What is pH and why is it important to skin & hair health

We hear all the time about the pH of your skin & hair but what is it really and why is it important? Today we are going to tackle this question.

First off lets talk about pH. pH stands for the 'potential of hydrogens', and it describes our skin's level of acidity or alkalinity. The pH is a numeric scale that indicates how acidic or alkaline something is. 

The pH of your skin is normal at 4.7. The skin’s barrier is slightly acidic for a reason: to keep moisture in and bacteria out. If your pH balance is off and it’s too alkaline, your skin is going to look flaky and red. If it’s too acidic, you’ll increase your chances of inflammatory skin conditions like eczema and acne.

The market has started to flood over the past few years with pH-focused cleansers, toners, moisturizers, pH strips, and even high-tech wearable pH sensors. When it comes to beauty treatments and products that claim to restore the skin’s pH balance, today’s marketplace is a bit like the Wild West: There’s a rush to stake some big claims, and certainly some snake oil being sold.

While aestheticians, dermatologists, and wellness gurus may have divergent philosophies, all agree that pH levels are important to overall skin health.

What I find interesting is how medical experts state that the reason why we haven't put too much thought into pH and the levels of pH is because skin-care scientists have already thought of it and have taken care of it for us. But I don't agree with how they have "taken care of it for us"  A lot of store bought soaps, shampoo's, face washes etc. all have been formulated with cheap synthetic (made by chemical synthesis, especially to imitate a natural product.) .ingredients to be the correct pH, but in order for them to reach that correct pH level they often have to add things like sulfates, parabens, phthalates and other hormone disrupting additives.  Some additives are used as fillers that have been liked to several types of cancer. Why do they do this you ask?  Money - it all comes down to money. These ingredients are cheap to produce leaving them with more money in their pocket.

Skin Candy's handmade soap & other skincare products are different than what you see from mass produced companies & in big box stores.  Why?  Because we do not use any parabens, sulfates or phthalates - just good old fashioned natural oils & butters.  All of our products are certified GMO free as well.  When we make a bar of soap or a shampoo bar we don't have to add anything to it to make the pH lower or higher because the ingredients we use are all natural and/or  derived from natural ingredients like Coconuts.  

To recap, yes your skin's pH is important. And yes, the pH of your skin care products is important. But while you can't magically "fix" your skin's pH level—it does that by itself—you can mess it up if you use products that are too far outside your skin's natural pH.  Moral of the story?  Make sure you choose products that don't use nasty ingredients to bring the pH to normal levels to be safely used on skin.

Content Credit: https://www.everydayhealth.com/skin-beauty/skin-ph-yours-healthy-why-it-matters-how-tell/

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