*pH (potential Hydrogen) has been the hot topic floating around and how it is used to determine whether your shampoo is your friend or enemy.

Your hair has a natural pH range between 4.5 to 5.5 (the pH scale goes from 0-14 – with 0-7 being Acidic and 7-14 being Alkaline). When you maintain your hair with products in this pH range, you keep the hair cuticle closed – locking in color, maintaining moisture, and reducing frizz. This specific pH range is what started the whole professional hair care industry. If you are using hair care products and the bottle reads it is pH “Balanced” – this is nothing more than a marketing term and means absolutely nothing. The pH range must be specified to be at least 5.5 or less to keep your hair cuticle closed!

For the Techies: During chemical treatment, the hair structure physically changes; the natural pH is raised above 5.5 to break bonds and/or give “lift” (open the cuticle). To color hair, the cuticle must be lifted with the pH higher than 5.5. To maintain hair color, pH must return to normal (4.4-5.5). External factors such as air and water (which may have a neutral pH of approximately 7), impede the ability of colored hair to maintain its sheen and normal pH, over time. To counterbalance these effects, colored hair should be cared for with low pH products.