What chemical compounds are found in shampoo?

Answer 1

Shampoos vary greatly in formulation, but there are some common groups of chemicals in shampoos :

Carrier - Usually water

Surfactants - the components that actually clean your hair - Sodium or ammonium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES or ALES), decyl glucoside, cocobetaine etc

Foaming Agents - actually a subcategory of surfactants - cocodiethanolamine, lauryl amine oxide, etc

Emollients - to help "condition" the hair or improve the solubility of some othercomponent- glycerine, propylene glycol, some of the polyquats, etc

Preservative - usually CMIT or MIT, but also possibly sodium hydroxymethyl glycinate, some of the sorbates, formaldehyde (rarely these days), phenoxyethanol, dmdm hydantoin, etc

Fragrance - take your choice

Colour - should be an approved D&C or FD&C colour

"Other" bits - anything to make the product sound special or marketable - tears of a virgin, mink oil, wheat grass extract, etc - usually ineffective at the levels used in formulation and strictly there for label claim.

Answer 2

Like many soaps, shampoo will likely have a long hydrocarbon chain (the non-polar, hydrophobic end) and then a polar, hydrophilic end with a metal atom at the end, like sodium or potassium. This causes shampoo to "bridge the gap" between polar water and non-polar greasy sticky stuff, which allows shampoo to clean your greasy hair.

Answer 3

There is no chemical formula for shampoo because there is no single compound for shampoo.

Answer 4

Sodium stearate or sodium laurel stearate is the name of the soap but shampoo also has colouring and odour added to it.

Answer 5

There are an infinite number of chemicals and minerals that make your hair smooth in shampoo. Most of the ingredients that make your hair smooth are elements like aloe for example.

Answer 6

Ammonium Lauryl Sulphate