For those of you who use baby shampoo on your horses...

Queenbee

Queenbee

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Or even if you use it on yourself...

I was chatting with my hairdresser the other day about shampoos (as you do) and was shocked to find out that the ph of baby shampoos is around 10.5. Our skin and hair is about 5.5, baby shampoo is designed so it won't sting if it gets in the eyes and so is manufactured around the same ph as the eye, not only is it incredibly drying, but if you think. That the ph of hair removal cream is 13.5 it gives you an idea of how damaging and drying it can be to skin and hair.

I was pretty shocked, and thought I would share with HHO as I know a lot of people use this on their horses.
 
Hmm,

"Baby Shampoo for infants and young children is formulated so that it is less irritating and usually less prone to produce a stinging or burning sensation if it were to get into the eyes. For example, Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo advertises under the premise of "No More Tears". This is accomplished by one or more of the following formulation strategies.
...
2. adjusting pH to that of non-stress tears, approximately 7, which may be a higher pH than that of shampoos which are pH adjusted for skin or hair effects, and lower than that of shampoo made of soap"

So baby Shampoo generally has a PH of 7, the same as water. Soap based shampoos have a higher PH and shampoo designed with effects are lower.

I guess in theory she is right, that the baby shampoo has a higher PH than say Herbal essences shine conditioner, However, the above info suggests that the fancy shampoos are lower than 7, the baby at 7, and soap based ones higher than 7.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shampoo

Edit to add, I use horse shampoo :p Although I do plan on using some "human" conditioning sprays and oils on his mane and tail ;)
 
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Have to admit, when I have used baby shampoo before and seen how well it cleans (and some of the baby wipes are like stain removers!) I would be very wary about using on small children. Horses are not as sensitive as they can sometimes be made to be (obviously there are exceptions) and while I appreciate the school of thought that if you wouldn't use on one, you shouldn't use on the other, but still, something marketed as being so gentle really shouldn't be that effective at cleaning :D
 
I stopped using them when my son was a baby as they would make him red and itchy. Even the baby oils and lotions dried his skin out something stupid, and although not born with eczema he ended up with it really bad. Now he is 3 and I just use the creams and bath stuff we get prescribed for it.

Not sure how you get eczema, but I have wondered if the over use of these products maybe led to the start of it?
 
We stopped using Avons range of children's shampoos after I used a bottle on my grey cobs tail - anything that can get rid of months of red winter mud and poo stains from a grey tail using cold water and just one wash is not something I want going near my kids hair!
 
I read on a parenting forum (obviously not stating this as gospel) that the baby/child shampoos were no irritating to the eyes as they have a numbing agent in them.
 
I only use it on my horses face if needed, use horse shampoos designed for dirty grey horses everywhere else. I rarely wash his face that fully though, will generally just hot cloth.
 
I've always used baby shampoo to dry out mud fever-y legs - works a treat for drying all the scabs, just have to watch not to use it too often. Have always been shocked that people use it on kids...
 
This is really interesting, thank you very much for sharing. I have just started using it on my dog who has very sensitive skin, thinking it would be better for him. No wonder he seemed to scratch more!!!!
 
When I decided to dye my hair dark and hated it, my hairdresser advised me to use baby shampoo to strip the worse of the colour out before she re-did it for me. Amazingly it worked!! I wouldn't use it on my horses apart from possibly to clean extremely mucky/pooey tails, when quite frankly industrial strength bleach and a jet spray wouldn't touch them!
 
Field04 said:
This is really interesting, thank you very much for sharing. I have just started using it on my dog who has very sensitive skin, thinking it would be better for him. No wonder he seemed to scratch more!!!!
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If your dog has sensitive skin, buy some sulphur tablets or put a lump of rock sulphur in his drinking water, other than steroids it was the only thing that cleared my girls skin up.
 
