HISTORY OF SHAMPOO

25 October 2022

The Importance of Sleep for Beauty

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What is a beauty sleep and why it is a practice that we all should implement for the well-being of the skin and hair.

The so-called beauty sleep from today on is no longer just an old popular saying, but a discovery with a solid scientific background. A team of scientists from the University of Manchester has found numerous correlations between night sleep and the production of a certain type of collagen. This study looked at the extracellular matrix, which is the tissue in which our cells are suspended, and which is mainly made up of collagen.

Collagen: the main ingredient of the skin

Collagen is a protein, it provides structure to our tissues, and therefore also to our face and skin. If the skin appears toned, firm and elastic, much of the credit is due to collagen. As we age, natural collagen production slows down for physiological reasons, but external factors as lack of sleep can further accelerate this process.

It has been found that the peak of collagen production is between 11pm and 4 in the morning , so during the hours when we usually sleep. This is a good reason for trying to improve our sleep: during these hours the skin is able to self-regenerate, appearing more compact and rested in the morning.

For this exact same reason, after a sleepless night or an intermittent sleep, we wake up looking worse: tired, with a hollow face and a dull complexion.

Tips for a beauty sleep

Now that we’ve established the undisputed benefits of a good night’s sleep, we’ll leave you with a few tips to optimize your beauty sleep and get your daily fix of collagen!

• Getting your body used to always going to sleep at the same time is a great way to establish a routine and make it easier to fall asleep.

• Use fabric sprays with a relaxing scent. Spray them on pillowcases and sheets to encourage sleep and “trick” your brain into associating the moment of falling asleep with a positive experience.

• Prepare the skin on your face and body before bed. Follow a good skincare regime by removing makeup and impurities from your face before applying moisturizer or other skincare products. Don’t neglect the skin on your body!

• A hot shower or relaxing herbal tea can help you sleep.

• Avoid falling asleep while watching videos or TV series. Ideally, get away from electronic devices and monitors at least half an hour beforehand. Prefer a good old fashion book, maybe printed on recycled paper!

• One last bonus tip to protect your hair: sleep with a silk or satin pillowcase, or wrap your hair in a silk scarf. It will protect it from breakage and frizz during the night and, if you have curly or wavy hair, it will protect your curls, which will look perfect in the morning!

Now all you have to do is try these simple tips to improve your sleep: your beauty has one more ally!

13 September 2022

Shampoo, the story of a modern tradition

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Let’s discover the history of Shampoo, from 18th century India to modern Europe: how the essential product we know today was born.

Would you ever have thought that Shampoo, a product so essential to our personal hygiene that we use almost every day, was a rather recent invention?

That’s right: shampoo as we know it was invented in the early decades of the 20th century. Its story begins in India, and through the English colonists it arrived in Europe. Let’s discover how!

Shampoo means massage

The custom of shampoo, or champo, comes from India, and was imported to England in the second half of the 1700s. The word champo in Hindi means “to apply pressure, to massage” and recalls the massage applied during the cleansing of the hair. Around those years Sheik al-Din Mohammad exported this custom in Europe, opening the first center for hygiene and therapeutic massage in Brighton. Among the various services offered, in this center it was also possible to book a champo, that is a cleansing and massage of the skin and hair.

Shampoo in the past

In the past there have been many ingredients and rituals for washing skin and hair, let’s see some of them.

In ancient Egypt a mixture of vinegar and water was used to rub the scalp and lengths. Romans, instead, used a sort of soap made of ashes mixed with lard and other fatty substances. In this case, the cleansing was more for the slightly abrasive and absorbent action of the ash, while the oils dissolved the excess sebum on the skin.

During the Middle Ages shampoo was made by mixing alcohol (often brandy) with eggs or even sulfur. Women used to wear their hair always styled away from the face, in braids and gathered hairstyles, and cover themselves with a veil. These hairstyles made the hair much less dirty.

The invention of the modern shampoo

Shampoo as we know it, a detergent containing surfactants that produce foam and cleanse the skin, is a recent invention. The first shampoos date back to the late 1800s, and consisted of powders to be dissolved in water, invented by chemist Hans Schwartzkopf. Until then, shampoo was made by boiling together soap flakes, with the addition of scented oils. These soaps had a pH level not suitable for cleansing hair, therefore it is likely that the frizzy hair effect was much more common at that time than today. To see the very first shampoo similar to ours today, and specifically formulated for washing the head, we will have to wait until the 1930s, when the first shampoo in liquid form and composed of synthetic ingredients was introduced to the market.

For many years that was the only option on the market. Up until today, when the choice is endless and there are shampoos for every need. Have you tried INSIGHT shampoos? Delicate and effective, discover them all and find the one that’s right for you.