I’ve been having some of the worst hair days I may have ever had in my life lately and now every time I wash my hair I wonder what else I could be doing to fix the damage. I was looking around my shower, looking at the ingredients in my “volume and bounce,” “clarifying,” shampoos, and noticed that every single damn shampoo had sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate. That’s pretty much the main ingredients everyone says to stay away from, but why?
I wanted to dive deeper into what the ingredients are and why we all should be reading the label and staying away from them… so you don’t have to.
According to the FDA, under the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 (as recent as April 2018,) sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is used as an additive used as an emulsifier (holds ingredients together/food thickener,) a whipping agent (fluffy texture,) and a surfactant (provides the lather). Aka you can find this is a hell of a lot more products than just your shampoos, great. Sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) is pretty much the same thing expect they’re manufactured differently, SLES is formulated to be gentler and less of a skin-irritatant.
For the purpose of this blog I’m going to focus mostly on shampoos so we all don’t get lost in an enormous post of all the ways SLS and SLES are adding into our everyday products. Here’s a full list of the FDA Food Additives & Ingredients list if you’re interested in seeing where else it’s added or others on the list.
I’ll admit, I love a good lather when it comes to my shampoos because I have fine, greasy hair that gets weighed down and dirty within a day. A good lather is also the only way I know I’m getting into all the nooks and crannies. To be honest, I don’t look at the ingredients for haircare as much as I should, and I’m a sucker for packaging and smelly-good things. If I can put a cute bottle in my shower for less than 15 bucks, have it keep my hair clean for at least one FULL day, and have it make me smell like a flowy, flower goddess than I will buy it. My no-questions-asked attitude is probably not the best way to go, but the beauty community is flooded with products and I’m over-stimulated.
I also don’t want to scare myself into not using the only shampoo I can afford right now, and I’m sure a lot of people feel the same way. I can’t afford organic or luxury products especially for things as regularly used as shampoo, and a lot of other people can’t either. “As a result, people usually don’t have the “luxury” of searching what are the newly discovered health hazards,” says El-Sharkawy (538). More importantly, people usually rely on the fact that if it’s being sold to the public, then it has to be safe for public use, but a lot of us have learned that’s not always the case. But why does “sulfate-free” interest the public, and why are we not supposed to use shampoos that contain sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, or any of the other similar surfactants in our beauty routine?
Here’s what I’ve found: SLS and SLES are cheap and effective foaming agents, which is why they are so widely used, and as they run down the drain are 99% biodegradable and nontoxic to the environment according to the University of Washington’s toxicity study by Bondi et al in 2015. They are used “… in dish soap, laundry detergent, stain remover, carpet cleaner, car wash, car engines degreaser and garage floor cleaner,” says El-Sharkawy in his introduction. So, yes, that can be a little scary knowing you could be using the same product on your head as your mechanic is using on your car, but not all products are created equally. SLS and SLES usage ranges from 0.01% to 50% in cosmetics, and 1 to 30% in cleaning products and lots of shampoos use different ratios and ingredients to find their perfect mix. Although SLS and SLES can damage hair follicles and skin, cause eye irritations, and tangle hair it hasn’t been proven to be unsafe for public use (El-Sharkawy 535). Wait is that why my hair is a bird’s nest after the shower? El-Sharkawy also urges that the public be aware in what is being marketed to them because some brands that use terms like “all natural,” and “herbal,” but still SLS or SLES. I’ll do a separate post on product labeling and marketing in the future for terms like “certified organic” and things like that.
The biggest claim against sulfates seems to be that they are carcinogenic, meaning they can cause cancer to your body tissue, as well as that they cause internal damage to the blood stream, heart, lungs, etc., through dermal absorption. According to the Bondi et al study, “SLS is not listed as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC); U.S. National Toxicology Program; California Proposition 65 list of carcinogens; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and the European Union” (29). I found it interesting that they later mentioned the association of SLS or SLES and 1,4-dioxane (categorized as a potential carcinogen) being carcinogenic through manufacturing contamination, but should and can be tested for consumer use (29). This means that cross contamination is possible, but avoidable. They also quickly dismiss the claim of topical toxicity by saying that our bodies absorb anything left over, turn it into a water-soluble metabolites, and our bodies break down and turn it to waste (30). I think the problem is that there isn’t much hard, in-your-face evidence stating that sulfates are toxic or cancer-causing to consumers.
A study done in 2011 by Ghana F. El-Sharkawy at the Public Health & Community Medicine Department at Zagazig University in Egypt found that 81% of higher educated participants were unaware of what the ingredient [SLS] was or knowingly used the products anyways, and 94% wanted to change their products and/or become more aware of their products by the end of the study. El-Sharkawy mentions that it’s important to note that people outside the U.S. where English was not the primary language, have trouble knowing what they were using. There are a lot of products printed in very fine English resulting in not knowing what the ingredients were and using it anyways. The knowledge of possible irritations made a lot of people want to look into their products more, but the study doesn’t specifically state if the majority stopped using the product after learning more about the ingredient itself.
So, for me it comes down to the fact that yes, SLS and SLES strip your hair in order to give it a real clarifying wash and people with sensitive skin, rosacea, eczema, or irritation-prone skin should use with caution, but that it’s recommended haircare products don’t exceed more than 1% SLS to avoid the problem of hair loss (Bondi et al 30). For example, Head & Shoulders, a shampoo marketed towards people with dandruff looking for scalp-saving benefits, uses a mix of SLS and SLES to find a “gentle balance” according to their website.
Some of the most popular haircare brands, the ones you see flat-laying all over Instagram use SLS, SLES, or some form of the ingredient. Ouai ✓, Oribe✓, Amika, Kristin Ess, Living proof, IGK, Kérastase✓, Briogio, Devacurl, etc. I looked at the ingredient list for the shampoos that were supposed to be for repairing, restoring, i.e., assumingly their most gentle formulas. The checks mean they use sulfates, but I found that all the ones that don’t use sulfates still have comparable ingredients that can cause irritation and drying, like Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate found in Amika’s the kure repair shampoo. Kristin Ess uses Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, which is a surfactant made from fatty acids in coconut oil to rinse away the dirt, but may be scalp drying. Similar to Living proof and IGK which use Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate, and Briogio which uses Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate and Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate. Whereas Devacurl specializing in “No-Poo” and “Low-Poo” with their cleansing conditioners don’t need sulfates and use Cocamidopropyl Betaine.
If you’re like me you’re constantly going back and forth with being conscious and blissfully unaware of what you’re putting in and on your body. The truth is it’s intimidating and confusing, and it’s hard to know who to trust. Is it the truth? A trend? Is it a marketing scheme so people spend more money on different products? It’s also a ton of information to understand if you’re not scientifically literate, or don’t have the time. While researching this topic I’ve learned there not much clear information on the topic, especially for the public. I feel like I need to remind you that I don’t have access to tons of scientific journals, most journals don’t release the newest data so I’m working off of numbers and information from a few years ago. I’ve cited all my research and feel free to get lost in the world of SLS and SLES and all the other names for the ingredient, but it seems there’s just not a ton of information for me to tell you to stop using the product completely. I can recommend, like everyone else, that you try your hardest to only wash your hair a couple times a week, but that’s it for now. I’ll update you guys as I find the information.
If you’ve scrolled down to find the answer, here it is: sulfates do not have enough scientific proof yet to back up the fact that it is too harshly irritating, toxic, and/or carcinogenic.
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