Making your own shampoo: a healthy, inexpensive and fun choice (1)

Although buying ready made shampoo is extremely convenient, regular commercial shampoos are definitely a health hazard. Buying organic shampoos is certainly an improvement, but may not necessarily remove all the risks and they are much more expensive. Making your own is safe, affordable, simple and fun.

What is in shampoos these days?
Actually, unless you know about chemistry, chances are you don’t know. Companies use many synthetic chemicals in their shampoos, most of them known carcinogens, or agents that become carcinogenic when mixed with others, or that allow two or more ingredients to bind and become carcinogenic compounds. So here are some words to recognize.

Not interested in all the chemistry information below? Skip to Part 2 of this blog for simple and inexpensive Face to Grace shampoo and hair rinse recipes. See how much fun it is to make it yourself.

A bit of chemistry

These chemicals can loosely be organized in four categories: The sodium laureth and lauryl sulfates (SLS), the diethanolamine (DEA) and the triethonalamine (TEA), the phthalates and formaldehyde (yes, you may recognize this last one from Grade 12 biology!)

The detergents
The SLS (sodium lauryl/laureth sulfites) are the most common detergents used, not only in shampoo but also in personal hygiene products.  Normal. You would think so, but the problem is that they are quite irritating and your liver cannot metabolize them. The liver? How does it get there in the first place? Through the skin (skin eats everything you give it, remember?), the blood system. And it stays there for a long time.

Why do companies use them then? It dissolves grease. What kind of greases: the kind used in car engines and car washes. The problem is that it is too strong and drying for the skin and negatively alters its own chemistry. They also cause irritation and allergic reactions. Even worse, it imitates oestrogen, which then impacts the reproductive system, both in children, men and women?

The foam

Diethanolamine (DEAs) and triethonalamine (TEAs) are wetting chemicals that create a lather effect for the shampoo. This has now been going on for so many years that we now think that soaps and shampoos that don’t lather thickly cannot be a good. That is an error. Of course, foam is appealing to the senses, so it may not be a waste after all. But yet again, there is a problem because when DEAs and TEAs combine with nitrites, which are preservatives, they become carcinogenic.

Nitrites are not innocent either. They are fluids created for the heavy industry to cool and lubricate metal parts during transformation through high speed friction. They also prevent rust. If you have a Vata (air) or Kapha constitution, this is another immediate cause of disbalance.

The shine

Phtalates are clear plasticizers (notice the word- that which gives plastic quality). They have a syrupy consistency. Because of their stable, lubricating and good solvents, they are used everywhere: soaps, glues, agricultural adjuvants*, building materials, cosmetics and personal-care products, children's toys, paints, printing ink, pharmaceuticals, textiles. And worst of all, they are also found in foods such as milk, butter and meats. You will not be surprised they have been found to cause liver cancer and birth defects.

You noticed the star next to the word “adjuvant”? They modify the effects of other ingredients while having few, if any, direct effects by themselves. They also affect your immune system, which means your cells can't fight the ingredients that threaten your health.

The stabilizers

Finally, formaldehyde is very volatile solution as you may remember from your frog dissection biology class. It is used in shampoos and cosmetics to keep the other ingredients from separating. In the form of formalin, it is used as a preservative of organic tissues: as in embalming bodies, human and animal. it is a very toxic chemical which is known to create serious health problems.

A bit of human psychology

In a nutshell, industry puts dangerous ingredients in your soaps, shampoos and cosmetics. Again and again, they are being told that these products are harmful, yet, companies keep using them but because they are convenient and cheap, which makes them appealing to us. They also think that they won’t have to deal themselves with the long-term consequences of this. This is a common human trait, so let’s not be too quick in laying blame as we all do this in various areas of our life. However, you have the power to uplift yourself by making choices that contribute to your long-lasting health and beauty.

Samyukta Blanchet – Owner of Face to Grace, a company committed to providing the best in healthy beauty care, inside and out, for long-lasting results.