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The Dangers Of Shampoo?

Have you ever wandered through the local health food store and observed the selection of natural hair care products? Have you noticed that the shampoo’s and conditioners have more labeling about what ingredients are NOT in them then there are for what ingredients ARE in them?

Here are ten reasons why:

  1. Of the twenty or so ingredients in the average shampoo, only about three of them actually have anything to do with cleaning your hair.
  2. Roughly two-thirds of the average bottle’s volume serves a purpose other than cleaning your hair.
  3. Nearly one-fourth of the ingredients are there simply to thicken the shampoo. Some of these thickening ingredients are benign, others not so much. Here are some commonly used thickeners: Glycol distearate, salt, cetyl alcohol, ammonium xylene sulfonate and others.
  4. Some of the non-cleansing ingredients are put there to increase lather. Chemicals such as cocamide MEA and the plastic PEG-7M.
  5. Coloring and sparkling agents are added as well. Chemicals used for coloring have a tainted history. Remember good old red dye no. 3 that was finally banned in the 1990’s?
  6. Inorder to create a desired smell, shampoos are laced with ingredients that manufacturers are not required to list the ingredients for. Some may be toxic, while others are benign.
  7. A silicone-based chemical called dimethicone that is found in caulking, Silly Putty, and herbicides is used in many shampoo’s as a conditioning agent to replace some of the natural oils removed while washing.
  8. Countless ingredients like fruits, vitamins, herbs etc. are added for what may or may not be beneficial health reasons. They certainly don’t add much utility to the cleansing properties.
  9. All of the differen’t non-detergent additives need to be preserved, and so preservatives are added to the mix. Sodium Benzoate ring a bell?
  10. Natural shampoo manufacturers focus on creating a product that cleans your hair and then only has minimal, and natural additives to improve smell etc. These are ten reasons why it matters what isn’t in your shampoo. I hope you find them helpful.