Ingredients To Avoid In Beauty Products

So many ingredients used in personal care, cosmetic, beauty, and hair care products, toothpaste, food, and detergents should be carefully evaluated, if not avoided.

Many reliable researches and studies have shown the negative impact of some chemicals on our health.  These days is not enough to buy paraben and sulfate free shampoo to go green and natural.

When you buy paraben free hair products, also check for any of the following ingredients:

parabens, petrochemicals, sulfates, phthalates, DEA, MEA, TEA, synthetic dyes and fragrances.

Even though the harm of ingredients, is not clearly proven, you may still wish to be careful.

Parabens have long been considered a dangerous ingredient.
 
Parabens - Methylparaben, Benzylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Ethylparaben, Butylparaben, Propylparaben, are used in products as preservatives. Parabens mimic the estrogenic activity in human body. This leads to disruption of the hormonal balance in our bodies. The hormonal imbalance may cause chronic fatigue, depression, weight gain, fertility problems, and many others.

More risks that the use of parabens brings are: increased risk of breast and skin cancer, allergic reactions, skin problems like premature aging.

Other thing to consider is the fact that the parabens has cumulative effect on the body. This means that the more products with parabens we use and the longer we use them, the bigger the impact is.

There are alternatives of the parabens as preservatives for a paraben free shampoo and paraben free hair products. These are natural Vitamin E, Potassium Sorbate, grapefruit seed extract, Sorbic Acid.
 
Petrochemicals - propylene glycol, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, oxybenzone, benzophenone, benzoic acid. Presumably, some of them are causing cancer, hormonal imbalance, allergies, asthma, obesity, etc.

Sulfates are damaging to the skin, irritate scalp, may cause hair loss and premature aging skin.

DEA, TEA, MEA - carcinogenic activity.

Synthetic fragrances and dyes - if you only see the words fragrance and dyes listed on the label without any explicitly specifying that those are all natural, consider avoiding them. They could be toxic or to act like allergens.
 
This is not a complete list of ingredients to avoid in paraben free shampoo and hair products.  Do a little research first, and then buy.

 If you see some ingredient that bothers you, simply check it. There are many trusted online sources.


Edited by Karen Shelton - August 22 2011 at 5:22pm