Scrub-a-dub Dub: Time to Ditch Toxic Ingredients in our Haircare Products
I have to admit, my favorite shampoo brand is Herbal Essences. Since I was a teen, it’s been my go to. I love the smell, the formula, and the price point! I never spent money on expensive hair products. Aside from a few bad dates with box hair dye, I haven’t colored my hair and never needed many styling products to maintain by standard, low maintenence look. But since having children and nearing 40, my hair hasn’t been the same. There’s less of it (like, a lot less), it breaks easily, is prone to flyaways, and the grays are infiltrating rapidly.
Several years ago I committed to ditching plastic as much as possible and so, Herbal Essences had to go. But I had no clue what to replace it with. I started researching what haircare ingredients do in an attempt to find products that work better for my aging hair.
Here’s what I’ve found: the haircare industry is ripe with products promising luscious locks and a healthy scalp, but unfortunately most conventional products contain ingredients that are harmful to us and our environment.
Let’s look at the harmful ingredients you’re likely to find in big ‘name brand’ hair products so you can make informed choices that benefit both your well-being and that of the planet.
Ingredients to Avoid
1. Petroleum-Derived Ingredients:
Petroleum-derivatives often used in haircare include mineral oil, paraffin, and petrolatum, as well as polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polypropylene glycol (PPG), disodium EDTA (or tetrasodium EDTA or sodium EDTA), and artificial dyes (which appear on labels as FD&C red/green/blue/yellow). These products are added to provide moisture & shine, remove buildup, and add appealing color.
Health Concerns:
Mineral oil, paraffin, and petrolatum are unable to penetrate beneath our skin and scalp and thus, do not improve skin or follicle health. Rather, they create a barrier on the skin and scalp’s surface, reducing oxygen exchange and potentially clogging pores by trapping dirt and bacteria.
Depending on manufacturing processes, PEGs and PPGs can be contaminated with ethylene oxide (a known human carcinogen) and 1,4-dioxane (a possible human carcinogen). 1,4-dioxane is also persistent, meaning it doesn't rapidly biodegrade. Though manufacturers can elect to remove these contaminants from cosmetics and test their final products to ensure none remains, doing so is voluntary. Thus, there is no easy way for consumers to know whether products containing PEG/PPGs are contaminated or not. For decades, FDA audits have consistently found these contaminants to be present in cosmetics at concentrations above the level deemed safe, even in products marketed towards babies. (1)
Environmental Impact: When you purchase products with petroleum-derived ingredients, you’re continuing to buy into big oil. The extraction and refinement of non-renewables like petroleum contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, habitat destruction, and oil spills, all of which are driving climate change. New Mexico is the second-largest crude oil-producing state in the U.S. Oil and gas revenue provides our state with an annual revenue in the billions. While we are far from being independent from extractive industries, every small step we can take to move away from them in our daily lives matters.
2. Synthetic Fragrance:
Synthetic fragrances are lab-made scents derived from chemicals, which are then added to haircare products to make them smell appealing (duh!). While not all bad, synthetic fragrances are considered “trade secrets” and thus, companies that use them in products aren’t required to list their chemical makeup on labels. In fact, most companies themselves don’t even know what ingredients their fragrance oils contain because the fragrance house they purchase from won’t (and isn’t required to) disclose that info. All you will see on labels is the word “fragrance”, “perfume,” or “parfum”.
Health Concerns: Some chemicals in synthetic fragrances can trigger headaches, migraines, allergies, skin irritation, and respiratory issues like asthma. Some contain phthalates, which are linked to hormone disruption. Some companies use what have been coined “safe synthetics”, meaning only that they don’t contain known carcinogens or endocrine disruptors. However most of these haven’t been proven safe. They are presumed safe only because there isn’t data to prove otherwise.
Environmental Impact: Numerous chemicals used to make synthetic fragrances are derived from petrochemicals. Because there are thousands of unregulated and undisclosed synthetic fragrances on the market, virtually no definitive research exists regarding their environmental impacts when washed down the drain. Consumers also have no way of knowing which fragrances are derived from petrochemicals and which aren’t.
