This article describes the various components of two basic hair product types – shampoo and conditioner – formulated to meet the needs of today’s consumers.
Image by Alessandro Grandini at Adobe Stock
As many readers know, hair is structured much like a cylinder composed of coaxial layers and consists of an outer visible part, the shaft and an internal part rooted in the skin, formed by the bulb and matrix. The shaft comprises three sections with cells containing different types of keratins; these basic proteins form hair as well as the nails and the stratum corneum of the epidermis. Keratin fibers elongate by 0.3 mm per day,1 which amounts to one centimeter per month, multiplied on average by a staggering 100,000 hairs.
