ABSTRACT
Surfactants are widely used in cleansers for several areas of the body. The mildness of surfactants to the skin is a great concern to consumers because of the high frequency of usage and the possible presence of several defective skin conditions such as xerosis (aged skin) and atopic dermatitis. Thus, it is worthwhile to develop surfactants with minimal damaging effects on the skin. Identification of the mechanisms underlying surfactant damage to the skin should be very helpful in reducing the irritancy of surfactants. In this chapter, the mechanisms of surfactant irritation, dryness, or tightness, are described as a function of surfactant structure and the effects of structure on physiological and biological skin behavior. Figure 1 shows the chemical structures and abbreviations of the surfactants discussed in this paper.
