Cleaning performance shampoo surfactants

Surfactants are widely used industrially and perform a variety of functions. As processing aids they help to disperse fillers and other ingredients and to form and stabilize emulsions. They are key components in shampoos, detergents, polishes and cleaning products. In other... 

Baby shampoos (Table 5-4) and some light conditioning shampoos employ nonionic surfactants such as PEG-80 sorbitan laurate (or as low as 20 EOs) and amphoteric surfactants such as cocoamphocarboxyglycinate or cocoamidopropylhydroxysultaine to improve the mildness of anionic surfactants and at the same time to improve cleaning and lather performance. 

Surfactants, in general, are excellent cleaners and rinse easily from the hair with no issues of buildup. It is also expected that surfactants do not precipitate onto the hair or in hard water, nor should they leave a residual sticky or tacky feel on the hair surface. Whereas ALS is the principal primary surfactant used in the United States, other countries use SLES (with 2- or 3-mole EO). There is a trend to use sodium pareth sulfate, a synthetic version that performs similar to SLES. Because of their excellent cleansing properties, combinations of these surfactants are used in many shampoo formulations to ensure effective cleaning. 

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