This post is not for our toddlers because I’m assuming we all still either use soap or body wash on their hair. No, this is for us. And, I guess, for anyone with older children. But it’s something to think about for when that day comes when we do need to start purchasing hair care products for our kids.
Unfortunately, our shampoos and conditioners are not exempt from the chemical laden messes we are seeing everywhere else and dissecting. The main problem is the sulfate class of ingredients – which are known skin irritants, possible carcinogens, and may actually contribute to hair loss and thinning – including Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Lareth Sulfate and Myreth Sulfate. To break it down, sulfates are surfactants, chemicals created to interact with “surfaces” and to trap oil and whisk it away, and at the same time to make alot of foamy lather. Let’s face it, part of the trouble natural products have is that they don’t foam the way the products we’re used to do, and we have all been taught to associate lather with effectiveness, even though that is not the case. Apparently the foaming actually arises because the surfactants are trapping around air instead of oil, so in a way it’s a sign that the product is not working full force.
So why do the manufacturers use it? Apparently because it’s super cheap. It’s the same ingredient used in car washes and household products to get rid of grease. It’s everywhere. But now that people are starting to read what’s in the products they use it was only a matter of time before the big companies began turning out sulfate-free shampoos because they realize the huge market for it (i.e. Loreal’s new EverPure). That’s great and I applaud the effort, but count me as skeptical that the other 25 ingredients in the products they sell are any healthier for me. And my concern seems valid when you read this from TruthInAging.com:
At first glance, I was feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about my new EverPure Smooth Shampoo…but then things begin to go downhill. Additional primary cleansers and foaming agents include sodium lauryl sulfoacetate, which can be an irritant and isn’t considered very mild nor natural, and disodium laureth sulfosuccinate, which the Cosmetics Database actually rates as a moderate hazard ingredient because of its potential to carry ethylene oxide and 1,4 dioxane, known toxins and carcinogens. Sodium lauroyl sarcosinate is even worse, since it actually increases absorption levels, and can be contaminated with nitrosamines. There are also a number of PEGs, preservatives (like methylisothiazolinone, a human skin toxicant according to the CIR), and some irritating fragrance ingredients, although natural juniperus communis fruit oil and rosemary oil do provide the pleasant juniper and rosemary scent. L’Oreal may have gotten rid of the harsh sulfates, but it seems to have replaced them with unsavory substitutes. Perhaps it is 100% vegan, but after close examination of the ingredients list, that seems to be a nice marketing attempt to jump on the organic bandwagon without doing any of the work to create a natural product.
And on the flip side of that coin, I’ve tried alot of the “natural” shampoos at Whole Foods and the truth is that they just weren’t good. This is always a big problem when trying to go natural: either their claim to being natural is not entirely truthful or they are truthful and just not effective.
I came across this great website about a year ago, Killer Strands, which sells only sulfate-free shampoos and conditioners, in addition to having professional quality hair coloring that you can do at home. I’m only in it for the shampoos and conditioners though, and the first time I visited the site I remember reading something that struck me as so true: if your shampoo is really good for you, unless you have super kinky hair or extenuating circumstances, you should not need a conditioner. That basically conditioners were developed as another product to sell you, and mainly because the shampoos don’t do their job. That all you should really need is maybe a leave-in conditioner spray. And since I started using their products all that has turned out to be true. Fortunately though, the shampoos and conditioners that she’s selling on Killer Strands are both harsh chemical free and effective. I’d never heard of some of these brands but apparently the Sudzz above is a cult favorite of Jennifer Aniston who’s made a good amount of her fame through association with some pretty great hair.
