When it comes to hair care products, especially those that are used in professional hair salons, it is very likely you’ve heard about pH levels. The claims are made that one product is better for your hair because their pH levels are gentler and come closer to matching the natural pH in hair.

While you may have heard the term pH used when it comes to your hair, what exactly is it and what role has the Redding brand played in its use on hair?

What Is pH and Why Does It Matter To Your Hair?

Let’s start off with what pH stands for. pH is short for potential of hydrogen, and measures the acid or alkaline levels of a solution.

Healthy, normal hair ranges from 4.5 to 5.5. Hair can take on a lifeless and damaged look when it becomes too alkaline. What causes this can range from excessive chemical treatments such as bleaching and coloring as well as thermal styling and perming.

The solution for infusing life into your hair and reinvigorating its look is to use a low pH product that is between 3.0-3.5. Doing so will take the rebel out of your hair’s fussy attitude, putting you and your hair back on speaking terms.

The Truth Behind pH In the Hair Care Industry

The hair care industry today is all about options but it wasn’t always that way. What you see today, with a myriad of products, resembles very little to what your mom and grandmother experienced in decades past.

Real improvement in hair care didn’t really began until the 1960’s. The scientific community had progressed sufficiently to determine that the pH of the hair was between 4.5 and 5.5.

This proved to be the missing puzzle piece that hair care pioneer Jheri “JR” Redding had been searching for. Until then, pH was not a major consideration in the beauty industry.

As a result, several products simply didn’t benefit the hair as their pH was typically closer to that of water – 7. A second hurdle to overcome was the introduction of collagen proteins into hair care products. The combination of pH balancing to the hair and the focused proteins (comprised of the newly discovered amino acids) proved to be a great success.

From that point on Jheri “JR” Redding’s use of pH in hair care products forever changed how men and women treat and care for their hair. Today Redding Hair Care is proud to carry on the tradition of innovation that is synonomous with the Redding name in our PHorgive™ Shampoo and Conditioner, the first products in Redding Hair Care’s PHresh™ line.