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There are a lot of different ingredients, including organic and non-organic, in your average hair products that lead to hair becoming fragile, thin, dry, unmanageable, brittle, frizzy and many other common hair concerns including scalp irritation, color fading, split ends, easy breakage, dandruff, itchiness, flaking and more.
Your hairbrush can also be a contributor to your hair problems. The build-up of dust, hair remnants and stale product residue can be a breeding ground for bacteria that will be transferred into your clean hair. Make sure to clean out the hair on your brush at least every few days and sanitize the bristles with a mild cleanser.
If you’re prone to tying your hair up at night to avoid tangles, you might want to reconsider. Tying your hair up at night, causes your natural oils to become concentrated at the scalp. This prevents the oils from working their way down the whole hair strand leaving hair looking greasy near the root area
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, also known as SLS, and many synonym names, is one of the most common ingredients in modern shampoos. It is also combined with salt to create a rich lather when it reacts to water and the oils in your hair. This makes it appear as a good soap and cleansing agent.
According to the American College of Toxicology, any concentration above 2% will cause irritation of your scalp and may cause dandruff. Most shampoos have between 10% to 20% concentration of SLS.
The National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation says that SLS can deposit in your hair follicles and can slow your hair’s growth and cause your hair to thin. It can also cause new hair to take 8 times longer to grow than normal. The salt used in conjunction with SLS can also dry your hair, making it more brittle, which leads to more breakage.
We’re never surprised to see some form of an alcohol ingredient in a beauty product, but isopropyl alcohol is one that you should make a conscious effort to avoid. Manufacturers use this in antifreeze, which should be your first red flag. Not only is isopropyl alcohol highly toxic when inhaled, it has a significant drying effect on the hair that essentially sucks the moisture out of your strands.
A normal hair loss is 50 to 100 strands in the shower. If you are losing more than that, then there's a strong possibility it's being caused by toxic ingredients in hair care products you are using. Unless you learn to make better choices of products with non-toxic ingredients, your hair fall can become so chronic that eventually you may need a toupee wig for men or hair wigs and extensions for women to cover it!
Many shampoos include different types of sulfates and sodium chloride which are cleaning agents. Although these ingredients strip dirt and oil from our hair, they can sometimes strip too much making your hair dry, and strip hair dye which accelerates its fading.
Many artificial fragrances contain ingredients that dry your hair and fade its color. For colored hair we only recommend fragrance free cleansers those that contain natural fragrances or essential oils. We also make sure it doesn’t include other ingredients that can cause your hair color to fade.
Causes of flyaway hair include damage caused by the use of toxic hair ingredients. It is also caused by a dry climate and static that can cause strands to repel each other. Usually the finer the hair, the quicker it becomes dry enough to fly away. For fine hair we recommend a lightweight oil to help control flyaways while keeping hair looking natural.
Harsh surfactants can be the leading cause of greasy hair. Though these chemical detergents create a sudsy feeling when you work up a lather, they strip hair that causes your scalp to overproduce oil and that’s the leading cause of greasy hair. If you have greasy hair you need to avoid shampoos and conditioners that are loaded with oils, polymers, and silicones that leave residue behind that is difficult to rinse out. If we find that you are using any of these ingredients we will recommend a lightweight alternative that will absorb thoroughly into your hair.
Products that have “fragrance” on their label can contain thousands of hidden chemicals. Some ingredients in fragranced hair products can disrupt the reproductive system.
In a study published in the Journal of Cancer, findings show that hair dyes and chemical straighteners might significantly increase the risk of breast cancer. This is because they contain hormone-disrupting compounds and carcinogens that might be connected to the development of breast cancer.
This new study looked at 46,709 women living in the United States between the ages of 35 and 74 between 2003 and 2009. None of the participants had breast cancer at the beginning of the study. Over the course of the study, 2,794 breast cancers were identified in the participants.
This study found that black women who used permanent dyes at least every 5-8 weeks raised their risk of developing cancer by a very disturbing 60 percent compared to those who didn’t. White women, raised their risk by 8 percent.
Additionally, women who used chemical straighteners at least every 5-8 weeks were 30 percent more likely to develop breast cancer. The study found that 74 percent of black women had used chemical straighteners as opposed to 3 percent of white women.