The Chemicals Behind Unhealthy, Thinning, And Breaking Hair
Hey, y'all!
It's me, Mercy B., here to spill the tea on your beauty products!
So many (I wish more) of us care about the ingredients in our food. But how many of us stop to think about the ingredients of the other things we consume or use every day? There are numerous products out there with ingredients’ lists that practically demand we have a chemistry degree to read them, yet we douse ourselves with them on the daily.
It’s no longer a secret that 90% of our planet is filled with toxins, so I’d like to share some information with you that I've learned over the past 20+ years in the beauty industry.
Let’s start with your shampoo.
As consumers, we've grown accustomed to thinking that something doesn’t truly clean unless it contains water or harsh chemicals that STRIP away dirt, grime, and smell. But what’s in those chemicals? And what effects do they have on our hair and skin—not to mention the environment?
Things like laundry detergents, cleaning sprays, and oven cleaners contain detergents and chemicals—can we say sodium hydroxide aka LYE?—which may make sense (or not) when dealing with the mess of baked-on-food or hard-to-remove stains, but not so much when talking about your hair. I always say, your
hair is a delicate fabric—think silk—and needs to be treated as such.
Over the years, clients have sat in my chair with scalp issues, such as dry, damaged, or thinning hair, and are using "medicated" shampoos, which have even more toxic ingredients. Many of these clients have struggled with these issues their entire lives! My heart breaks when I listen to their stories and see the pain these issues cause them. If this is you, please know you aren't alone and there is a solution.
Just like a plant (hello, my fellow plant lovers!), your hair starts at the root. You can’t treat or heal the plant by first addressing the leaves.
At the root of your hair is your scalp. The scalp is probably the most undervalued part of our bodies because it hides under our hair. Yet it is skin, just like the skin on our face. I like to think of the scalp as an extension of the face. Would we ever let our face go unexfoliated, or appear dry or uncared for? Probably not. So why do it to our scalp? The most frequent problem I see is people mistreating their scalps and then blaming the scalp. What we really should be turning an eye toward is the shampoos, habits and routines, as well as the products.
Speaking of plants: most of us know we shouldn’t completely dehydrate the roots and then expect more healthy stems and leaves to grow, right? Same with the scalp. Many of us are dehydrating the scalp, which in turn, shrinks the size of the follicle—the opening where the hair grows from—resulting in super weak, dehydrated hair. Or cessation of hair growth altogether. Then we color, bleach, perm, straighten, curl, brush, and pretty much abuse what hair remains.
You probably get where I'm going with this.
Shampoos contain detergents (sodium hydroxide, sodium lauryl sulphate), which are the same detergents we use to clean our clothes, ovens, and floors. Some detergents are made with different ingredients, such as salts, sugars, coconuts, etc. However, they are still detergents; some may be just a little less harsh.
Detergents are the things that create suds in our shampoos. There’s nothing like a nice squeaky sound after washing our hair right? (Eek!) Those suds, made of detergents and many other things (too many to get into but, you get it), strip away ALL oils (sebum), water (hydration), and dirt—many of the same things your skin actually needs to protect itself and create moisture. Think of an antibiotic that rids the stomach of all bacteria, both good and bad. That’s what the suds/detergents are doing to your hair. The scalp then overproduces sebum to counteract the dehydration and here enters the never-ending cycle of oily scalp—with scalp or skin issues—and wash routine.
It probably looks something like this:
Strip away all the moisture with your shampoos that contain detergents;
Try to replace that moisture by using a conditioner (filled with liquid plastics and heavy waxes, but that’s an article for another time);
Buy treatments, leave-in conditioners, oils, styling products, and heat protectants, etc. to replace what the shampoo has stripped away.
Sounds like a lot of time and money spent that wasn’t necessary!
Now let’s talk about pH (a measure of how acidic/basic water is):
Your hair, skin, and nails sit at a pH of 4.5.
WATER is a pH of 7 (depending on the geographic area).
Detergents are sometimes a pH of 10!
If we use products that contain a high pH, that product is stripping away our built-in natural barrier. We then use more products to try to return our skin to its natural state. But what typically ends up happening is a layer-upon-layer buildup on the scalp and hair, drawing it farther away from where it wants and needs to be naturally.
Remember the beautiful shine and bounce your hair had when you were a child? Before commercials and myths kicked in and you started going to a stylist who was incentivized to sell you products that were marketed really well? In defense of stylists, most don't know any better. They didn’t teach any of this to us in beauty school.
But for some of us, there was an awakening!
Stylists started educating themselves about what was in the products we were using and recommending to clients. And product companies started noting the effects of their ingredients, including: color fade, allergic reactions in clients, and stylists declining to sell their products because of undesirable results. Stylists began recommending shampoos that were free of sulfates (salt-derived detergents) as well as different, more delicate detergents, and telling their clients to shampoo less frequently. Think of these steps as a way to insure that $200 color job, because who buys a Porsche with no insurance?
Over time, product companies have started making better products and providing stylists and clients better options. Organic companies are more mindful of ingredients and are taking out detergents altogether or using more pH-balanced options. Now I know that some people roll their eyes when they see the word “organic.” Or they think it’s a way to charge more for something, but there’s no real difference in the product.
What does this mean for you?
I hope that the information I’ve shared here (and in numerous articles if you like to Google) will help my readers and clients start to see there truly is a difference...and in a very meaningful way.
If you can relate to the topics I covered here, I encourage you to look at the products you are choosing to put on your body. Read the ingredients and make INFORMED decisions from there. No longer should we be choosing products simply based on smell, packaging, marketing, or sheer habit. We can choose our products based on ingredients and what they do to our hair, skin, and environment.
Below are some links to a few of my favorite brands that are toxin-free and contain safer or no detergents. I encourage you to check out their respective mission statements and see if they align with you and your values when it comes to your body and the planet. Consider trying them out. I assure you they are at the top of their tier when it comes to non-toxic products, not to mention sustainable.
And if you’d like to chat further or schedule your first consultation or next hair appointment, you can reach me here!
