Shampoos – Safe or Unsafe?

There’s been a lot of discussion among my friends lately on whether or not shampooing one’s hair is safe. Snork brought this delimma to our attention around the first of the year, after she decided that she would be a slave to fashion and hygiene no more, and embarked upon a quest to go from Pantene lovely to no shampoo grunge.

OK, so maybe she didn’t set out to get to grunge. But there she is now – at grunge. Poor girl, I feel sorry for her, and I tried to help her out but it doesn’t seem to be doing much good. I do have a hunch that I know why she’s having such a waxy problem right now, though. I remember years ago being told by several hair care experts that Pantene is not good for your hair, because what makes it look and feel so slick is wax. It stands to reason that if Snork has been using Pantene for years, the waxy build up would be significant, and as such … well, it’s going to take a long while for that stuff to exit her head, won’t it? I feel really bad for her, because she’s trying to do the right thing, but in the end, if her co-workers avoid her and her man pulls away from her hugs, is it worth it?

Now, I have a product that can be used as both a shampoo and a body wash. I love body washes, though I typically avoid them in the winter months, thanks to unfortunate dry skin issues. I do love the one I have though, and I use it occasionally in the winter and almost exclusively during the summer months (there is this post’s confession). My niece Kourtney LOVES it for her hair. When I first considered offering it, I did the research to ensure that the ingredients were safe, and according to everything I found, they are. But in light of Snork’s insistence on not using shampoo, and the internet’s underground no-shampoo club, I decided to do a little more research. This is what I found out. I’ll provide links and hopefully some helpful information so you can make the decision for yourself.

First of all, my dad has always said that “Living leads to dying” and of course, that’s difficult to argue. I am all for healthy living, and doing whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better. And I’m all for eliminating those things in life that you feel are bad for you and your family. But you simply cannot eliminate every single element that may cause cancer or might otherwise be bad for you. Unless you live on farm in the middle of nowhere, grow your own food, raise your own animals, make everything you need including clothing, food, cleaning supplies and furniture, you’re going to come into contact with something that’s not good for you. The trick is determining what things are most likely to have the biggest impact on your health and do what you can to eliminate those.

The chemicals that seem to cause the most concern for non-shampooers is isopropyl alcohol, propylene glycol (PG) and butylene glycol, and Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES).  I wouldn’t want to use a shampoo with isopropyl alcohol in it either, unless my hair was extremely oily. It’s very drying and I just don’t see how it could be good for the hair. I suspect that for those with dandruff, isopropyl alcohol would be like throwing fuel on a fire. Fortunately, it’s not one of the ingredients in my shampoo.

Next is propylene glycol (PG) – which IS  in my shampoo base. According to this website, propylene glycol penetrates skin and weakens cellular structure. AND it removes barnacles from boats. But there’s no source for that information, and I read several sites that gave no indication that either of these claims are true. I don’t like to use Wikipedia as a source for anything, but this article is well sourced and seems to be in agreement (and much easier to read and understand) with the other sites I’ve found that discuss propylene glycol and it’s health risks. In short, there is no real effect either to skin or eyes when using products that contain PG. Rats had to ingest significant amounts for it to affect them, but after they were removed from the PG diet, the results were reversed in time. If you’re going to give up shampoo for this product, be ready to also give up milk, cheeses, vanilla extract and other vanilla flavorings, among other items. One final word about PG … the ASPCA recommends the use of PG containing anti-freeze over ethylene glycol, because it generally will not kill an animal that drinks it. So if you hear that it’s used in “anti-freeze and de-icers” realize that it’s used as a safe alternative to ethylene glycol that has traditionally been used in those products.

Butylene glycol is also considered quite safe. It appears that the majority of the hype surrounding glycols is actually because of ethylene glycol, which is mentioned above. Ethylene glycol is fatal to animals at fairly low doses – one source said that it only took a few tablespoons to kill cat or dog, but I couldn’t find exact doses that would cause that. It is considered a poison, whereas the others are not. At any rate, butylene glycol is not listed on my ingredient list, so I will not pursue further it at this point.

Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) are next on the list of harmful chemicals. In 1976, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review was formed to test the ingredients used in cosmetics. They have found that SLS and SLES pose no significant health risk to humans in small quantities and without prolonged exposure. I don’t know about you, but I don’t wash my hair and then leave the soap there. I rinse it out, usually within a minute or so of working it into a lather. In these concentrations and applications, SLS has been deemed safe. You may notice that this link does mention skin and eye irritation, but many natural ingredients will cause the same effect – my daughter cannot use anything with lavender in it because she is allergic to lavender. My shampoo uses Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate and Ammonium Laureth Sulfate both of which have been deemed safe in the concentrations found in shampoos and other cosmetic ingredients. Indeed, the claims made by Nature Moms that “[a]nimals exposed to SLS experienced eye damage, depression, labored breathing, diarrhea, severe skin irritation and even death” could not be found or substantiated. And again, they have no source information on the site as to where that came from, so I cannot substantiate it.

All I’m suggesting is that you have to make the determination for yourself. I personally see nothing that would give me a reason to stop using shampoo, if that’s what I wanted to use. I do use my label at times, and sometimes I use one of my bar soaps. The truth is, it all depends on what I’m feeling when I get into the shower. Because of his eczema problem, my 15 year old son prefers to use soap that I make, and that’s ok too. Like I said at the beginning of this post, the only way to keep yourself completely safe is to know where each and every component of each and every product you use comes from, and that simply isn’t possible.

I wouldn’t recommend that Snork go back to using Pantene, because I never recommend it to anyone. But I see no reason for her to try to keep using water on her hair – because let’s face it. Municiple water isn’t that clean anyway, and if you’re using it to “wash” already unclean hair without some sort of cleanser … all you’re doing is making your dirty hair wet. And no one likes the smell of dirty wet hair.

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