Improving Your Anti-Dandruff Shampoo Formula

It sounds like you've created a custom anti-dandruff shampoo with BioSulfur, Vitamin B, and a ready-made base, but are experiencing dryness and stiffness in your hair. This is a common issue when incorporating active ingredients like sulfur into a formula without sufficient conditioning agents.

Here's how you can adjust your formula to improve hair feel and enhance the anti-dandruff effect:

Addressing Dryness and Stiffness

To counteract the dryness and stiffness caused by ingredients like BioSulfur, you should add hair conditioning agents to your shampoo base. These ingredients help to coat the hair shaft, providing softness, smoothness, and manageability.

Consider adding one or more of the following conditioning ingredients:

• Poly-Conditioner Pro (400 mPa.s): This is a silicone-free option that helps make hair soft and smooth and can replace silicones in a formula. Use at a rate of 0.2-0.5% in shampoo. It's a powder that needs to be dissolved in water, ideally with gentle heating (around 65°C) and stirring before adding to the main formula.
• Clear-Cond™ (Quaternium-80): A high-performance, water-soluble conditioning agent that provides excellent conditioning and can be used in clear formulas. Use at a rate of 0.2-2% in shampoo. It dissolves directly in water.
• Hair-Cond™ SM (Small Particle Dimethicone Emulsion): A liquid silicone emulsion that is easy to mix into water-based formulas. It helps increase shine, softness, and prevents hair tangling, especially when dry. Use at a rate of 0.5-1.5% in shampoo. Mix into the water phase of your formula.

Adding one of these ingredients at the recommended usage rate should significantly improve the feel of your hair after using the shampoo.

Enhancing Anti-Dandruff Efficacy

To boost the anti-dandruff power of your shampoo alongside BioSulfur (which you are using at 1.5%), you can incorporate other effective anti-fungal agents. Combining different active ingredients can target the cause of dandruff (often the Malassezia furfur fungus) through multiple mechanisms.

Consider adding one of these ingredients:

• Dandruff-Guard™ (Piroctone Olamine): This ingredient effectively destroys the fungus that causes dandruff and helps prevent its return, as well as reducing itchy scalp. It can be used at 0.5-1.0% in shampoo formulas. It's a powder that should be dispersed in water first before adding to the shampoo base. Note that it can slightly increase the viscosity of the shampoo.
• Climbazole: This anti-dandruff agent inhibits the growth of the Malassezia furfur fungus. It is easy to incorporate into shampoo formulas as it can dissolve in detergents. It is effective over a wide pH range and is heat stable. Use at a rate of 0.1-0.5% in shampoo.

Adding either Dandruff-Guard™ or Climbazole, or potentially a small amount of both (while staying within recommended total active levels and considering regulatory limits), can provide a more potent anti-dandruff effect.

When modifying your ready-made base, remember to calculate the total percentage of added ingredients to ensure the formula remains stable and effective. Start with lower recommended percentages and adjust as needed.