BABY SHAMPOO- CAN ADULTS USE IT ?

If you’re an adult with hair, you should not be using baby shampoo.

Let me explain a really common question: If you just want healthy hair in general but the question is people asking something like I don’t want to use a shampoo with harsh chemicals but I still want to shampoo my hair, is baby shampoo okay to use? The answer is no, don’t use baby shampoo. To explain why you shouldn’t use baby shampoo, I need to explain the importance of shampoo pH.
pH stands for potential of hydrogen, which basically measures the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution. So pH is measured on a scale from 0 to 14 with water being perfectly balanced at seven. If something is acidic, it has a lot of hydrogen ions and it will measure between 0 and 6.9. Similarly, if something is alkaline or basic it’ll have a lot of negatively charged hydroxide ions and it will measure between 7.1 and 14. When they’re perfectly balanced in equilibrium, that’s sort of where water lies. But sometimes water can disassociate through auto ionization and too many hydrogen ions or too many hydroxide ions are present in a solution then that’s where you get acidity alkalinity and to what degree that happens is measured on the pH scale.
The next definition to understand is isoelectric point so this is simply the pH level at which the net electrical charge of something is neutral and this is really important for hair so our has a pH level of 3.67 and our scalp has a pH level of 5 and a half. While it may be acidic on the pH scale relative to water, the isoelectric point for hair is around 3.67, meaning that any products you use that are more alkaline than roughly between 3 and 5 a half pH to account for your hair and scalp will give a negative static charge to your hair. So there’s a study done that proved this that in September 2014 where it measured how shampoo pH can affect your hair. The study’s conclusion was in alkaline pH and this is an alkaline pH relative to your hair.
By the way, this may increase negative electrical charge of the hair fiber surface, increasing friction between the fibers. This can lead to cuticle damage and fiber breakage. So it’s really important and not a myth that low shampoo pH causes less frizzing, generates less negative static charge between the fibers and gives you overall healthier hair. There was a 2015 paper in the advanced wound care Journal that talks about skin physiology in infants. Infants pH levels are much higher than adult skins in terms of alkalinity on adults. It’s usually between 5 and 5 and a half, but newborns have alkaline skin ranging from 6.34 to 7.5, depending on where they’re taking the pH from.
All baby shampoos have a neutral pH of seven, just like water. They do this for multiple reasons; a baby’s skin pH is going to be higher than adults so they need something to balance out their skin and hair and they think babies have a higher pH because the amniotic fluid during pregnancy is quite alkaline so the baby will come out with more alkaline skin and hair. Secondly an acidic pH like the ones that are healthy for adult shampoos is also the reason your eyes burn.
If shampoo gets In your eyes, it’s because it’s acidic. So anything under a 7 pH is going to burn your eyes and that’s not good for babies. To have tear free shampoo, it needs to be a neutral pH at 7. Adults should not use baby shampoo because the pH is way too alkaline at 7. Johnson and Johnson and all your other baby shampoos can actually do more damage than good to adult hair over time. So instead, if you’re an ingredient conscious person, you can check out shampoos and conditioners with clean formulas. Some brands have pH which is a 5 and a half or lower and they’re going to help your hair stay frizz and damage free over the long term.