I have so many small bottles of baby shampoo around the house and got to wondering.Since it is so gentle,can it be beneficial to my hair?Alot less abrasive than the other commercial stuff that I have.

Does anyone or has anyone used it?

According to what I read, baby shampoo is alkaline and can actually be harsher to some people. It opens up the cuticle, so it would probably be beneficial to do a vinegar rinse afterwards.

I think it's gentler, because for me it takes two shampooings to get the oil out of my hair after a deep oiling, versus only one with regular sulfate shampoo. In my experience, baby shampoo is pretty mild. I have one bottle of it right now just in case. I use it when my scalp is not that irritated and doesn't need a harsher cleaning.

Some members here had negative experiences with baby shampoo though.

I tried baby shampoo once. It left my hair in a mass of tangles and dried it out terribly.

I use it to wash my OCM washcloth between launderings. Just a couple of drops in the sink and swish swish swish. I find it to be drying on my hair.

Yes, baby shampoo seems gentler for use on babies as it's formulated to be alkaline so that if it gets in their eyes it doesn't sting so much. But for the hair alkaline isn't very good. I've also noticed that most are very sulphatey which i find odd considering the advice i've read in the past suggested that sulphates can interfere with the eye development of children under 6 years old due to their action on proteins.

Personally i'd not use it, if you want gentle try CO method or maybe herbs. If you do use it then like has already been suggested make sure you do a vinegar rinse afterwards.

It was definitely better on me when I was a baby. I tried this 7 years ago because I missed the scent. The tangles were never that bad.

ive used baby shampoo before with no ill affects... but there is this child shampoo/conditioner that i like, it says no more tears and no more tangles on the bottle.. i dont remember what brand it was but i got great results from it... i have very sensitive eyes.. just getting water in them is irritating

In a pinch, it's great for an eye make up remover...It's very gentle and won't sting...I'd use it as a gentle wash for fine washables too.

From what I've read, baby shampoo is probably best to wash fine washables, and not a fine head of hair. Just my :twocents:

it is the same pH as your eyes not your hair. So that if it gets in the babies eyes it won't sting.

Constantly lifting up the hair cuticle scales damages it and soon it won't sit down as flush as before. It isn't a good idea i think.

I have thick, oily coarse hair and I find that baby shampoo doesn't seem to cut the grease in my hair. Which makes it very hard to manage of course.

But I do use for washing my face in the mornings. It's so gentle and it doesn't burn/sting if I get it in my eyes. :)

I do occassionally choose to use baby shampoo, for whatever reason harsh as its claimed to be, my hair likes it best. To be honest its one of the few shampoos I can find commercially thats not a trillion dollars that doesnt have silicone OR protein in it. My hair has never dried out from it.

I'm not high up on the ingredient chain list of sulphates, however, be careful on the brand. Dollar store brands usually have SLS (and a ton of other sulphates) while Johnson & Johnsons (if i recall, i could be wrong) uses something "betaine" or somesuch.

That said, yes baby shampoo is alkaline, which some hair actually loves (some hates), my hair hates acid of any kind, and tends to behave better with a more alkaline shampoo. I do not think baby shampoo is "ideal" but it is affordable and works for some people. So try it, and if you like it, nothing wrong with it.

Nightshade told me that mixed with honey and left on for a few mins is great for lightening hair. I have a bottle I just bought to try this but haven't gotten around to it yet.

It's one of the things I used to pull the black dye out of my hair. I do like the scent & have added a few drops of it to my hand soap so it'll smell nice.

I use baby shampoo to wash my dogs. It makes their hair soft and smells really nice. Also, I don't have to worry about it getting in their eyes while bathing.

it made my hair like straw, its gently for babies as it has stuff which wont sting their eyes, it is good for taking eye make up off though, diluted of course.

I haven't read the other replies so apologise if im repeating anything here

I've used baby shampoo and really liked it. I am mostly CO now but if I had to I'd use baby shampoo again. I like it; makes my hair extra soft and helps keep tangles at bay, and it smells so good! But that's just me. :D

I have tons of it and I absolutely dig the smell when I wash my baby's hair.I also got to looking at the ingrediants and also wondered..its so gentle for a baby and cleans wonderfully what about using it in my hair?

basically the question is-has or does anyone use it and wants the results? its johnson and johnson btw ;)

Didn't you just post this other thread with a very similar question?

http://www.forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=1168&highlight=baby+shampoo

As I said there... When I used baby shampoo it made my hair very tangly and dry.

Baby shampoo is NOT good for hair, as a rule of thumb. Like all rules, there are exceptions, and some people find baby shampoo works wonders on their hair. Odds are, however, baby shampoo will trash your hair.

Baby shampoo is highly alkaline, it's pH is formulated to keep it from burning a baby's eyes (since it's hard to keep soap out of theirs). Hair is acidic, and prefers an acidic enviroment (that's why a lot of conditioners have ingredients such as citric acid to push the conditioner pH towards being more acidic).

I use baby shampoo to strip DYE out of my hair, and trust me when I say it WORKS. I do not use it for anything else insofar as the hair on my head is concerned.

i use it when mixing with baking soda to do a clarifying shampoo. i follow up with a good deep condioning. i love the smell too. it's so familar,reminds me when i was younger.

LOL holy crap.I completely forgot about that thread....omg I need to work on my memory..

thanks ajn I owe you one ;)

thank you so much for the feedback.I accidently posted another thread about this bc I completely forgot about this one.opppsss

I will try it as a makeup remover and to wash my delicates,but according to all the advice,I will not use it in my hair.

Thanks for the headsup!

