Whatever your hair type – straight, wavy, curly, or Afro – it deserves to be cared for. ❤️ Taking good care of your hair is an art, and today we're going to give you some tips on how to choose the right hair care products.

1. What ingredients should you avoid in your hair care products?

"Aggressive" surfactants

These are molecules that are attracted to both water and oil. This allows them to link these two substances to create a homogeneous mixture. They have certain properties, such as being foaming, detergent, emulsifying, etc. These are essential characteristics for an effective shampoo, but they can sometimes be harmful to you. Examples of surfactants to avoid:

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)
• Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate (ALS)
• TEA-Lauryl Sulfate
• Sodium C12-14 Olefin Sulfonate
• Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate

They have the advantage of being very inexpensive and making your shampoo very accessible, but unfortunately, they tend to cause irritation and the appearance of dandruff, and can even worsen the condition of your scalp if you suffer from seborrheic dermatitis, for example. Over time, they will also dry out the hair fiber.

However, there are other surfactants known to be gentler and just as effective 😊 For example, we can recommend the following:

• Decyl Glucoside, Lauryl Glucoside, Coco-Glucoside
• Sodium Cocoamphoacetate
• Sodium Coco-Sulfate
• Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate

Silicones

A family of synthetic ingredients very commonly used in conventional hair care. They have the property of making your hair soft, shiny, and much more flexible! They act like a varnish over your hair to create a protective film with a slippery appearance that facilitates detangling. However, the vast majority of silicones tend to accumulate on the hair fiber and can give a "flat" effect to hair that becomes heavy and loses volume. Moreover, they are derived from heavy chemistry and have very low biodegradability once released into nature. Some have recently been banned due to their toxicity to aquatic organisms. Therefore, prefer shampoos without silicones 😊

Quaternary ammoniums

Also known as "quats," these ingredients play a very similar role to silicones and are very often used to replace them in the compositions of masks and conditioners: they coat the hair fiber and make hair easier to detangle. Although some are plant-derived during their manufacture, they are nonetheless just as harmful as silicones to the environment due to their high bioaccumulation.

PEGs and ethoxylated compounds

Ethoxylation is a transformation process that makes molecules more water-soluble through a chemical reaction with ethylene oxide, a very toxic gas. Ethoxylated compounds are generally less aggressive because they have more difficulty penetrating the skin. But in addition to being not very ecological, ethoxylation is dangerous for people who handle this gas. These ingredients are recognized by their 3-letter particle "PEG". They are also prohibited in organic products by the COSMOS standard.

We also advise against surfactants with the suffix "-eth" in their name, as this means they have also been ethoxylated, including:

• Sodium Laureth Sulfate
• Ammonium Laureth Sulfate
• Sodium Myreth Sulfate

Thus, all these ingredients can be harmful to your hair, but above all extremely polluting to the environment. Today, we find them in most conventional hair care products. It is therefore important for you and for the planet to avoid integrating them into your hair routine as much as possible.

2. What natural hair care products to adopt

For a beneficial hair routine with a reduced ecological impact, here are some tips we can give you:

Opt for a shampoo and conditioner made with natural ingredients 😊

As you will have understood, it is preferable to choose care products whose components are mostly of natural origin. For shampoo, opt for non-irritating surfactants coupled with emollient and softening ingredients. This type of shampoo will effectively clean the scalp without drying out your lengths. A conditioner made of vegetable oils and biosourced conditioners will provide suppleness without weighing down and will also facilitate detangling.

Switch to solid hair care products

By choosing solid products, you're making a more economical and eco-responsible choice! Highly concentrated in foaming agents, they last twice as long as their liquid counterparts 😉. Our solid products last for about two months, depending on individual routines. Their composition is also much more ecological: their water content is greatly reduced, and their format eliminates the need for plastic packaging. For every Les Petits Prödiges solid product purchased, you avoid the use of two 250ml bottles!

How often to wash your hair

Adjust your shampoo frequency according to your hair type: if you have fine hair with a scalp that tends to get greasy quickly, washing every two days will be perfectly suitable. If, on the other hand, you have a lot of hair and your scalp takes a long time to produce sebum, once a week will be plenty. According to many dermatologists, two shampoos a week is ideal for healthy hair.

Oil your hair!

All hair types can benefit from the virtues of oils! If they are naturally drier or damaged by bleaching/heat, nourish them with repairing and strengthening vegetable oils such as argan oil or olive oil: apply a small amount to clean, towel-dried hair while still damp, or in the evening to the lengths for a beautifying effect in the morning. Our multi-purpose magic balm is also ideal for restoring silky and well-nourished ends! If your roots tend to be oily, you can leave regulating oils such as jojoba oil or hazelnut oil as a hair mask for a few hours before shampooing to rebalance the sebum production of your scalp.