Hi Johnny!
According to ePinions, the ingredients in original Dawn are:
“water, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium pareth-23, sulfate C-12-14-16,
dimethyl amine oxide, SD alcohol, undeceth-9, propylene glycol,
cyclohexandiamine, polyacetate, protease, fragrance, FD&C blue, no
phosphate”
Dawn Dish Detergent-Great For Dishes, Hands & Ducks!
http://www.epinions.com/content_87794617988
There are other ingredients in the product, but they are considered
proprietary information, and are held confidential:
“We introduced Dawn into a small area as a test in 1972. In 1976, Dawn
(in the original scent, clear blue color) hit stores nationwide. Dawn
has always been known for its superior grease cutting performance.
Ingredient information (other than what's on the label) is
confidential.”
Dawn History
http://makeashorterlink.com/?T3CB24CF4
Can you wash your hair with it?
Sure you can! Look closely at the ingredient list, and you’ll see
that the basic formulation for Dawn is very similar to that of
ordinary shampoo. You’re already familiar with ingredients like
water, sodium lauryl sulfate (a surfactant), dimethlyamine oxide (a
non-ionic surfactant), SD alcohol (specially denatured alcohol, used
to make pouring easier), propylene glycol (a humectant), polyacetate
(a thickening agent, responsible for making the product feel
pleasant), fragrance and FD&C Blue from our previous discussions about
shampoo. These are all common shampoo ingredients!
What’s left? Emulsifiers and stabilizers like sodium pareth, sulfate
C12-14-16 and cyclohexandiamine, and protease (an enzyme which is
responsible for breaking down proteins and oils – this is one of the
ingredients that makes Dawn work so well for greasy dishes).
Should you wash your hair with it?
Well, that depends on what you intend to accomplish by washing your
hair with Dawn. If you’re involved in a grubby, oily job (like
working in a commercial kitchen), Dawn is just the thing for scrubbing
the day’s accumulation of grease out of your hair. I used Dawn to
wash my hair every day for three years during my sojourn in the fast
food industry – regular shampoo just wasn’t doing it for me, and one
of our grill cooks mentioned that he (and most of the rest of the
grill crew) used Dawn at the end of the day to get their hair clean.
I tried it, and found that not only was it effective, it was also
gentle. No brittleness, no breakage, and my hair was always clean,
soft and shiny. In later years, working for better restaurants, I was
amused to find that many chefs and line cooks still employed the Dawn
trick.
Is it gentle?
It seems to be gentle enough for environmental groups, who’ve been
using Dawn to rescue waterfowl who’ve been caught in oil spills since
1978:
“Did you know that Dawn dishwashing liquid has proudly donated
thousands of gallons of Dawn to help clean the birds and wildlife
affected by oil spills?
Our quest to help wildlife by donating Dawn began with the
International Bird Rescue Research Center in 1978, the first group to
test Dawn in cleaning oiled wildlife. The group found that we met its
criteria: removing most oils at low concentrations, being
non-irritating to the feathers, skin, and eyes, rinsing easily and
quickly from feathers, and being easily accessible. Since 1979, the
International Bird Rescue Research Center has used Dawn on all U.S.
oil spills and beyond (where available or when shipped by Dawn to the
site).
[…]
Dawn was used to degrease otters caught in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill
in Alaska. That's when animal rescue organizations began to routinely
use Dawn to help clean oil from wildlife. Dawn has also been used to
clean and remove oil from birds in spills in Ashland, Pennsylvania,
the Gulf War, and the Galapagos Islands.”
Learn How Dawn Has Been Saving Wildlife For Over 20 Years
http://www.homemadesimple.com/saveaduck/learn.shtml
It’s not just dishwashing detergent! It’s duck shampoo!
Will it help reduce hair loss?
Maybe. I didn’t find anything directly linking the use of Dawn in
lieu of shampoo to reducing hair loss, but let’s look at it from
another angle.
What’s one of the leading contributors to hair loss? Clogged
follicles. How do they get that way? Too much oil and too many
styling products clog them up:
“One of the major causes of hair loss is the build-up of hair care
products and other topical lotions. This build-up clogs the oil
glands, damaging the hair follicle and causing the hair to be released
prematurely before the hair life cycle is over – instigating hair
loss. The hair follicle is actually drowning in this build-up of oil.”
Clogged Follicles
http://www.hairsupport.com/cloggedfollicles/
(You know all this from our previous discussions, though.)
What’s clogging up the follicles? Oil.
How do you clean the follicles out? Break up the oil.
What’s Dawn’s main selling point? It breaks up oils, binds itself to
them, and whisks them away! The same ingredient that gets the grease
off your dishes – protease - will also get the grease out of your hair
and off of your scalp.
Is this a sure-fire way to combat hair loss? Probably not. Recall,
its formulation really isn’t that much different from ordinary
shampoo. Both Dawn and shampoo are essentially the same thing, except
Dawn leaves out the frou-frou goodies like extra vitamins, botanical
extracts, and hair thickeners (silicone derivatives), instead just
getting down to the business of getting things clean.
Still, if you’re interested in trying Dawn, it certainly can’t hurt.
I’m not certain how it would fit into your normal hair care regimen,
especially if you’re still using a lot of Rogaine (I hope you’ve cut
back to the recommended usage!), still washing your hair several times
a day, and still experimenting with different products, but you can
try to work it in once every two or three days to see how you like it.
Do keep in mind that you don’t want to overdo it. Remember, the
grease cutting agents in Dawn will do just that – cut grease – but if
you strip all of the oils from your hair, it will get dry and brittle.
No more than once a day! Ducks and restaurant employees have been
shampooing with Dawn for years, it certainly can’t hurt to give it a
go!
I hope this helps! If you need further assistance, please just ask
for clarification. As ever, I’ll be glad to investigate further for
you!
--Missy-ga
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