What’s Inside Your Beauty Products

While going to the grocery store and checking the labels for nutritional facts and ingredients seems the norm, have you ever stopped to think about the ingredients in the beauty products that you use on a daily basis? I have to admit that it never occurred to me until my head began to itch and feel like it was burning. I thought I had bugs crawling around my scalp. I never had dandruff and never needed medicated shampoos. I was tired of using the same shampoo and conditioner and ventured out to buy a different brand and scent.

It is amusing how we buy products based on its appearance and scent rather than its ingredients? I was at a local grocery store and picked up a cool looking bottle of shampoo (its name which I will not disclose) and sniffed. It smelled clean and summery so I bought it.  Upon bringing it home I used it and loved the smell of my hair.  Over the course of a couple of weeks my scalp felt like it was being raided by ants. I had someone tell me I might be pregnant and my scalp was adjusting to my hormones. One person said it might have been the change of shampoo. Another person said it could be that after all these years dandruff had finally plagued my head.  Curious to all the assumptions made, I decided to check out the ingredients of this said “smell good” product.  I’m not going to lie and say that I knew what the words meant when I read the bottle, but when I looked them up it was disturbing.

We think that just because the bottle informs us on the great benefits of moisturized hair, and fresh curls that we are in the clear of any harmful chemicals. But what are these chemicals in the bottles that make our hair so fresh and clean?  Some of these names are hard to pronounce even harder to spell at times.  With that said let me explain to you some of the effects of using products with these sorts of ingredients: Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLS) & Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), Parabens: methlyparaben, propylparaben, & ethylparaben, Phthalates (fragrance), Formaldehyde, Ethanolamines and Propylene glycol. In some of the definitions it states that these chemicals are toxins that seep into your scalp and can be hormone disruptors. Other definitions said that they were a main ingredient in brake fluid and antifreeze not recommended for human skin (NO KIDDING)! Formaldehyde is used to preserve dead things, such as frogs for a biology class. Do you seriously want that in your hair? Phthalates was removed from baby bottles for health impairments. Other ingredients help to produce carcinogens which are substances or agents that tend to produce a type cancer. The list goes on and on. So the next time you go in to buy shampoo or any other “beauty” product, check the ingredients. Go organic, or make home-made products that are safer and gentler with your hair skin.

Remember that in the long run your hair and body will thank you for using the more natural and safer alternatives.