What To Do If Your Shampoo pH is High

In Part 1 of this 3-part series, we showed you what using a high pH shampoo or shampoo bar does to your hair.

​And in Part 2 we showed you how to how to pH test your shampoo.

​Here's why even baby shampoo will usually give a high pH result - and exactly what you need to do if your shampoo pH turns out to be high...

What pH is too high for my hair or scalp?

The ideal pH for shampoo would be 3.67 - the pH of your hair, but shampoos this acidic are rare. For your scalp, the right pH is around 5.5. In a recent study, scientists considered a high pH shampoo to be anything above 5.5.

​What if my shampoo's pH is high?

Don't panic. If you get a high reading that doesn't mean you have to toss your shampoo in the bin. A high pH shampoo that cleans your hair really well has one very important use: clarifying.

So in most cases, you can keep it in your stash as a deep cleansing shampoo. Still, if you shampoo your hair a couple times a week or more (especially if you're lighthanded with product usage) then it's better to find a shampoo with a lower pH for regular use.

Baba de Caracol Sulphate Free Shampoo is a low pH shampoo.

​But don't start fretting over the ills you've visited upon your hair because you unknowingly used a high pH shampoo.
​
Given how high pH in hair products can get (hint: relaxers at 12.5-13.3), a high pH shampoo is not going to be that high. The most alkaline shampoos in the Brazil study were about 9.
That's just slightly higher than baking soda (at 8.3) which astonishingly is often used as a "gentle clarifier" in place of sulfate shampoos (it's not).

What you should do right after you use shampoo with a high pH

If you've used a high pH shampoo, you'll need to readjust your hair's pH to get it acting right.
​
Luckily, this is pretty simple. To bring your hair's pH down to a lower level, you need to follow up with a low pH conditioner, preferably one loaded with positively-charged (cationic) ingredients. This is because alkaline shampoos increase the negativity of your hair, which starts the static-frizz-tangle cycle that eventually leads to breakage.

Using a low pH, positively-charged conditioner will neutralise the static, which will in turn smooth your cuticles and calm your frizz.

atrActiva Multivitamin Treatment lowers the negative effect of high pH shampoos on your hair.

​The drier, the more tangled or the frizzier your hair is after using a high pH shampoo, the more powerful of a conditioner you'll need.

A rich treatment like Silicon Mix Bambu or atrActiva Multivitamin has the right blend of positively-charged conditioners that bind well to your hair strands, with the correct consistency and slip to help you get your hair super-soft and tangle-free.
​
Application tips: Be sure to apply the treatment all the way down the strand to make sure you restore the pH all along your hair fiber. You can use your fingers or a wide tooth comb but you'll get best coverage with a brush like this.

Don't use a cationic conditioner if you've shampooed your hair with a lauryl sulfate containing shampoo though. 
​
You're good to go if you've used a laureth sulfate shampoo - the two ingredients are very different.

I use a shampoo bar, will the pH affect my hair?

Shampoo bars are often used in the natural hair community as a gentle alternative to shampoos. Only they're not. Shampoo bars are soap. To be more specific, they're made from superfatted soap which basically means they're soap made with a ton of oils. But that's still soap.

Most shampoo bars are soap, which always has an alkaline pH.

Superfatted soaps don't feel like regular soap - they feel way gentler because they're full of emollients. But the oils are reacted with lye just like regular soap. While their high oil content can make them feel good on the outside of the hair, most of these bars still have a high pH: 9-10 on average, like any other true soap.

That means underneath the conditioned, smooth outer layer, what the soap is actually doing is slowly lifting the cuticle and swelling your hair fibre. The pH definitely has a damaging effect on your hair over time.

Some people are able to mitigate this with a great conditioning routine, but this may not be enough for your hair.

My dermatologist prescribed a high pH shampoo and it's ruining my hair. Should I stop using it?

If you're using a prescription shampoo for a scalp issue you might not have a lot of options until you've run your course of treatment.

Often, with certain scalp issues, you're not even allowed to use conditioner to reduce the ill effects of these harsh shampoos, because it can exacerbate some conditions.
​
But if your hair is really suffering, speak to your doctor about it. There might be an alternative treatment option with a lower pH which won't be quite as harsh on your hair.

Surprisingly, dermatological shampoos often have very high pH values. Some researchers put the blame on the way skincare is taught in medical schools, which doesn't prioritise 'cosmetic' aspects like hair.
​

 What about baby shampoo - isn't that supposed to be gentle?

Technically, baby shampoos are neutral; they have a pH of around 7, since most are designed to be 'tear free' and 7 is actually the pH of your tears.

But just because they're gentle on the eyes, doesn't mean they're gentle on the hair. Your hair freaks out at pH 7 - which is way higher than its favourite 3.67. As far as your hair's concerned, baby shampoo has a high pH.

Baby shampoo Image by Dahlak Tarekegn.

And baby shampoo's neutral pH might not even be as gentle on the scalp as we'd like to think - studies show that a pH of 7 can cause scalp irritation.

That said, in a baby formula you can be reasonably sure that manufacturers have thought of that - most are formulated with a careful mix of conditioning ingredients to mitigate the effects of this slightly too high pH on the skin. And your skin's acid mantle is naturally equipped to readjust the pH back down to its natural 4-6, within a few hours.

​But that won't be enough to make up for the effects of baby shampoo on your hair. The higher the pH goes, the more your hair's cuticle scales start to open.  And unlike your skin, your hair can't auto-adjust the pH back down to optimal levels, so those scales stay that way until you do something to close them.

​Because of this, if you have coloured hair, you should go out of your way to avoid using these shampoos. On dyed hair, baby shampoo can cause quicker colour fade - thanks to colour molecules escaping through your wide open cuticle.

Using a high pH shampoo on dyed hair can cause colour fade. Image by Ree.

​So is an alkaline pH always bad for your hair?

There are definitely reasons why sometimes you'll want a more alkaline cleanser.

Dishwashing liquids (which we DON'T advise you to use on your hair) are pretty alkaline for a reason: a higher pH tends to make detergents better cleaners.

Most detergents are based on negatively charged cleansing ingredients. The high pH makes them even more negative, which makes it easier to attract and rinse away greasy residue. 

By the way, your shampoo is a detergent.

So if you have really greasy hair or tend to use a lot of product and need to clarify every so often, then you might actually want a shampoo with a higher pH.
​

High pH shampoos cause cuticle lifting which increases volume on flat hair. Image by Bennie Lukas Bester.

​Highly alkaline shampoos also work out for people with straight, flat hair who don't mind a little cuticle lifting in exchange for some volume.
​
But of course, that alkalinity also makes shampoos harsher. So if your hair doesn't get that much buildup,  you cleanse it frequently, and don't need the extra volume, you probably do not want to use a high pH shampoo that often.