3. Certain Sulfates:
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) are surfactants (foaming agents) found extensively in shampoos to create big lather, which most consumers want but typically indicates the product will be more drying.
Health Concerns: All surfactants remove natural oils from skin and scalp, which helps clean our hair but also leads to dryness and potential skin irritation. But SLS and SLES are anionic surfactants, which are the harshest and most likely to cause skin irritation. Substantial research has found SLS to be irritating with repeated use, especially for people with skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis (2). Although SLES is more mild than SLS, it is the ethoxylated version of SLS, meaning it’s made with ethylene oxide and thus, also runs the risk of being contaminated with 1,4-dioxane.
Environmental Impact: little research exists on the environmental impact of SLS and SLES at current consumer usage rates. Of the studies that do exist, there are mixed results regarding the extent to which they biodegrade vs accumulate and pollute water sources (3).
Safer Alternatives at The Village Refillery
Switching to natural and sustainable haircare products can not only improve your hair health, but also minimize your exposure to harmful chemicals, reduce demand for non renewable resources and extractive industries, and reduce your packaging waste!
Here are safer alternatives:
1. Shampoo and Conditioner Bars
Bars are a fantastic option if you’re looking to reduce plastic and packaging waste. When hair bars first became trendy, many on the market weren’t actually shampoo or conditioner, but simply bar soap marketed as such. But if you’ve ever washed your hair with bar soap, you know this yields awful results. That’s because bar soap has a high pH which leads to an open, rough cuticle. High quality shampoo/conditioner bars will be pH adjusted to match that of the hair follicle so cuticles can close and allow hair to feel soft and smooth.
VR’s Top Pick: Simpl Bars
This woman-owned small business in Santa Barbara, CA has crafted some of the best shampoo and conditioner bars on the market, while keeping pricing accessible. They are free of all offensive ingredients mentioned above and instead, made from organic oils/butters, gentle surfactants, essential oils, and natural colorants. The best part: they work really well! We carry several in our shop formulated for various hair types.
2. “Natural” liquid haircare in refillable forms.
It’s easy to learn how to use shampoo bars (my 76 year old mother has made the switch!), but if you simply can’t get used to a solid format, refillable options are the way to go.
VR’s Top Picks:
Out of San Francisco, CA, this brand’s all-natural haircare products are formulated with gentle surfactants, vitamins, botanicals and essential oils. Though packaged in recycled plastic for shower-safety, you can refill your bottle endlessly in our shop, or bring your own container.
From Santa Fe, NM, this queer woman-owned brand formulates salon quality products that are non-gendered, non-toxic, and free of synthetic fragrance. They deliver high performance with low environmental impact. We carry several products from this brand, all available by refill. Though higher priced, these products last a LONG time. A 4oz bottle of texture mist typically lasts me 6-8 months (vs the 2 months I’d get from a typical 4 oz aerosol hairspray can). After 6 months of using their Hair Healer, I’ve noticed a big reduction in breakage and dryness, which in turn leads to fuller looking hair.
Sustainable Packaging Doesn’t Equal Recyclable
Recycling won’t save us from our waste crisis. We have to reduce the packaging we’re buying and reuse or refill what’s already been made. At the Village Refillery, you can bring your own upcycled containers to dispense hair products from our bulk containers. You can use a free, sanitized container from our shop’s collection of donated containers. Or you can purchase a new glass or aluminum bottle and refill it in the future.
Ready to make the switch?
In May, get 50% off any conditioner product when you purchase shampoo!
If you’re a VR Insider, you can take advantage of this month’s Insider promotion and get half off any conditioner we carry by purchasing a shampoo bar or liquid shampoo. Not an Insider? No problem. Simply join below to get the promo code for this month’s deal!
Citations:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1600-0536.1995.tb00470.x
Johannes Reiner G. Asio, Janice S. Garcia, Charalabos Antonatos, Janice B. Sevilla-Nastor, Lorele C. Trinidad. Sodium lauryl sulfate and its potential impacts on organisms and the environment: A thematic analysis. Emerging Contaminants, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2023, 100205, ISSN 2405-6650, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emcon.2023.100205.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405665023000033)