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stearyl trimethylammonium chloride and cetyltrimethylammonium chloride
  • Elana44Elana44

    Hi, 
    Just wondering what are stearyl trimethylammonium chloride and cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and what could they possibly be doing in my hair product?
    Any help is greately appreciated.

  • alchemist
    Chemically their what we'd call quaternary amonium compounds.  What they are doing is providing the conditioning to your hair.

    Some reading
    http://dailyapple.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/apple-416-how-hair-conditioners-work.html
    http://thebeautybrains.com/2012/01/18/why-do-conditioners-make-hair-shiny/


  • Elana44Elana44
    Alchemist, thanks a lot! Very useful information, so these are fatty conditioners. Then my next question is - are they of natural origin or completely synthetic? Also, are they safe and can they weight down the hair? Because i have fine limp hair, so i try to avoid anything that weights it down but still need good moisture, because it's on the dry side... 
  • Right BrainRight Brain
    Alchemist: if you keep providing all this good information we're going to have to put you on commission! Thanks.

    Elana: I'm a little curious as to which products you're using that contain these ingredients. They are rather "old-school" conditioners. You don't see them used that much anymore. They are safe although some people do find chloride quats to be irritating to the skin. It's hard to know if these will be too heavy for your hair without understanding what else is in the formula. You'll really have to try them to see.
  • Right BrainRight Brain
    Oh, one more thing. In regards to the origin of these ingredients, they can be at least partially natural. the fatty portion of the molecule can be sourced from plant materials but they will require chemical modification to be quaternized. So, it really depends on your definition of natural.
  • alchemist
    No worries, just using you guys for practice  ;)
  • Elana44Elana44
    Right Brain, thanks a lot for replying! I was given this split ends cure called Molto Bene Hair Dresser Salon Feel. It's of japanese origin and the complete list of ingredients in english was hard to find! I asked my friend who knows japanese to help me out and that's what was listed on the bottle:

    stearyl trimethylammonium chloride, cetyltrimethylammonium chloride, paraben, essence, yellow 4, red 504.

    I was quite happy to see there were no silicones because these guys, though great for some, do not quite work for my hair, weighting it down. But then again, you said  these ingredients are "old-school", do you think they won't provide enough moisture and shielding?

    Also, there is one more trick with this product. The description said that this product contains horse keratin, amino acids and vitamins, as well as silk protein. I don't see a hint of those in the ingredients list translated for me... Bogus?
  • Right BrainRight Brain
    These are good conditioning ingredients so if you like the way the product feels on your hair you should be fine.  

    Horse keratin is just made from horse hair versus other kind of animal hair. Amino acids, vitamins and silk proteins are standard ingredients. So I don't think any of these are bogus, the ingredient list just may be wrong. 

    It doesnt really matter since those ingredients don't really do anything for hair anyway. 
  • Elana44Elana44
    Right Brain, I finally tried it and it worked really well. It immediately conditioned strands, removed  fly-aways and no grease or weighting-down whatsoever. So thanks a lot for encouragement :)
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