How to Choose a Shampoo

It's a daunting task, even for me because there are just too many options. Even if you decide that you like a brand they usually have 10-20 different options for you to choose from. Why so many options?

First of all you have to decide what it is you are struggling with, let me give you some examples​

• ​You want cleaner hair
• You want bigger hair​
• You want skinnier hair
• You want more hair​
• You want your hair to be less frizzy​
• You want you hair to feel less dry​
• You want to protect your color​
• Your scalp itches or you think you might have some flakes​
• You don't know what you want but you just don't want to spend too much or buy cheap shampoo.

Lucky for you most higher end shampoos are multi-taskers so you may only need one or two in your arsenal to satisfy your needs all year round. 

These are the products my clients are purchasing the most of...​

​Kevin Murphy Angel Wash: This is a product that helps your hair become bigger, fuller, more voluminous. Often considered a volumizing shampoo but it is so much more. It protects that beautiful color you have in your hair. It helps to heal and repair any damage that is happening to your hair, and unless its a pixie cut there is damage. This shampoo also helps to control frizz and reduce breakage. I'm sure you're dying to use it already.

DS-Laboratories Revita Shampoo: If you are concerned with hair loss, hair thinning, or excessive shedding, this is the shampoo for you. This hydrates, feeds, and stimulates the hair follicle to reactivate the growth cycle that is either too short or lying dormant in the follicle. This will also help protect your color and prevent damage although if you are struggling with frizz you might want to consider rotating this in with your other shampoo.​

DS-Laboratories Dandrene: If your scalp is occasionally itchy or you are seeing some flakes this is the product to try. Not only does it calm inflammation and itching but it helps to rid your scalp of the fungi (I know it sounds gross, but everybody has fungi on their scalp, sometimes it just gets out of control)​ and control excessive oil on your scalp. It also calms inflammation and itching so you won't feel embarassed by those flakes. 

Kevin Murphy Maxi-Wash: If you want your hair clean, like really clean, squeaky clean this is the shampoo for you. It will remove product buildup without removing color. It will remove chlorine from blonde hair, it will remove all the sweat from dancing, the stale club smell, the old hairspray and glitter leftover from the weekend. It removes buildup of chemicals that you didn't even know were there. It also contains a natural antiseptics to detoxify the hair and scalp. ​

Kevin Murphy Born Again: This is an ultra rich moisturizing shampoo for tortured or chemically dehydrated hair. It is wonderful if your hair feels crispy, dry, lifeless, dull or in general uncooperative. We all have our days. This shampoo acts like a conditioner. Also if you feel like your hair has too much body or fly away feeling it is craving moisture and this might just be the drink it needs.

If you have other questions concerning other brands or problem you are experiencing with your shampoo please let me know and I will guide you towards a wise choice. ​

Side note: Don't ever purchase a 2 in 1 shampoo, they don't exist, it's a myth.​

Don't forget to read: How to wash your hair​

How to Wash your Hair

When you look at the direction on the back of the shampoo bottle it says wash, rinse and repeat if necessary and if have questions call the hotline. Ridiculous right? who needs help washing their hair? Well I have news for you. You need help washing your hair! Don't worry, don't panic, you haven't been doing it dreadfully wrong but there are some things that could be doing better.

First let's start with your shampoo. If you color your hair or have thinning or delicate hair or hair that you feel just doesn't do what you want it to do then you need to upgrade your shampoo. No more drugstore shampoo, it's cheap stuff made with sodium laurel sulfate which is equivalent to DAWN dishwasher detergent or TIDE clothing detergent, very soapy to give you all those bubbles, but very drying to your hair, skin and scalp and believe me it is not doing your style any favors. I know you think you are saving so much money by using it but when you consider how much you spend on your color, or how mush you like having hair, and how frustrated you get mid-day because you are once again having a bad hair day it just might be worth it. I'll give you some brand suggestions that range from $18-40 per bottle. It sounds like a lot of money compared to the SUAVE that you have been using but it will last you a lot longer than that cheap bottle, so you can already half the cost because these shampoos are not watered down, they are concentrated so you can use less and get waaaaay more!
1. Take a shower, get in there, get your head wet. If you have color in your hair I recommend you use a cooler temperature water than the scalding hot water that my skin likes.
2. Take your brand new fancy shampoo bottle and distribute a small amount in the palm of your left hand. If you have chin length or shorter hair you will want to use a dime sized or smaller amount. If your hair is shoulder to chin length you will want to use a full dime, more like a rounded marble size. If your hair is longer than shoulder length you can use a flat quarter sized amount. Start with a very small amount, remember you can always repeat later!
3. With the appropriate sized amount of shampoo in your left hand you're going to start the most important and most missed step of shampooing. Take your right hand and put in in the palm of your left hand with the shampoo, rub that shampoo around in your palm like your washing the palms of your hands with it, this is called emulsifying! I can't believe more people don't know about it. emulsify that shampoo until it is spread like a lotion all over both of your palms, then...
4. Apply the palms of your hands to the top, back and ends of your hair to evenly distribute the suds (it will most likely be a lot less sudsy than your previous shampoo) . rub your palms together again and go back to the top of your head. Use your fingertips to massage your scalp fairly aggressively, then use those fingertips to scrub the middle back and finally your ends. This should last about a minute or so depending on how long it has been since have last washed. Rinse with a warm to cool water, again avoiding hot water if you have color in your hair.
5. If you are an infrequent washer or you just want to enjoy the experience again then repeat process. Viola. you are now a professional shampooer.

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I know it doesn't seem like a big difference but the simple act of emulsifying activates the lovely ingredients that you paid for in your new fancy bottle of shampoo. Now tell me this method isn't better than just plopping a glob of cheap shampoo on your head and improperly rinsing leaving itchiness, dryness, or limpness where the glob was applied. Also on a side note. You do not need to wash everyday or even every other day. I typically wash my hair 2-3 times per week but get it wet and condition it everyday. Although I know some people who love that "dirty hair" feeling who will go 8-9 days without wetting or shampooing, hence dry shampoo but I'll cover that in a different post.