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Thread: Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

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    Member Jane99's Avatar
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    Default Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

    Hi everyone,

    I was just internet searching and I read some stuff about lecithin being really helpful for hair. It looks like it’s used as an ingredient to aid in moisturizing dry hair and I was wondering if any of you notice an effect of this ingredient. I see it in a lot of products. I believe it has dual purposes of emulsifying oils but also has this moisturizing benefit as well. Does anyone here have experience?

    My purposes would be to add to conditioner that I make. I already have an emulsifier I like and would probably need to tweak my recipe if I used it, but will if it seems like it would be worth it. I almost just impulse bought some as it’s not so expensive but wanted to see if anyone has input.

    Thank you!

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    Default Re: Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

    lecithin definitely helped my hair. unfortunatelly my mom decided it was too expensive and spend money for haircuts instead...
    now I eat more vegetables and it helps. my hair is healthy and it's beyond fingertip-length
    Well I don't have [volume on the] crown because I'm not a queen.

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    Default Re: Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

    DO you know what sort of lecithin are you thinking of using? Lecithin can be produced using eggs, soy or sunflower seeds.

    I know from personal experience (allergies) that soy lecithin in particular can contain trace amounts of soy proteins. With that in mind, I would think that other types of lecithin might also have some trace proteins.

    I don't have any experience with making hair products but I thought I would ask since it's benefit for you hair might vary depending on your lecithin's origin source. Maybe I'm incorrect but it seems like different heads benefit from different types of protein.

    Sorry I'm not much help I just thought I would add something else for you to think about.

    I hope you have a good day!

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    Member Jane99's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

    Thanks leatellena and Jane Marie for the responses!

    Jane I don’t know what type of lechitin I would be looking at using and also don’t know about what types of protein my hair would prefer. You bring up a good point about the soy allergens and that must be really tough to deal with since soy is in so many things. I have enough old damage in my hair that some trace protein shouldn’t be a problem so maybe for the sake of biodiversity I may choose a sunflower lecithin if it’s not astronomically more expensive than soy.

    I hope you have a good day too!

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    Default Re: Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

    There’s no need to be disueded by trace amounts of soy due to other people’s allergies. I doubt that the trace amounts would cause anyone a reaction. I was just thinking that I know some people’s hair benefits from egg white and other people like things with soy. Also, there are some that don’t find protein helpful at all. In that case I would think that sunflower lecithin might have less trace protein since sunflower seeds have a lower percentage of protein than eggs and soy.

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    Member Jane99's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

    No, I wouldn’t choose a different lecithin based on your allergy. I was thinking more along the lines of, soy is grown in monoculture along with corn and I try to avoid corn and soy when I’m being conscientious for environmental purposes. And a field of sunflowers is just prettier than a field of soybeans. I’m not sure if they’ve genetically modified the sunflower yet but I would rather support a non-soy alternative if possible. That’s not to say that I didn’t make corn muffins to go with dinner tonight.
    On that same note, I worked with a woman who would break out in hives if she were in the same room as a peanut butter cup and if we were still in contact, I would go out of my way to avoid using peanut oil or other nut oils in products.

    My hair does like egg... not so much the smell. I wonder if that is more due to the high cholesterol in an egg as the proteins are said to be too large to impact hair.

    All that said, It’s a valid point about the protein. High protein formulations can be at around 5% which is pretty high for a water based formula. So, the current recipe I use for conditioner is something like 88% water. Say I add 5% lecithin (I made up that amount but it likely would be around there) and if that lecithin has 10% protein residue that would be like .5% protein in the finished product, and since I add oat protein (even at only another .5% but that would still be double) that could inadvertently cause issues in the long run.

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    Member Jane99's Avatar
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    Default Re: Do you notice if lecithin helps your hair?

    SO I took the leap and obtained liquid sunflower lecithin. I am hoping it helps with moisture and to tame wash day frizziness. I tested some today using like a modified SMT with my conditioner, a small amount of lecithin (one source I found said concentrations should be 1-5% so it was probably like 5-7% lecithin) and also a small amount of honey.

    My hair definitely didn’t feel softer afterwards but it does *feel* stronger, sortof, and the frizzies are down. I’ll keep experimenting and assessing. I can’t say I love the results with the 5-7% lecithin so maybe I’ll make a small batch of conditioner with maybe 3% and see if that’s better. Like, softer. So to say, my hair didn’t feel soft when drying but maybe substantial. If that makes sense!

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