I really thought all Suave Naturals would be the same...But today I used Citrus Smoothie and now my hair feels squeaky clean and really dry. I hate it! Could it be the citrus smoothie? I can't see how the naturals would differ besides smell...Am I wrong? I also had put that cooking grade coconut oil in my hair, is that the culprit? I'm confused. Ick!   ???

Checking the ingredients would be the best way to see what the differences might be.

Aren't all types of citrus-y fruits (lemon, grapefruit, orange..) acid and eventually drying/super cleaning? So if there's citrus in there could that be it?
I wish we had that line of products here, though. I love the squeaky clean feeling!

Both BikerBraid and greek_lady are correct. Compare the ingredients and most citrus-type products will contain at least some acid. After all, lemons, limes and oranges as well as their oils are citric acid based.

I'm a bit confused about the acid part. ???  I know citrus is acid, but so is vinegar (acetic acid)--and that seems to do wonders for hair.  Perhaps it's the strength of the acid, or is there something else at work here? ???

Your assumption might well be correct. I would *guess* that a product that contains citrus in *any* form might be more acetic than others. I've very, very cautious with lemony, limey, orangey flavors to conditioners. While I love the smell, I worry about the acid content.

Remember that you do not necessarily use an ACV rinse more that once a week. The  purpose behind ACV is to "strip" and restore the PH level of your hair strands. So, yes, ACV is acid, but highly dilluted and used to restore PH.

wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2005 at 11:04pm:

Your assumption might well be correct. I would *guess* that a product that contains citrus in *any* form might be more acetic than others. I've very, very cautious with lemony, limey, orangey flavors to conditioners. While I love the smell, I worry about the acid content. Remember that you do not necessarily use an ACV rinse more that once a week. The  purpose behind ACV is to "strip" and restore the PH level of your hair strands. So, yes, ACV is acid, but highly dilluted and used to restore PH.

I wondering.  Do you suppose this could somehow relate to the fact that drinking lemon juice is supposed to restore alkhaline balance in the body.

Also there is the whole thingy about fruit acids being used to moisturize and exfoliate in skin products.

This is kinda confusing...anyone know anything?...g

I looked at the ingrediants and the chemical things were exactly the same, just in a different order. Then there are the lemon peel oil and orange peel oil...But I really can't imagine there would be enough of them to do much. Oh and hydrolized milk protein. I still don't know what happened, but my hair was sooo frizzy and dry. Oh well.

Sometimes if you get too much protein on the hair, it will get crunchy - maybe it is the milk protein that your hair does not like.

Generally speaking I never had any luck with meaningfully interpreting ingredients lists. The ingredients list may look similar, but one product works well for CO wash, one leaves my hair feeling greasy and dry, and a third makes me break out in scalp sores.

Citrus oils have cleansing properties, and will have no effect on the alkaline/acid balance of a product.