The Importance of pH Balance in Beauty Products

by Dawn Michelle of MinimalistBeauty

I’ve used many many cosmetic products over the years. Being in the retail beauty business, I had the opportunity to try many more products for free and receive full size cosmetics as gratis. Regardless of what cosmetic company I was using, the best products overall were pH balanced and for health purposes organic and chemical free.

Once you decide that you are no longer going to use chemical laden beauty products, many of us look to what’s in our kitchen to truly keep it natural and also keep the cost of our beauty regimen 75% to 80% lower than what we were spending before. We do our online research to see what others are using, and if you’re like me even buy books to learn about herbs and natural beauty care. If you want to get consistent results with whatever you are using or making, the most empowering way to do this is to understand pH balance, and purchase pH testing strips.

The Problem With Many Skin Care Products

The skin is a miraculous organ, which lets us know that it is experiencing an internal imbalance with skin ailments. For many instead of looking at diet, water intake, stress levels, and prescription medicines, we turn to big selling skin care companies that may not be pH balanced, and in turn dry the skin out with high pH soap and chemical ingredients as well as overly acidic ingredients. You may at first see an improvement in your skin, then over time either notice that the product is no longer working, or that if you don’t religiously use the product your skin is an absolute mess. So what just happened?

When skin is taken outside of it’s natural pH levels, it no longer has its innate defenses from pollution, fungus, and other bacteria. This is also when you are more likely to experience acne, eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, roseasca, and skin aging. Skin care products too acidic or too alkaline can throw the skin out of wack. When skin remains in it’s natural pH zone of 4.5-5.5, it is able to heal itself and very well.

It is very important that if you are using a store bought skin care item, or making them yourself, that each and every products remains in this healthy skin pH range. You will then be working with your skin versus against it to improve your skins overall health and appearance. Other factors that will also help is drinking lots of purified or alkaline water, eating alkaline foods, and taking supplements balanced in omega fatty acids.

The Problem With Many Hair Care Products

The healthy pH of hair is between 4 and 7. That is a much broader range to work with than skin. I also believe that if you use a hair product that is higher in pH than a 7, and do not follow up with an acidic mixture like aloe vera juice, a tea/herbal rinse, or a diluted apple cider vinegar rinse, your hair will not be happy.

Many hair care products have so many synthetic ingredients that it is ridiculous! We rate the product based on how our hair feels not having any idea that our hair feeling soft and smooth may only be because the product that we use coated our hair strands with synthetic fillers. If you have used anything that chemically alters the hair, your hair literally won’t survive without the chemical fillers since the hair dye, perm, relaxer, etc. has created tiny holes in the hair’s cuticle. The synthetic fillers keep your hair “feeling” healthy.

Shampoos and other hair washes that have a high pH over 7 make our hair initially feel soft, but in turn will dry out the hair by leaving the hair cuticle too open and susceptible to the natural elements in the air. I learned this the hard way with natural shampoo bars last year. Following with an acidic hair rinse would have counteracted the problem which I later dealt with which was extreme hair dryness and breakage.

I believe not opening the hair cuticle with high pH products will in turn give you the best overall results. Using an acidic mixture no lower that the pH of 4 will keep you hair shiny strong and in beautiful condition. You will most likely experience a dry itchy scalp, dandruff, scalp eczema, psoriasis and brittle hair strands with high pH shampoos and conditioners otherwise. Instead of turning to another high pH product, store bought or natural, keeping the pH between 4 and 7 is your best bet.

pH Testing Strips

Finding out the pH of each of your beauty products will help you really understand how to maintain a consistent skin and hair care regimen that works. You can find Macherey-Nagel pH Testing Strips here. With every product that I now make or try out, I test the pH to have a better understanding of the results I will get for skin and hair care. It also gives me a better idea if the product that I’m making will give consistent results. Even testing products that I used in the past gives me a clearer understanding of why they worked, and why I did or didn’t like it. Maintaining a beauty regimen with a balanced pH will overall give the best beauty results.