Switching to natural hair care - what should you consider?

The Effect of Silicones in Hair Care

The holiday season is the ideal time to finally switch away from silicone-containing shampoos and conditioners to natural hair care products that do not contain silicones or silicone-like chemical substitutes. Conventional hair care products may initially give you beautifully shiny, soft and easy-to-comb hair. However, the hair fibers become increasingly damaged. They are in danger of gradually starving under the chemical silicone coating. Long-term use of silicone-containing hair care products leads to the so-called build-up effect, which means that the silicone layers become increasingly thicker and the hair is increasingly poorly supplied with nutrients.

Remove silicones from hair and scalp

The stubborn, heavy deposits on the scalp and hair can often only be washed out after many washes. When the half-starved, dull, brittle and lifeless hair with split ends finally appears underneath, this is the result of the previous sealing silicone products. As a result, the hair still looked relatively intact on the surface, but its structure became increasingly damaged and brittle.

After switching to natural hair care, patience, perseverance and endurance are required until your hair and scalp feel better again. Otherwise, hair damage will continue with further layers of silicone. In addition to silicones, conventional hair care also contains harmful ingredients such as plasticizers, chemical humectants, quaternary ammonium compounds, PEG emulsifiers or microplastics in the form of PVP or other co-polymers. Such additives are intended to improve the application experience and achieve certain effects. Ultimately, however, these substances, which we have become accustomed to for so long, not only ruin our hair, but they can also irritate and sensitize the scalp.

Challenges when switching to mild organic shampoos

• The hair may be harder to comb at first
  Switching to an organic shampoo with mild detergents (surfactants) can sometimes be difficult and require a little patience. After washing off the silicone layers and other chemical additives, the hair can be difficult to comb for some time and feel dull and matte. It actually takes some time for the plant-based care substances to settle on the surface of the hair, for the porous areas to become smoother and for the hair fiber to regenerate. Make sure that you only rinse out the shampoo briefly, i.e. no longer than about a minute - as described in the application - so that all the valuable care substances are not washed away down the drain with the shower water.
• The hairline may initially become greasy after washing
  The roots of the hair can also continue to produce more oil for some time, making the hair look greasy after washing. The lower parts of the hair in particular can feel oily after washing. Why is that? The explanation is simple: the scalp is still used to the aggressive shampoos that remove too much oil. To compensate for this, the sebaceous glands in the scalp produce more sebum. The sebaceous glands only slowly learn that it is no longer necessary to produce a lot of sebum to protect the sensitive scalp from the damaging, harsh, drying foaming agents. Gradually, the scalp will produce less oil and sebum production will return to normal.
• The washing power of the shampoo is initially not sufficient
  Sometimes it may be necessary to slightly increase the washing power of the myrto organic shampoo during the transition phase until the scalp has become accustomed to the mild foaming agents. The Purifying Free Organic Shampoo is suitable for this purpose not only as a mild, deep-acting organic cleansing shampoo, but also as a skin-friendly long-term care product. The Purifying Free Shampoo can also be individually mixed with all other myrto organic shampoos.
  
  For an even greater increase in washing power, especially for thick hair, a pea-sized amount of a standard organic shampoo with sodium coco sulfate is sufficient, because shampoos containing sulfates have an extremely strong washing power and dissolve the remaining sebum residues at the hairline. Mix the sulfate shampoo into your myrto organic shampoo and gradually "sneak" out over time. This means that you gradually reduce the amount of washing power boost to zero. In the transition period, it may also be sufficient to wash your hair more frequently at first. Once your scalp has become accustomed to the mild surfactants, you can then extend the interval between washing your hair more and more without your hairline looking greasy.
• The foam formation is lower and has smaller pores than usual
  The myrto organic shampoos with their mild plant-based surfactants foam significantly less than conventional shampoos with aggressive, degreasing foaming agents such as sodium laureth sulfate or natural cosmetic shampoos with the usual harsh surfactant sodium coco sulfate. Did you know that the amount of foam and the pore size of a shampoo are correlated with the skin compatibility of the surfactants? The general rule for the irritation potential of a shampoo is: the more lush and large-pored the foam of a shampoo, the more irritating and drying the surfactant mixture is for your scalp and hair.
• Patience in the transition period
  Switching to a natural shampoo can take 6 to 8 weeks, in some cases even a few months - until you gradually notice that your patience has paid off: your scalp feels relaxed and balanced, it produces significantly less oil, your hair is easier to comb, it looks fuller, healthy and slowly shows its natural silky shine :-)