After I posted about the “Story of Cosmetics” and the amount of the at best unnecessary and at worst harmful products in some of the washes for kids, someone asked me to recommend specifically some soaps that we had used with Miss P. In this household we are big fans of good, old-fashioned bars of soap. They work, the process to make them is less complicated and, most importantly, they are easier to handle when washing down a child. Grabbing a jar or pump is fine, it’s not like it puts me out, but sometimes it can become tedious to have to keep going back to it again and again to squeeze out more. Overall the bars are cheaper, easier and last longer. They just don’t usually make the cut because everyone wants their cute packaging instead of a bar.of.soap. Not exciting people, just useful. Of course not all soaps are made the same, but here are some that we’ve used with Miss P that were truly all-natural, long-lasting and hard workers: the Avocado Soap from Dimpleskins, Saipua Soap (which is a bit more artisanal), and the Erbaviva baby soap which is about double the price of the others but I’m thinking that’s just because they’re so big that they a)have to cover their costs, and b)well, they can. But again, you’ll spend close to the same on a bottle of wash. We just think of bars of soap as going faster but the truth is that with such little kids they really do last a l-o-n-g time. Itty bitties.
Of course you can just go to your local health food store and buy something off the shelf if you don’t want to wait. We’re fans of the Kirk’s Naturals brand they sell at Whole Foods which is made from pure coconut oil, the most hydrating thing there is. The company does say that their products are only 99% natural as there is a small amount of synthetic fragrance, though. Not sure how I feel about that. Mainly I think to myself, if Kirk’s has that small amount of fragrance I can only imagine what the other products have, so they win by default. But that’s also why the Internet is such a great place – you can search for producers creating small batch, hand-crafted products. My next try is going to be this pure goat milk soap from Beekman 1802, the specialty merchandiser. Their ingredients come from goats that graze on their land and the manufacturing process is all done by hand. It would seem that alot of things done in that manner can still be pretty useful.
A little over one year ago the Environmental Working Group published their “No More Toxic Tub” report which listed well-known brands and their well-known products which (conversely not well-known) contained harmful substances which were not required to be listed on the labels. By far the biggest fallout was for Johnson & Johnson, whose iconic baby shampoo was among those listed as containing formaldehyde in questionable levels as well as additives that posed problems. The green mom blogosphere went wild and the posts about it were swift and intense. And over the last year that momentum has only been building, leading up to this class action lawsuit just recently approved to sue the company for selling products known to contain carcinogens.
So you can imagine my surprise (and yet, not entirely surprise since this is the way the markets work) when I’m reading my Kiwi magazine the other day and see a 4-page insert from Johnson & Johnson which touts its new “Natural” line. If you click through to the website, the company states that their:
long-standing commitment to pure, mild and gentle baby skin care has driven us to set a new standard: the BEST FOR BABY NATURALS™ Standard.
Excuse me while I, um, cough. Yeah, not so much. The wording on the advertising insert seems to say it all: “The label says “natural.” But how do you really know everything is good for your baby? Look for us in the baby products aisle (in the environmentally responsible recyclable green bottles)” Wow. No subtlety there. They go from being the problem to the alleged solution in the span of one year. And the company doesn’t stop there. They are reaching for a certain demographic whom they have fallen out of favor with and that person is conscious of the choices they make, so the advertisement lists that it “uses recycled paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. It was printed with soy-based, non-toxic inks by a company that runs on wind power.”
Right there is the proof that knowledge really is power and that the choices you are making everyday are having a tremendous impact. Whatever shortcuts a company needs to take in order to get us a cheap product will no longer work en masse. J&J is no more doing this because they care about being environmentally responsible, but they don’t need to be doing it for that reason so long as they do it. They’re market driven, bottom line, and it’s their job to produce money for their shareholders. That’s not a terrible thing if the market demands products which are safe and ecologically friendly, then everyone wins. Except that obviously requires an informed consumer. And that’s where we come in. Where your money goes, the market will follow. So feel good about the ways you’re questioning your purchases, because it’s having an effect.
