don't use as the Final Touch
Fabric softeners are not a good idea to use on hair,(though it is said to be a model's secret) for two reasons.Number one,today's softeners are a cationic,i.e.,positive charged surfactant,and secondly,they are alkaline in nature,and hair should maintain a slightly-acidic condition.Perfectly normal,healthy hair does not NEED a conditioner,unless the shampoo is harsh and stripping.Although Paula Begoun has a wealth of good information,she has a very biased,medical-community mentality.Just reading ingredient lists do NOT always tell you everything.For example,you pick up a bottle of shampoo,and it says sodium lauryl sulfate,which is considered a harsh detergent.Thus,you may assume that the product is harsh,when in fact the shampoo may have a low percentage of it,or greatly buffer it with conditioning,or moisturizing agents.And although salon does not necessarily mean better,you may like the blend or balance of ingredients in a salon line better than mass-market lines or vice-versa.A personal example for me was Nexxus Headress leave-in conditioner,one of my all time favorites.It absolutely was superior on my hair.Yet if one read the ingredients,they may say brand B has similar ingredients.But the exact proportions of the ingredients is what did it for me as my hair looked VISIBLY better with it.Unfortunatly,the product was changed about 5 years ago,and I don't care for it now.I LOVED Protein 21 shampoo and Faberge Organics Wheat Germ Oil and Honey shampoo,both which used the supposedly harsh TEA-lauryl sulphate.They were very gentle actually,due to the buffering properties of the total formula.But Paula Begoun automatically downgrades any products with TEA lauryl sulphate,which isn't used much anymore in favor of the super-cheap ammonium laryl sulphate.She is wrong to do so.It's the blend that counts.BTW,most,but not all hair needs conditioning to look and act its best.
