Gentle Daily Shampoo

Details

A plain daily shampoo for hair washed often, which is most Indian hair in a hot month. Sulphate-free is the claim on the front and it is worth being exact about what that means, because two swaps let a bottle carry it without changing much. The first is sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate: a sulfonate is not a sulfate, so the claim is literally true, and the cleansing is about as brisk as the SLES it stood in for. The second is sodium coco-sulfate, which reads like a coconut ingredient and is a sulfate blend whose largest single component is sodium lauryl sulfate, sold so that a pack can carry an SLS-free line. Neither is here. What is here is sodium methyl cocoyl taurate at 6.5 percent as the primary, cocamidopropyl betaine at 5.0 percent and coco-glucoside at 4.0 percent, a total active surfactant matter of 15.5 percent, tested. The other quiet swap in this category is the preservative: a shampoo that removes parabens and puts in methylisothiazolinone has traded a well-studied preservative for a strong contact sensitiser, so ours is named too.

• Full INCI in descending order: Aqua, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate (6.5 percent), Cocamidopropyl Betaine (5.0 percent), Coco-Glucoside (4.0 percent), Glycerin (3.0 percent), Panthenol (1.0 percent), Hydrolyzed Rice Protein (0.8 percent), Xanthan Gum (0.6 percent), Sodium Benzoate (0.5 percent), Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride (0.4 percent), Citric Acid (0.3 percent), Potassium Sorbate (0.3 percent), Sodium Phytate (0.2 percent)
• Total active surfactant matter 15.5 percent, tested per lot, which is the figure a thinned shampoo cannot fake
• No sulphate and no sulfonate: no SLS, no SLES, no sodium coco-sulfate, no sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate, no sodium lauroyl sarcosinate
• Preservative named: sodium benzoate 0.5 percent with potassium sorbate 0.3 percent. No methylisothiazolinone, no chloromethylisothiazolinone, no formaldehyde donor, no paraben
• Silicone-free, and here is what that costs: dimethicone is what makes wet hair feel slippery and comb easily straight out of the shower. Without it, wet hair combs rougher and you will want a conditioner. What you get back is that nothing accumulates, so there is no point at which the hair goes flat and needs a clarifying wash to reset it
• Measured pH 5.0, which keeps the cuticle lying flat. That, and the absence of an anionic sulfate, is the whole of the colour-safe claim: it strips dye more slowly. It does not stop colour fading, because nothing does
• Fragrance-free, no parfum, no essential oil, no masking agent. It smells faintly of the taurate
• Sodium phytate as the chelator in place of EDTA, which is what stops hard water leaving a dull film
• Tested fill: 200 ml net, filled by weight to 205 g at a measured density of 1.025 g per ml. The 400 ml is 410 g and the 1 litre pouch is 1,025 g
• Honest trade-off: the first lather is thin, because taurates and glucosides foam less than sulphates and because oil kills foam. Two short washes work better than one long one, and the second one lathers properly
• If your scalp flakes and itches, this is not the bottle. Buy Scalp Shampoo for Flake-Prone Hair, use it twice a week, and use this one on the other days