Cosmetic Ingredients for Shiny Hair

Cosmetic Ingredients for Shiny Hair Natural shine is one of the key indicators that your hair is healthy. And if your hair has lost its shine and become dull and lifeless, this may indicate a lack of nutrients and damage to the hair structure caused by both internal and external factors. To fix this, you need to use hair care products with ingredients that help to restore hair shine.

First and foremost, let’s figure out where hair shine comes from. When your hair is healthy and hydrated, cuticle scales on its outermost surface fit snugly together and reflect light well, creating a glossy surface. But if the scales “stand up”, which is usually caused by a lack of moisture and nutrients, the hair surface loses its smoothness and radiance.

However, dull hair is the least of the problems resulting from cuticle damage. When the cuticle scales rise, the hair shafts become much more vulnerable to aggressive external factors, such as wind, very low or high temperatures, UV rays, dry air, etc. As a result, the hair cortex gets damaged as well, which leads to weak and brittle hair with split ends.

That is why you should do something about the problem as soon as you notice that your hair has lost its natural shine. The longer you wait, the more damaged it will become and the harder it will be to repair the structure of your hair and restore its healthy gloss. Dull and lifeless hair needs some recovery therapy ASAP. And the first thing you need to do is find products that will smooth down the cuticle scales and restore shine.

Today, beauty brands offer all kinds of hair care products that promise to restore your hair’s natural shine and health. However, many of these promises are, sadly, often unfulfilled. To make sure that the product you’ve found will really work, you should read its ingredient list very carefully, looking for ingredients that are actually able to add shine to the hair. But what ingredients are we talking about?

First and foremost, shine-restoring ingredients include natural carrier oils and plant extracts. Oils are a rich source of essential fatty acids that nourish the hair and help to lock in moisture, while certain extracts have a rejuvenating, strengthening and antioxidant effect. Products for shiny hair often contain green tea extract, lavender extract, peppermint extract, rosemary extract, sakura (Japanese cherry) extract, jasmine extract, pomegranate extract, chamomile extract, and nettle extract. Common oils found in such products include shea butter, argan oil, macadamia oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, cocoa butter, coconut oil, olive oil, sea buckthorn oil, and burdock oil.

Various proteins help to repair damaged hair structure and restore shine. Since protein molecules are usually too large to penetrate the hair shafts, proteins are hydrolysed (i.e. broken down into amino acid chains) before being added to cosmetic products. Products for shiny hair may contain hydrolysed keratin, hydrolysed collagen, hydrolysed silk protein, and hydrolysed plant proteins (soy, oat, wheat, etc.).

Thanks to their ability to draw moisture from the surrounding air and retain it, various moisturising cosmetic ingredients also contribute to restoring your hair’s natural shine. This includes, for example, hyaluronic acid, glycerine, panthenol, inulin, etc. Probably, inulin here deserves a special mention. It is a naturally occurring polysaccharide that is usually extracted from chicory root or beetroot. Inulin has both moisturising and conditioning properties, so in addition to smoothing down the cuticle scales, it makes the hair more manageable.

In addition to the ingredients listed above, a number of other ingredients have the ability to restore hair shine. They include, for example, some alpha-hydroxy acids (citric and malic), honey, plant ceramides, bisabolol, and a number of cutting-edge patented cosmetic actives, such as Hydroxan, Collagen&Elastin Mix, Bio-Chelate 5, HoneyQuat, CHIAPROTECT, BIO-CERAMIDYL HAIR, ABYSOFT, and many more. And, naturally, vitamins, dietary minerals, and other nutrients also contribute to restoring hair shine.

There are a lot of different products for hair shine, from the usual shampoos, conditioners and hair masks to special leave-in sprays. In our online shop Organic Store, you can find a great selection of products for shiny hair produced by brands that specialise in natural and organic cosmetics. At Organic Store, we offer reasonable prices, convenient payment methods and international delivery for a pleasant shopping experience.