So What Is Sulfate?

Sulfate is the surfactant that is and has been in most of our shampoo. When I began my journey with deva and their deva cut which was designed specifically for curly hair, my understanding of sulfate began.

It is the most damaging surfactant. That squeaky clean feeling after all that wonderful lather was the first indication that damage was done. It strips everything from the hair including all the beneficial naturals oils. Not only has your hair been stripped of the protection natural oils offer your hair but it also tells your oil glands that they need to produce more.

For someone who has “oily hair” this is counter productive because they will now get to work and produce more making the hair oily quickly once again.

As far as the hair itself the ends will dry out and possibly break. For myself I watched my hair transform. I was never able to grow my hair because the ends were always so brittle. I have witnessed this over and over again once I introduced my clients to the deva cleansers and conditioners. With just a few uses the hair begins to change and within a year and when your has has stopped being “sulfanated” the hair is shinier and more, what I call, spongy.

My clients who suffered endlessly with frizzy hair now have curls. Even when you have no real curl and you are not interested in wearing your hair curly I would recommend the deva cleansers.

We live in one of the most driest climates and the last thing we should be using is a product that strips our hair of its naturals oils. I have used other salon brands that are sulfate free but that does not mean that the surfactant they use is gentle. In fact when I started using deva I noticed the difference and stopped using the sulfate free product that I was using.

When using devacurl cleansers and conditioners you do need to know a few things. First of all you need lots and lots of water, you need to thoroughly wet the hair. I always say wash your hair with just water then apply the cleanser. Do this without removing the excess water that is in your hair from the H20 cleanse you just performed.

When massaging your hair and scalp be sure to give them a good scrub. This helps the gentle cleanser do its job and it also stimulates the scalp which is good to bring blood to the scalp and create a healthy growing environment while exfoliating any dry skin that needs to be removed. The bubbles that sulfate creates do all the work for you. This is why the extra water and scrubbing are so important.

I find that even with just the cleanser I can start to run my fingers through my hair to ensure I’ve distributed the product every where. You will notice with the low poo products you will get a light foam but with the no poo lines the cleanser is a cream and there will be no lather what so ever.

This is sometimes a difficult thing to wrap your mind around but it is still cleaning the hair. When you rinse the cleanser, continue to gently massage the scalp and hair. The bubbles helped in the rinsing process as well, so you need to assist with some gentle massaging. You will notice that after cleansing your hair will not feel like it did with other shampoos. The hair will not be as dry and the healing process will begin