Thelwellesque said:
When I decided to dye my hair dark and hated it, my hairdresser advised me to use baby shampoo to strip the worse of the colour out before she re-did it for me. Amazingly it worked!! I wouldn't use it on my horses apart from possibly to clean extremely mucky/pooey tails, when quite frankly industrial strength bleach and a jet spray wouldn't touch them!
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Yep, head and shoulders, baby shampoo and fairy liquid are all like that :eek:
 
Ofts. Did not know this! Thanks. I use johnsons baby shampoo on his tail sometimes, but recently bought aldis version....hmmmm
 
Field04 said:
Brilliant, thanks very much I will do that.
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My dog had very dry, itchy, flaky skin and as soon as I stopped using supermarket dog foods and put her on to skinners field and trial mix it cleared right up and she now has an amazing coat. People always stop and ask what shampoo I use on her as its so glossy lol, but it was the change in food that done it )
 
I have very sensitive skin and so started using Johnsons baby wash as a shower gel. I was soon covered in a eczema type condition which went on for months.
I was convinced if my skin were that bad using such a mild product i'd be stupid trying anything else!
It soon cleared up and has never returned since I tried a regular shower gel again.
Now I know why!
 
Can also add a bit of cider vinegar or citric acid powder to a bucket of water as a final rinse - it closes the cuticles of the hair and makes them ultra shiny, as well as restoring the ph of their skin! Old grooming trick, just make sure it's diluted enough that it won't irritate :)
 
My mother stoped using baby shampoo on sis and I when we were children, after she used it herself and got some in her eye, she said it stung so much she felt very guilty about using it on us! This was a very very long time ago mind!
 
just to add that PH 7 = neutral

http://www.examiner.com/article/baby-shampoo-necessary

extract:
In reality, the only thing that sets baby shampoo apart is the pH. Many adult shampoos have pH's in the 8-9 range, caused by the cleansing ingredients. Some 'acidic' shampoos have much lower pH's, around 5-6, in an attempt to help keep chemically-treated hair in better condition. The problem with all this when it comes to babies is the eyes. Human eyes have a pH of seven, which is neutral, like water. If anything with a pH higher or lower than seven gets in the eyes, it will cause stinging or burning. If you've ever gotten shampoo in your eyes in the shower, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Baby shampoos are specially formulated to have a pH of seven. This is why they're often called 'tear-free.' It's because of this that they will cause very little- if any- discomfort if they get in your child's eyes.
 
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Quenotte said:
just to add that PH 7 = neutral

http://www.examiner.com/article/baby-shampoo-necessary

extract:
In reality, the only thing that sets baby shampoo apart is the pH. Many adult shampoos have pH's in the 8-9 range, caused by the cleansing ingredients. Some 'acidic' shampoos have much lower pH's, around 5-6, in an attempt to help keep chemically-treated hair in better condition. The problem with all this when it comes to babies is the eyes. Human eyes have a pH of seven, which is neutral, like water. If anything with a pH higher or lower than seven gets in the eyes, it will cause stinging or burning. If you've ever gotten shampoo in your eyes in the shower, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Baby shampoos are specially formulated to have a pH of seven. This is why they're often called 'tear-free.' It's because of this that they will cause very little- if any- discomfort if they get in your child's eyes.
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The cheaper shampoo the higher the ph, a more expensive shampoo mimics the natural ph of skin and hair. The baby shampoos are significantly higher than this. I personally would never used a product that hairdressers reccomend as a stripping agent on my horse.
 
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I thought the fact that baby shampoo has a different ph to normal shampoo was universally known.
That said unless we wash our horses daily, what difference does it make whst we use!
The cheaper the better I say.
 
Queenbee said:
The cheaper shampoo the higher the ph, a more expensive shampoo mimics the natural ph of skin and hair. The baby shampoos are significantly higher than this. I personally would never used a product that hairdressers reccomend as a stripping agent on my horse.
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do you have an actual reference for this though? as wikiepedia et al. say tear free= pH 7 - which would be right as the pH of tears is 7. I'm really not sure where the 10.5 figure provided by your hairdresser is coming from.

If you follow the other link that I posted only the soap based shampoos are higher pH (to be expected as soap is too :p).
 
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