Beauty Ecology

View Original

The Natural Shampoo Debate in Short: What Is - What is Not

Did you know?  The shampoo bar from LUSH contains sodium lauryl sulfate, an ingredient we try to avoid at all costs (sulfates are a controversial chemical ingredient in the beauty world, and of course the obvious - they’re too harsh on your hair).

 Can Any Shampoo Really Be “Natural?”

The short answer? No. Unless you go the no-shampoo route, there’s really no way that any shampoo can be completely natural, organic, or free of preservatives. That’s because shampoo is mainly water-based. Add in organic ingredients like oils and flower extracts, and without some kind of preserving agent, the shampoo will go bad quickly. I assume you would not want a outdated and moldy bottle of shampoo.  Beware: many “natural” shampoos still contain a laundry list of chemical ingredients whose names you can barely pronounce.

Our objective at Kasia is to be as natural and safe as possible.  The beauty/personal care industry is multi-billion dollar industry and is filled with toxic chemicals that could be avoided.

Kasia Organic Salon is a leading natural salon and is an HONEST example of setting the tone for businesses to do the right thing (in our eyes) by ridding the proven toxic ingredients out of a hair, skin, and body care products.  We are able to meet our guests requests, but it's so much more - our clients bring their hair and skin back to balance and health.  We partner with those that are on the journey of health + beauty ....this is a long process, not a guilt trip.

 

kasia shampoo natural

Hurdle:  Many guests want to use natural shampoos, but that they’re also loath to use ones that don’t lather. Standard, conventionally-made shampoo has foaming agents (sulfates, usually) to create that bubbly lather you see in all the shampoo commercials. Often, when a person switches to a cleansing product with less lather, they’re disappointed. Many times the lather really has no effect on cleaning your hair, but to make sure we give the best of both ingredient safety and a great consumer experience, we combine coconut and sugar to create a lovely bubbly. 

What To Avoid

Kasia Organic Salon does not use products with sulfates (these usually come in four varieties: sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfat

hair.

e (SLES), ammonium lauryl sulfate, and ammonium laureth sulfate), phthalates, methyl parabens, or ingredients derived from petroleum products (look for ”-PEG,” “-xynol,” “ceteareth” and “oleth” in the endings of the ingredient names).

In 2014, Kasia will be outsourcing to a new and more local custom lab and chemist to make our ingredients even "cleaner" and more effective. There’s no regulation of skin and haircare products. You can call your product organic and no one is really looking into whether that is legitimate or not.

For more about which toxic ingredients to ban from your beauty cabinet, check out our top 10 guide to avoid HERE.  

Cruise through Kasia's loved shampoo and conditioners HERE!