Sunday, December 24, 2006

More Reasons why Pantene Sucks

Seasonal greetings from your neighborly comp sci! It's Christmas Eve 2006, and I've returned back home for a quick break before the requisite study sprint for the qualifiers that I'm taking this upcoming January. Result of this last semester? Not too hot. Averaged a 3.0 for this semester; while it's much lower than I wanted, it's still not wholly bad. What is bad is that I now have three qualifiers to write this coming january. They are: Molecular Biology, Probability and Computability & Complexity. They all should not be that bad, as long as I prepare correctly. So I get to spend a wonderful Winter Break studying and reading Godel Escher Bach (a must read).

So none of the above news relates to my current rant, which, unlike most other things in my life, has to do with shampoo. That's right... shampoo (and conditioner!). So let's take an aside from the usual religious/comp sci related topics and talk about something over the top and girly.

So for over a few months now I've been using Pantene Pro-V shampoo & conditioner. Determined to let my black locks grow to new, unchartered lengths, I've been changing up a variety of hair products to see what I can use that will work the best for me. Though I distrusted Pantene Pro-V since adolescence (I couldn't help but feel that it was doing something bad to my hair, even though everyone else was swearing by it), I decided to give it another go. So after several months of using it (and determining my hair was getting drier), I went to the stylist who affirmed that Pantene is the worst kind of stuff to use on your hair, since it (-gasp-) dries out your hair. But other things should have warned me about how the stuff they're peddling is absolutely horrible. The label is the big one:

Pantene Pro-V 2 in 1 shampoo + conditioner: NEW with AMINO PROTEINS.

...

Wait, what? What the shit is an AMINO PROTEIN? So proteins, in their simplest structure, are chains of amino acids. Is an amino protein just a protein with a higher precentage of amino acids? If so, isn't this a bit self-descriptive? A quick search on Wikipedia turns up nothing, so I'm left to utilize my madd intarnets searching skillz, the stuff that all comp scis are born with. Most of the stuff that I turn up on google are either poorly quoted reasearch papers or ads for protein supplements. What all of these "amino protein" products had in common was the fact that they were ingested. Which made me wonder; even if Pantene came up with a protein wonder-complex that does wonderful things for your hair, why would you apply it directly to the hair, and not injest it? So I did some research on the purpose of conditioners. It turns out, that conditioners like Pantene are Pack Conditioners, with high levels of something called Surfactants. The purpose of these compounds is to coat the hair surface and not fully wash out, due to the hydrophillic bonding of the compounds with the core hair protein, keratin. This makes sense. In other words, the purpose of these conditioners is to effectively "glue" hair scales down to the surface, by adding a thin to moderate film of this stuff to the surface. However, silicones also found in such products (such as dimethicones) act as a sealing agent. While this is an effective method of smoothening the hair surface, it also seals the hair from moisture, effectively robbing the hair's ability to gain moisture from the surface. Also, it also creates the need for more shampooing to prevent buildup. Since shampoo is in essence a detergent, it robs the hair further of moisture, creating the need to condition, thus causing an endless cycle of shampoo and conditioning. So this, it turns out, is the reason why my hair was so dry.

So "Amino Proteins" seem to be this made up term for something Pantene is using in their stuff, and while it's purpose is to make hair sleeker through their "Exclusive Formula" I really think it does nothing more than actually make you hair more frizzy.

So I switched shampoos again. Let's see if this makes my hair any silkier. I guess if nothing else, this was a good opportunity to explore laymen biochemistry that goes into hair care products. And of course, a lovely opportunity for me to complain.

That's all for now.