What’s in Your Shampoo?
Written by laurel - who has written 46 posts on Green Thinking Blog.
As I was enjoying the salon shampoo at my hair stylist this past Friday (isn’t that the best part about going for a haircut or color?), I started thinking about my own shampoo. While I’ve given lots of thought to greening other routines, products, and waste in my life, I hadn’t really considered my shampoo or conditioner. As you may or may not know, you hair and scalp are very absorbent just like your skin. Whether we like it or not, we are surely absorbing some ingredients that we put in our hair and on our scalp.
After doing a little research, I found out that it’s best to avoid shampoo and conditioners that contain parabens, synthetic fragrances, petroleum products, alcohol, formaldehyde (ew!!), sodium lauryl sulfate, phthalates, or any brands that test on animals. TreeHugger warns against using any products that contain palm oil. There is some alarming evidence that palm oil is a huge contributor of global warming. If you want to know what some of those scary chemical ingredients really are, check out TreeHugger’s “Getting Techie” guide found here.
I’m going to try out a couple of the following shampoos listed here (listed from cheapest to most expensive). Have you tried any eco-friendly or natural hair care products that you like? Give me a shout if you have.
- Whole Foods Market 365 Everyday Value in Herbal Mint, 32 oz, $4
- Burts Bees, Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet Shampoo, 12 oz, $8
- Surya Henna Restorative Shampoo - Color Fixation, 8.45 oz, $9
- BeeCeuticals Organics, Bee Hair Now Shampoo, 12 oz, $10
- Max Green Alchemy Scalp Rescue Shampoo, 8.8 oz, $15
- Miessence Desert Flower Shampoo, 8.5 oz, $20.95
I know that some of these shampoos are expensive, and hair care may or may not be a priority for you. But, I challenge myself and I challenge you to just take a closer look at what products you’re using and whether or not they could be toxic to you or your family. Just as a note, I don’t claim to be an expert on chemical ingredients, so if you disagree with any of these choices, feel free to leave a comment! Just leave us a suggestion of a better product so we can try it out!
All this talk about shampoo has me thinking about that great ’90s movie Curly Sue. Remember the bathtub scene where they soap up her hair? It’s about 1:20 into the trailer. Anyways, enjoy a little journey into the past! This one’s going on my Netflix queue.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
[...] Pretty by Nature wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhat’s in Your Shampoo? As I was enjoying the salon shampoo at my hair stylist this past Friday (isn’t that the best part about going for a haircut or color?), I started thinking about my own shampoo. While I’ve given lots of thought to greening other routines, products, and waste in my life, I hadn’t really considered my shampoo or conditioner. As you may or may not know, you hair and scalp are very absorbent just like your skin. Whether or not we want to think about it, we are surely absorbin [...]
June 26th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Timely article - I will have to share with a friend. She has been using the Bert’s Bees brand of things, but has become recently rather upset that they have been bought out by Clorox and is really looking for some other things to give a try too. God information though.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Hi Ray, Thanks for leaving a comment. Yeah I heard that about Burt’s Bees, but Clorox is actually doing a great job with their “green” product line, so I doubt they’re going to change any of the Burt’s Bees products. Still, I can see how that buy out is alarming to some people.
But, if your friend wants to try something else, I heard the BeeCeuticals line was really good.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:13 am
You can check out our “Top 10 Green Products to Buy Right Now” post. We talking about the Clorox “green” cleaning products.
http://greenthinkingblog.com/top-10-green-products-to-buy-right-now/
June 30th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Hi Laurel, Have you tried Pureology? I know it is 100% vegan. If price is not an issue,it is a great product.( about $25 for a 10 oz bottle) I carry Joico in my salon. I am not sure of the contents, but it is a great prodect, and a lot less expensive. I’ll check in with you and Kate soon.
July 26th, 2008 at 8:57 am
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