[theaberrant]

I want to know what topics a chemist would learn to be able to develop a hair shampoo or gel. What does their education consist of? Organic, inorganic, biochemistry or what? Please go into depth with the topics that they would have covered at college, university etc.

[MrTeo]

I would say part organic chemistry part biochemistry (and you'll probably need some specific knowledge about skin and hair chemistry that you'll learn as you get some hands-on experience), but it's only a guess.

This area is often referred to as "cosmetic chemistry" and usually involves the collaboration of researchers from different areas of chemistry (this is actually kind of a dumb statement as every research project works like that). Try to check internships or job offers at P&G and similar corporations to get a taste of what they may need or simply google "cosmetic chemistry", I'm pretty sure you'll find quite a lot of resources out there.