Most people use shampoo when they wash their hair. Most people also brush their teeth with toothpaste and wash their dishes with dish soap. Most people use different kinds of foaming products every day. Do you ever stop to think about what chemicals are causing the bubbles and foam reaction? What I discovered was shocking and disturbing. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, a surfactant, was the culprit.
This chemical sodium lauryl sulfate, SLS for short, was the reason why my hair was dry, breaking, and possibly balding; why my skin felt water resistant and irritated after getting out of the shower; why my taste buds would stop detecting sweet.
SLS, a chemical found in hundreds of commonly used products, like bar and liquid soap, shampoo, car degreaser, laundry detergent, dish soap, and even some mascaras, was doing way more damage to my body than good. In its final report on the safety of sodium lauryl sulfate, the Journal of the American College of Toxicology states that this ingredient has a "degenerative effect on the cell membranes because of its protein denaturing properties." Moreover, the journal adds, "high levels of skin penetration may occur at even low use concentration." This is just the beginning of what I found out.
I had been having trouble with my hair drying out and breaking off. No matter what I did, nothing seemed to help with putting moisture back in my hair and scalp. It wasn’t until I started watching Youtube videos with women with similar problems I had that I discover what kinds of affects SLS had on my body.
While researching on the internet about the effects of SLS on my hair, I discovered that different ethnicities have different shaped hair follicles. Follicles are tiny organs located in the dermis layer of the skin that makes hair and has sebaceous glands. These glands produce sebum, which causes the oily feeling on the body; particularly the face and scalp.
People with straight hair tend to wash their hair more often because of the oil produces from their sebaceous glands. Oil travels down straight hair with ease, however curly and kinky hair makes it difficult for oil to coat the hair. The straighter the hair, the straighter the hair follicles; if the hair is curlier or kinky grade, the follicles tend to be twisted and hooked. Curly and kinky hair need a lot more added in moisture, unlike straight hair, which sebum naturally flows down. When you add the stripping effect of SLS, it makes it virtually impossible for non-straight hair to be hydrated.
When washing my hair with sulfate shampoos, I never realized the stripped feeling my hair had was due to SLS taking away dirt, oil, and sebum. SLS in shampoo is what’s causing the shampoo to lather. With my hair washed with any sulfate shampoo, Pantene, Herbal Essences; and Dove to name a few, followed by a Polydimethylsiloxane conditioner(a silicone based product found in numerous conditioning products), my hair would be a huge, dry, frizzy mess. Split end would come rapidly because I could not prevent my hair from losing moisture. And I could never get my hair passes a certain length because my ends were always breaking.
The need we have to wash our hair with bubbles is still somewhat of a modern idea. The word shampoo was derived from Hindi word chāmpo, which meant head massage, usually done with essential oils and water as early as the 1760’s. Fast forward the 1860’s, bar soap starts to be used in hair. And in the 1930s, corporation Procter & Gamble created Drene shampoo, the first to use synthetic surfactants like SLS.
So what is the real harm in SLS? The facts are SLS a “known irritant”, meaning if left on the skin to long it will cause redness and and break the skin out. And it’s known to cause hair breakage from removing natural oils and moisture from hair. It “promotes hair follicles to stop producing hair with just a 5% solution, which can lead to premature hair lost,” states hairlostbuddy.com.
I know this to personally be true because my Grandmother was a user of Drene shampoo and lost all her hair before she was thirty-five to what she thought was Alopecia, a disease that causes bald patches in the scalp. Scary to think that SLS is usually the second most used ingredient in shampoos, only to water. And we as consumers have no idea what percentage of this chemical is being used in our products. This set a red flag up for me, causing me to be more aware of the chemicals that I use.
There are more reasons to not use SLS in products; it also has a great affect on my mouth. SLS is used to create the bubbles in toothpaste and a bitter side effect is it blocks taste buds from sensing sweet. When you eat after brushing, sweet food tastes weird. Others more important reasons are the effects SLS has on your skin inside your mouth. “SLS has been linked to canker sores” and “has been linked to gum disease”, from what saveyoursmile.com reads.
SLS has also been linked to damaging protein formation in the eyes of young children, which can cause blindness by affecting the ocular tissue. The younger the child, the more damaging affects SLS can have long term. Zeller’s Natural Health said there are some doctors that say SLS can also cause cataracts in older adults. There is also evidence that SLS remains in the body for a certain period of time. Skin is the largest organ of the human body; SLS penetrates through the skin and stays in cells. This has a direct affect on the time it takes a person to heal. A cut or scrape that would normally take 2-3 days might take 5-10 days to heal with SLS involved.
So why do corporations use SLS in their products? If the long term use is potentially damaging, why harm their consumers? The answers are simple and mostly greed inspired. It’s much cheaper to use SLS than a more natural alternative. SLS can be purchased for as little as 25 cents per pound. When formulating shampoos, it only takes salt to thicken the formula, making it easier and less complicated to use than a sulfate free shampoo. Large corporations cut corners by using the cheapest ingredients possible. If you read the ingredients, chances are great your product will contain SLS or a variation of, exposing your body to the harmful effects of SLS on a regular basis.
At this point you might feel a little overwhelmed. Well if 90% of products have this harmful SLS, how can I avoid using it? This answer is simple, however might require you to make a life style change. Always read the ingredients used in your products and buy products that are sulfate free. Try to shop at more naturally geared stores like Trader Joes or Whole Foods Market, chances are they offer sulfate free products. Brands like Shea Moisture, Aubrey Organics, and Whole Food’s brand 365 offer sulfate free shampoos. Tom’s Natural and Jason offer sulfate free toothpaste. And Dr. Bronner and Pacifica have quite a selection of body washes that are sulfate free. They might be a little more as far as price, but long term use won’t affect your body negatively.
The bottom line is, SLS is known to do harmful things to the body when exposed either by long term exposure or by a certain concentrate percentage. Not enough research has been preformed to definitively say SLS should never be used. It is useful foaming agent used for cleaning; however, why take the chance when there are other products that are just as effective at cleaning out bodies. In my opinion, I would rather be healthy than have bubbles.
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