When it came to finding the right bath product for Miss P I remember looking at ingredient lists and thinking, “but she’s not even really dirty…” why do I need all of this stuff when all she’s doing is lying in her crib and in our arms?? The ingredients list in the baby washes was so long and mystifying I just didn’t get the correlation to what we needed it for. Is all this really necessary to wipe some sweat off her? Not to mention that she was just so small. Whatever I put on her skin was going to be immediately absorbed and processed into her system. It just didn’t make sense. So I started doing research on non-toxic baby washes and was even more surprised at what I found there. Since the terms “organic” and “natural” are not truly regulated by the FDA, they actually, unfortunately, mean nothing. A company can write “organic” on their packaging simply because they have one product that was organically sourced, but it doesn’t negate the rest of the ingredients. Even a well-marketed and well-regarded product like Little Twig’s baby wash can include as its number three ingredient “cocoamidopropylbetaine”, which gets a “5″ out of 10 health hazard rating over at Skin Deep.
What seemed to make the most sense was the shortest and most understandable list of ingredients: some good oils to keep her skin moisturized, a mild cleansing agent, and a stabilizer/natural preservative where necessary. Sounds easy, but it actually wasn’t. We ordered a handful of things from the Internet including Erbaviva sachets and their bar of baby soap, the Original Sprout baby wash, and a smaller brand called Emily’s Skin Soothers, in addition to some bars of soap. At the end of it all, what has gotten the most usage has been the bars of soap and Emily’s Skin Soothers. (The Erbaviva sachets smell like an oatmealy/lavender heaven, but they left a residue in the tub that just made things more complicated, and the Original Sprout I ended up sending to a friend whose daughter was having horrible eczema.)
I think in the near future it won’t be this difficult to find simple, responsible baby products. After the Environmental Working Group’s published its No More Toxic Tub report in 2009 – - which really went after Johnson & Johnson for having formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane in its baby bath products, two ingredients which in combination create a reaction that is a known carcinogen – things have gotten going in earnest. Since then the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 has been introduced to Congress, which has as its stated aim to “help ensure that all personal care products are safe by establishing a common-sense system to assess the safety of cosmetics ingredients and to phase out the most harmful substances that are highly suspected of causing cancer, reproductive harm or other serious health issues.”
If you want to support the legislation and let your representatives know that you care about how they vote on this issue, visit this page with its easy auto-fill to send a letter to your local rep. It’s really as simple as that.
Who doesn’t relish the thought of a pedicure? Of one hour to have your feet massaged and primped, to read gossip rags, to let your body rise and fall to the chair massager’s whim? Pregnant women, that’s who. I mean, they like the idea of it, but they are more and more scared about getting their nails done on a regular basis because of all the chemicals in the removers and polishes. The problem is three-fold - toluene, formaldehyde, and phthalates – and we already have an inkling of their existence before anyone tells us (I mean, in a confined space that smell is nothing short of nauseating).
Thankfully, there’s been such a ruckus over this that it seems the mega-brand OPI finally introduced a formula here in the US that does not contain any of the three chemicals (they already had this in production for their European market, where the rules are more strict). But the same can’t be said for nail polish removers, which contain acetone and ethyl acetate, known carcinogens. In a move sure to make zero sense, it wasn’t until after Miss P was born that I finally started bringing my own non-toxic nail polish to the salon. They’ve never given me a problem over that. The next step, though, is to bring my own non-toxic nail polish remover, which is definitely a step beyond since you’re basically saying, “I don’t want to use anything you have here, I just need your labor.” But hey, if they’re smart they’ll think, “great, saves me money for materials!”
I had tried the well-publicized Acquarella remover as well as the brands they carry at Whole Foods. They were each terribly disappointing. (A well-worn emotion when it comes to looking for non-toxic alternatives.) Until I ordered Priti which smells divine and completely works. The consistency is a bit more like oil, so you definitely feel a difference. But because of that it’s also non-drying, so that parching thing acetone does to your nostrils and skin is gone forever. Incidentally it was named best polish remover for Elle magazine’s “Green Beauty Stars.” The great thing now is that when Miss P wants to use nail polish – which she more than likely will – now I won’t have to worry about what I’m letting her do to herself in the name of beauty. Now if only her mother can walk the walk when she goes into the salon next time…
This post is not for our toddlers because I’m assuming we all still either use soap or body wash on their hair. No, this is for us. And, I guess, for anyone with older children. But it’s something to think about for when that day comes when we do need to start purchasing hair care products for our kids.
