I follow this one page on Reddit about /hairscience. In truth, it's filled with anecdotes much more than science but it is a good way to keep an eye on what is going on with consumers / cosmetologists in terms of beliefs in the marketplace. On this site there is the strong belief that sulfates are bad for hair. So, I posted a question there to see if there was any scientific support for the idea. You can read it here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HaircareScience/comments/bzq0cw/what_scientific_evidence_has_convinced_you_that/But I thought I'd post the question here. Is there any scientific studies of which you are aware that convince you sulfate-free shampoos are better to use than sulfated ones?
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Everyone can have their preferences. But the fact you don’t like the taste of broccoli doesn’t justify starting a fear mongering campaign and say broccoli cause cancer.
Of course, I'm similarly interested in what people believe on our forum and why. It's just that here people don't take as much offense when asking them to clarify what they meant or support their claims.
When I was looking for the perfect skin cleanser for myself - I read a few journal articles comparing different surfactants and found that SLS interacts with the lipids in the skin more than lets say sodium cocoyl isethionate. It's possible this type of information kind of just spreads throughout each category - if it's more disruptive to skin, it must be more disruptive to hair. You see this with trending ingredients - clay masks for both the skin and scalp, charcoal face masks, hair masks and toothpaste.
Additionally suppliers of raw materials tend to push these ideas to manufacturers pretty intensely which I think trickles down into the marketing of the product and consequently down to the consumer.
Even if there's no science in /r/HaircareScience, just anecdotal experiences.
By the way, they should have called it /r/CurlyGirlShills instead.
Here is a good comparison table: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691506003140:
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
192.90
Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate
176.82
Sodium Laureth Sulfate
41.02
Sodium Lauroamphoacetate
20.93
Sodium Myreth Sulfate
17.76
Sodium Cocoamphoacetate
13.46
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
10.89
Coco Glucoside
5.12
Disodium Cocoyl Glutamate
4.88
Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate
4.67
Decyl Glucoside
4.65
Lauryl Glucoside
4.42
Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate
4.42
Water
3.22
Laurdimonium Hydroxypropyl Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein
2.99
Sodium Cocoyl Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein
2.62
Sodium Cocoyl Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein Glutamate
2.33
Laureth-7 Citrate
1.63
I use Perry's shampoo (it is my "gold standard" whenever I play with my own shampoos), and skin irritation is minimal, although it uses SLS and is pretty concentrated (I always forget to use less than other shampoos and end up with a ton of foam).
Thanks for the article link. For anyone who is curious, here is the full paper.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/olk1idrzhlnzy96/surfactant-irritation.pdf?dl=0
We know that everything we use in our homes and factories go down the drain, and guess where that ends up?
I believe that the oceans give us life. We need nature, nature does not need us
"SLS is not expected to bioaccumulate or persist in the environment, which is a good thing, but it is known to be toxic to aquatic organisms as noted in the International Chemical Safety Card (ICSC) Database. So, considering it's getting rinsed down our drains from several personal care and cleaning products we use every day all over the world, this is something to consider."
Love and light