect hair's overall health. Hair has an optimal pH range of 4.5–5.5, which means that when it is exposed to water or conditioner, its proteins are in their happiest, most resilient state.
The scalp also has an optimal pH of around 5.5 and is a self-regulating environment. This means that without any outside factors introduced, your body has everything it needs to keep this range in check and prevent the overgrowth of things like fungi and bacteria.
Using a product not optimised for your pH level can throw your natural pH level off balance. This can make your hair and scalp vulnerable.
What's the Optimal pH for Hair?
When the pH of the hair is balanced, the hair is less likely to experience damage and breakage. This is because the acidic and basic groups within the hair proteins are attracted to each other, forming ionic bonds. These bonds help to strengthen the hair and make it more resistant to damage. When the pH is balanced, the hair proteins can withstand heat better.
The pH level of hair is important to keep the hair healthy and avoid damage. When the pH level gets too high or too low, it can cause problems with the hair. Unfortunately, the hair care industry does not focus enough on the pH levels of their products, which can lead to imbalances in the scalp and hair.
The compounding issue is that wetting and rinsing hair can often throw off the pH balance. Since most tap water is in the range of 6.5-9.5 (above hair's optimal pH), it's even more important to use lower pH products like shampoo, conditioner or leave-ins to help offset that exposure to higher pH. But, most of those products are usually not correctly optimised to help the issue.
We all want healthy, happy hair—but how do we achieve this? It turns out that the pH of our shampoo plays a big role. Alkaline shampoos can damage the hair cuticle, leading to dry, brittle hair. On the other hand, shampoos with a pH that is too low can also cause problems, making the hair appear dull and lifeless. The best shampoo for healthy hair is one with a pH close to the natural pH of the hair, around 4.5-5.5.
To Wrap Up
Commercial shampoos are usually formulated to be more acidic to counteract the alkaline pH of the hair and scalp. This helps to minimise the negative charge on the hair proteins, which reduces cuticle swelling and also decreases the binding sites for metal cations.
While products that protect the hair fibre from damage can be helpful, too much of the product can weigh the hair down and prevent other products from working properly.
Products with a pH around 4.5-5.5 are the best for your hair and scalp. They offer protection for your hair colour and treatments and don't have any fillers that would block these effects.
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