Shampoo, Me and why so many Hair types?

I remember as a teenager being swept away by the hair product ads that featured the most beautiful people and thinking to myself, how good would my straw like frizzy hair look if only I could afford to buy that premium shampoo (that bubbles and lathers so well and smells of the South Pacific).

Soon the day came when this premium product was mine, my hair smelt divine, but sadly, it remained shockingly straw like and frizzy as ever. I really thought that there was no hope for me, however, I found salvation with the slew of hair conditioners specially formulated for my hair type – oh the excitement.

These conditioners, (an expensive way of correcting the damage done by shampoos), promised me that they would bring back my natural sheen and tame my unruly hair. Over time, my hair became a little more respectable but needed additional support from all whole class of mousse & gel concoctions.

So, what is it about Shampoo and the supporting arsenal of sideshow products that we are told we need to have normal looking hair? When did these so-called categories of different hair types come into being? To get to the bottom of this perplexing question we must look to our history and brief look this will be too.

Quick History of Hair Care through the Ages

Hair grooming has a history going right back to the Egyptians and even before then. However, the thing about the Egyptians is that they invented wigs because they had a penchant for shaving their heads, ( to prevent lice affliction).

However, they dutifully cared for their wigs by washing them in citric acid to keep them clean and critter free. Those who kept their hair, did massage a combination of castor oil and almond oil into the scalp in an effort to help promote hair growth and cleansing the hair.

In Ancient China, people used the Cedrela plant, a fragrant wooded plant that is used currently to make cigar boxes, to wash their hair. They also washed their hair with rice water, which contain mild saponins.

South Americans washed their hair with quinoa water.

While in India shikaki pods, reetha berry, hibiscus leaves and flowers were widely used. Indians also used different muds/clay to wash their hair.

Caribbean people used Aloe Vera gel - fresh from the leaf, which is quite sticky and supposed to be a mild cleanser.

People from Morocco used Rhassoul clay.

Native Americans used yucca root and Aloe Vera.

The Greeks and Romans used olive oil to condition their hair and keep it soft, and vinegar rinses to keep it clean and to lighten the colour, chamomile is ideal for blonde hair.

In Aleppo, in current day Syria soap was reportedly invented back in 800AD. Over time, it was bought to the West by travelers/merchants who brought with them the techniques/recipes and developed soaps the most notable European Soap being Castille Soap.

Medieval Europe it was reported that women washed their hair with vinegar, rosemary water, nettles, mint, thyme and several other herbs.

Modern Shampoo Origin

The invention of “shampoo” as we know today is attributed to Hans Schwarzkopf who developed and sold a powdered based water-soluble hair wash in his Pharmacy in Berlin – later he developed it into a liquid form in 1927 and his company is still going strong today.

The word “Shampoo” is believed to be from the Indian word Champo, where hair care involved the massage of oils into the scalp. This practice came over to Europe in the 1800’s with the returning settlers who adopted this practice and called it Champing.

These natural soaps and oils were 100% natural and it wasn’t until the Scientists took over in the 20th Century, (they being very prolific between the two world wars) that Shampoo evolved to have a host of man-made ingredients with unpronounceable words.

Synthetic shampoos came with the discovery of a chemical that could saponify mineral oils creating a product called a surfactant. Surfactants were excellent at creating a lather & they became the building block for all detergents. The initial uses for these strong detergents were for commercial uses, such as de-greasing engines etc as they were deemed to be too harsh to use on the human skin and an irritant to eyes.

But where there is a will there will be a way and with some tweaking, (more inventing) and some rigorous animal testing these synthetic detergents were experimented on to make them usable in the cosmetic industry.

Proctor & Gamble who had been producing a natural form of Shampoo, (shaved Castille Soap called “Ivory Soap and a conditioner made with natural oils & Ylang Ylang) since 1859 introduced their first modern synthetic shampoo in the mid-1930’s under the brand name Drene.

This product proved to be very popular with the public due in most part by their sponsorship of very popular Radio Shows that featured ads for their brands. It was from these ads and their association with entertainment shows that the “Soaps” TV and Radio genre originated. Another interesting by product that evolved with the promotion of the new shampoo revolution.

Once the Synthetic formulations were good to go the advertisers and marketeers, (‘Mad Men”) worked on our new categories of hair types: Oily, Dry, Frizzy, Difficult, Normal, Damaged, Thinning, etc. etc.

To support this array of hair types and problems we were treated to, Medicated Shampoos, Baby Shampoos, Family Shampoos, Men’s Shampoos, Salon Shampoos, Dandruff Shampoos, Pet Shampoos and the list goes and on. All presented to us in pretty plastic bottles, from the small designer size to the bulk size and all derived for the most part from the laboratory discoveries of the early decades of the 20th Century.

But “beautiful hair” always existed!

Hair has always had a major significance in women’s life. It is directly associated with beauty and youthfulness of women. It’s no wonder that hair is a “crowning glory” for women. This is the saying since Biblical times.

I can imagine that even in prehistoric times, hair played a very important role, seeing as that we humans and our ancestors, had far more hair to work with :)

Up until the 1920’s in the western world, pricey hair products were mostly available to the well-heeled but every day folks did have their own hog hair bristle brushes & combs made of bone.

Tried and tested home-made concoctions were handed down from mother to daughter & sons too to help keep hair beautiful. Without the harsh detergents in modern shampoos that strip the natural oils from the scalp, the hair of women in the Victorian through to the Georgian eras could go much longer between washings without their hair getting too oily. If we were to leave our hair washing to be less frequent, there is no doubt that we also would also be presentable.

And we must not forget that it was those pre-shampoo /conditioner /hairspray /gel /mousse women that inspired the works of the most revered and celebrated poets and artists of all time.

For example, do you think Juliet suffered from dull lifeless hair? I’m sure that Romeo didn’t think so.

How about, the lovely Fanny Brawne, whom John Keats loved and who inspired some of his best and most intense poetry, including “La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Bright Star.”

See what he had to say about her in his letter to his brother, “Shall I give you Miss Brawne? She is about my height with a fine style of countenance of the lengthened sort – she wants sentiment in every feature – she manages to make her hair look well – her nostrils are fine though a little painful”…. I wonder was her hair of the normal ilk or was it sleek and shiny and did she rinse it twice a day?

What did Darcy think of Elizabeth Bennett s’ hair, I know that she like Juliet, is a fictional character, but we didn’t hear Jane Austen gushing on and on about her flyaway locks, and lack luster sheen!

Maude Gonne, the muse of William Butler Yeats who wrote that when he met the red-haired Irish nationalist in 1889 “the troubles in my life began.” Note, he mentioned her red hair, I wonder was it a frizzy head like mine or something more glamour modelesque? How did she keep her tresses so shiny and beautiful? She went on to inspire so many of his works, and the one that I love most is his poem "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" ending with a reference to her:

“I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams”.

So, did our very tiny small sample of women muses suffer from oily, dandruff ridden thinning hair, or frizzy flyaway hair and of course the dull lifeless hair? I doubt it?

When by the way when was normal hair discovered? With my extensive search of the internet, many books and magazines, I unfortunately couldn't get to the bottom of this perplexing question:(

We now know that modern shampoos are not always the best for our health and well being.

With Dr. Google and Pinterest et al we see that there a host of easy to make natural alternatives to shampoo out there that we can explore/experiment with and still keep our tendrils glossy and healthy. It is up to us to keep our hair beautiful, it will be better in the end for our body, our children and the natural world we live in.