El Marqués se Cuida: HISTORY OF THE SHAMPOO

The Egyptians were the first to produce SOAP from a natural product called saponita, which is extracted from an herb called saponaria and they added animal fats and oils.

Around the year 1000 B.C. they rubbed his body with handfuls of sand and pumice powder to clean their body before bathing.

There are archaeological remains that say to us that the use of the soap was adopted by the Romans in the 2^ndcentury B.C. There are documents where a Roman doctor explains the use of soap like shampoo.

In the middle Ages the use of techniques to enhance the beauty and the bath disappear, and this even encouraged the emergence of diseases. Soapmaking was imported from Italy, but for centuries it was used for washing dishes, clothes, but not for the body.

The word shampoo has its origin in the Hindu word “shampoo“that dates from 1762 and means “to press, massage”. The name and the technique came to Great Britain by a migrant from India called Sake Dean Mahomed that opened a few bathrooms of "shampoo" in Brighton in 1759 known as Mahomed's Indian vapor baths (Indian Steam baths of Muhammad). These baths were similar to the Turks, but customers received an Indian treatment of champi (massage therapy) and the services were very much appreciated and Mahomed was named "Surgeon of the SHAMPOO" by the Kings George IV and William IV.

In 1789, during the French Revolution, although shampoo had already been invented, courtiers used to have short and messy hair on which wigs were placed, but in the nineteenth century with Napoleon, who loved cleaning and the use of the colony, beauty treaties were written and the first cosmetics houses appeared.

Kasey Hebert was the first known manufacturer of shampoo, and it is attributed to him. Hebert sold the first shampoo on the streets of London with the name of "Shaempoo". The first sold soap was produced by a grocer from Lancashire called William Hesketh Lever in 1884. He had the bright idea of manufacturing already cut SOAP pads and stamped them with the Sunlight brand and they were very successful. Famous brands in soaps like Lux, Shield emerged and the powerful multinational Lever Brothers was born, which is still today one of the largest providers of SOAP in the world.

Modern shampoo, such as it is known today, was introduced for the first time in 1930 with "Drain", invented by a German hairdresser who was looking for the way to replace the ash from his fireplace with which people used to clean their hair. This hairdresser came up to prepare a mixture of water-soluble soaps, and although they managed to remove the dirt, they were very different from the soaps we know today, because they did not generate foam. It was in the United States, at the end of the thirties of the twentieth century, when they were added ingredients that were only being used for industrial purposes and managed to get the type of shampoo we use today.

It was in 1933 the first time that a shampoo as we know it today was sold. John Breck was the inventor of the modern shampoo and never imagined the success he achieved. He was who developed the first specialized products to wash dry hair and oily hair that were advertised by Hollywood artists announcing their trademark.

The new shampoo came to Europe with the Second World War. The American soldiers were taking small samples that they were giving along with chocolates, cigarettes and canned meal. After the war new cosmetic advances appeared. In the last years the industry has invested a lot of money in its growth and expansion, appearing new ingredients in scene that obtain big effects.