LOL holy crap.I completely forgot about that thread....omg I need to work on my memory..

thanks ajn I owe you one ;)

Heh, you're welcome! I thought I was losing my marbles there for a few moments. One of those "wait a minute..." moments.

I think most of this baby shampoo stuff is a myth. Just my 2 :twocents:, I'm no expert.

I used to think the same, but a friend who is a pharmacist explained to me I was wrong and actually recommended it.

They aren't alkaline, most good baby shampoos are pH neutral. If they were alkaline, they would be harsh on baby's skin too.
And it just doesn't make sense to me that something that's gentle to someone's skin would be harsh to their hair.

I attribute the harshness and dryness some people experience to the lack of cones and softening agents in the shampoo.
I use Hipp baby shampoo (German brand, they also make baby food and stuff) for about 7 months and although it took some getting used to, I love it now. :D

I have oily hair so I sometimes have to wash twice, but otherwise it works just fine for me. Or sometimes I add a few drops of eo-s that compliment oily hair (lemon, tea tree, ylang ylang...) but not to often because the poo smells so nice on its own.:)

In general pH-neutral means a pH-level of 7, the eyes have a pH-level of ca. 7,5 so baby shampoo is brought to about the same level to be gentle... gentle to the eyes. Most of them depending on the brand vary between 7,1 and 7,8.
Skin and hair prefer a more sour environment, naturally they have a pH-level about 5,5. That´s why baby shampoo can be drying for sensible skin or hair. Somehow paradox, but true facts.
So when baby shampoo is labeled to have a neutral pH-level or to be "gentle" it´s actually too alkaline for skin and healthy hair, but won´t hurt the eyes... and there is baby-lotion and baby-oil and tangle-free-easy-comb-spray filled with cones to hide the bad drying effects later on. :pins:
That´s why most nurses recommend to bath babys and small children with water and oil and to try to leave their skin/hair alone as long as possible.


Using baby shampoo for removing dye makes sense as it opens up the cuticle very wide and dye will come out easier than when the surface of the hair is closed and smooth. But it´s not a gentle way like the word baby-shampoo implies.
Closing it after this with a acidic rinse can be a short time solution and is better than leaving the cuticle opened.
But doing this over and over again, at every wash through the years will be damaging. Like the lamella of a sun-blind, you can open and close them for quite some time, but after a while it will wear out.
:shrug: No one in my family uses baby shampoo.

My hair was a disaster and very dry. I mixed it with honey to help lighten my hair

I used baby shampoo for two or three months when I was travelling with shorter hair (growing to chin length from a pixie), and it left my hair feeling really funny after a while (kind of sticky, stiff, greasy, and coarser than normal), but I might've had a little fewer flyaways.

Harsher than adult shampoos, in my experience. I don't know who decided we have to put detergent and mineral oil on a baby.

I'd clean the bathtub with it.

That does makes sense, Finoriel... :)
Well, I'll just have to get something to test this poo's pH, and end the mystery. :D
I always assumed pH neutral meant 5.5 and nothing else.
But my weird hair likes it, go figure.

5.5 is acid, 7.0 is neutral.

I found the ingredients of the Hipp baby shampoo (http://www.hipp.co.yu/en/cosmetics.php), I can't know the pH without the ratios of course, but the surfactants in it do look gentler to me than the J&J.

I'm one who is pretty skeptical on how "harsh" baby shampoo is.

I don't mean any disrepect to the well meaning people here, but after doing a long internet search, the only thing I can find on baby shampoo is "myths and urban legends". (many of the myths debunked were on "teh Evilz" that it will blind your baby, its harshness and alkaline corrosion to skin.) On comparing the ingredient listings of various brands, the only difference between it, and adult commercial shampoos for instance, is the use of more "Freindly" sulphates. Some contain none at all.

It seems to vary so widely from brand to brand, that "baby shampoo" cannot be classified as having any exact PH level to go across the board. Extensive internet searching, oddly enough, brings up sites that tout baby shampoo as evil, are usually selling some all natural form of it. I do not trust, and basically have begun to just close out pages like that.

Other information I can find regarding baby shampoo is, dang it, all written in blogs, or from individuals as personal posts.

This is not to say information is not out there, just that me, a layman and two hours on my hands, could find absolute bubkis to substantiate any claims that baby shampoo would be across the board damaging to skin or hair (eyes or anything else!).

The only thing i can find, is that as a rule, baby shampoo does have a slightly more alkaline enviornment than skin and hair naturally does (5.5 or so, not in the 7's, cant find any, they might exist).

So after this exhaustive waste of two hours LOL, here's my personal synopsis of Baby Shampoo:

Not all brands are the same, 1/2 of them are exactly the same formulas as adult shampoo

Baby shampoo, depending on the formula is usually 9 times out of ten devoid of huge hair offenders to some people, like perfume, silicones and protein. (and why its a staple in my household).

Its one of the few shampoos that for the most part doesnt contain citric acid (or acid of any kind). For those with acid sensitive hair, this might be for you.

I can't give a general tout to baby shampoo, as the formulas vary so widely, it would be impossible to make a blanket statement.

So.... my humble opinion is, if you like it, use it. If you don't .... don't. I definately do, and keep it ( dollar store "baby days" brand 99 cents) in my rotation always.

I use up my shampoos, especially the cheap, harsher ones, on cleaning bathtubs and sinks. Does a great job.

I find baby shampoo to be VERY harsh, on both hair and eyes, if it's the standard kind. Loreal makes kids shampoo/conditioner combos that are much gentler and smell very, very nice. CO wins for hair-gentleness though, imo.