THE WHY: Have you ever wondered why it is that we even have special ‘soap’ for our hair & don’t simply use the same cleansers we use on our bodies? The answer is quite simple really: Your Hair & Scalp need an acidic environment. By ‘acidic’ I am talking about the natural pH, or Potential of Hydrogen, of the hair & scalp. This natural acidic pH of human hair, generally between 4.5 & 5.5 on the pH scale, prevents the growth of bacteria & fungi, & it also keeps the hair cuticle closed & the scalp healthy. This is how “Shampoo” came to be & it is also why using an acidic rinse on your hair provides such amazing benefits.
The acid mantle causes the cuticle scales to lay flat, locking in moisture, making each strand stronger, & causing each strand to be more reflective. [flat cuticle = SHINY hair] Everytime you wash your hair, you disrupt your acid mantle, causing the cuticle scales to peel up on their ends & also leaving your scalp unprotected. With open, raised cuticles, your hair cannot lock moisture in & is weakened, causing the strands to break more easily. Additionally, if you have hard water [Hello! New England!] you will find that the minerals in your water stick to those raised ends of cuticle, creating build up. The results are pretty tragic – an itchy, dry scalp & dull, dry, lifeless looking hair that breaks easily – while your body works to rebuild & fortify your acid mantle. And this happens every single time you wash your hair! THIS is where an acidic rinse comes in like a hero to save the day! Using an acidic rinse will reset your pH & acid mantle, remove build-up from hair, close your cuticle strengthening hair shafts, & add beautiful shine, easily fixing every single one of those issues!
Good-quality, natural Shampoo Bars are formulated specifically for hair with pH in mind. When produced properly, natural shampoo bars will have as low a pH as possible. For example, our Du Jardin Shampoo Bars are super-fatted & have salt water added to lower their pH. This helps significantly, but the bars are still soap & therefore still mildly basic/alkaline in pH. Since healthy hair must be slightly acidic in order to protect the scalp & keep the cuticle closed, following your cleansing with ANY natural shampoo bar with an acidic rinse is the best way to close the cuticle, balance your pH, & restore your acid mantle.
Almost every one of our SLS-Free Shampoo Bar customers tells us that they need to wash their hair much less frequently & find it to be much less dry once they have used natural bars for a bit! Again, using an acidic rinse will reset your pH & acid mantle, remove build-up from hair, close your cuticle strengthening hair shafts, & add beautiful shine.
I do not rinse my rinse out & I find this works best. Allow hair to dry naturally or blow dry afterwards as you normally would. People with particularly hard water find using distilled water when making their own rinse has fantastic effect as well I hope this has clarified the subject of acidic rinses for you! [sorry for the terrible pun– I couldn’t resist!] For those of you looking for more information on Making the Switch to Natural Shampoo Bars from Traditional Shampoos, please check out our Learning Center post on that here. Remember, SMALL CHANGES + DAILY = BIG DIFFERENCES
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