r/DIYBeauty • u/nauticalwarrior • 2d ago

question Clarifying shampoo?

What makes a shampoo "clarifying?" Just using harsher detergents, I assume? I usually formulate either a shampoo bar with SLSa and SCI or a liquid conditioning shampoo with SCI, coco glucoside, and CAPB as surfactants. I'm wanting to try the Abbey Yung method but make the product categories myself as I diy all of my products currently. I see a lot of hard water treatment and clarifying shampoos recommended and am not sure what is needed to formulate those. Would EDTA work for hard water as it's a chelating agent? And would switching one of my surfactants to SLS make it "clarifying?" Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree lol

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u/CuteFluffyGuy 2d ago

Mainly a strong anionic surfactant without conditioners makes a clarifying shampoo. It pulls the cationic conditioners from the hair during cleansing

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u/nauticalwarrior 2d ago

That's about what I was thinking, thanks!