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COPYRIGHT 2004 Australian Consumers' Association
IN A NUTSHELL
* Of the 39 conditioners in the trial, the top eight included two that cost less than $1 per 100 mL.
* Only three of the 11 more expensive salon products were rated high enough overall to make it into the What to buy list--but trialists did in general find they needed to use less of them, so they might last a bit longer.
No matter how good your shampoo, if you want soft and manageable hair that's easy to comb through and style after the wash, you need a good conditioner, especially if you have long, thick, curly, treated or damaged hair.
The detergents in shampoo wash the hair clean but also strip it of sebum, which lubricates it naturally. Without it, the outer layer (cuticle) is rough. Many detergents also leave the hair with an overall negative charge, which further roughens the cuticle and produces statically charged 'flyaway' hair, one strand repelling the other. Hair in such condition then gets tangled and is difficult to comb and style. That's where conditioner comes in.
Conditioner makes hair more manageable. It deposits a coating on the hair that smooths the cuticle and reflects light, so your hair looks shiny and is easy to comb through.
Conditioners are likely to contain the following:
* Oils and lubricants for lustre and to reduce friction--basically, to replace the sebum the shampoo washed out.
* Humectants, which attract water to the hair, making it more flexible.
* Quaternary ammonium compounds to reduce static build-up, making hair easier to comb. These are positively charged agents that are attracted and attach to the negatively charged hair strands, especially to porous or damaged areas of the hair that need it most.
* Thickeners (people don't like runny conditioners).
* Emulsifiers, preservatives, fragrance and, of course, water.
In 2002, Australians spent close to $150 million on conditioners in supermarkets and grocery shops alone. Many more are sold in specialist shops and hairdressing salons, usually at a higher price. Are these salon products worth their extra cost? To try to answer this question and to find out which brands are liked the best, we bought 39 conditioners (suitable for normal or all hair types or use every day) and asked more than 400 CHOICE Home Testers to try them out for us. For see page 20.
The table on the right lists all...
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